Liquid “castile” soap – results!

· by · in Tutorial. ·

Okay! So its been about 24 hours since I started my batch yesterday, and its been dissolving since roughly 6pm last night. Some chunks remained this morning- no biggie, just strain them out, put them in a smaller container, and pour enough boiled distilled water over the top of the chunks to continue the process.

Your soap will vary in color slightly but should be a golden brown… thats NORMAL and APPROPRIATE for real hand made liquid soap. There are formulas you can use to make a clear soap, but I am more concerned with quality than appearance.

Now that our soap is done we have some options to exercise.

You can add some glycerin or hydrovance to give your liquid soap an even more hydrating quality. I recommend you take about a cup of soap out of the container, microwave it for about 45 seconds until warm, mix in your hydrovance (or glycerin) and then mix that back into the whole batch. (about .75oz pp depending on how thin or thick your soap is. This is a learning curve, so test a small batch first.)

Add color and/or fragrance. I prefer my soaps their natural color, but color can be easily incorporated. Fragrance as well is a great idea. Some fragrances might cloud your soap, so testing is needed… but I tend to stick with the basics… essential oils. Be sure to check with your supplier for usage percentages.

Just have fun with it! Give yourself a wash.. see how you feel. Is it too drying? Experiement with adding those moisture enhancers I mentioned. Is it too thick? dilute a bit more. Too thin? Add some crothix!

Remember that if you intend to give or sell this soap you need to let it cure a full 4-6 weeks, but it is safe to use and test personally right away. Let the soap cure, I promise you will be happy with the results.

Check out bottle options at Majestic Mountain Sage, they have some of the best prices on bottles I have found. I personally really love the 8oz Boston Rounds with a pump top for liquid soap.

28 responses to “Liquid “castile” soap – results!”

  1. Pingback: Liquid “Castile” Soap Tutorial « Silver Firs Farm·

  2. hi there, I watched youtube clip on making your own castile soap….I only found out about castile soap minutes ago. I want to make it to use as an ingredient to make my own dish soap and laundry soap. I’m an australian and had never heard of this soap and have no idea where to buy it so I’d love to make it. Although I’m yet to make my own soap I have done alot of research and intend to start making my own cold process soap shortly and feel very confident about.

    If you could provide me with the recipe for your liquid castile I would be very thankful.

    I appreciate your time,
    chantelle colyer.

      • Hi when you make your liquid soap do you supper fat it with lye discount? I just finished making and diluting Castile liquid soap but it seem to be very drying, it turned out great other wise do you think if I let it sit and cure it will feel better and not be so drying?

      • Hi Anna! I allow it to sit 4-6 weeks, you can add products to it like hydrovance which enhance the hydration of the soap, you can superfat it post curing as well, I make the batch with a 5% superfat initially as well. The oils you use also make a difference. If its a recipe I’m using for home/body wash I use the most hydrating oils possible, oils with lots of Linoleic Acid and Ricinoleic Acid! Hope that helps.

  3. Great tutorial. I have been making cp for quite awhile now, but I want to give this a try. I’ve never made liquid soap before. What kind of coconut oil do you use? The stuff that is solid at room temp. or the stuff that is liquid at room temp? Thank you for all the great info.

    • Hi Sarah, hope you have fun with it! I use 76* coconut, I think just about any coconut would be fine as long as you re-run it through soap calc, although coconut oil fractions I wouldnt reccomend 🙂 -Kristin

  4. HI,
    This is a great tutorial. I’m new to soapmaking, but I am learning so much from great blogging soapmakers like yourself.
    If the soap is left in its undiluted state, after it turns translucent, is it still useable? Could it be coloured at this stage and molded?
    Cheers
    Thanks
    Joey

    • Hi Joey, no I dont know that it would ever form a hard bar of soap even if left undiluted, but I have heard of some soap makers who dilute on demand, aka keep the paste in a well sealed container and dilute as needed.. I’ve personally never tried that though. Because this uses KOH, instead of Sodium Hydroxide, it wont function as a typical bar of soap- but you could use this same method of crock pot cooking to make a batch of sbar/molded soap 🙂
      -Kristin

    • Hello! I add in fragrance after its dissolved. You can scent to order, if you wish. I cure it in the bottles, in a cool shady spot (closet for me). I dont add color, but you could add it any time.

  6. Hi! I like the tutorial and was wondering if this was a good recipe for making milk bubble bath? Also, when adding coloring, does the golden color of the liquid affect the final color I want to achieve?

    • Hello, it can, but it depends on your hair type- some people find it a bit too heavy, or conditioning for their liking. Olive oil tends to weigh hair down a bit, but its very good for it!

  10. This really is a great tutorial. I’m confused though. You said that the soap is safe to use right away, once it melts completely. But you also said that if we’re going to give it away or sell it we should let it cure for an entire 4 weeks. Which is correct, and why? How does it get better with time and age if it’s okay and safe to use it right away?

  11. Okay this may be a silly question but its bugging me. I have a Kitchenaid Slow cooker which has several settings Low,High,Simmer,Keep warm
    would Simmer be considered Medium heat?

  12. Hi! I just made this! However, It is now sitting in the bucket, and seems a little ‘cloudy’. I cooked it for over 5 hours, and did the ‘translucent’ test. But its ‘milkly’ now. Is this OK? Can I do anything?

    Thanks so much for such a great tutorial! 🙂

  13. Thank you for this great recipe. I just finished making my first batch and it came out great. Easy to follow recipe which was the best that I’ve seen so far.
    I do have a question though, you mentioned we can add glycerin to the soap. I love how it feels on my skin so I want to add it but how much would I add if I followed your exact recipe?
    Thank you for you help.

  14. Best tutorial! I am so glad I found your website 🙂 I only have one question though. How long is the shelf life after the curing period? Thank you!!!

    • Indefinitely as far as I know! It never lasts long around here (I use it for general cleaning, laundry, so on…) but it wont “spoil” for those purposes. For body use, I’d say a year.

  15. Hi,
    Thanks so much for this tutorial, I have been making cp soap for over 4years now, I recently ventured into making liquid soap just for the fun of it, I don’t know if this is me, but I have tried a recipe from the Failor book using the paste method, diluting and neutralizing with citric acid which came out clear and beautiful. I woke up two days later to see that the liquid has turned cloudy(milky), I noticed it turns cloudy when the temperature dropped (as in when its cold and clear again when warm). This made me think maybe I over neutralized the soap, so I tried another recipe with 3% superfat just to cut out the neutralization process and I still have the same experience.
    My question is, have you had such experience and if yes what is the cause and how did you remedy it?
    I need your kind advice please.

    Thanks
    Jen

  16. Thank you for the recipe! I have a question about the adding more water to the solids part. You have a specific recipe. So, if I had to add more water to my solids, am I not making the recipe too watery? Is there a limit to the amount of water to add?

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