Ascorbic Acid (vitamin c)

[Earthen_Step]

At a 5% acetic solution, 30 g of commercial vinegar (white, cider, or whatever -- it makes no difference) will neutralize 1 g of NaOH or 1.4 g of KOH. The result is sodium or potassium acetate.

If I use commercial vinegar for all of the "water" in my favorite soap recipe, the vinegar would increase the superfat from my usual 5% to a substantial 12%. If you use an 8% superfat, a "vinegar-ized" soap would end up being superfatted closer to 15%.

Citric acid also can be used in soap, so for those who are wondering:
Typical dosage: 10 g citric acid for every 1,000 g oils (1% ppo)
10 g citric acid neutralizes 6 g NaOH
10 g citric acid neutralizes 8 g KOH

I love your posts, thanks for all your efforts. Off to house work, have a nice day everyone.

 

[Hazel]

At a 5% acetic solution, 30 g of commercial vinegar (white, cider, or whatever -- it makes no difference) will neutralize 1 g of NaOH or 1.4 g of KOH. The result is sodium or potassium acetate.

If I use commercial vinegar for all of the "water" in my favorite soap recipe, the vinegar would increase the superfat from my usual 5% to a substantial 12%. If you use an 8% superfat, a "vinegar-ized" soap would end up being superfatted closer to 15%.

I’m sorry it took so long to get back about making the ACV soap. I did make it on Sunday but this week has been hectic.

I decided to use ACV for the entire liquid so by using Deanna’s figures as shown in the above quote, I calculated how much ACV would “neutralize” the lye and then figured how much of a lye discount I would need to get a 5% SF. I ended up stopping at 0% lye discount and the SF was still higher than I wanted for the recipe. I didn't want to use a minus lye discount so I wimped out and decided to make a salt bar. I used 12% lye discount and calculated that it would end up with approximately a 20% SF with the ACV amount.

Since the ACV sounded like it might be on the astringent side, I decided to use Dead Sea Mud (thanks to the generosity of Pepsi Girl who sent me some to play with) and rhassoul clay (red Morocco).

I poured a little of the ACV into 2 cups so I could make a slurry for the DSM and the clay. Both of them fizzed like bath bombs. The clay not so much but the DSM really fizzed up. I was surprised because I hadn’t expected either to be so alkaline. I learned something new. Batch accelerated but I don’t know if it was because of the ACV or the FO blend. I’ll have to try the FO in a regular batch. Anyway, it was hard to stuff in the cavities since it got so stiff so the bars are a little rough in appearance. I posted a picture in the Photo Gallery. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49761

I added the lye to the rest of the ACV and was again surprised because I thought it smelled good. The soap seemed to want to crumble a bit the next day when I unmolded the bars. This is unusual because I use individual cavities and normally don’t have crumbling with salt bars. I also used less salt than normal – approximately 32% compared to the usual 70%. So, I’m wondering if this was caused by the ACV. However, they seemed fine a couple of days later so if I decide to make this batch again, I’ll know to leave them sit at least 48 hours before unmolding. Because I just couldn’t wait, I tried a little bit from some of the leftover from the bars. The lather appeared the same as usual but it seemed drier feeling than normal. However, this could be from trying it the next day. I normally cure salt bars 6 weeks but I’ll probably try it at 3 weeks and then 4 weeks I don’t know if the ACV will contribute anything to the soap so it will be interesting to see if there is a difference when I start to test.

My next experiment - soleseife and ACV.

 

[Hazel]

Another apology - I forgot to check at 4 weeks. Aren’t holidays fun? I was busy and just forgot about the soap. I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful time. For those who don’t celebrate it, I hope you had a good week. :grin:

Anyway, I checked one of my regular spa bars and the lather has much larger bubbles and a little less creamy. I don’t think it’s a very good comparison since I used more CO in it and also in the ACV one, I added shea butter which normally I don’t use in my salt bar batches. So, I’m wondering if the shea butter, DSM and clay suppressed the bubbles a little. No biggie, if so because the lather is still nice.

It still doesn’t seem like a particularly hard bar as salt bars go but it’s comparable to regular soap. Again, this could be because I used half the usual amount of salt. It still seems a little drier to my skin. I don’t know if this is because of the combination of ACV, DSM and clay or if the ACV did not neutralize as much lye as I had calculated. I used it on my face and still found it caused some tingling but my skin felt very soft afterwards. However, I was surprised and pleased by how it cleaned my pores. Dryness is worth putting up with for this benefit. I don’t know if this had anything to do with ACV or the other additives. I’m going to have to experiment and see which one or if it’s the combination which produced this result.

 

[flavapor]

I recently purchase luxurious goat milk soap from a farmers market and listed as an ingredient is ascorbic acid. I have never heard of vitamin c being used in cp and was wondering what value it has being added.
Thank you.

My thought is that is was added to reduce the ph of the soap.

 

[flavapor]

I’m sorry it took so long to get back about making the ACV soap. I did make it on Sunday but this week has been hectic.

I decided to use ACV for the entire liquid so by using Deanna’s figures as shown in the above quote, I calculated how much ACV would “neutralize” the lye and then figured how much of a lye discount I would need to get a 5% SF. I ended up stopping at 0% lye discount and the SF was still higher than I wanted for the recipe. I didn't want to use a minus lye discount so I wimped out and decided to make a salt bar. I used 12% lye discount and calculated that it would end up with approximately a 20% SF with the ACV amount.

Since the ACV sounded like it might be on the astringent side, I decided to use Dead Sea Mud (thanks to the generosity of Pepsi Girl who sent me some to play with) and rhassoul clay (red Morocco).

I poured a little of the ACV into 2 cups so I could make a slurry for the DSM and the clay. Both of them fizzed like bath bombs. The clay not so much but the DSM really fizzed up. I was surprised because I hadn’t expected either to be so alkaline. I learned something new. Batch accelerated but I don’t know if it was because of the ACV or the FO blend. I’ll have to try the FO in a regular batch. Anyway, it was hard to stuff in the cavities since it got so stiff so the bars are a little rough in appearance. I posted a picture in the Photo Gallery. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49761

I added the lye to the rest of the ACV and was again surprised because I thought it smelled good. The soap seemed to want to crumble a bit the next day when I unmolded the bars. This is unusual because I use individual cavities and normally don’t have crumbling with salt bars. I also used less salt than normal – approximately 32% compared to the usual 70%. So, I’m wondering if this was caused by the ACV. However, they seemed fine a couple of days later so if I decide to make this batch again, I’ll know to leave them sit at least 48 hours before unmolding. Because I just couldn’t wait, I tried a little bit from some of the leftover from the bars. The lather appeared the same as usual but it seemed drier feeling than normal. However, this could be from trying it the next day. I normally cure salt bars 6 weeks but I’ll probably try it at 3 weeks and then 4 weeks I don’t know if the ACV will contribute anything to the soap so it will be interesting to see if there is a difference when I start to test.

My next experiment - soleseife and ACV.

I think its a mix of the clay and ACV. I use that on my daughters mud scrubs when we do face masks. I use yogurt or buttermilk for my mature skin and she uses acv. I have used acv and a drawing clay like Moroccan clay and it really does take the oils out but I need my oils in so I use kaolin clay most of the time for my mature skin.

 

[Hazel]

Thanks for the info. I'm sure you're correct about the ACV and clay.

I love buttermilk! It's been interesting since I used to think goat milk was the preferred choice based upon what I read. It just appeared more popular and there was a lot of info on it. However, I'm getting more requests for buttermilk soap than goat milk which is fine with me since I prefer it. I thought it was funny when my youngest sister showed up Thursday night. She walked in with a huge grin on her face and said "I brought you a present". Then she handed me a container of buttermilk. She's so subtle.

I generally use kaolin, too. However, I planned on giving this soap to a nephew which is why I went with the red clay. I should send a bar of it to a niece to test and see what she thinks of it. The DSM I used because a friend had sent me some to play with and I really wanted to try it.

 

[flavapor]

Yes buttermilk is quite nice. I have used my daughters acv and rhassoul clay mask and it shriveled my skin but it makes her younger oily skin quite nice.

 

[shunt2011]

Buttermilk is my personal favorite to use in my soaps. I now pretty much use Buttermilk, cream or GM (for a couple)

 

[AliensrReal]

Hello Everyone, my name is Evie and I am a new soap maker, can anyone please explain why my soap makes my tube dirty and how I prevent it, as much as I love making my own soap I do not want to have to clean my bathtub after every shower. Thank you.
Hello Everyone, my name is Evie and I am a new soap maker, can anyone please explain why my soap makes my tube dirty and how I prevent it, as much as I love making my own soap I do not want to have to clean my bathtub after every shower. Thank you.

It sounds like soap scum. Do you have very hard water? How high is your superfat? Chelators such Tetrasodium EDTA or sorbitol can cut down on soap scum.

 

[not_ally]

AliensrReal, at what rate do you use sorbitol for chelation, do you know? I add it for bubbles but didn't know it had chelating abilities.

Yvie, I live in southern California and we have really hard water, which creates horrible soap scum. I add Tetrasodium EDTA for that, it's a powder you can order online. I mix it into distilled water and add it to my water before adding the lye. I mix up the edta/distilled water and keep it in a 12 oz squeeze tube in the fridge (so that I don't have to make it new for each batch of soap) and it makes a huge difference in the amount of soap scum. Here's a link describing how to mix/how much edta to mix with distilled water: Help! I need soap for hard water

I think because EDTA removes/binds metal ions it also helps prevent DOS but don't remember exactly how. Our resident chemistry genius who is great at explaining these concepts is named DeeAnna, if you do a search here with her username and "edta" you will pull up a lot of information.

 

[AliensrReal]

My bad, I meant sodium gluconate but apparently sorbitol can be a chelator. However, I can only find that it is a chelator for drinks, textiles and other non bath and body products.