# Liquid Soap with Hemp Oil



## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

I was recently given some hemp oil that I really need to use up and wondering if anyone had a good ls recipe with hemp oil? I know I need to keep the % on the low side, and I've been using a cold process with glycerin method. Typically the faithful 65% olive, 25% coconut, and 10% castor. I'm open to change.  Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

Couple shots of some of my ls:


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## lsg (Mar 7, 2015)

You can simply go to a liquid soap lye calculator and put in the amounts of oil and click on calculate.  Some people make a one-oil liquid soap and then combine the liquid soaps to get a mix.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

lsg said:


> You can simply go to a liquid soap lye calculator and put in the amounts of oil and click on calculate.  Some people make a one-oil liquid soap and then combine the liquid soaps to get a mix.



Yes, I could. I also realize that those that sell their soaps and whatnot probably don't want to divulge much, but I guess I was hoping for a bit more guidance or insight from those with maybe a bit of experience using hemp oil in liquid soap to produce a nice balance.


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## lsg (Mar 7, 2015)

You can go to SoapCalc.com and enter the oils of your choice.  That way you can come up with a recipe that will fit your needs.  You cannot expect a soap maker who has perfected a recipe through trial and error to share a recipe.  Google Hemp oil and liquid soap to find a recipe to inspire your creative soap making powers.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

Lol. Ok, thanks for all your help admin...


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## DeeAnna (Mar 7, 2015)

"...Typically the faithful 65% olive, 25% coconut, and 10% castor...."

What about playing off this recipe? Hemp is heavily polyunsaturated, so it's not really a sub for any of these ingredients, but it's closest to olive. 

So let's go with a range of 10% to 15% hemp as a partial replacement for some of the olive. Maybe do 55% olive + 10% hemp + 25% CO + 10% castor. You probably know this already, but I'll just add a reminder to keep your superfat at 3% or less to prevent possible separation.

My rule of thumb is to limit the total linoleic + linolenic acids to no more than 15% in any soap recipe. This will help guard against rancidity -- and the modest superfat needed for LS will help too. So you'd want to double check this 15% rule of thumb, if you want to follow suit.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

Thank you DeeAnna. I'm really not looking to steal anyone's creations, I was just given some hemp oil and wanted to use it up so it wouldn't go to waste. It's not an oil that I typically use, nor do I plan to purchase any in the future. 

I've made a couple of cp bar soaps with it and they've turned out nice.  I had planned on making another batch of ls today and thought perhaps using a bit of the hemp oil would be a nice change. I can and will use a lye calc. but thought I'd just see if there were any here  with personal experience here as I trust the insight and advice given on this forum more than  what I could find in a "google" search. 

Thank you again for taking the time to reply DeeAnna. I value your input. I've gained a great deal of knowledge from your posts in the ls forum. The side by side tests you did with KOH and glycerin is excellent! Between you, Irish Lass and Susie, my endeavors into ls have been relatively painless :smile:


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## Susie (Mar 7, 2015)

I really can't find hemp oil locally, so I have never used it.  So I was no help on your question.  I hated to give you some trite, "Try it and see." answer, so I didn't give you any.  

Now that DeeAnna has given you an answer and a direction to start in, I can tell you. "Try it and see."  The only way you know for sure what it will do is to try for yourself.  

One suggestion I *can* give, however, is to remind you that you can save paste a very long time, especially if you refrigerate or freeze it.  This gives you a perfect opportunity to make a one oil soap paste like lsg said, then blend it with other one oil soap pastes on an as-needed basis.  Just be really super sure to take excellent notes on the impressions of each blend so you get something you love and can reproduce at will.

If it were me, I would save the soap pastes in 1 ounce globs in labelled Ziploc bags(unscented paste, that is).  I would wrap each one in a bit of plastic wrap before freezing.  This will make tweaking a recipe really easy.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

> One suggestion I can give, however, is to remind you that you can save paste a very long time, especially if you refrigerate or freeze it.



Great point! The hemp oil is a really nice shade of green and I'm really hoping it comes through in the final product. From what I've read though, hemp oil goes rancid fairly quickly, so freezing is a great idea. 



Thank you 8)


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## DeeAnna (Mar 7, 2015)

I'm with Susie in that I haven't tried hemp in liquid or bar soap either. If I were to try, the recipe would probably look something like the one I suggested. Steal away! ;-)


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## Susie (Mar 7, 2015)

Glad to help!  I learned the hard way about frozen soap paste.  Having pre-weighed globs makes it really easy to blend with other soaps.  Having a big chunk that you have to thaw to use...not so much.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

I think this is what I'm going with:


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## DeeAnna (Mar 7, 2015)

In another thread, I've been talking about how KOH purity can really affect the quality of the liquid soap we make. 

I'm just wondering if your KOH purity is really at 90% -- you might want to double check if you don't know. If so, I think your recipe will make nice soap. Summerbeemeadow and Brambleberry calcs are set to about 94% to 95% KOH purity. If your actual KOH is closer to that, you might want to run your recipe through one of these calcs to get a KOH weight that is more accurate for your particular lye. 

More: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=498847&postcount=387


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## snappyllama (Mar 7, 2015)

Hi Thunderwagn, this isn't a LS recipe, but it does use some hemp.  I recently made several recipes for a good friend experiencing treatment related eczema to see which would benefit him the most. They were all based on the excellent advice from folks here. He independently picked the same one that I liked. It doesn't bubble up very much (no CO) but feels incredibly soothing.

Hemp 10%
Lard 60%
Shea 10%
Castor 5%
Avocado 15%

1 tsp honey ppo
1 tbsp colloidal oatmeal ppo
Sub 100% Water for Aloe


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## thunderwagn (Mar 7, 2015)

DeeAnna said:


> In another thread, I've been talking about how KOH purity can really affect the quality of the liquid soap we make.
> 
> I'm just wondering if your KOH purity is really at 90% -- you might want to double check if you don't know. If so, I think your recipe will make nice soap. Summerbeemeadow and Brambleberry calcs are set to about 94% to 95% KOH purity. If your actual KOH is closer to that, you might want to run your recipe through one of these calcs to get a KOH weight that is more accurate for your particular lye.
> 
> More: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=498847&postcount=387



Funny you should bring this up. It's actually one of my beefs with BB. Not specifically stating what their KOH purity actually is. My opinion, it should be stated clearly on the specific product page, and the bottle itself. As far as I can tell, it's on neither. Under their lye  section  it lists both types and states 97% purity, but doesn't state if that's what they both are or????

Thanks for the link!

Well, going to BB lye calc states that their KOH is 90% and NaOH is 97%. So luckily (no thx to BB for not clearly stating) I'm on track I think!!


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## thunderwagn (Mar 15, 2015)

So, is been a week since I made the liquid soap with hemp using the cold process method posted by Susie, and using the recipe I previously posted. 
Not exactly sure what is going on with it. It's cloudy and has a milky layer on the bottom. I'm thinking it has something to do with the hemp as I've used the same process before with successful results. The hemp oil used was a cold pressed, unrefined oil. Any clues?
Photo of soap:


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## DeeAnna (Mar 17, 2015)

Hard to say, Thunder.

Guess 1 -- insoluble non-saponifiable components in the hemp oil on the bottom covered by a soap layer on the top. Cloudiness possibly due to traces of insoluble ingredients floating in the soap.

Guess 2 -- A soap layer on the bottom covered by a thick unsaponified oil layer.


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## Susie (Mar 17, 2015)

If you could use a pipette or turkey baster or something to pull a bit of JUST the top layer off, and see if it is soap or oil, we could better help.  

It really does look to me like unsaponifiables settling to the bottom, but please let us know so we can go from there.

If the OO was not EVOO, the rest of the recipe should have given you clear soap, so it has to be the hemp oil providing unsaponifiables.  If you used EVOO, though, it could be that.  If it is unsaponifiables, the cloudiness should clear up as the soap sequesters and more unsaponifiables fall out of suspension.  If so, then I would just use a turkey baster to pull the clear liquid off the top and transfer to another bottle.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 17, 2015)

I'll update after I try to pull some off the top. I have used a bit of the paste and it lathers nicely and feels good on the skin.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 17, 2015)

Susie, the oo used is just olive oil. I save the EVOO for my salad  I'm pretty convinced it's the hemp oil as it's the only changed factor in the recipe. If you look back to the beginning of the thread, I posted a picture of some of the soap I've made recently without the hemp. 

I drew a bit off the top and the top layer is a nice, soft feeling, (if that makes sense) lathery soap.


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## Susie (Mar 17, 2015)

Then the hemp oil gave you unsaponifiables that have fallen out of solution.  No worries.  That is what sequestering is for.  Just set the jar aside and let it have a couple of weeks to settle, then pull the top clear layer off without disturbing the bottom.  Should be fine.  If you have a steady hand and an oil separating cup(like the one you use to get the turkey broth off separated from the oil), you can pour the cloudy layer off the bottom.


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## thunderwagn (Mar 18, 2015)

I appreciate the tips ladies! For future, is there anything I can do differently to prevent this? Did I see a post made by Irishlass clear up a similar occurrence with ps 80?

I'm not concerned about using the cloudy soap at home. However, the hemp oil that was a gift has become rather important to me. A friends wife, who gave me the oil, fought a long, tough battle with COPD and just passed on Sunday. She loved my cp bar soaps. I recently made a goat milk soap with some of the oil and was looking forward to making this soap for her as well. It would mean a lot to me to give the soap to her husband. 

I really appreciate all the help and guidance.


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## Susie (Mar 18, 2015)

If the problem were excess oils in the soap, then yes, PS80 would help.  However, this is not.  The "stuff" causing the cloudiness and layer at the bottom is something the lye can't break down and turn into soap.  However, give that soap a couple of weeks to sequester, and much of that cloudiness should settle out.  If not, just make more CP for him.  I am truly sorry for your loss.


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## DeeAnna (Mar 18, 2015)

I'm with Susie on this -- both the unsaponifiables settling out and how PS80 is best used.

I'm sad to hear of your friend's passing. Good friends are treasures.


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