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.
NADINE
Hi, I love your liquid soap recipe!!! It is so very effective to remove stains and grease!!
I was wondering when you are going to post the Dr. Bronner’s copycat recipe?
Thanks
Nadine
Tracy Ariza
Hi Nadine,
I have a Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap recipe up already. Also, my laundry detergent recipe is basically a copycat of their Sal Suds. ?
SALIM
Hi Tracy Ariza I’m very happy to know your location how much virgin coconut oil is in potassium hydroxide
And do you have a recipe for hair shampoo from natural oil
Tracy Ariza, DDS
I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the first question.
I don’t use soap based “shampoos” on my hair. I do have a shampoo recipe, though.
Jo
Hi I’m very new to soap making I’ve made 1 batch of bar soap successfully now trying liquid soap after waiting hours and hours for it to cook and leaving it over night i have a very dark brown liquid and a white scum on the surface… I seperated the 2 and put the scum back in the pot with more water in the hope it will disolve further. My clearer dark soap has started to congeal is thus normal ? Shall I dilute it further ?
Thanks Jo
Tracy Ariza
Hi Jo,
Having a liquid doesn’t sound at all right to me. It should solidify into more of a paste/putty.
What recipe did you follow?
Renee
Hi, I love your post.
I have a question I have some soap paste that I want to dilute and scent for the holidays. when do I include my scent. I plan to use different scents.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Renee,
If you’re wanting to use different scents, I’d dilute a big batch, and then just scent each bottle individually with whatever scent you’d like. I don’t really bother measuring, to be honest. I just use my nose as a guide. 😉
Amy Cruz
Hello:) I’m having the hardest time finding a recipe that gives me a transparent soap. Is there an additive that will make this happen? Will it eventually become transparent by sitting for awhile ? Thank you
Tracy Ariza
Hi Amy,
My recipes have all come out transparent- take a look at the photos. Is that what you are looking for?
Do you want the soap to be colorless?
Coconut oil gives a liquid soap soap that is lighter in color, but it isn’t completely colorless either. It is transparent, though.
To get a soap to be transparent, you don’t want excess oils in your soap. You can superfat bar soaps to make them more conditioning, but if you want your liquid soap to be transparent, you can’t really do that. If you try to lower the pH too much, that can also make a liquid soap fall apart and get cloudy.
Ufuoma Ogbe
Hi Tracy
I am in a mess, my liquid soap has stayed for ten hours now and it is not mixing properly, can I use hot water to mix it?
Tracy Ariza
Hello,
Yes, you can definitely speed things along with hot water. It will really depend on your liquid soap paste and which recipe you used to make it. I find that recipes made with glycerin tend to dissolve into the water quite easily without needing hot water or doing much movement. Some soap pastes are more difficult to dilute, though, and using hot water and gently mixing can help the process along! 🙂
Kofi
Hi Tracy! Hello from chilly Melbourne, Australia! Thank you for your bar and liquid soap recipes – I love them! What ratio of coconut oil and castille liquid soap would you recommend for DIY shampoo? I’ve tried 20% coconut and 80% castille but it leaves my hair greasy but I don’t want to dry it out. I’ve also added xanthan gum as a thickener to make it easier to dispense.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Kofi,
I wish I could be more helpful, but washing hair with soap isn’t my specialty because my fine, curly hair doesn’t react well to the high pH of soap. I’ve been working on developing a shampoo recipe with natural surfactant blends- and am also working on a co-wash type shampoo for sharing on the blog soon. Unfortunately, I doubt I’ll be working on developing a soap based shampoo because they just don’t work well for me. (I may have somebody do a guest post for a shampoo bar, though. I know many people very successfully use soap based shampoos.)
If I were to guess, though, perhaps you could raise the amount of coconut oil, but add another oil that may be more conditioning to help balance things out. (Avocado oil, maybe?) I think that people normally try to lower the pH of shampoo bars a bit too because the high pH is one of the things that seems to affect the hair negatively.
I wish I could be more helpful!
ANNA
Hello Tracy;
I’m ANNA.
I’m glad I found your web, site I find your recipes very interesting and informative. I’m somewhat new at this DIY stuff, but the one thing that I am absolutely paranoid about are preservatives. I don’t want to get sick or make anyone else ill by making a product that is not preserved properly.
My questions are:
1) Why is no preservative needed when we’re adding water to the soap paste?
2) cCan I add a preservative if I want to something like Liquid Germall Plus, Optiphen or phenonip?
Thank you so very much for taking the time to respond
Tracy Ariza
Hi Anna,
That’s a great question, and something I really need to update the post with.
I’ve since asked a lot of questions in a cosmetic formulators group, and this is what I was told about preservatives and liquid soap.
Liquid soap doesn’t generally need a preservative because the pH of liquid soap is generally quite high.
Normally products with water in them do need a preservative, but you can generally get away without using one if the product has an extreme pH (below 4 or above 9). In fact, it should keep that way for up to a year, which is actually longer than with a lot of the more natural preservatives that are often said to be good for 2-3 months.
There are probably exceptions, such as when you start adding problematic botanicals to your mixture. Honey, milks, fruits, and even aloe juice can make it much harder to preserve a product. I’d probably avoid mixing those sort of things with your soap just to play it safe because you aren’t likely able to test the products you make for microbes if you’re only doing DIY at home.
Could you add a preservative? Well, yes, but you’d have to make sure that whatever preservative you are going to add is even effective at the pH of your soap. Most of the preservatives that I use are most effective up to a pH of 8, and my soaps are normally higher than that, so it wouldn’t help much anyway. I’d have to specifically check into the ones you’ve mentioned as I haven’t tried them yet myself.
ANNA
Thank you so so much for your rapid response, it’is extremely informative.
I’ve been shopping for a PH tester & debating whether where not to purchase one.( there’s a ton of them out there & some can be pretty pricey) however the information you have given me confirms it’s an essential piece of equipment I need to have. Not only with this project but for many other projects I do going forward, so I’ll just have to narrow it down.
I’m learning more & more each day, thanks to professionals like you who are willing to share your knowledge with others
Thanks again Tracy
Tracy Ariza
You’re so welcome, Anna!
I hope it goes well for you!
Nancy
Aloha, first of all, thanks for the detailed recipes, can’t wait for the rest of my supplies to arrive this week. I remember reading about the paste going bad if too much water is added (liquid soap) so my question is storage of the soap paste. Should I keep the jar in the fridge, under the sink? How long does the paste last?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Nancy,
OMG- are you in Hawaii?!?!? I’m so jealous. It’s freezing here this week! I went on a Hawaiian cruise for my honeymoon and fell in love. We keep saying we need to go back soon!
To answer your questions… 😉
I’ve only had one batch of soap paste go bad- and I think it was because of the storage container I used! I had the paste in what I thought was a stainless steel tin. I knew that many metals react with soap, but stainless steel is supposed to be OK with it. Heck, I use stainless steel dispensers for my soap quite often without issues. I’m guessing it was just a poorly made container (which may or may not have been stainless steel- as it had various rusty areas when cleaned out), and the metal reacted with my soap paste, turning it into a milky looking somewhat odd smelling substance that I eventually threw out.
I purposely have kept small amounts of soap paste from my first batches several years ago (despite having made more since) as sort of an experiment, and they look just fine still. The soap paste itself is quite dry (sort of like silly putty) and doesn’t have much water in it at all. It keeps very well.
If you’d like to do what I do- and have large jars of partially diluted soap paste, even those seem to last months and months without any issues. I do use distilled water to dilute my soaps just to keep the possibility of microbial contamination or any reactions with anything in the water to a minimum.
I’ve also since talked to a professional cosmetic developer (since I wrote this article) because I kept getting so many questions about how to preserve liquid soap. The answer I got was that liquid soap doesn’t need preservatives because of its high pH. According to her, aqueous products with a pH of 9 or above can be kept without preservatives for up to a year. So, if people are having issues with diluted soap going bad quickly, I’d have to guess there are other issues going on. Stick with distilled water, and stay away from metal containers, and my guess is that you’ll be fine. (And, no, I’ve never kept mine in the fridge.) 🙂
I hope that helps!
Renee
Thanks for your wonderfully, detailed instructions on making liquid soap! I was wondering what dilution would you recommend if I wanted to make a body wash with a combo of the coconut and castile soap pastes?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Renee,
And Happy New Year!
The dilution itself is really more of a matter of preference. If you want it to be thicker, you can start out with a 1:1 mix of water and paste. Once it’s diluted to that point, adding more water should be simple because you already have a liquid to work with. So, you’d just keep adding water until you are happy with it.
I keep mine pretty thin and diluted- maybe 3 parts water to 1 part soap paste, because I feel like everybody in my house uses a lot of soap at once, and a lot of it is just going down the drain. If everyone were to use smaller amounts, I’d probably keep it a bit more concentrated. It is really just a matter of preference, though. Either way, it’s still pretty concentrated.
As for the combination of the different pastes…I used to always do a 50%/50% combo of Castile and coconut soaps for the shower. To be honest, though, lately I mostly only make the coconut oil paste anymore. It’s my favorite, and it seems mild enough for the shower too. I see a huge difference in bar soaps when it comes to coconut oil and olive oil, but I have to admit that with liquid soaps, I don’t notice that much of a difference. I bought a huge vat of coconut oil for pretty cheap a few months back, so I’ve been making all sorts of soaps and other things with it so as not to have it go to waste. 😉
Renee
Thanks so much for your quick reply (and Happy New Year to you as well!) I will definitely take your advice in how to dilute the pastes. I never was able to get either paste to dissolve totally clear even after letting them cook for close to 6 hours in my slow cooker, but I’d venture to say it was my filtered water purity in question (will use distilled water next time perhaps!) Are bubble baths possible to mix up using these two pastes as well? Thanks again…I’m so thankful to have you as a invaluable resource!
Tracy Ariza
Hi Renee,
Well, bubble bath is normally made of surfactants, not soap. They usually use surfactants that will give off lots of bubbles. If you’re looking for lots of bubbles using soap, I’d probably stick with and try the one made with coconut oil. Soaps using just olive oil aren’t normally very bubbly. Even then, though, I’m not sure how much it will be like bubble bath.
I just started taking a course in natural surfactants, and as I start to learn more, may be able to come up with some fun new posts for the blog- for more natural shampoos and bubble baths and the like.
As for the clearness- yes, the water can make a difference. I have a pretty good water filter and I still use distilled water when making soap. The time of year can also make a huge difference- if it’s cold where you are, your soap may be cloudy and then turn clear as things warm up again. I’ve had that happen too!
If you’re still having issues with cloudiness, you could use more lye- having a lye excess in your soap- which you would later need to neutralize. Some people prefer to do things that way. I personally prefer to have a slightly cloudy soap at times than to deal with using citric acid or borax to make the soap less alkaline, but it is definitely an option.
Tracy Ariza
Oh, and you are very welcome! I’m always happy to help! 😉
Nancy
Hi Tracy quick question can I use vinegar to neutralized the soap when diluting.Thank for great info appreciate it.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Nancy,
I’ve never tried it. I guess that isn’t surprising considering I don’t normally bother with making the soap with excess lye so I don’t normally bother with neutralizing soap anyway. I don’t normally care so much if my soap is completely clear. That said, I suspect that vinegar isn’t normally used because most vinegars probably aren’t potent enough to do so without using large amounts, which would greatly increase the amount of liquid. Most vinegars would probably cloud up the soap (with the exception of a clear, white vinegar perhaps), which sort of would defeat the purpose of making the soap with excess lye in the first place.
I suppose if you were to try it, I’d probably not dilute the soap too much, and would try it out with small amounts.
I’d love to hear how it goes if you do try it.
Robert Goodman
The only way to make a bath sudsy with actual soap soap is to use enough to react with all the “hardness” minerals in the water (which can be an impracticably large amount in a bathtubful of unsoftened water), plus some to disperse the curds that reaction makes, and them some more to make bubbles. Although people have done this (usually with soap powder or flakes rather than liquid), whether the water started out “soft” or “hard”, it makes the bath as soapy as wash water and is therefore rather grease cutting. Unlike conventional bubble bathing, you won’t need additional soap to wash with, but it’ll be a bit harsh.
The surfactants in conventional bubble baths don’t react much with “hardness” minerals, and they foam at lower concentrations than would be needed to cut grease.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your comment.
That makes a lot of sense. Yes, I’ve found that soap is affected more by the “hardeness” of water than surfactants as you have mentioned.
We used to use soap in the bath a lot, and my son did get some bubbles on top, or at least at first, but they weren’t very stable suds.
I’ve recently started working with surfactants and will likely try to elaborate a recipe for bubble bath eventually. We usually only do bath time in the summer, though, as the house is quite cold here in the winter, so it may be a while before we give it a try. 🙂
Robert Goodman
Borax is an alkali. It does not make soap less alkaline. People sometimes measure the pH of a concentrated soap solution, add borax, and get a lower reading, but it’s a false one. pH is difficult to measure in concentrated solutions; a better measure in such cases would be total alkalinity, which you’d determine by titration.
You can neutralize soap or other alkali with boric acid, but not with borax.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Robert,
Again, I’d like to reiterate that we aren’t trying to actually “neutralize” the soap and get it to a neutral pH because soap would break down at a pH of 7. We’re only trying to bring down an extreme pH slightly. Borax has a pH of around 9.3, which would bring down the pH of a liquid soap that has been left in a lye excess (which could be in the 10-11 range). Well, that’s the theory, at least, from what I understand from my readings, but admittedly without experience in the matter.
I still have never tried it personally, and probably never will. I’m just mentioning what seems to be the most common practice. Whether or not it’s really effective, I guess I can’t say for sure. I prefer to not use a lye excess for my liquid soaps, and prefer not to work with either borax or boric acid. 😉
I also don’t really care if my soap turns out perfectly transparent, although it usually is.
Robert
It’s possible to make enormous amounts of foam from potassium-coconut soap to play in, as this guy does — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBVTHC_I-Tc&t=8s — but the trick is to not use a BATH, but rather just a small amount of water and large amount of air. The trouble is that after playing in that you will NEED a bath — preferably a shower — to rinse immediately to prevent itching from the coconut lather. The surfactants used in most foam party solutions for foam machines make suds with much less “soapiness” and can be danced in by most people for long periods without needing a rinse — although if you’re wearing clothes that soak up enough of it, you’d better remove them immediately afterward, because the surfactants will concentrate as the clothes dry against your skin. These affairs really should be done naked.
If you can get STRIPPED coconut oil to make soap from, that would reduce its irritancy without reducing its sudsiness or grease cutting ability in fresh water. “Stripped” means stripped of its short fatty chains that are pretty useless in soap, except in salt water, but that are responsible for much of the skin irritancy of coconut soap. (This is the OPPOSITE of “fractionated” coconut oil — FCO — wherein the LONG fatty chains are taken out for nutritional reasons.) Babassu oil has less of the short, irritating chains than does coconut, but is more expensive. The grease cutting nature of such soaps means the resulting soap will still defat and tend to lead toward dryness of skin — not a problem for everyone — but won’t produce the quick sting that the short chain soaps will commonly produce.
Tracy Ariza
Oh fun!
I somehow missed this comment before.
My son loves the foam parties that they throw at a nearby water park. We try to go several times per summer.
I get a feeling that they normally use other surfactants, though, and not soap?!?!
Maybe I’m wrong.
It’s a fun concept in any case. ?
Robert Goodman
Replying to Aug. 3, 2019 comment: Yes, the person whose YouTubes I linked to is one of only two I know of using real soap for foam dancing. The other is Dr. Bronner’s, who have been taking around various apparatus to outdoor music festivals for years, as much to clean off in a group shower as for the lulz.
Conventionally only soapless surfactant mixtures are used for foam parties. I had my own bubble bath mixture tried out for foam parties, turned out to be very good in that use.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
That’s so interesting!
Yes, I find that my soap makes more bubbles (especially coconut oil soap) than most of the surfactants I have at home. That said, I tend to work mostly with “natural” surfactants that are on the milder side. Some of the anionics do get quite bubbly, though (but there are few good natural anionic surfactants other than soap). 😉
Sheila
Do you also make your laudry détergent soap?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Sheila,
Yes, I usually make the solid coconut oil soap and grate it. That said, I also grate up old bars of soap I don’t want to use anymore- and often use up old liquid soap too. I use them in both the washing machine and my dishwasher. Some advise against it, but I haven’t had any problems using homemade soaps in either place. 😉