Laundry Soap Bar

[soapopera]

Heya,

Was wondering anyone have any tips for a laundry bar. I just made a small batch of it and had encounter some gremlins! It's a 100% CO batch with 3% superfat. I use a lye concentration of 33% and added a Petitgrain and Cedarwood EO. All went fine until I went to check on it in the mold within ah hour. It started to overheat as cracks starts to appear (think it's the EO). I also notice the soap starts to get really rock hard, so I quickly unmold it. In the past I made a 100% CO batch before and had a real hard time cutting it as it was so hard! Any tips as how soon shall I start cutting it. I use a wire cutter which was pretty fragile for this hard soap! Will using a 28% lye concentration helps? Thanks

 

[kdaniels8811]

For laundry you want 0 percent superfat -don't want excess oils on clothes - and cheap oils. I use 100% lard for a hard bar.

 

[hoegarden]

For my laudry bar, i use 70% CO, 20% PO and 10% RBO with zero superfat.

Reason is that excess oil will stain the clothes instead of cleaning it. Thus, no superfatting is required.

 

[soapopera]

Thanks for the feedback. How soon do you cut into it? It seems to harden so fast. I make mainly olive soaps and this took me by surprise.

 

[houseofwool]

You definitely don't want a 3% superfat. I use 2:1 ratio of lard to coconut oil for mine. I also use this same soap to wash dishes and clean other things around the house. I like it a lot.

 

[houseofwool]

It will definitely harden faster than an OO soap, if I gel it, I can cut the same day sometimes. Particularly since I don't really care what it looks like (crumbly edges etc)

 

[hoegarden]

Are you selling the bars? if not, I will suggest that you use drinks packets or small milk packets to be the molds. I am not sure if such are available at your side. You can just throw away the packets when you demold and you get a good size for a laudry bar that need not cut.

 

[soapopera]

A couple of friends were asking for some and I thought to make some to give to them. Also I wanted to cut in bars as more of use on places like collars when handwashing. Not so much of shredding it to powder.