Ph

[catikit]

Hi there
I am attempting to make solid shampoo bars using the cold process method. However the Ph of my bars keeps coming out as 10. I want to try and lower this (ideally they'd be 7). How can i do this on future batches?
Thanks

 

[Guest]

You could try to neutralize the pH by adding with something acidic like a bit of lemon juice or citric acid to your recipe.

 

[NancyRogers]

The PH of CP is just going to be higher than neutral. You could try upping your superfat.

 

[soapbuddy]

For lower pH, I would suggest making a syndet bar. If you add too much citric or lemon juice to CP soap, it will be either extremely superfatted (as the acid will neutralize some of your lye) or it will break emulsion; ending up as caustic and oily mess.

 

[kelleyaynn]

You could do HP instead of CP and add the citric acid after the cook, adding and testing the pH until you get about 8 or so. I think I read somewhere that taking the pH down to 7 is problematic, but I don't remember why. Of course, there is no reason you couldn't try it just to see what happens.

 

[carebear]

You could try to neutralize the pH by adding with something acidic like a bit of lemon juice or citric acid to your recipe.

You could TRY but soap is, by it's nature, alkaline. Anything more than a slight nudge will leave you with sludge.

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

I read on a blog that if you take a small portion of soap and put blue food coloring on it and it turns red it still has active lye in it and if it stays blue it good to put in mold..

Is this true?

 

[kelleyaynn]

I read on a blog that if you take a small portion of soap and put blue food coloring on it and it turns red it still has active lye in it and if it stays blue it good to put in mold..

Is this true?

I doubt it, but I think I'll have to try it next time I make soap just to test it out.

Anyway, it's really irrelevant because when you do CP there is still lots of active lye in the soap when you put it in the mold. Only in HP will all of the lye be reacted by the time you put it in the mold. Many people seem to think that by the time the soap "batter" reaches trace, most of the lye is reacted. That is simply not true. At that point the reaction has really just gotten started.

 

[ToniD]

I tried many experiments to lower the ph of a cp shampoo bar. I was going through my first notebook the other day and came across the results of the first experiment--a rebatch with lemon juice.

"smelly worthless mess" is the notation in my notebook.

I got a little more refined and tried ascorbic acid. Being a persistent sort, I tried several times. By the end I was getting a lovely creamy attractive mess. But no matter what I did, all I got was what Carebear appropriately called sludge. My conclusion--you just can't lower ph enough to make a difference.

I did use shampoo bars for a while, and left it up to my conditioner to have a proper ph. In the end though, I switched to making a syndet shampoo.

 

[Soaplady22]

I switched to syndet shampoo bars too. Just this year!!

 

[lovelysuds]

I read on a blog that if you take a small portion of soap and put blue food coloring on it and it turns red it still has active lye in it and if it stays blue it good to put in mold..

Is this true?

Sure Is!! I do it all the time, if you think about it thats why colors change in CP and not HP. Then after they cure sometimes you have a completely different color because the lye is gone. Its a good trick just make sure you test a dollop from a few places in the pot in case its not mixed thru.

 

[kelleyaynn]

Sure Is!! I do it all the time, if you think about it thats why colors change in CP and not HP. Then after they cure sometimes you have a completely different color because the lye is gone. Its a good trick just make sure you test a dollop from a few places in the pot in case its not mixed thru.

Are you doing this when doing CP or HP? What are you testing for? When you put CP soap in the mold, not all of the lye is reacted. If it were, the soap batter would be too solid to put in the mold. So I'm confused by what you are testing for if you are doing CP. It makes sense if it works to do it for HP. :?:

 

[soapbuddy]

Blue food coloring will never turn to red in soap. It might turn purple though.

 

[lovelysuds]

I do it in HP sorry i should've clarified!! Soapbuddy is right its not really red but a definite color change. More like a pinkinsh purple.

 

[catikit]

what are syndet shampoo bars?

 

[judymoody]

Three words: swift crafty monkey

Everything you wanted to learn about why CP is bad for hair and why synthetic detergent bars (syndet) are good for hair can be found on this wonderful blog. Her ebooks on hair care products, lotions, and other beauty products are invaluable and proceeds go towards funding youth groups.

Syndet bars require a completely different set of ingredients and they aren't cheap. But they're not hard to make and my hair loves them.

If you want to try a syndet bar, GetLathered on etsy has good ones.

Here's a link to Swift's (Susan's) blog entry on solid shampoo bars:

http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2 ... rview.html