"Crystal Light" LS Recipe and Procedure

[topofmurrayhill]

Some contributors have expressed interest in my process for the liquid soap I recently posted in the The Photo Gallery. With apologies for the delay, here it is. Keep in mind I'm still experimenting with the formulation.

I'll include percentages in addition to specific amounts for a sample batch that should conveniently fit into a 1 quart mason jar. You can adapt this procedure according to how you like to do things. For example, I prefer to do this with a double boiler because it heats nice and evenly from the bottom, but you might want to use a crock pot.

Here are the ingredients again (updated with one I accidentally left out):

High-Oleic Safflower Oil (SC)
Castor Oil (BB, SC)
Myristic Acid (EW)
Potassium Hydroxide (ED)
Glycerol (EW, ED)
Propylene Glycol (EW, ED)
PEG-150 Distearate (MC)
Sodium Lactate 60% (SC, BB)
Polysorbate-80 (SC, EW, MC, BB)
Tetrasodium EDTA 30% (EW, MC)

I've suggested some of the suppliers I use focusing on the ones you can get more than one ingredient from:

SC - Soaper's Choice
EW - Essential Wholesale
ED - Essential Depot
MC - Making Cosmetics
BB - Bramble Berry

This formulation has so far been compatible with every fragrance I've tried, though you never know. For the best chance of replicating my results, if that's what you want to do, select a fragrance from BB's list of non-discoloring FOs.

I've been using KOH from Essential Depot. I generally recommend assuming 90% caustic strength unless you REALLY know otherwise. If you use SoapCalc, don't forget to check that box. The recipe is calculated with a 2% lye discount.

Sodium lactate is most commonly purchased as a 60% solution, which is what I recommend. EDTA is purchased as a dry powder, so you need to create the 30% solution mentioned in the ingredient list. I combine 30 g EDTA with 70 g distilled water in a 4 oz HDPE bottle with a flip top. Candlechem on eBay is a good source of plastic bottles and dispenser tops galore.

Continued shortly...

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Here are the recipe percentages and the amounts for our approximately quart-sized sample batch:

SAPONIFIABLES:

20% Myristic Acid - 46 g
70% Safflower Oil (HO) - 160 g
10% Castor Oil - 23 g

Please note the high oleic safflower oil, not the regular linoleic.

CAUSTIC AND SOLVENTS:

Potassium Hydroxide - 50 g (2% discount)
Distilled Water - 50 g
Glycerin - 50 g
Propylene Glycol - 50 g

TOTALS:

Saponifiables - 229 g
KOH and Solvents - 200 g
Total Paste - 429 g
Dilution Water - 429 g
Total Product - 858 g (excluding additives and fragrance)

ADDITIVES:

Calculated as percentage of total product, using baker's measure.

1.0% Sodium Lactate - 9 g (858 x .01)
0.1% EDTA - 3 g (858 x .001 / .30)
2.0% PEG-150 Distearate 18 g (858 g x .02 = 18 g)
2.0% Fragrance 18 g

You can refer back to this message for amounts. Procedure will follow.

Continued soon...

 

[biarine]

Wow it's a little bit complicated for me as a newbie in liquid soap

 

[Dahila]

mystiric acid and Peg-150 not available in Canada. So it is a soap with surfacants?

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Wow it's a little bit complicated for me as a newbie in liquid soap

Perhaps you shouldn't do it. Some people were curious, so I promised to post it. FWIW there are more ingredients than usual, and a few more steps, but most of the steps are not particularly difficult.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

mystiric acid and Peg-150 not available in Canada. So it is a soap with surfacants?

Not at all. It's a liquid soap not so different from what other people make. There are just a few twists to it. No other surfactants apart from Polysorbate-80, which is used by many as an emulsifier to help incorporate fragrance.

 

[Arimara]

This looks like fun I can't have. Perhaps in a few months.

@Biarine just make a few more batches of liquid soap. I've still to make a shaving soap (I'm scared to make one XD). At the moment, I'm content with using men's shaving cream- it's super moisturizing and feels way better than female shaving creams.

 

[Dahila]

Not at all. It's a liquid soap not so different from what other people make. There are just a few twists to it. No other surfactants apart from Polysorbate-80, which is used by many as an emulsifier to help incorporate fragrance.

Oh I am not criticising I use a lot of surfacants and they not the "terrible and Toxic" chemicals Hehe
I am thinking what i could do to substitute it, Crotix is not good it is anonic
?????????
Any sugesstion?

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Okay here is the procedural part.

To make the soap paste, gently heat the saponifiables until almost melted, then remove from the heat or turn the heat off. You don't need a high temperature -- just enough to get everything clear and melted. Combine the KOH with the water (it's 50/50 to make a saturated solution). When fully dissolved, add the glycerin and propylene glycol and stir gently. Now stir in the EDTA. Pour this "lye" into the oil/fatty acid melt.

Note that the amounts of water, glycerin and propylene glycol are the same as the amount of KOH.

Whisk until you see the slightest sign of trace, then leave it alone for up to 4 hours. It will probably not take nearly that long. This recipe creates a crystal clear and light yellow paste with no foam. This part of the process is very forgiving. If you whisk only to emulsion, the resulting paste will look like a clear liquid until you touch it or turn the pot upside down and realize it's solid. If you whisk to very light trace you'll have slight ripples on top. You can also use a stick blender to quickly bring it to trace, which will make a more textured and bubbly paste as in the photos below.

This product is diluted 1 to 1 paste and distilled water. Add the sodium lactate to the water, then use the method of your choice for dilution. The sample recipe is small enough that you could use the IrishLass dilution method. If you use a different method that allows more evaporation, weigh the paste/water before dilution so you can top off the water at the end.

You may find that the diluted soap is initially has a slight haze. This is surprising considering the crystal clear paste. I don't know exactly why it happens. Next time I'm going to make potassium lactate to use in place of sodium lactate to see if that makes a difference. Anyway, don't worry about it because everything will be crystal clear by the end.

The next step is to add the PEG-150 distearate. This great stuff contributes multiple things to the soap. It's a thickener that reinforces the syrupy texture of the soap, a conditioner that contributes to the skin feel, and a solubilizer that helps ensure clarity and incorporation of fragrance oil.

To add the PEG-150, heat the soap to about 150 F and sprinkle it in. Stir gently and continue until the temperature reaches 175 F, then remove from the heat. If necessary, add distilled water to replace anything that evaporated. Allow the soap to cool until it's just warm.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

While soap is still warm, combine the fragrance with an equal amount of Polysorbate-80 and mix very well. Add the fragrance solution to the soap and mix very well. Most likely it will not be clear right away, but I haven't yet used an FO that didn't end up crystal clear. It might take a short time or it might take a few days. The photo below is of the baby soap right after adding FO or EO. Some finished soap is shown here:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=61265

When the soap is clear, you can color it if you like. For a transparent result, add FD&C dyes a small amount at a time until you get the result you want, then note down what you added. FD&C dyes are used to color food, drugs and cosmetics. You could try food coloring from the supermarket, but I like to use dyes that have been specifically tested with soap. Lab Colors from Bramble Berry is an example of the type of colorant I like for liquid soap. You can also use pigments, but the result won't be transparent. If you want to go that route, shimmery micas should look especially nice.

Here is the only troubleshooting tip I've had to learn:

Occasionally you may find that the soap doesn't completely clear, and if you tip the bottle you see little transparent globs of gel clinging to the sides. This is no problem. Reheat the soap, add a little distilled water and stir. That should totally fix it. It seems certain fragrances need a slightly greater dilution.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Oh I am not criticising I use a lot of surfacants and they not the "terrible and Toxic" chemicals Hehe
I am thinking what i could do to substitute it, Crotix is not good it is anonic
?????????
Any sugesstion?

I didn't take it badly.

I can't recommend a substitution that I haven't tested. I heard about the PEG-150 Distearate from Alaiyna B.'s blog. It performs so well and easily that I haven't tried anything else, but you can experiment. Other additives she talks about are HPMC (Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose) and HEC (Hydroxyethel Cellulose), but her discussion is focused on thickening. At 2% the PEG-150 makes a small difference in the consistency of the soap, but it serves other purposes as well.

 

[Soapmaker145]

Here are the recipe percentages and the amounts for our approximately quart-sized sample batch:

SAPONIFIABLES:

20% Myristic Acid - 46 g
70% Safflower Oil (HO) - 160 g
10% Castor Oil - 23 g

Just curious why you used myristic instead of lauric. Did you try it with coconut oil and does it make a difference in the diluted soap?

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Just curious why you used myristic instead of lauric. Did you try it with coconut oil and does it make a difference in the diluted soap?

It's based on the possibility that myristate is less harsh than laurate, since there seems to be a significant correlation between harshness and shorter chain length. I occasionally make M&P soap from scratch, and some of those formulations specify myristic for what I suspect is that reason.

I also hope that there is less caprylic and capric fatty acid in a narrow cut of C:14 than there is in a narrow cut of C:12 coconut oil fatty acids. The C:8 and C:10 fatty acids make nasty soap.

A fatty acid purified from coconut oil is more expensive than the oil, and the oil works just as well in the process. If the factors I mentioned are valid, then using myristic offers the only advantages over simply using coconut oil.

Having said that, I would like to know how lauric acid would compare in this formulation, and I have a lot of it. I was going to try it in the next batch. Hopefully I can also try to make an equivalent recipe calibrated to the typical fatty profile of coconut oil. I've made that (it's a common recipe), but not with all the same solvents and such.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

Here's the finished product without dye.

When I offhandedly called it "crystal light" for the thread title, I was referring to clarity and color. Not that I've gotten very far yet, but I'm curious about how different formulations affect the color of the soap, and I wonder how close to water white it can get.

Lighter color can made a more brilliant looking soap, and it can make dyeing easier. For instance, it's hard to get a good blue with yellow soap because it comes out greenish.

 

[cmzaha]

That is really pretty liquid soap. Thankyou for all the information and since I have all the ingredients less the PEG-150 Distearate. I will be trying when I get the Peg in.

 

[CTAnton]

Many thanks TOMH for sharing your recipe!

 

[Soapmaker145]

I also hope that there is less caprylic and capric fatty acid in a narrow cut of C:14 than there is in a narrow cut of C:12 coconut oil fatty acids. The C:8 and C:10 fatty acids make nasty soap.

That makes perfect sense. I'll have to order some myristic to compare. My last diswashing soap had 10% lauric acid, 20% coconut, 5% castor and the rest HO sunflower oil. I haven't tried side by side comparison yet but I think substituting 10% coconut with the lauric acid makes for a soap that cleans grease incredibly well and rinses off really fast. It cleans better than pure coconut soap. It don't find it drying but I'm not sensitive to coconut.

Thanks for sharing your new recipe. I've already ordered the chemicals I'm missing to try it.

 

[nickbar]

Thanks for sharing your recipe TOMH! Your "crystal light" soap looks great!

 

[Arimara]

Okay. TOMH was nice enough to send me a sample of his soap. It's good stuff so you guys might want to try your hands at making it. It's a thick soap, very much like what you would think a liquid soap should be and better yet- it's gentle. My mom and daughter were able to use it, which is a good sign for me since they have sensitive skin.

When I get better situations with my job and stuff, I will definitely look into making this.

 

[biarine]

Perhaps you shouldn't do it. Some people were curious, so I promised to post it. FWIW there are more ingredients than usual, and a few more steps, but most of the steps are not particularly difficult.

But I am adventurous enough. I will try your recipe thank you for the knowledge x