Geek me on lather!

[Birdie Wife]

I've done a search but couldn't find out if this information was all in one place. So I thought I'd start a thread to quiz you on what additives will increase, or decrease lather in a soap. I'm thiking particularly of things that you add either in liquid or solid form, could be added at trace or as part of the lye solution.

I'm aware that different oils will have a big effect on this and SoapCalc has a very helpful feature which enables you to sort oils by their compostion of acids (eg lauric, palmitic) which helps to determine the properites of the final soap. But I haven't found anything for other soap additives, so here's a starter:

Increase lather
milk/cream
sugar
beer
ETA:
Wine
Honey
Fruit juice

Suppress lather
Salt
Hard water

 

[CaliChan]

Increase lather- juice, honey,

 

[Birdie Wife]

Increase lather- juice, honey,

Fruit juice? Does aloe juice have the same effect?

 

[CaliChan]

Hmmmm I have no idea, aloe doesn't strike me as a juice with natural sugars in it so I'd have to look it up. However it would be a good additive in general.
I should have been more specific. "Fruit juices" like pomegranate and orange increase lather. And its because of their natural sugars. Wine does to because of its high sugar content.

 

[Birdie Wife]

Ace, thanks for that, have added to the list.

 

[lizflowers42]

Yogurt/coconut milk=increase

 

[lsg]

Stearic acid provides hardness and creamy lather.

 

[Hazel]

I have read posts by a couple of people who said aloe juice increases lather in cream soap. This made me wonder if it would also do the same in CP and HP.