Liquid soap has a sticky feel as it's drying

[dmmcclain]

I've been making bar soap for a long time, but just recently started liquid soap. I've looked through the forum and couldn't find anything specific to this (unless I really overlooked it), but I've been testing a few different combinations of oils in my liquid soaps, and regardless of combination, I have a sticky feel after rinsing and drying. After towel drying, there is a sticky feel that dissipates after all of the moisture evaporates away. It does go away but it's noticeable for a few seconds. I don't add glycerin to my oils and I the last blend used was olive oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. The olive and sunflower are at a higher % than the coconut. I've read that some makers have issues with sunflower oil in liquid soap, so maybe I increase the olive and leave out the sunflower, or bring in a different liquid oil. I don't want to increase my coconut oil due to it potentially being too drying. Any thoughts on the few seconds of stickiness?

 

[Susie]

If you have hard water, and you superfat, it is most likely soap scum. I fixed this by A. Adding EDTA and B. Decreasing my superfat to the bare minimum. It took both solutions before I lost that sticky feeling.

 

[dmmcclain]

If you have hard water, and you superfat, it is most likely soap scum. I fixed this by A. Adding EDTA and B. Decreasing my superfat to the bare minimum. It took both solutions before I lost that sticky feeling.

Thank you! I did a few more searches and changed up my wording because when I searched before nothing came up. I don't superfat my castile/liquid soap, but I looked up some additional posts after your hard water mention and one post suggested washing with distilled water in a test to see if it is indeed hard water. I'm going to do that today. If it is hard water, I'll look into adding a chelating ingredient.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I had this issue recently and figured out I hadn't used enough dilution water (trying to keep the viscosity I prefer) due to some of my water evaporating. I added just enough water to keep that skin from forming on top and voila! My soap is no longer making my hands feel sticky and the lather has improved, too! I now dilute to the proper soap concentration and then consider whether or not to thicken after sequester. This may or may not be the case for you, but figured I'd mention it just in case.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I've looked through the forum and couldn't find anything specific to this (unless I really overlooked it),

Sorry. You didn't give us enough info to troubleshoot effectively. As you most likely found out during your research on SMF, there are about as many different ways to make LS as there are LSers. LOL

As much as I wish it were otherwise, we aren't mind readers. We can't really help you troubleshoot unless and until you post your exact recipe printout -- including all additives and the method you used.

Alaiyna B's Blogspot is a good place to review the basics of the process. I suggest you take a look before moving forward.

I added just enough water to keep that skin from forming on top and voila!