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Miller's Homemade Soap Pages: |
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Scroll down for an offering from Jeff Bobeck on how to make clear glycerin soap using 70% ethanol (and we thought it couldn't be done!).
NOTE: If you plan to make clear glycerin soap for sale, you should check the F.D.A. rules about the use of rubbing alcohol in soap... particularly in Canada where soap is handled more like a cosmetic.
This first information was offered by Rachael and posted on the Latherings Soap Forum. She cautions that it takes a bit of practice to do this, but these are the steps and once you get the hang of it, it's rather simple. As a note...if you don't want to purchase liquor or Vodka for such purposes, you can order a stronger alcohol from the pharmacist. I believe what you want is about a 99% solution (regular rubbing alcohol is 70% and not as effective in rendering a clear soap... particularly if it's isopropyl... see Jeff's post below).
For 3 pounds of soap shavings you will need approximately:
-Kathy M.
You guys don't need a book to make clear soap. and you don't need a recipe either. I make the stuff all the time, and I make it from shavings, uneven corners that got trimmed, undersized bars, soap that didn't cure out with a good smell (new scent trials), etc. They don't need to be made of anything particular, aged or unaged, new or old, or soft or hard. You just need clean shaved soap, a covered double boiler or crock pot, really strong alcohol (vodka is good), and glycerin to add to it. You melt the soap down, using half the etoh to start, much like you would do a rebatch using milk. Get it melted COMPLETELY and thin in consistency by adding the rest of the alcohol when it has melted. Add the dissolved 10 oz. of sugar and 6 - 8 oz. of glycerin (for each 3 pounds) and blend. Then you just cook it on this really low, low heat. When you get "strings" or ropey looking ribbons falling off the spoon you are using, and a little dropping off the spoon onto a cold counter hardens up, your done. So then you pour the stuff into a container and melt it the next day ... that draws off the left over moisture from it. It's still got a couple of extra melts in it left over, for messing around with it. I recently wondered if I should start making this stuff in eight pound buckets and selling it to melt-and-pour fiends - the stuff is cheap to make and expensive to buy.
... etoh is the vodka, and rubbing alcohol (70%) works fine too (Ed.note: look for the 99% stuff...Costco has it here), but doesn't give a clear soap, just a rubbery gelatinous soap (glycerin soap) that is cloudy, kind of like frosted glass. The higher alcohol level and the lower the water level in the stuff you use, the clearer the product. The second melt is after you have finished the stuff the first day. You just pull the plug, turn the burner off, and let it sit in the pot, or pan/bowl (or pour it into something to sit until tomorrow) and remelt the whole thing the next day. It takes a whole ten minutes to melt...not too much planning there (like all melt and pour). If it still seems less than clear to you, firm it up, and melt it again. It uses up all the water in it, and the water content is what makes the stuff cloudy looking. A quick note of advice: it's kind of an learned thing, so don't get frustrated if it doesn't work out right away (and don't throw anything out either, just post problems, they are all fixable). I compare everything to cooking ...you have to learn to cook. It just takes some practice to know what you're looking at ... like your first trace in the soap bowl ... did you know what it was right away? I didn't - I stirred that stuff into a solid rock, then decided it looked ready to pour into a mold!
Some elaboration on this technique from Jules on Latherings:
The trick is to make sure that the soap scraps are totally melted down before you add the alcohol and what not...when you make transparent from scratch, you add all of that stuff when the soap is in the middle of its hot gel stage...you need to try to approximate this stage with your scraps.
I've found that larger batches work better in making transparent, both in Rachael's method, and in making it from scratch. Don't be afraid of heat, either...the first time I did it, I was soooooo cautious, using a double boiler and all that - ended up with translucent rubbery glop. Next time I made it, I did it with direct medium-low heat (I did add a teeny bit of water to help the soap melt) and it worked out much better. I don't usually have much in the way of scraps after trimming my soap, so I haven't done it this way in a long long time, but it does eventually work. Just be prepared to lose a batch or two while you're getting the hang of it. Rachael's been doing this for a heckuva long time and it works for her...but even she says that it takes some practice. Most soapers, I believe, don't let it get runny enough for reasonable transparency.
It DOES take practice to get it right, though, and it might actually be easier to do if you've made transparent soap from scratch first!
I much prefer transparent made from scratch, as you can control the colour and clarity much better (you don't superfat transparent soap more than just a teeny cushion, and excess oils make cloudier soap), but transparent made using scraps is great for chunking up and throwing into a batch of fresh cold process.
Here's another great tip from the Latherings Forum! Someone was asking what to do about foam that had formed on the top of their clear glycerin soap after pouring.
You can skim the soap or use rubbing alcohol out of your medicine cabinet and put some in a spray bottle. Spray the layer of foam and if it's fresh it should disappear. Next time, spray the top of your soap as soon as the bubbles appear - as the alcohol evaporates it will leave a smooth clean finish. Did you stir it up a little too much? With Glycerin especially, don't stir it as much as poke it around during melting and very carefully add your dyes and scents - less stirring makes less bubbles is all. The good thing is that your bubbles rose to the top instead of staying in the bars! I hope this helps.
Subject: Clear Soap Using 70% Ethanol (Not Isopropyl)
Hi Kathy,
I thought you might like these instructions, because there are lots of us who live in states where 95% etoh is illegal, but we can find 70% etoh sold as rubbing alcohol. -Jeff
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Here are my recipe and instructions for very transparent soap. It's based on Catherine Failor's method, which assumes that everyone can find grain alcohol, which is 95% ethanol (etoh). I can't, but I do have access to a special rubbing alcohol which contains 70% etoh (and 30% water). That's what you need for this adaptation. Regular rubbing alcohol, which is made of isopropyl alcohol, is no good. It doesn't produce a clear-as-glass soap the way ethanol does, so be sure the label says "70% ethanol". If (WHEN) you find a pharmacy that carries it, it will be with the regular rubbing alcohol.
Failor describes an elaborate setup, requiring you to make a plastic tent to cover the soap pot, with holes in it for your spoon and thermometer, etc. From my own experience, I found that a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid works perfectly well. How well? Failor says the industry standard for clarity is the ability to read 14-point typeface through 1/4 inch of soap. But I can very easily read 8-point through 3/4 inch of my soap, as long as the sides of it are smooth. I'm not bragging here, just stating a fact. It's especially clear when you go to use it. And the color is sort of like ginger ale, but much lighter. Almost colorless, so it takes coloring well.
As you will see below, you have four choices for the first ingredient. 1) Lard + stearic acid, 2) tallow, and 3) palm oil will make good, hard soap. 4) Lard without stearic acid will make the soap a little soft, but it's okay. It's just better with the stearic. One word of warning...you know how when you render tallow, you add a little salt to help take out the impurities? Well, salt is a big no-no in clear soap- it can form cloudy mineral deposits. So, if you're rendering tallow for clear soap, you have to omit the salt.
I had to increase the rubbing alcohol (containing 70% ethanol) to get the same amount of actual etoh that you would get with grain alcohol (95% etoh), and that brings more water into the formula (the remaining 30%). Too much water will decrease the transparency of the soap. So I compensated it by shorting the water for the lye. This presents a SLIGHT problem, as I explain later.
Make soap as you usual way from the first ingredients, down to and including the 5 oz water. If you use stearic acid, don't include it just yet. When the oils are at 145°F and the lye is at 135°F (give or take a few degrees) add the lye to the oils. Let the soap reach a medium trace, and if you are using stearic acid, melt it separately and add it now. It will probably form small lumps, but don't worry about them. Assuming you are using a saucepan for this, cover it and set it into a larger pot of hot water. Leave it there for a couple hours while it goes into a gel phase. If it isn't too solid to be stirred, then stir it up halfway through. This is the slight problem I mentioned earlier. Failor's recipe uses more water in the lye, and the soap stays liquid enough to stir it in the gel phase. Because I had to reduce the water, the soap solidifies, but it's all right in the end. Try mashing it a little with a potato masher.
My batch is one-third the size of Failor's. If you increase the size, then you can probably do without the large pot of hot water. Just wrap the soap pot in blankets to let it get hot.
After two hours, the soap should be as completely saponified as it needs to be. Put a little of it in a glass of water and let it dissolve. If there is a lot of oil on top, leave the soap on the heat for a while longer and then test again.
When the soap is ready, break it up with a potato masher, if it's solid. Add the alcohol and glycerin. Stir it up, break up the soap even more if you can (or have to) and cover it. Try to keep the cover on as much as possible so the alcohol won't evaporate. Set the soap pot back on the hot water and wait for the soap to dissolve. After it does, if you see any large chunks, break them up, but do it quickly.
Eventually there will be nothing but little pieces floating in a skin of soap on top. Scoop this up and throw it out. Or set it aside.
Boil the remaining water and add the sugar to it. When the sugar is COMPLETELY molten, pour this into the soap. If there are still undissolved sugar crystals, they will probably form cloudy spots in the soap, as it cures. Stir, cover and wait for the temp to come down to 140°F - 145°F. When it does, you can now do what you want. It's cool enough for the alcohol not to evaporate, nor to damage your FOs and EOs.
Any plastic molds work great. Milky Way molds, and the kind they sell at North Country, and chocolate molds, for example. I also made molds by taking a small mini-loaf tin, about 4"x2", and, with the tin upside down, wrapped the bottom and sides with tin foil. That way, the foil can be peeled off when the soap is hard. And the soap doesn't react with the aluminum, as cp soap does.
If you do decide to scent and color individual bars, have the FO and dye ready before you pour the soap, because a skin will form very quickly. I did individual bars with different colors so I would have enough variety to make stained glass soap, but you can scent and color the whole batch all at once.
When the soap is cooled down to room temp, you should be able to peel off the tin foil. It's best to put the soap in the fridge. If you used plastic molds, you may have to freeze them to get the soap out. This doesn't hurt the soap at all. The faster the cooldown, the better!
Give the soap about two weeks to dry and become even more transparent and longer-lasting.
COLORS (the food coloring I used is McCormick's. Other brands may be very different.):
Yellow food coloring is great.
Green is as well, but it's very strong, so you may want to mix it with a little alcohol if you are going to color a small amount of soap. Even one drop in a 3-ounce bar will give you a fairly dark green.
Red food coloring is weak and opaque. If you try to achieve a medium shade of red, you'll have to use so much that the soap will lose its transparency.
You're much better off with D&C Red#33, which is strong and clear. It's a dark purple powder. Mix a small amount, using the tip of a knife to measure it, with about a Tbsp or 2 of alcohol. There may be a sediment on the bottom, so you might want to pour the dye off into a small bottle, leaving the sediment behind.
Blue food coloring is awful! Really dull and ugly, and then it fades. FD&C Blue #1 is perfect. Gorgeous medium true-blue (or lighter or darker, depending on how much you use, of course.) It's also a purple powder- handle it the same as the red I mentioned. You can get both of these from Lori the Pigment Lady.
http://members.aol.com/PigmntLady/
Unfortunately, this blue will also fade if you leave the soap exposed to too much light. You can lay something over it, like a sheet of slightly rumpled tin foil, so the air can get at it. But at least it's beautiful and you can keep it that way easily, unlike blue food coloring.
BTW, all FD&C dyes are food grade. D&C dyes are for drugs and cosmetics. Perfectly safe to use, and very economical because you hardly use any at all.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!
-Jeff Bobeck-
Thank you for your generosity in sharing all this, Jeff! If you folks have questions, I have no experience with this! - Kathy M.
This page last updated on 28 November 2000.
If you have any feedback or questions, email me
at kathy@millersoap.com.