# Mens Body Wash



## Chappyk (Oct 18, 2020)

Hi,  I haven't been on here for awhile but am wondering if anyone has a good recipe for a men's body wash? I saw one company whose ingredients are Aloe Vera Juice*, Coconut Oil*, Potassium Hydroxide, Olive Oil*, Glycerin, Sunflower Oil*, Guar Gum, Rosemary Extract, Shea Butter*, Citric Acid....and I'm hoping there might be a recipe similar somewhere?


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## Zany_in_CO (Oct 19, 2020)

Hiya Chappyk! 
That is a fairly simple formula to duplicate if you have some some knowledge and experience making liquid soap. Here's a link to a Basic Beginner's Liquid Soap




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						Basic Beginner Liquid Soap and Information
					

This is a basic liquid soap formula for those just starting out into liquid soapmaking.  It uses only 3 commonly used oils in soapmaking - ...




					alaiynab.blogspot.com
				




MAKE PASTE:
Aloe Vera Juice (3 X weight of KOH) + KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) at 0% SF  = Lye solution
Coconut Oil (50%) + Olive Oil & Sunflower Oil (48%) + Shea Butter (2%) = Oils
ROE (Rosemary Oleoresin Extract) - antioxidant added to oils to extend shelf life

DILUTE THE PASTE at a ratio of: 40% soap to 60% water

After dilution add 0.06% Citric Acid (20% solution) and 7% glycerin (deduct amount from dilution water)
Guar Gum is used to thicken the batch.

HAPPY SOAPING!


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## DeeAnna (Oct 19, 2020)

The question I have for you  -- what is the difference between a men's body wash and another type of body wash? Is it mainly a difference in scent or is there something about the cleansing ability or skin feel that distinguishes the two in your mind? I'm asking because if we know your goals and preferences, that will be helpful.

To comment on the ingredients list you provided -- it looks like a fairly typical KOH soap made with coconut oil as the main fat with lesser amounts of olive oil, sunflower oil, and shea butter. It might be called "body wash" but it's basically KOH (liquid) soap with a fancy name on the label. It has been thickened with a separate thickener -- the guar gum.

Zany is steering you toward a liquid soap making method that makes a soap that is lye heavy which is then neutralized with an acid. There are methods that do not require neutralization that make just as good soap as the neutralization method --

The liquid soap making tutorials I recommend to people --

Irish Lass creamy cocoa shea -- My Creamy Cocoa/Shea GLS Tutorial

Also Irish Lass wrote another tutorial that I think is an easier to follow introduction to the cold process, superfatted method of liquid soap making -- Soaping 101 liquid soapmaking video? See posts 8 and 9

I recommend that people NOT use the method of dissolving KOH in hot glycerin as she describes in the first part of Step 3. Read and follow her directions in RED toward the end of Step 3 where she explains how to dissolve KOH in room temperature water. Much easier and safer.​
Also Susie provided another good tutorial on the superfatted CP method for making liquid soap. I think Susie's contribution is under-appreciated. Susie's tutorial: Cold Process Liquid Soap

Another good resource: Liquid Soapmaking – Where To Start


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## Zany_in_CO (Oct 19, 2020)

DeeAnna said:


> Zany is steering you toward a liquid soap making method that makes *a soap that is lye heavy which is then neutralized with an acid.* There are methods that do not require neutralization that make just as good soap as the neutralization method --


I agree. This is a good explanation of my method. 

However, I'm OCD about clarity and recommend 0% SF for that reason, i.e., to saponify all the fatty acids to the degree that is possible, especially if there are fats that contain unsaponifiables which act as super fats, to my mind at least, in the final result. While it is commonly understood that *if you soap at 3% SF you no longer have to neutralize*, I find that method does sometimes result in unsaponified oils that either float to the top or settle to the bottom during the 2 week sequester. I don't do that any more.

The addition of citric acid in the form of *20% CA dissolved in 80% water* is intended to lower the pH of the soap... but I don't use it in all my formulas. I included it because it was listed as an ingredient.


DeeAnna said:


> Another good resource: Liquid Soapmaking – Where To Start


Thank you for that link @DeeAnna ! I was delighted to read it. I bookmarked it. She perfectly fills in all the necessary details of my brief outline of a liquid soap formula. Who has time for sharing all that information? Not me for sure. LOL I was happy to see that Jennifer accomplished it very well.

Jennifer wrote: _"A lot of the information I’m sharing here I learned from the Yahoo LiquidSoapers group,"_ As a long-time member of that group, I learned to make LS from the pioneers of liquid soapmaking and happily passed it on as they disappeared and a whole new generation of LS-ers came along. I recognized myself in much of what she recommends. Her take on Cathorine Failor’s *“Making Natural Liquid Soaps“* reads like I wrote it! Haha.


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## Zany_in_CO (Oct 19, 2020)

Zany_in_CO said:


> Aloe Vera Juice (3 X weight of KOH) + KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) at 0% SF  = Lye solution
> After dilution add 0.06% Citric Acid (20% solution) and *7% glycerin* (deduct amount from dilution water)


After reading @DeeAnna's post recommending @IrishLass's and @Susie's LS recipes, it occurred to me that the 7% glycerin could be used in the KOH solution instead of adding it to the finished soap. In that case, the % of glycerin would depend on how much is used to sub for the Aloe Vera Juice... 1/2? 1/3?


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