Transparent soap recipe overview

[szaza]

Hi all!

I've been wanting to make transparent soap for a while and while researching I found a lot of different recipes and recommendations. Since I always like to understand a recipe to be able to tweak it or make my own, I decided it would be good to make a spreadsheet comparing the recipes I found online. Just in case it would be useful to anybody else, I thought I'd upload it here.
I've never been known as a good spreadsheet maker.. so if something is unclear, please ask

I noticed most recipes contain more sugar than the recommendations I found.. does anybody know if there's a drawback to adding too much sugar? And how much is too much?

I know I should probably buy Catherine Failor's book... but I'm afraid I'm only going to try transparent soap once and then forget about it. My skin it very dry and I'm not sure the low superfat and added alcohol is going to work for me. At the moment I have more time than money, so hours of online research it is! (plus I like the research so, meh)

Happy soaping!

 

[earlene]

Instead of buying the book, have you looked at your local library? If you local library doesn't have it, do they have a state-wide borrowing program so you can order the book from another library. I find it is easiest to do a search online for my library and can reserve any book in the entire state library system. This way I can read a book, try out a recipe or two, and decide if it's really a book I would use enough to justify the price.

 

[szaza]

Thanks earlene, I'd love to get soapmaking books from the library, but they only have one book about melt and pour soapmaking and that's it (also, not a lot of English books and I doubt Catherine Failor's book was translated). Soapmaking doesn't seem to be as popular here as in the states..

 

[jme]

I am in the very disappointing process of making transparent glycerin base. I paid 17.99 alone for the Everclear not to mention the other ingredients and when all the soap was dissolved I was suppose to add the sugar water. Well all of the soap never dissolved and now I have a massive lump in my crock pot. Makes me sick to think of the money I wasted not to mention my shattered dreams of beautiful clear soap base [emoji22]

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Kristy of Lovely Lathers has a very detailed explanation of Failor's process on Cathy Miller's Soapmaking Site. Here's a link:

http://www.millersoap.com/glycerinsoap.html#Kristy
http://www.millersoap.com/glycerinsoap.html#Kristy

GOOD LUCK!

 

[cmzaha]

I do not use alcohol in mine. I like the recipes from here. I use a tweaked version of her clearer m&p

 

[Richard Perrine]

I am in the very disappointing process of making transparent glycerin base. I paid 17.99 alone for the Everclear not to mention the other ingredients and when all the soap was dissolved I was suppose to add the sugar water. Well all of the soap never dissolved and now I have a massive lump in my crock pot. Makes me sick to think of the money I wasted not to mention my shattered dreams of beautiful clear soap base [emoji22]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I wonder if too much of your alcohol evaporated before it could do its job.

 

[Richard Perrine]

I have made transparent soap successfully 3-times. All three times I tried. I discovered Making Transparent Soap by Catherine Failor and it rocks! I use a recipe/technique that is hardly considered work at all and it has given me transparent soap each time w/o fail. I use denatured ethanol as I was unable to find everclear locally, but now that I have a method that simply works, I'm not going to try everclear.

 

[szaza]

@jme I'm so sorry to hear you're having trouble with your first batch of transparent soap! I've read a lot of people have different experiences making transparent soap.. It's one of the reasons I've been reluctant to try. You can try to dissolve the lump in your crockpot with some more alcohol and see what you get. Or you could shred it into small pieces and try the method of making transparent soap from soap shavings as described on the website Zany_in_CO linked to. By the way, thanks @Zany_in_CO for that link! It's a super informative website, found it a while back but lost the link, bookmarked it as soon as I saw your post

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I have made transparent soap successfully 3-times. All three times I tried. I discovered Making Transparent Soap by Catherine Failor and it rocks! I use a recipe/technique that is hardly considered work at all and it has given me transparent soap each time w/o fail. I use denatured ethanol as I was unable to find everclear locally, but now that I have a method that simply works, I'm not going to try everclear.

Congratulations, Richard!

I hope, when you find time, that you will share your experience with us on a new thread. If you don't mind sharing, I'm curious to learn your source for denatured ethanol too.

 

[Richard Perrine]

Congratulations, Richard! View attachment 31594
I hope, when you find time, that you will share your experience with us on a new thread. If you don't mind sharing, I'm curious to learn your source for denatured ethanol too.

Hi Zany. I do have pics of two of my three attempts here.


I do apologize for the presentation. I'm working on it. The one on the right is a lavender bar with clove (opaque). I added too much purple pigment, but they are definitely transparent. The grapefruit bars (orange) were my first attempt. Great fragrance and the color is entirely from the essential oil.

I purchased my denatured ethanol from Amazon. I suspect each state or country has specific laws regarding the sale and transport of such material, but I also would imagine that a local science supply store would have it in hand. I'll start a new thread.

 

[earthling121757]

I've never made transparent soap so I'm not sure what happens to the alcohol during the process. That said, I'd be very careful using denatured alcohol in soap. What makes it denatured (undrinkable) is that it has poisons added to it.

 

[Richard Perrine]

I've never made transparent soap so I'm not sure what happens to the alcohol during the process. That said, I'd be very careful using denatured alcohol in soap. What makes it denatured (undrinkable) is that it has poisons added to it.

Thank you! The alcohol evaporates after the lengthy cooking. There is residual alcohol remaining at the end, but after a couple of days of curing, there is almost no indication that it is present (by odor). The denature ethanol I use is denatured with isopropyl alcohol (ISA) and n-propyl acetate (NPA). ISA is commonly used in soap making process to help break up bubbles and NPA is actually a chemical used in fragrances. Both, relatively toxic, but in this case, used to add odor to discourage its consumption. I have seen a few recipes that describe its use.

 

[IngridK]

I do not use alcohol in mine. I like the recipes from here. I use a tweaked version of her clearer m&p

I was looking at those recipes and wondering if it were worth a try. Have you tried any. For me it would mean buying ingredients I do not have and at the moment I am up the wazoo in supplies to learn cold process with. The more I read about; 'making glycerine soap with alcohol' the less inclined I am to make it; I have thin sensitive skin... and I was always perplexed when I used commercial glycerine soap because it seemed to do more drying than moisturizing.

 

[szaza]

I was looking at those recipes and wondering if it were worth a try. Have you tried any. For me it would mean buying ingredients I do not have and at the moment I am up the wazoo in supplies to learn cold process with. The more I read about; 'making glycerine soap with alcohol' the less inclined I am to make it; I have thin sensitive skin... and I was always perplexed when I used commercial glycerine soap because it seemed to do more drying than moisturizing.

I'm having the same doubts! I'd like to make a transparent soap for my boyfriend. He had this idea of peppermint+aloe vera soap and I thought transparent soap would fit well with this (plus experimenting is fun!), but I'm really not sure if my own skin is going to like it..
Popylene glycol (that is used in the video) is supposed to be a humectant, so I it shouldn't be as drying as ethanol. Unfortunately from what I've read it also causes more sweating. Big plus is that you can remelt the soap (eg melt and pour) if you use propylene glycol. (Great info on ethanol vs propylene glycol in post #4 of this thread: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/denatured-alcohol-v-monoproplyene-glycol.53156/) Denatured ethanol is cheap and easy to come by here, so thought to first try 'regular' ethanol based transparent soap and then switch to propylene glycol and try to make melt and pour. But just like you say, I'd have to buy a whole lot of new stuff if I wanted to make the recipe in the video. The resulting soap looks absolutely gorgeous though.. so who knows in a few years

By the way, @cmzaha glad to hear you have good results with a tweaked version of that recipe! I've been drooling over that video for a while now.. hopefully one day I'll get the courage and materials to make it! Knowing somebody successfully made a (tweaked) version definately helps getting over the mental hurdles!