Let's define
our terms a bit LOL
Zest, Dove, Dial, are not soaps. They are Syndets. Meaning they are detergent bars with a soap base, with some oils added back in to conter the drying effects. They come with a longer list of ingreideants, so not 100% soap.
Ivory is still soap. When testing the P.H of say Dove (beauty bar) youl find a 5.6 P.H or there abouts
The ivory will still test out as alkaline, like normal soap.
When I mentioned "Lye Heavy" above, I was referring to the chemical compostion. Not to the weight of the bar itself. Lye Heavy is a soap making term that has to do with the amount of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide required by weight to saponify a fat. Each fat requires a different amount of NaOH (sodium hydroxide) by weight.
I am a soap maker (simi retired) but if I was givin a chalange to make two soaps..one for cleaning, and one for bathing, and the chalange only allowed me to use one fat, and it had to be lard..then there would be two batches made.
The cleaning soap would be calculated to be slightly "lye heavy"..I'd want some free lye in that bar. I'd also try my best to purify..sometimes referred to as "proving" the soap, by re-precipitating the soap with a salt solution to remove the impurities AKA the glycerin, spent lye ect. For the bath soap, my math would change to allow some of the fat to escape the the saponification process
(free fat) and I want to leave glycerin in tact. For the bath soap I'd also try everything I know to improve the quality of it for skin use. I might use coconut water, coconut milk, goats milk to use as part of the water phase. Maybe add Colloidal Oatmeal, maybe some aloe, vitamin E oil...anything to improve it.
Both bars would still be considerd "Lye Soap" because the only fat used was lard. The nicer one used to wash the baby, and the lye heavy one used to wash the baby's diapers!
"Grandma" was forced into a guessing game with the science and soap making chemistry! She also only had one window of opportunity (hog butchering time) and she had to come up with a dual purpose soap to be used for everything. She had no digital scale, no store bought lye, no SAP chart, no distilled water, no calculater.
At soap making time, she had to guess at how much of her lard she'd worked so hard to get, was going to be used for cooking and how much for soaping. She couldn't turn the soap back into lard, so once made she was stuck with it, good or bad. This all had to last her a year, or until the next donor was ready. I'd rather scrub 100 toilets than to be forced to do what she had to LOL
Even with my soap making knowledge and modern soap making tools..digital scales ect It's always somewhat tense for me. Once false move can throw a batch off.
our terms a bit LOL
Zest, Dove, Dial, are not soaps. They are Syndets. Meaning they are detergent bars with a soap base, with some oils added back in to conter the drying effects. They come with a longer list of ingreideants, so not 100% soap.
Ivory is still soap. When testing the P.H of say Dove (beauty bar) youl find a 5.6 P.H or there abouts
The ivory will still test out as alkaline, like normal soap.
When I mentioned "Lye Heavy" above, I was referring to the chemical compostion. Not to the weight of the bar itself. Lye Heavy is a soap making term that has to do with the amount of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide required by weight to saponify a fat. Each fat requires a different amount of NaOH (sodium hydroxide) by weight.
I am a soap maker (simi retired) but if I was givin a chalange to make two soaps..one for cleaning, and one for bathing, and the chalange only allowed me to use one fat, and it had to be lard..then there would be two batches made.
The cleaning soap would be calculated to be slightly "lye heavy"..I'd want some free lye in that bar. I'd also try my best to purify..sometimes referred to as "proving" the soap, by re-precipitating the soap with a salt solution to remove the impurities AKA the glycerin, spent lye ect. For the bath soap, my math would change to allow some of the fat to escape the the saponification process
(free fat) and I want to leave glycerin in tact. For the bath soap I'd also try everything I know to improve the quality of it for skin use. I might use coconut water, coconut milk, goats milk to use as part of the water phase. Maybe add Colloidal Oatmeal, maybe some aloe, vitamin E oil...anything to improve it.
Both bars would still be considerd "Lye Soap" because the only fat used was lard. The nicer one used to wash the baby, and the lye heavy one used to wash the baby's diapers!
"Grandma" was forced into a guessing game with the science and soap making chemistry! She also only had one window of opportunity (hog butchering time) and she had to come up with a dual purpose soap to be used for everything. She had no digital scale, no store bought lye, no SAP chart, no distilled water, no calculater.
At soap making time, she had to guess at how much of her lard she'd worked so hard to get, was going to be used for cooking and how much for soaping. She couldn't turn the soap back into lard, so once made she was stuck with it, good or bad. This all had to last her a year, or until the next donor was ready. I'd rather scrub 100 toilets than to be forced to do what she had to LOL
Even with my soap making knowledge and modern soap making tools..digital scales ect It's always somewhat tense for me. Once false move can throw a batch off.
