# dish soap



## deg195 (Jul 19, 2015)

Hi all, I am looking for a dish soap recipe...any suggestions
Barb


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## Seawolfe (Jul 19, 2015)

100% coconut oil at 0% super fat  easiest LS recipe ever. 
 I have hard water so I used citric acid (and adjusted the lye accordingly). It is a thin liquid soap (pure CO liquid soap will never be very thick), and you can add sugar to the lye water to increase bubbles.


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## deg195 (Jul 19, 2015)

thanks seawolfe


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## lsg (Jul 20, 2015)

Liquid soap doesn't work well in our hard water so I use surfactants.  You can use 40% surfactant and 60% water.  Some mild and ECO friendly surfactants are now available.  Read Susan's blog about surfactants and how to use them.

http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/surfactants-short-guide-to-things.html


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## deg195 (Jul 25, 2015)

I just moved and the new place has a water softener.  It is heavenly.  My soap feels so silky with tons of bubbles.


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## lsg (Jul 25, 2015)

Then homemade liquid soap should work great for you.


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## RogueRose (Jul 27, 2015)

Should KOH of NaOH be used?  

What would be good to add to CO to help reduce had chapping/drying from prolonged use?  Would olive oil be helpful?


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## lsg (Jul 27, 2015)

KOH for liquid soap.  You can make an olive oil liquid soap or add olive oil and Castor oil to the recipe.


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## Seawolfe (Jul 27, 2015)

Yes always KOH for liquid soap. Anything that says you can make a decent liquid soap starting with dissolving NAOH soap is a lie!
Looking through my notes, my first liquid soap was 70% Olive oil, 25% Coconut, 5% castor and 3% superfat. Half of the liquid was glycerin. Its an incredibly gentle liquid soap, I use it for body, hands and the dog. Its a really lousy dishwashing soap.

On through trials 2-4 and I ended up with 100% coconut oil 0% superfat and citric acid for my hard water as the best for my dishes. I might try it with 5% castor again for more bubbles, but it cleans well as it is. However it is very thin, I don't think I could thicken it up without some serious ingredients I'm sure I don't have.


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## Yooper (Jul 28, 2015)

I was unhappy with the thinness of my LS batches, and started using some sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in addition to the KOH.  I used 95% KOH, and 5% NaOH, and it really was more pleasing to me.  I think that is something I'll continue.

The last batch was 66.67% OO, 16.67% deer tallow, and 16.65% CO.  I did a 1% superfat, to avoid a risk of too much lye and did use a little borax for neutralization/thickening as well.

This turned out to be a very nice liquid soap.


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## tbeck3579 (Jul 28, 2015)

lsg said:


> Liquid soap doesn't work well in our hard water so I use surfactants.  You can use 40% surfactant and 60% water.  Some mild and ECO friendly surfactants are now available.  Read Susan's blog about surfactants and how to use them.
> 
> http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/surfactants-short-guide-to-things.html



Nice blog and wonderful that she uses the money to help youth.  Thanks for sharing the link.  I would love to donate and buy her books but it isn't in my budget   Can you share your recipe for dish soap (or was it hand soap)?  What surfactant did you use and where you purchased it?  Thanks in advance.


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## lsg (Jul 28, 2015)

tbeck3579 said:


> Nice blog and wonderful that she uses the money to help youth.  Thanks for sharing the link.  I would love to donate and buy her books but it isn't in my budget   Can you share your recipe for dish soap (or was it hand soap)?  What surfactant did you use and where you purchased it?  Thanks in advance.



Don't worry about not being able to donate.  Susan generously shares her knowledge with all. :razz:  I was referring to dish washing detergents.   I will PM you a couple of my recipes.  I purchase my surfactants from several places.  In the United States, Essential Wholesale, Aquatech, The Chemical Connection, The Herbarie and The Chemistry Store are good suppliers.


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## tbeck3579 (Jul 31, 2015)

Thank you for sharing!


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## JayJay (Oct 17, 2015)

Does anyone use borax in their dish soap?


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