DIY Foaming Hand Soap

Teresa Curtis · Sep 26, 2020

Hi:

I'm hoping someone can help me with 4 questions

1. Is there ever a liquid soap formulation that would NOT work well to make a foaming hand wash by adding water to it?
2. A manufacturer recently told me that I should not be adding water to a liquid hand soap to make a foaming hand soap as it would "compromise the preservative and encourage mold growth". They said I should be using a dedicated formula for foaming hand soap. Does anyone have any insight for me, as most recipes I have seen online use liquid hand soap in their formulation? FYI, I would rather not make my liquid soap from scratch.
3. I am finding in my homemade foaming hand wash that the liquid soap is settling a bit at the bottom. Shaking it helps temporarily, but does anyone know how I could prevent the soap from settling? Could it be because the liquid hand soap formula is a pearl wash formulation?
4. What makes your lather in a foaming hand soap more dense? Is it the amount of liquid hand soap that is added or the type of foaming pump?

Thank you so much to anyone who can provide some guidance!

Teresa

Anstarx · Sep 27, 2020

Are you making liquid soap from lye and oil, or are you making it from synthetic materials such as coco betaine and SLSa? They are very different things and making your question a little confusing to read.
1. If you are talking about lye and oil soap, they are usually made in paste form and you are supposed to dilute them. Pre-made hand wash? Not so much.
2. Adding water to a commercial liquid soap can encourage mold growth as the final amount is more than what the exisiting perservatice suppose to handle. Most online recipes...well, they are not always trustable. I've seen self-proclaimed bubble bath recipe that's just diluted body wash with essential oils. If you are interested in making foaming handwash from scratch I recommend you look up Humblebee and Me's blog. She has a lot of hand wash recipes and I make my own foaming hand wash based on her recipes.
3. Sounds like you are diluting commercial hand soap to make foaming handsoap? I don't have much experience with those but theoretically speaking, you should be able to mix commercial soap and water with a good stirring, maybe a little heating, tpp.
4. If you are dilluting commercial soap, diluting it meaning you are using less surfactant so naturally there will be less foam.

Zany_in_CO · Sep 27, 2020

Teresa Curtis said:
FYI, I would rather not make my liquid soap from scratch.

If you'd rather not make liquid soap from scratch I would suggest you look at some of the LS bases sold by various suppliers like Elements Bath & Body's Coconut Oil LS Base:
https://www.elementsbathandbody.com/coconut-oil-liquid-soap-base.html

Brambleberry and WSP also carry natural soap bases. There may be others.

Teresa Curtis · Sep 30, 2020

Anstarx said:
Are you making liquid soap from lye and oil, or are you making it from synthetic materials such as coco betaine and SLSa? They are very different things and making your question a little confusing to read.
1. If you are talking about lye and oil soap, they are usually made in paste form and you are supposed to dilute them. Pre-made hand wash? Not so much.
2. Adding water to a commercial liquid soap can encourage mold growth as the final amount is more than what the exisiting perservatice suppose to handle. Most online recipes...well, they are not always trustable. I've seen self-proclaimed bubble bath recipe that's just diluted body wash with essential oils. If you are interested in making foaming handwash from scratch I recommend you look up Humblebee and Me's blog. She has a lot of hand wash recipes and I make my own foaming hand wash based on her recipes.
3. Sounds like you are diluting commercial hand soap to make foaming handsoap? I don't have much experience with those but theoretically speaking, you should be able to mix commercial soap and water with a good stirring, maybe a little heating, tpp.
4. If you are dilluting commercial soap, diluting it meaning you are using less surfactant so naturally there will be less foam.

Hello-thank you for your response. Sorry if it was confusing!

I am actually purchasing a custom made pearl formulation from a manufacturer that has a mix of natural and synthetic ingredients in it. I am not making the formulation myself. My plan is to just "assemble" the product with my own labels and bottles but also create a foaming hand soap from the custom formulation that is in liquid form. After more testing, I think my ratios were off as I added more liquid soap and less water and it looks like that corrected the issue with the liquid soap settling to the bottom. I appreciate your insight!!

atiz · Sep 30, 2020

Syndet foaming soaps are super easy to make, you just have to mix a few ingredients (I use a few of Humblebee&me's recipes, they are free). Dense foam, and a lot of it. But it does contain a preservative, and if your base ingredients don't have any, I would add some. I don't have any lye-based liquid soap experience, but the pH of the syndets is not high enough to preserve the soap on its own.

Teresa Curtis · Oct 5, 2020

Thank you for your advice!

DeeAnna · Oct 5, 2020

Yeah, preservatives are dosed at the total weight of product. Even if you buy a base that contains a preservative, if you add stuff to that base (even if it's just added water), you need to add preservative accordingly. You not only have to choose an effective preservative for the product, but you also need to keep the concentration of preservative in the finished product high enough so it can work properly.