# Liquid Laundry Soap Questions



## Kcryss (Feb 12, 2020)

I ran out of sodium hydroxide and will not get the new order in until Friday. 

I bought some potassium hydroxide that I haven't used yet, so I can still make soap. 

Will be making liquid laundry soap tonight with 100% CO, 0% SF, 3:1 ratio and 90% lye purity. This is based on several threads I found regarding liquid laundry soap.

What I'm not sure about is additives and didn't find in any of the threads: Do I still need to add citric acid and sodium gluconate to the water before adding the lye? Also, what about a preservative? Is the high pH enough to ward off any microbials after dilution?  TIA for any help.


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## Kcryss (Feb 12, 2020)

Nevermind, made the soap and used both CA and SG. Cooking it now. The transition to "hard" trace was really cool. Even though I expected it to happen after watching videos it was still somewhat surprising.


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## Susie (Feb 15, 2020)

You should not need any preservatives as long as you do not add "food" for the yuckies to grow on during dilution.  No sugar, honey, milk, etc.  It's ok if you add them to the water before the lye, but once saponification is done, no more foods.

I am not at all sure why you thought you needed citric acid.  Citric acid is intended to bring the pH down in a lye heavy soap.  And since your's was intended to be 0%, and I presume you used a lye calculator, you had no need to use CA at all.

I have hard water, so I totally understand the need for a chelating agent.  I use tetrasodium EDTA in all of my soaps.


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## Kcryss (Feb 15, 2020)

Susie said:


> You should not need any preservatives as long as you do not add "food" for the yuckies to grow on during dilution.  No sugar, honey, milk, etc.  It's ok if you add them to the water before the lye, but once saponification is done, no more foods.



Good to know. Thanks 



Susie said:


> I am not at all sure why you thought you needed citric acid.  Citric acid is intended to bring the pH down in a lye heavy soap.  And since your's was intended to be 0%, and I presume you used a lye calculator, you had no need to use CA at all.
> 
> I have hard water, so I totally understand the need for a chelating agent.  I use tetrasodium EDTA in all of my soaps.



I use soap makers friend calc and it compensates for the CA. I started using CA for the chelating factor, not for pH. I just recently got my order in for Sodium Gluconate and the liquid soap was the first time I used it. Based on what I found last night, I only need one or the other. Sodium Gluconate and/or Citric Acid replaces EDTA.

These threads address both CA and SG for chelating:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/sodium-gluconate.69601/
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/citric-acid-as-a-chelator.56643/  (post #3)


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## Susie (Feb 21, 2020)

It's fine, I just didn't get why you used it.  And since I am not on here all the time any more (life just gets in the way), I wasn't sure what your soaping experience was.  You haven't been a member that long, so I wrongfully assumed inexperience and ignorance.  I apologize.  Too many people read the old liquid soap books and follow instructions blindly.


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## Kcryss (Feb 21, 2020)

Susie said:


> It's fine, I just didn't get why you used it.  And since I am not on here all the time any more (life just gets in the way), I wasn't sure what your soaping experience was.  You haven't been a member that long, so I wrongfully assumed inexperience and ignorance.  I apologize.  Too many people read the old liquid soap books and follow instructions blindly.



LOL, I understand. I'm one who follows nothing blindly. Lots and lots of research. 

We have very hard water in Colorado. The water supply for the the south end of the Denver area comes almost exclusively from the mountains, so lots and lots of minerals. I have 3 kids in the south end of the Denver area and their water supply is from a natural source coming down out of the hills. So I try to make my soaps with that in mind.


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## Susie (Feb 22, 2020)

I live in DFW.  My first experience in all of my 57 years dealing with hard water.  I am not a fan.


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## Kcryss (Feb 22, 2020)

Susie said:


> I live in DFW.  My first experience in all of my 57 years dealing with hard water.  I am not a fan.



LOL, neither am I! 
For the last 6 months I've had a water softener. First time in my life with soft water! It's amazing!


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## Arimara (Feb 22, 2020)

Wow, you got Susie answering your thread. Lucky you (she knows her stuff).


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## Kcryss (Feb 22, 2020)

I always feel lucky when people answer my questions. Especially those that have been around the forum for a long while. I really value all the experience here and the help/advice. 

It's always very much appreciated!


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## Susie (Feb 29, 2020)

Arimara said:


> Wow, you got Susie answering your thread. Lucky you (she knows her stuff).



I do exist.  And I do read SMF occasionally.  Last year, and what there has been of this year has been quite rough on me.  5 surgeries in 13 months has about wiped me out.  Not to mention working full time and had 4 deaths in the family.  Between the hospital and funeral homes, I haven't made soap for almost a year.  Not a bar, not a liquid soap.  I hope I have turned a corner now with my health, and hopefully get back to both participating here.  In the meantime, though, I will keep lurking and participating as I am able until I get two feet back under me and can rejoin life.


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## Kcryss (Feb 29, 2020)

Susie said:


> I do exist.  And I do read SMF occasionally.  Last year, and what there has been of this year has been quite rough on me.  5 surgeries in 13 months has about wiped me out.  Not to mention working full time and had 4 deaths in the family.  Between the hospital and funeral homes, I haven't made soap for almost a year.  Not a bar, not a liquid soap.  I hope I have turned a corner now with my health, and hopefully get back to both participating here.  In the meantime, though, I will keep lurking and participating as I am able until I get two feet back under me and can rejoin life.



OMG, sounds like you've had a terrible year. I'm so sorry to hear about all the issues you've had! I hope things are looking up for you this year.


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## Arimara (Mar 1, 2020)

Susie said:


> I do exist.  And I do read SMF occasionally.  Last year, and what there has been of this year has been quite rough on me.  5 surgeries in 13 months has about wiped me out.  Not to mention working full time and had 4 deaths in the family.  Between the hospital and funeral homes, I haven't made soap for almost a year.  Not a bar, not a liquid soap.  I hope I have turned a corner now with my health, and hopefully get back to both participating here.  In the meantime, though, I will keep lurking and participating as I am able until I get two feet back under me and can rejoin life.


I'm with @Kcryss there. It's things like this that remind me to try not to complain about my own life changes. I haven't had to have surgery as of yet, only one person died in my family, and while my speech, reading and writing skills are affected, I can still do all three in varying degrees. I hope you're on the mend. I've been wondering what happened to you and it's good you're still around.


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## dibbles (Mar 1, 2020)

Susie said:


> I do exist.  And I do read SMF occasionally.  Last year, and what there has been of this year has been quite rough on me.  5 surgeries in 13 months has about wiped me out.  Not to mention working full time and had 4 deaths in the family.  Between the hospital and funeral homes, I haven't made soap for almost a year.  Not a bar, not a liquid soap.  I hope I have turned a corner now with my health, and hopefully get back to both participating here.  In the meantime, though, I will keep lurking and participating as I am able until I get two feet back under me and can rejoin life.


Sorry to hear you’ve had such a hard year. I’ve missed seeing you here. In the meantime, let me know if you need soap. I’m pretty sure I have an extra bar or two around here somewhere


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## Kiti Williams (Mar 1, 2020)

Susie said:


> I do exist.  And I do read SMF occasionally.  Last year, and what there has been of this year has been quite rough on me.  5 surgeries in 13 months has about wiped me out.  Not to mention working full time and had 4 deaths in the family.  Between the hospital and funeral homes, I haven't made soap for almost a year.  Not a bar, not a liquid soap.  I hope I have turned a corner now with my health, and hopefully get back to both participating here.  In the meantime, though, I will keep lurking and participating as I am able until I get two feet back under me and can rejoin life.




  I will keep you in my prayers!


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## Susie (Mar 6, 2020)

Thank you all!  Fortunately, I had just made a lot of soap with the intention of shipping it out to extended family.  It has gone to keeping my immediate family clean.  The only think I am low on (and had to buy) was liquid hand soap.  I am going by Big Lots today, though, and buying CO to make some this weekend.

I think/hope most of the health issues are under control.  The only issue I still have is an ankle that has now had two failed surgeries.  I have learned to make liquid soap while sitting on a bar stool, though, so the possibility is there.


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## Kcryss (Mar 6, 2020)

Oh no, surgery is bad enough, but failed surgeries sounds horrible. I assume there will be more to come until they succeed? Praying for a successful surgery for you and a speedy recovery.


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## Susie (Mar 6, 2020)

I don't know what is to come.  I have recently decided that the last surgery didn't work.  I have another appt with the orthopaedist in April.  I will discuss options then.  I told him that the last one didn't work, and he didn't believe me until he cut me open again.  I completely lost use of the two tendons they operated on to fix it the first time.  So, they had to "borrow" the tendon for the big toe and try to repair it again while using cadaver bone to try to put the ankle bone back together.  However, the pain is right back where it started, which is how I know that it didn't work out.  They can't do an MRI after the first surgery, because all they see is inflammation and scar tissue.


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## Kcryss (Mar 6, 2020)

Susie said:


> I don't know what is to come.  I have recently decided that the last surgery didn't work.  I have another appt with the orthopaedist in April.  I will discuss options then.  I told him that the last one didn't work, and he didn't believe me until he cut me open again.  I completely lost use of the two tendons they operated on to fix it the first time.  So, they had to "borrow" the tendon for the big toe and try to repair it again while using cadaver bone to try to put the ankle bone back together.  However, the pain is right back where it started, which is how I know that it didn't work out.  They can't do an MRI after the first surgery, because all they see is inflammation and scar tissue.



OMG, that sounds horrible! I hope they can get it right soon!


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## Susie (Mar 7, 2020)

Me, too.  

Sorry to have hijacked this thread.  Please return to discussing laundry soap!


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## Susie (Mar 7, 2020)

Kcryss said:


> LOL, neither am I!
> For the last 6 months I've had a water softener. First time in my life with soft water! It's amazing!



I have already told my husband that on our retirement home, a whole house water softener is NOT an optional. It is a necessity.


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## Kcryss (Mar 7, 2020)

Susie said:


> Me, too.
> 
> Sorry to have hijacked this thread.  Please return to discussing laundry soap!


Haha! No worries. I was totally done talking about laundry soap. Have made two batches already and like to use it as dish soap for fat rendering pots! Works great to cut all that grease.


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## Kcryss (Mar 7, 2020)

Susie said:


> I have already told my husband that on our retirement home, a whole house water softener is NOT an option.


Yep! Had no idea what I was missing. This is our retirement house ... even though I haven't yet retired. I'm not planning on moving again unless forced!


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## Susie (Mar 8, 2020)

We live in DFW.  We would like to get out of the city when we retire so that we have some breathing room.  And hopefully less air pollution.  I will have both of my children in this area, so we are planning to stay close, but there are several small cities around that provide some acreage to maybe have a real garden and maybe more than a couple of chickens that I have to worry if the neighborhood feral cats are going to eat. (They are trapped, neutered by the local animal shelters and returned to where they were picked up to keep the feral cat and rodent populations under control.)


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## Kcryss (Mar 9, 2020)

Susie said:


> We live in DFW.  We would like to get out of the city when we retire so that we have some breathing room.  And hopefully less air pollution.  I will have both of my children in this area, so we are planning to stay close, but there are several small cities around that provide some acreage to maybe have a real garden and maybe more than a couple of chickens that I have to worry if the neighborhood feral cats are going to eat. (They are trapped, neutered by the local animal shelters and returned to where they were picked up to keep the feral cat and rodent populations under control.)



That's awesome! That's exactly what we did. Minus the acreage. We spent more than six months looking for a property with a few acres and really didn't find what we were looking for at the time, so ended up with a house in a very small city. It's the largest city in the area though and just 2 hrs away from our kids. Plenty of room for a real garden, but they wont let me have any chickens here ... that one was a shocker. You can have chickens in the Denver area, but not in a tiny farming community 2 hours away. Very strange ...


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