Borax Hand Soap for Blacksmith or other dirty work

[Georgeandstella]

I'm not sure I'd up the CO as that's super drying, IMO. I think I'd try multiple exfoliants at different coarseness levels first. Maybe keep your pumice the same, but add in a bit of orange peel or coffee grounds which would also help with the odor factor. I've never tried ACV, but I use a whopping lot of honey in my version because it makes a huge difference in bubbles compared to the same recipe without it. Also, if I'm reading correctly, you're adding sodium lactate when there's already plenty of salt in the recipe. Could that extra salt be hindering the bubbles?

I want to add honey!

When you add honey, does this subtract from the liquids?

Also, should I exclude the sugar I’ve been adding?

I’ve made 2 different borax versions, sending them out to the Nebraska farmers soon for feedback. Green has walnut shells, coffee and eggshells and the yellow has white poppy seeds, coffee and oatmeal. No sodium lactate. Thank you

 

[Servant4Christ]

I want to add honey!

When you add honey, does this subtract from the liquids?

Also, should I exclude the sugar I’ve been adding?

I’ve made 2 different borax versions, sending them out to the Nebraska farmers soon for feedback. Green has walnut shells, coffee and eggshells and the yellow has white poppy seeds, coffee and oatmeal. No sodium lactate. Thank you View attachment 74858

I follow Earlene's method and measurements (which I calculated into percentages) for borax, pumice, and honey but using a different basic soap recipe. According to my notes for this recipe, I use 40% lye concentration plus the honey and 1% citric acid to help combat soap scrum (the lye calculator adjusts my lye amount for this). No other sugars need be added as the honey will heat up your soap A LOT. My first loaf actually had a heat crack on top because of the added heat. Note: I Googled the weight of a tablespoon of honey and calculated each of the additives according to my actual batch size since I make a larger loaf than Earlene's original recipe. It was extra work, but now it's written down and easy for me to reference each time I want to make a 5lb loaf. Hope this helps.

Don't use sodium lactate (salt) with borax (salt)! Guess where I learned that from? I use loofa, coffee grounds, and poppy seeds. Also, you get various opinions on this Forum but I use brewed coffee as liquid, some think that brewed coffee helps to take away odor.
Wow, you got such specific feedback, love it!

Your past experience with ALL the salts added to Earlene's blacksmith method was what made me think of it

 

[dmcgee5034]

I finally made batch 2 of this soap. Last time, I was told it wasn’t scrubby enough. I may have been too aggressive in my changes. It smells completely nauseating to me, like wet cement and funk, with d-limonene.
768g of fats - 60% lard, 25% CO; 10% OO & 5% castor. I upped the scrubbies to 31g each of fine and medium pumice, and 25g orange peel. The 52g borax did dissolve in the boiling water this time. I used a T&S mold.