Foam boosters in CP soap

NATURAL POST #1:

Alternatives to surfactants in CP soap

In the previous post, I talked about CDEA as a foam booster for CP soap.

I expect some people would be skeptical about it as handmade soaps

are typically promoted to be the natural side of soaps. So, here

is a post I made to give natural alternatives to

surfactants as foam boosters.

First of all, why do we want to add foam boosters to our soap?

Okay, soap makers. Admit it. Not all CP soaps lather much that is why we put

surfactants to promote the lather. So here are natural alternatives

to it:

1. Castor oil 

Let me rate this to you in a scale of 1 - 10 (with 10 being the highest) to be 5.

5, because Castor oil doesn't give that big fluffy lather we want

like CDEA offers but the lather is really stable. Meaning,

castor oil does promote a consistent medium lather

in contrast to the big ones we get from surfactants.

Keep note that too much of this in the oil phase may cause the

bar to be soft. Allow only 10% of total oil phase.

2. Sugar

Soap makers claim sugar to give an increase in lather but 

in my experience, I only find it to give more "slip" to the soap 

and it actually gives a glide once showered upon the skin.

But, one fascinating thing I've experienced is that

the lather of the soap with added sugar is consistent. Meaning,

it does give a stable lather. If you want to add

sugar, you can add it by doing the following:

1. Add at lye-water solution
2. Dissolve in water, add at trace

Recommended usage will be 1 tsp per 10oz of oil

(Spec: 1/5 part tsp per 2oz of oil)

3. Exfoliants

Why exfoliants? Due to the friction of the exfoliant and your skin, bubbles 

are formed because a lot of the soap's surface contact to your skin

are available due to the dispersion of the exfoliants.

What exfoliants are good for soap? There's coffee, apricot seeds,

poppy seeds, jojoba beads, walnut shell powder, sand, etc! Small embeds of soaps can work too.

4. Beans, Peanut & Soy

Well are you surprised? 

Why can we add these things though?

Beans, Peanut & Soy contain saponins. What the hell are saponins, eh?

Saponins are soap-like substances characterized 

by their ability to create foam in water. 

This ability to behave like a detergent is due 

to their chemical structure, with one end binding 

easily to water and the other to cholesterol and fat.

The saponins are able to contribute lather to the final soap.

(I will post my experiment on this soon)

First of, how do we add Beans, Peanuts or Soy to our soap?

• Make them into powder form.
• Infuse the powder. 
• I tackled this in my previous blog: Infusion

5. And lastly, a lengthy time of CURING.

Curing helps the lather of a soap. 

The longer time, the better!