When making liquid soap using the soap paste method, you’ll need to dilute it to use it. Learn how simple it is to dilute a liquid soap paste, and how you can customize it during the process.
Over the years, I’ve made many liquid soaps using what is called the liquid soap paste method. In the liquid soap paste method, you make a thick, putty-like, pliable paste that needs to be diluted in water to use as a liquid soap.
On the blog, you can find a recipe for a liquid soap made with coconut oil, a pure Castile liquid soap made with only olive oil, and a combination liquid soap, Dr. Bronner’s copycat recipe.
For help deciding which one to make and more information about making liquid soap, check out my post on how to make a liquid soap (start here).
Benefits of the liquid soap paste method
I choose the liquid soap paste method because it’s easy and comfortable to use. The soap paste doesn’t take up a lot of room and stores very well. To save time, you can make large batches of liquid soap paste and safely store it away compactly for many months, (Or years!) only diluting the amount you’ll use relatively soon.
How to dilute a liquid soap paste
There are several ways to dilute the soap paste, depending on how quickly you need it. It can be as simple as just adding some distilled water to the paste and allowing it to dissolve into the water on its own, or you can speed up the process by using a bit of heat.
Using a slow cooker
A lot of people choose to dilute their liquid soap paste in a crock pot or slow cooker.
This is the method I use to dilute a fresh batch of liquid soap paste as it’s already in the crock pot anyway. I don’t like to dilute all of my paste at once, though, so I take a lot out and store the paste in glass jars with a wide mouth for easy removal later on.
(The more water something has, the more likely it will go bad more quickly, so I prefer to leave most of the soap in its paste form so that it will last.)
When using this method, I’m not very precise in my dilution rates. I usually eyeball the remaining amount of paste and pour in an “equal-ish” (yes, that’s the technical term, I think) amount of hot water. I then stir it all up as best as I can.
It’s important to add hot water if your soap paste and crock pot are still hot from making the soap paste or your crock pot can crack if you add even warm water to the hot paste mixture. (Don’t ask me how I know that.) 😉
You can then turn the crock pot off and leave it alone for several hours, or overnight. If you happen to walk by, consider stirring it to help it dissolve more quickly. In the end, though, if you aren’t in any hurry, just let it do its thing. It will dissolve on its own.
If by the next day the soap paste hasn’t dissolved, you can turn the heat to low for several hours or just let it sit for longer. If you still have big pieces of soap paste, you should probably add in a little more water and can also break them up to help dissolve them more quickly. Eventually, the soap paste will dissolve.
Of course, if you’re in a hurry, turn on the heat and stir the soap paste until it dissolves. It may get foamy at first, but it should clear as the foam goes away.
On the stove
As you can probably imagine, diluting the soap paste over the stove is very similar to the crock pot method. If you are in a hurry, you can cook the soap paste and water over low heat to help dissolve the soap paste. If you’re in less of a hurry, but want to get a head start on dissolving the soap paste, heat the water to almost boiling and then turn the heat off and add the soap paste. Stir it in as best you can and then allow it to rest until it dissolves.
Just as with the crock pot method, you can heat up the mixture again if, after several hours it hasn’t dissolved much and you want to help move things along more quickly. Or, you can just leave it be for as long as it needs.
Leave it alone method
Honestly, this is probably the method I use most. Take some soap paste, pull it apart into relatively small chunks and pour some distilled water over them in a jar. Cover the jar, and leave it alone for several hours/days.
If I happen to be near the soap jar and think about it, I may occasionally give it a shake or stir. Mostly, though, I just leave it alone and forget about it until I need it.
I think it’s impatience that frustrates most people when diluting their soap base, but if you give it enough time, and enough water, it will eventually dissolve on its own. That’s why I start diluting when I see that we are starting to run out of diluted soap, not when we’re already out!
Dilution rates
Many people have asked me how much water they should be adding to their soap paste to get a proper liquid soap. For me, it’s more of a personal preference.
While I don’t normally weigh out the ingredients to follow a particular dilution rate, I normally visually judge how much water and soap paste I’m using. It generally ends up being around 1 part of soap paste to 1-3 parts distilled water.
Thin soap
The more water you add, the thinner the soap will get. Just because your soap is on the thin side, though, doesn’t mean that you don’t have a decent soap. Without thickeners, liquid soap will seem thin, even while still pretty concentrated.
I used to only dilute my liquid soap enough to make it a thick, dense liquid like many commercial soaps. By doing so, though, I decided that I was just wasting a lot of soap.
You know those commercials for dishwashing detergent that try to convince you that their product is so powerful that you’ll use less and save money in the long run?
I always roll my eyes at those commercials because I think, “Even if people could wash their entire load of dishes with one drop of soap, nobody is going to do it!”
We get used to pumping out a certain amount of soap, no matter how thick it is or how cleansing the soap is. So, even if we use a thicker, more concentrated soap, that doesn’t mean we are going to use less of it.
As an experiment, I started diluting my soap quite a bit more, leaving it a thinner consistency, not unlike Dr. Bronner’s soap. I found that we ended up using a lot less overall. We didn’t feel less clean, but were using up the diluted soap at about the same rate as we were using the thicker, more concentrated soap.
Plus, when the weather got colder, my thicker liquid soaps got cloudier and more opaque at higher concentrations! If I wanted my soaps to be more clear and transparent in the winter, I was needing to dilute them further anyway.
When I finally got around to buying a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castile soap, out of curiosity, I was surprised to find that theirs was pretty thin too, despite them stating that it is very concentrated. That showed me that the density of the soap doesn’t necessarily correlate with its concentration or cleaning power.
Dealing with thin soaps
Most commercial soaps use some sort of thickening agent to thicken them. While I’ve read that you can successfully thicken liquid soap with salt, I’ve never been successful at thickening my homemade liquid soaps with salt. (I do use salt to thicken my non-soap homemade laundry detergent.)
Some people use gums and other similar type thickeners to get a thicker soap. (That’s the method I use to thicken my clarifying shampoo.)
For easier usage of a thin liquid soap, I generally use a foaming dispenser rather than try to thicken it. A foaming dispenser will add air to the soap as it’s dispensed, giving a foam that is easy to apply. We also use regular pump dispensers in some areas of the house. While the soap still dispenses on the thinner side, it’s easier to dispense and use a proper amount that way.
Perhaps I’ll start experimenting again with the best ways to thicken liquid soap and will write a post dedicated to the subject.
Second dilution
Most people make one type of soap, dilute their soap to the consistency they like, and that’s that.
I, on the other hand, like to have some concentrated liquid soap ready for mixing and for a second dilution. My concentrated liquid soaps are generally made at a 1:1 concentration of soap paste to distilled water or thicker. (They may have even less water than that.)
Because different oils have different properties in soap making, you can combine several different types of liquid soap to obtain the benefits of each of them. When making bar soaps, you’d have to decide on your concentrations and make the whole batch the same way, but with liquid soaps, you can combine the already made soaps after the fact.
Soaps made with olive oil tend to be conditioning, but they don’t usually give off a lot of lather, and aren’t usually as cleansing as a soap made with coconut oil.
Soaps made with coconut oil tend to be very cleansing and they make a nice bubbly lather, but they can be drying on the skin.
For face and body uses, you could combine them, using more of the olive oil soap. For general cleaning around the house, you could use only coconut oil (or add a bit of olive oil soap if you’re cleaning something delicate like a leather sofa).
I’ve found it’s easiest to have two big jars of thick, yet diluted liquid soaps (one made with only olive oil and one of coconut oil soap) ready for mixing and further dilution.
When it’s time to refill a dispenser, you can fill the dispenser around half full with distilled water (or more or less, despending on how thick you want it), and fill the rest with either of the soaps, or a mixture of both.
Adding fragrances
During the dilution, or second dilution when using that method, it’s the best time to add in any essential oils or fragrance oils.
Liquid soap is great in that it doesn’t need as much fragrance to be noticeable. Many people choose to use essential oils to add fragrances to their soaps in a more natural way, but they are frustrated that they need to add large quantities for the scent to be noticeable.
While you can get away with using much less fragrance in liquid soaps, essential oils and other natural fragrances still last much less time. That’s why it’s best to add the fragrances right before you are going to use them. (In bar soaps, the fragrances have to survive the cure time before you’ll even be able to use your soaps.)
Cloudy liquid soaps
If you find that the soap becomes cloudy when you dilute it, don’t worry too much. It’s generally safe to use, but it’s normally more of a cosmetic issue.
Cloudiness can be due to a number of factors.
One of the most common reasons for cloudy liquid soap is that it has been made or diluted with tap water instead of distilled water. Tap water can include impurities and minerals that can change the appearance of liquid soap.
Depending on the oils used to make the liquid soap, or how many oils were used, a soap can also be more or less cloudy. (Some oils, like jojoba oil, have unsaponifiables that can cause cloudiness in liquid soap.) Most of the time liquid soap isn’t superfatted (or at least not by much) because superfatted liquid soaps can become cloudy or even separate.
The other common problem is that the soap paste may not have finished the saponification process (or may just need to be cooked a bit more). To check for safety, you can do a “zap test”. If the soap passes, you can use iteven if the soap is cloudy.
The zap test
To check for safety of the soap, many soap makers rely on what is called the zap test. To zap test a liquid soap paste, run your wet finger over the surface of the paste and then touch your soap-covered finger to your tongue. If the soap is caustic, it gives a zapping sensation. (This has nothing to do with flavor.)
If the soap doesn’t zap (if you can’t tell, it doesn’t), then it doesn’t have any more active lye, and should be safe to use.
May times, a cloudy liquid soap will clear on its own if allowed to rest for several hours/days. This is called “sequestering” the liquid soap. Often times solids will fall to the bottom or unsaponified oils will float to the top. You can then carefully remove the clear soap from the center if that happens. (Or you can leave it as-is if the cloudiness doesn’t bother you.)
For more information, read my post about troubleshooting liquid soap problems.
Joy Atkisson
This was exactly what I needed! Thank you so much for all the time you put into this. I’m just curious if it label possible to use fractionated coconut oil instead of the regular kind? Or would it have a different chemical reaction?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Joy,
Are you thinking of making the liquid coconut oil soap, and want to use fraccionated coconut oil?
Fraccionated coconut oil has a different saponification value, meaning that it will need a different amount of lye. So, while you can use it in a soap recipe, you’d have to run it through a lye calculator first to make sure you use the right amount of lye.
The other thing to keep in mind is that fraccionated coconut oil tends to be a lot more expensive. That’s the main reason I’ve never considered using it for soap. I think it’s great for body butters and lip balms or something you don’t want to change in consistency depending on the temperature, but I probably wouldn’t use it for soap.
Janelle
Hi! Just made this soap and the olive oil one as well! I made the olive oil a week ago and that paste was quite solid by the end but as I dilute and dissolve, it’s not dissolving clearly. Nor is my coconut oil one. Perhaps I didn’t cook them long enough in the crock pot? I have yet to test the PH but I can say neither burn when using them and they are effective in cleaning- I used southern CA tap water- do you think that was the issue? PH? Water quality? Thoughts? Your jars are beautiful!!! I can’t wait to get it just right <3 Thanks!
Tracy Ariza
Well, if you’re in southern CA, I’m guessing it’s not the weather/temperature!
I do always use distilled water for both making the soap and for diluting. So, yes, any impurities in the water can keep the soap from being fully clear. Actually, a lot of factors can play into it. If you’re using a different KOH than I am, for example- which you almost certainly are, even slight differences in the amount of water in it can lead to a slight difference in the actual amount of active KOH in the recipe. If you have excess oils in your recipe because of that change, your soap can be more on the cloudy and less clear side. (Not a likely explication, but it is possible.)
In any case, the whole idea of making a transparent liquid soap is really all a cosmetic issue. I honestly don’t care if my liquid soap is fully transparent, but it’s a big deal to some people. That’s why I tried to make a recipe that would turn out transparent and clear in most cases without the need to go further and try to neutralize the soap, etc. (I wanted easy and practical, yet pretty at the same time.)
Most liquid soap recipes don’t use glycerin and the final soap paste takes longer to dilute. You’ll find that most of these recipes ask you to “sequester” the soap for up to several weeks to get it to clear up too. I’ve found that most of my batches of liquid soap have dissolved pretty clear right from the beginning. (I’m not sure why, but I’ve been lucky, and I think that’s part of the reason.) That said, I recently made a new batch (it’s going to be a Dr. Bronner’s copycat recipe of sorts here on the blog soon) and I learned a lot from that batch. One of the things that was interesting is that it wasn’t at all clear at first. I was a bit bummed that I wouldn’t be able to take pics of my final soap that showed a nice, clear, transparent soap for those who are looking for that. I set it aside for a few weeks, and when I came back to it? Completely clear. Once the sequestering period had finished, my soap completely cleared itself up! Keep in mind that even shaking up the soap can make it cloudy again.
Anyway- I mostly use my soap in ceramic foaming soap dispensers and places where its transparency (or not) aren’t important, but if the transparency issue is important to you, I’d first wait it out to see what happens when the soap settles. If it doesn’t, we can then chat again and try to troubleshoot for future batches if you want. 🙂
Rest assured, though, that I’m guessing you did everything right and your soap is perfectly safe to use. It’s only a cosmetic issue!
Christine
Hi Tracy! Thanks for your awesome blog posts. I made a liquid soap with a recipe of 60% olive oil and 40% coconut oil. But because of the high percentage of olive oil, I have to add about 32 oz of water per pound of soap paste, so that an oil film doesn’t develop on top of the soap. I add 3-4 oz of glycerin per pound of diluted soap to try to thicken it, but it’s still quite thin. I’m hesitant to use borax to emulsify because of the negative views toward borax. Do you know of any tips to have the soap be thicker or would I just have to come up with a different recipe with less olive oil? Thanks!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Christine,
Hmmm, that’s interesting.
I made a liquid soap with 100% olive oil. Did you see that post about the liquid castile soap from scratch?
I haven’t had any problems with an oil film developing on top, so I’m guessing there was some other issue with the recipe or something else went wrong.
I made a liquid soap recently that was trying to copycat the Dr. Bronner’s baby soap that I bought. I’ll try to post that recipe soon. It’s a pretty nice mix of oils.
I also really like using glycerine when making the liquid soap base because it makes the process go so smoothly, and I think it keeps the soap mild and clear, even when you make an exact recipe (without superfatting or doing a lye deficit). I think it helps make the recipe more “error proof” if that’s possible.
I haven’t done a lot of experimenting with trying to thicken soaps, to be honest. I really like using thin soaps in foaming dispensers, so perhaps you can do that with your current batch of soap. You need a thin soap for those to work right. 🙂
I tried adding salt once as an experiment, I think, but it didn’t work right for me. (I think that was when trying to make a “liquid soap” from a bar soap, though.)
I can keep mine thicker if I want to, so I haven’t really played much around with trying to thicken it after diluting it. Once I saw that Dr. Bronner’s soap was pretty thin, despite being “concentrated,” I guess I felt assured that my soap was fine as is, and never tried to get a thicker liquid soap. Maybe I’ll have to experiment and write a post about it. 🙂
Christine
I’d be interested to know which mix of oils you used to copycat Bronner’s baby soap.
And just curious, which soap calculator do you prefer to use? I’ve tried both Soapcalc and Brambleberry and found them to give very different #s for KOH and H2O. Soapcalc gives a lot lower water amount than Brambleberry.
Tracy Ariza
For my copycat recipe, I used mostly coconut oil, followed by olive oil, jojoba oil, and hemp oil. Those were the oils that were in the particular bottle I had bought, and I followed the order of ingredients to use more of the oils they used more of. It seems that most of their Castile soaps are mainly comprised of coconut oil. (Or at least that’s the oil they use in the highest concentration.)
As for the lye calculator I use…
For liquid soaps I use a different lye calculator than I do for bar soaps. I normally use Soapcalc for bar soaps, but use Summer Bee Meadow for my liquid soaps. That’s because I’ve read in several places that it’s the best calculator to use for liquid soaps. (I can’t remember why, exactly, but I think it’s supposed to be the most precise for modern day KOH weights or something like that.)
That’s why my liquid soaps are normally formulated in ounces, while I usually prefer working in grams. 🙂
In the end, the water amount isn’t really that important. Depending on how long you cook things, more or less will evaporate anyway. Plus, you’ll eventually be dissolving it in more water. That’s the way I see things anyway.
Christine
Ok, great. I’ll make sure to check out the Summer Bee Meadow calc. Thanks for your quick and thorough responses!! Have a great weekend. =)
Tracy Ariza
You’re very welcome! I’m always happy to help whenever I can. 🙂
Have a great weekend too!
Susie B
Hi there..im new here…ive made my shampoo paste…diluted it…can i use it immediately? Clarity test was clear n ph was perfect.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Susie,
Liquid soaps can be used immediately! They don’t need a curing time like bar soaps do because they don’t need hardening and don’t have a crystalline structure.
Melanie Ramos
Hi. Just stumbled upon your blog and I love it! I have been making cp and hp soap since January this year..and I have been thinking of making liquid castile soap since I already make the solid bar version. Since you combine the paste with water, do I have to use preservative for long shelf life and to avoid bacteria contamination? I have access to paraben-free preservatives and I was thinking of using one when I make this. Fyi, I sell soaps, so I am thinking of selling liquid soaps, too. Thank you.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Melanie,
Thanks so much! 🙂
This is sort of a controversial topic. I had always read that the high pH of soap in general made it unnecessary. I had already been using liquid soap without preservatives for years, despite always using it in my other homemade products with water. That said, if you are selling it, I’m sure it would probably be necessary.
I’ve seen some people say that as long as you don’t highly dilute it, you don’t really need a preservative, but if you dilute it for using in a foaming bottle, then you should. I just started using the foaming bottles and investigating this very topic was on my “to do” list for the very near future. 😉
If you find any interesting information, I’d love to hear what you find.
I may have to update this post as I find more information.
Christine
I believe many of the more “natural preservatives” like grapefruit seed extract (not a true preservative) wouldn’t work at such a high pH of 9ish. I know that vitamin E is supposed to help oils from going rancid and increase shelf life..but not necessarily preserve it from bacteria growth, etc. And looking at Dr. Bronner’s ingredient list, it seems they don’t use any true preservative? What are your thoughts?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Christine,
Yes, I’ve pondered this many times lately.
I don’t normally use a preservative when making liquid soap. I had always read in the past that because of the high pH of liquid soap, it wasn’t really necessary. I accepted that as fact, and never thought more about it. When I wrote this post, I had no idea that anybody ever put preservatives in liquid soap.
Since then, though, I’ve read comments from people who say that you must use a preservative in anything with water in it, even liquid soap. Others claim that you can get away with not using a preservative as long as you don’t water the soap down enough to use in a foaming dispenser.
Know what? I’ve been using watered down homemade liquid soaps in foam dispensers for years. It definitely doesn’t appear to go bad in any way.
Of course, that goes back to the argument that you can’t see bacteria forming in homemade cosmetics, so you should use preservatives in homemade lotions, for example, rather than just go by when it starts to look like it’s going bad. (I do use natural preservatives in my homemade lotion, homemade conditioner, etc.)
Even the natural preservatives that are actually considered preservatives, like Rokonsal and Leucidal, work best in a limited pH range (I think Leucidal is around 3-8 off the top of my head).
My thought- I still continue to make liquid soap without a preservative as I’m sure many people have been doing for years. I think you are right about Dr. Bronners not using them either. If I were looking into selling my soap, then I’d probably look into having the soaps tested after months of being diluted to see what, if anything, actually can grow in liquid soap. For home use, though, I haven’t really changed my thought on this. I will say that I have studied the issue this summer, and was debating whether or not to update this post with a discussion about preservatives, but for now it stands as is. 😉
Perhaps sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Christine
I don’t really understand the science behind why a higher pH (around 9) wouldn’t require a preservative. Hm..
It may be due to the fact that in making liquid soap, you’re not really superfatting..so there’s not extra oils around that could go rancid.
When you dilute your soap for foaming hand wash, are you using distilled water or tap water? Using distilled water may also help since tap water may have bacteria and other organisms.
Of course, storing the product in a cool place away from sunlight may also help in shelf life.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Christine,
Well, high or low pH can make something inhabitable for bacteria. That’s why so many deodorants use either baking soda or lemon juice or vinegar. The extremely high (or low) pH make it harder for bacteria to grow, and that’s what helps prevent you from getting body odor. I talk a little bit about that in my recipe for a homemade deodorant. While both vinegar and baking soda (separately, of course) worked as effective deodorants for me, they were highly irritating to my skin after using them for awhile. I eventually found something that worked better for me.
I do also use distilled water when I dilute my soap paste. I pretty much always use it whenever I make an non-food recipe. 😉
Melanie Ramos
Thank you, Tracy, for the reply! I do apologize for the late comment. I am still doing my research on using preservatives in liquid soap. Yes, there are articles and recommendations saying that you don’t need to use preservatives in liquid soap because of the high ph. I do have ph test strips, but again, some say that those are not even accurate. I read and follow a blog/ger who does not use preservatives in her liquid soap. She recommends 1:6 ratio (soap paste to water) in diluting. I do advocate clean skin care products and I want to do create preservative-free bath essentials. However, I am at a loss as to the “safety” of diluted liquid soap. I also read that Saliguard EHGP, Liquid Leucidal, Liquid Germall Plus are preferred preservatives for liquid soap. Any thoughts on these preservatives?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Melanie,
I also use test strips, but I agree that they probably aren’t very accurate when it comes to checking the pH of soap. (Although they do give a good general idea, especially for liquid soaps.)
I use Leucidal a lot (and really like it), but can’t imagine it would be a good preservative for liquid soap. My bottle says that the optimum pH range for it is 3-8, and it loses effectiveness over pH of 8. I’m pretty sure most, of not all, soap is going to be above a pH of 8. So, I think anybody who uses it for liquid soap preserving is really just wasting their money.
I’d have to look into the other 2. I’ve heard good things about Germall Plus, but it’s not something readily available in my “natural” shops where I usually shop online. I’d have to look into it more.
If you figure anything out, I’d love to hear it! 🙂
Haidee
I have a question about the glycerine in the recipes… I haven’t seen glycerine as an ingredient in other liquid castile soap recipes and so I wondered about it’s inclusion in your recipes. What does it do?
Some of the forums I’ve read say that glycerine is a byproduct of making soap and that it doesn’t serve any purpose to add it. Other recipes call for a tsp to be added when mixing up the final product to make a body wash for example.
I’m a novice soap make and a bit confused, so I hope you’ll be able to give me some clarity 🙂
I’m really looking forward to mixing up a batch of both the olive and coconut oil soaps.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Haidee,
I added the glycerine because it’s meant to move the process along much more quickly, making the recipe a bit easier and quicker.
Yes, you can definitely use just water instead, and it isn’t really “necessary.”
My aim was to try to make things as easy as possible for people who are trying to make liquid soap for the first time.
I hope that clears things up a bit. 🙂
Chesca
thank you! love your detailed instructions been thinking about making castile liquid body wash for awhile. i used to make the castile soap bars but didnt have the zeal to wait for the bars to harden (although by now in the time i procrastinated i could have made dozens by now lol). this is a GREAT and FAST way to accomplish the same thing. and now i can get rid of the last bar of irish spring soap sitting in the shower stall! blessings, chesca
Tracy Ariza
Ha, yes, Chesca, I understand your impatience. When I first started making soap, I was the same way. Once you have a few bars made, you get over the having to wait, unless you’ve just whipped up something new and different that you really want to try. In any case, you don’t have to wait for weeks to use your soap. After a couple of days the saponification has already taken place, so you can use it pretty much right away (and immediately in the case of hot process soap, where you heat the soap throughout the process). The only problem is that you tend to use it really quickly because the bar hasn’t hardened yet, and it probably won’t have the same amount of lather, etc. Soap tends to get better with time (up to a certain point, of course). You could also take some homemade bar soap and dissolve it in water to make a bar soap “liquid soap.” That said, I’ve done that with the bits and pieces of soap that get cut off from the bars when I’m trying to square them up to make them look pretty, and don’t like it very much. Liquid soap made from a liquid soap paste is much nicer, in my opinion.
Good luck with it! 🙂
Kelly
Hi, if you want to add some essential oil to scent your liquid castile soap or coconut oil soap (or combination), at what point would you add the essential oil? And could you possibly give a rough idea of how much to add? Thank you – can’t wait to try your liquid soap recipes!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Kelly,
I add in the essential oil right when I’m combining them. You can probably tell from the post that I’m not to picky about measuring anything out, and I just eyeball things. I normally dilute by adding half of the bottle filled with my already slightly diluted soap, and fill the most of the rest of the bottle with water. I then mix it up and see if I like the texture. At that point, things are usually cloudy regardless of the temperature outside, but I can get a feel if it seems too thick or too liquid, in which case I fill the last bit of the bottle with either more soap or more water.
Once I have a decent consistency, I add in the oils. I start with a few drops, mix it in, and see if I like the scent. I don’t add a lot because my son has sensitive skin with atopic dermatitis, but complains if it doesn’t smell like anything at all.
If I think it needs more, I add a few more drops in. The amount of scent is so personal, and it depends a lot on whichever oil you use, that I haven’t ever even tried to measure it out.
I know my process sounds sort of long and tedious, but it took me a lot longer to write out my process than it actually takes me to do that. 🙂
It’s really just a quick shake here and there, and eyeballing things.
Oh, and I’ve found lately, that a big syringe really helps to get the soaps into new bottles without making a lot of mess!
GB
It’s wonderful being able to use natural soaps made at home! I tried your recipe for castile soap and loved it! But I am still figuring out how to dilute it correctly to get the beautiful clear look. I either get too runny or just lumpy. Could you please give exact measures to diluting soap?
Thanks!
Tracy Ariza
I was having internet problems today, so I couldn’t post my post for adjusting the pH. It’s my priority for tomorrow. I just need to upload the pics and hit publish!
I really doubt your problem is the amount of dilution. I think it is more likely a problem with the ambient temperature or perhaps it could be pH related.
It’s gotten a lot colder here in the last 2 days, and now all of my homemade soaps, including the clear looking ones in the pictures, have become cloudy. I’m now using a couple of batches I made last fall, that I sort of abandoned over last winter, thinking my soap wasn’t clear anymore until it cleared up again in the spring when the weather warmed up. The soap should still work quite well, even when cloudy, but yes, I understand the frustration as I’ve suffered it myself. Is it possible that your problem is temperature related? (Maybe you could try placing it in a warm area for several hours to see if it clears up?)
As for the pH…
I purposely calculated the soap to be very close to using up all of the lye exactly so that people wouldn’t have to adjust the pH to use it for body soap. A lot of people use more lye than what is necessary in the recipes and then lower the pH later with a borax solution because it’s easier to get a clear soap that way. It could be that your KOH was slightly different than mine. (They can have different amounts of water.) Even that may be enough to have thrown the balance closer to a more neutral, but also cloudier, bar of soap.
It may also just need a bit of time.
I’ve been making soaps for years now, but I’m still new to liquid soaps. I’ve made a few batches over the course of the last year because I wanted to have a bit more experience before posting it on the blog, but I have to admit that this is still new terrain for me. I can only make guesses based on what I’ve seen in my own soap.
Moe
HI Tracy,
Thank you for your the great instructions. I’m one of those wannabe soap makers and have been trying soap making for about a year now and fall under the no patients category, but have been getting better.
I will be trying this out soon and have one question when it comes to diluting the paste. I don’t want to add too much water so could you kinda of give me a sense of how much water, paste ratio. Let’s say 1/4 cup past to 3 cups water?
Thanks so much!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Moe,
It really depends on the recipe you are using. They say to add more water to olive oil based soaps because they need to be more liquid to avoid having them congeal. In the end, though, I probably add around the same to either of my main soap pastes.
I personally start out with a 1:1 ratio to dissolve it for my easier diluting batch.
Then, I start out by diluting 1:1 again. So, I guess I really end up with 1 part soap paste to 3 parts distilled water- and I adjust from there as needed.
I like to make the first dilution, as I said before, to make for easy mixing of my soaps, but I think it’s also easier for further diluting. You can always add more water, but it’s more of a pain to try to dissolve off too much water. Make sense?
Moe
Makes perfect sense and thank you! I’m going to give it a go, can’t wait! Will let you know how it goes.
Thanks again for the great tutorial.
Gail
How do you check the ph in liquid soap? Thank You in advance!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Gail,
You have to dilute the soap in distilled water, and test that water with pH strips (inexpensive), a pH meter, or something else that helps monitor pH (I’ve seen people use red cabbage even. You can see how the pH of red cabbage changes in my post about it here.). I’m working on a post about it right now. It’s mostly finished, but I was having issues with my blog being down several times this week, and have dedicated all of my free time to try to fix that and optimize the blog. It should go live next week.
Sanal
Please let me know how to make thick liquid soap.
Tracy Ariza
Hello Sanal,
You can thicken liquid soap with a salt solution if you like. You would dissolve the salt in water and slowly add the salt solution to your soap, stirring constantly until it thickens. I wouldn’t try to make it any thicker than honey as if you go too far, you end up getting something very difficult to use. You can also go so far as to break down the soap. IT would become opaque and would then give a curdled look to it.