Making Transparent Soap
This is the result of my experiments making
transparent soap. I am in no way, shape or form an expert, but I have
successfully made transparent soap using recipes found on the web as
well as formulating my own. I highly recommend reading the book "Making Transparent Soap"
by Catherine Failor before you begin. This tutorial is not intended to
replace the book, it is intended to complement the book. Transparent
soap is basically partly soap and partly solvent. Sodium Hydroxide
causes crystals to form in soap and that is why the soap becomes opaque,
in order to make it transparent, you have to dissolve the soap in
enough solvent to make the crystals so small that the the light will
freely pass through the soap, which makes it look transparent. There is
no magic number when it comes to the quantity of solvents required for a
particular recipe, transparency will exist in a narrow window within a
range. A good way to find the right quantity of solvents is to start by
calculating a 60% soap/40% solvent ratio and then a 50% soap/50%
solvent ratio, depending on your formula, transparency will exist
somewhere in that range. (See the calculation page for tips on formulating your own recipes and to download a Transparent soap calculator to help you with the task.
This tutorial is
intended for people who already know how to make soap and are aware of
the safety precautions that should be taken in order to do so.
In this tutorial, we will use a very popular recipe by Jeff Bobeck.
It is a good basic recipe and it works, it yielded my first successful
batch of transparent soap, I modified it because I use 75.5% Alcohol
instead of the 70% Alcohol used in the original recipe. Formulas can be
adapted to use with the Alcohol you can find, although it would be
difficult to go below 70% (140 Proof). Ideally, if you can find 190
Proof Alcohol, use it, it will make your life easier, if you can't, you
can adapt a recipe to work with what you can find, just go to the calculation page
to find out how. You need Ethanol (grain Alcohol) (Everclear) to make
transparent soap, Isopropyl Alcohol will not work. I use a crock pot, I
have gas appliances so I can't do it on the stove, using a slow cooker
is an easy way to do it without the risk of setting the house on fire.
First, print the recipe,
assemble your supplies and clear 5 to 6 hours off your schedule.
Preheat your oven to 180F (if it will go that low, if not, you will use
the slow cooker to bring your soap to gel). Put a clear cup or glass in
the freezer, you will need it to test the transparency of your soap. You
will also need a wisk, lots of spoons, a spray bottle with alcohol in
it, colorants (food colorants work, Select Shades are great), FO or your
favorite perfume, a large pot with a spout, some Glad Press'n seal
plastic wrap and a small plastic strainer.
Measure your oils and heat them up in the
slow cooker, I use a 4 quarts slow cooker, anything smaller would not
work for this recipe, if you use a larger crock pot, you may have to tip
it on its side somewhat so you can use your stick blender to mix the
oils and the lye solution. Mix the lye with 6 oz of water and set aside
to cool. When the oils and the lye are about 140F, pour the lye
solution into the oils and stir with the stick blender, it should take
only a few minutes to get to a good medium trace.
At that point, put the cover on the soap and put it in a 180F oven for 1
1/2 hour. (If your oven won't go that low, just leave the soap in the
slow cooker on warm and check it after an hour to see if it is going
through the gel stage, I am not sure how long it will take for the soap
to become neutral that way, but it should not take more than 2 hours.
Try to minimize water loss because we already took a big water
discount).
After 1 1/2 hour, your soap should be neutral
(PH of 9 - 10.5 is fine). The entire soap mass should be in the gel
stage and look like somewhat like this:
Stir it and test it either with
phenolphthalein (if you have any) or litmus paper, if you don't mind the
"tongue test", there should be no zap :) (To test using Litmus paper,
dissolve some of the soap into a little bit of water and apply the paper
to the soap, this should give you a good reading).
When you are certain that your soap is
"neutral", it is time to mix in the Alcohol and the Glycerin. Measure
13.5 oz of Alcohol and 3 oz of Glycerin. Mix the Glycerin into the
Alcohol and then, off heat, start pouring into the soap mass while
stirring with a whisk. Pour the Alcohol/Glycerin mix in slowly, taking
time to break up lumps of soap. You must work quickly in order to
minimize the loss of Alcohol, but do not panic and go too fast, take the
time to break the big lumps. Finish with the stick blender or a potato
masher, anything that will break the bigger pieces. Make sure you get
all the soap that sticks to the sides and the bottom of the bowl. All
the soap will not dissolve completely right way, you will have pieces of
soap floating in a soupy mixture of Alcohol/Glycerin and dissolved
soap. That's alright, the little lumps will dissolve during the cook.
Keep your head away from the bowl otherwise you will get an
instantaneous hang over ;). start the kitchen fan, Alcohol vapors are
highly flammable and you don't want them to accumulate in your kitchen.
Put the cover back on the crock pot insert
and put the insert back in the slow cooker. Cook on warm (depending on
your slow cooker, you may have to start it on high for a few min., then
put it back on warm) for 30 - 45 min. Check it once in a while, the
temperature should be between 160 - 180F. I have a very cheap slow
cooker that I bought at Wallmart for $15.00 and the lid does not fit
very well, so I put a band of Glad Press'n Seal plastic wrap around the
edge of the lid to prevent the loss of Alcohol while the soap cooks.
After 30 - 40 minutes of cooking time, check
to see if the soap is well dissolved, there will be a layer of foamy
soap on top, spray that down with some alcohol in a spray bottle. Stir
with a clean spoon. Some of it won't want to go back into the solution
and will float on top, do not worry, this is normal, we will address
that a bit later. Prepare your sugar syrup. Heat 4 oz of water to a
boil, turn off the heat, pour in 8 oz of sugar and stir until all the
sugar is dissolve. Turn the heat back on and bring it back to a boil,
then let simmer covered for 1 - 2 min to make sure all the sugar is well
dissolved.
Pour the sugar solution into the soap and
stir. Take a large soup ladle and skim the foamy soap from the top,
put that in a small dish, mash it and scent it, add a little bit of
glycerin to it and pour it in a mold. This time I had 2.9 oz of foamy
soap, it made a nice little hand soap.
Get the cup you put in the freezer before
you began the soap, and pour a little bit of the clear soap stock on it
to test the transparency.
At first the soap sample may look
transparent, but it may not be, put the cup in the freezer for 5 - 10
min and look at it again. If your soap looks milky, it needs more
solvents. That is when making transparent soap can test your patience.
Do not panic at this time and think the soap will go bad if you have to
make more than one test, the soap is perfectly fine on warm setting in
the crock pot, as long as you keep the mixture around 160F, you can take
all night to adjust it if you want, just make sure to spritz some
Alcohol on it and then put the cover on to minimize the loss of Alcohol
in between tests. You may have lost some of the Alcohol during cooking
time so your soap is not transparent yet. (That is what happened to me
this time). We are working from an existing recipe that we know works,
so the solvent requirements should be pretty close to the numbers
provided. In my case, I added .5 oz of Alcohol. My soap was still not
transparent enough, so I added 2 oz of sugar dissolved in 1 oz of water.
Finally, I added 2 oz of glycerin, 1 oz at a time. (For a total of 14
oz of Alcohol, 10 oz of sugar in 5 oz of water and 5 oz of glycerin). I
didn't have to do that the last time I made that soap, that shows that
you may have to adjust recipes, even good ones, because there are a lot
of factors that can influence the final results.
I finally had a clear sample, so it was time
to pour the soap into a jar to let it cool down a little. I poured
through a strainer, to keep any soap flecks or foam out of the final
soap stock.
Cover the jar with some Press'n Seal and
insert a thermometer, let the soap cool to about 140F before you add the
colors and the fragrance.
When your soap has cooled off to 140F, scent
and color it, then pour it into molds. (There will be a skin on top of
the soap, spritz it with a little alcohol and then mix it, it should
dissolve). You may have some foam on top of the soap after you pour it
in the molds, a good spritz of Alcohol should take care of it. (Note: I
pour my soap in my molds through a small strainer, just to make sure)
If you can, put the molds in the freezer, the
faster the cool off, the more transparent the soap, if you do not have
enough space in the freezer, put the molds in the fridge.
After a few hours, check the soap, if it is
hard enough, you can unmold it, take it out of the freezer and wait
about 5 min. before you pop the soap out of the mold. Be careful not to
touch it too much, because at this point, you will leave fingerprints
on it. Let the soap dry and cure for about 2 weeks before you use it,
during those two weeks, it will become harder and even more transparent.
A skin will form on top of the soap, polish it with alcohol and then
wrap in shrink wrap to keep the humidity out.
Note: Home made
transparent soap is different from M&P, if you try to melt it again,
it will loose its transparency, you will have to adjust the solvents
and you may end up with a soft sticky soap. If you absolutely have to
remelt the soap, do it as soon as possible after making it, but be
prepared to add alcohol, glycerin and sugar solution again.
See my experimental transparent soapGo to the Calculation page
http://www.bearchele.com/soap/Tutorial.html
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