Best way to naturally thicken a NaOH liquid soap/shampoo?

[humblelove]

**EDIT** I meant KOH soap - not NaOH! Oops!

I've been making liquid soaps for about two years now. But, being completely natural, my soaps are very watery. I don't mind this for hand soaps, as I bottle the soap with a foamer pump. But I'd like to work on some shampoo or body gel recipes that are more gel-like than watery. Any advice or pointing me in the direction of some information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jcandleattic]

You can cook some of the water out, use less liquid to dilute with, or add salt as a thickener.

I'm not sure of other options.

 

[maiabasas]

You can make CPLS (Cold Process Liquid Soap), dilute with less water. I make the hand soap and shower gel with the same batch, one more diluted than the other.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you would share your method and recipe, we could do more to troubleshoot and critique.

You might simply be hurrying the dilution process along and end up adding too much water. Another thing is the fatty acid profile is important to getting a thicker soap. I also want to add that salt won't thicken some types of liquid soaps.

Too many variables and not nearly enough info to narrow them down.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@humblelove: Welcome to SMF!

When you have a moment, please go over to the Introduction Forum and tell us a little about yourself, your soap making experience, and anything else you'd care to share.

There's good basic info on thickening LS here:
http://alaiynab.blogspot.com/search/label/tutorial

I agree with DeeAnna above -- it's easier for us to help you to get to where you want to go if we know more about your process, what's in the formula, the amount of dilution water you use, and whether or not you use a little NaOH to make the lye solution?

There's a "Recipe Feedback" Forum where you can post your recipe and we'll take it from there! Of course, I should remind you, there's about as many different ways of making LS as there are LS'ers! So the information offered may conflict somewhat at times.