The good old soft soap has fallen into oblivion, so I would like to introduce it to you today. It is very productive, skin-friendly and contains no hidden chemical ingredients and is a universal household cleaner. Suitable liquid base oils are canola oil, sunflower oil or olive oil.
100% organic and rapidly degradable, homemade soft soap is environmentally friendly and inexpensive.
However, experience in soap boiling is a prerequisite for its production.
The same method is used as for the production of a normal soap in the cold process. One difference is that instead of sodium hydroxide - NaOH, we work with potassium hydroxide - KOH. The second difference is that we make soft soap in hot process.
Potassium hydroxide is mainly used to make soft soap, to leave the consistency of the soap "soft". KOH is handled as a hazardous material just like NaOH, we need protective gloves and goggles. Good ventilation must be provided, as toxic fumes are produced just as when dissolving caustic soda.
The saponification numbers of KOH are different from NaOH. Therefore, we must take this into account in our calculation for the lye. Either use a soap calculator on the internet or calculate the potassium hydroxide amount yourself. The factor for converting from NaOH to KOH is uniformly 1.40272 for all oils and fats used differently.
The hot process is carried out as follows: The oils and fats are reacted with the lye. When the soap paste has thickened, it is brought to the gel phase with the addition of further heat. One advantage of the hot process is that the soap is ready to use after 24 - 48 hours. However, I like to let it mature for another 2 -3 weeks.
I am happy to share my knowledge with you in my online course "Schmierseife selber machen" and hopefully soon again in real courses.
Sincerely
Barbara
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