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Ivory’s Liquid Soap
2.5 oz NaOH (or 3.375 if you don’t think Ivory is crazy)
8 oz water
5 oz coconut oil
1 oz castor oil
11 oz vegetable shortening
1. Warm your oils until liquefied and sprinkle the lye into your water.
2. When they’re cool enough to touch, slowly pour lye water into fats.
3. Blend.
4. Stop when you a drip stays visible on the surface for a few seconds.
5. Pour into a jar or other non-reactive container.
6. Insulate and allow to rest for 24 hours.
7. Find a BIG bowl. Dilute soap with water, slowly stirring to get the consistency you want. I add a few cups at a time and then let it rest. It thickens.
9. Funnel into your containers.
I got nearly a gallon of soap out of this recipe. WOW! VERY economical. The most bang for your buck I’ve seen.
We use it for everything, but coconut oil is notoriously drying so be careful with your hair. I’ve been using it and it has a serious SQUEAK when rinsed. So, if you have hair that breaks easily, be careful. Also, this is a BUBBLY soap, so no dishwashers or washing machines unless you want a foam flood.
Ivory
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Where do you get KOH?
I order it on the net from a soap supply company.
so in this recipe you’re using potassium hydroxide, right?
Either one. NaOH makes a lot more, but wants to go jello on you as it ages. KOH takes several days of sitting around and being stirred back together to stop the separation and makes much less. Just depends on what you’re after, giant piles of something that will squeeze out of a shampoo bottle, or something that you can ‘gift’ in a pump and know that the recipient will never have to shake it.
so it’s all about aesthetics? that’s wonderful. so, if you use NaOH, how does it not turn into a mason jar shaped bar of soap?
You can find lye at most hardware stores, it’s typically used to open clogged drains, so you can usually find it with the drain openers/chemicals. Make sure that it only contains lye, there are some products that have some other additives like metal.
Hi guys!
My husband and I are all new to this, and I’m kind of confused on some of the terms ya’ll were using and was hoping you might possibly take some time to clear a few things up for me.
KOH?
NaOH?
Thank you for you time and help!
Sodium Hydroxide and Potassium Hydroxide. They’re the two kinds of lye used to make soap. Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) is used to make bar soap. Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) creates a soap that won’t solidify.
Could you substitute the coconut oil with a different type of oil? In case you have the breaky dry hair?
Is coconut oil drying? I have very dry skin and I use it daily on my face. I would like to know if that is a bad idea.
@lissie–do you use the oil itself, or a soap made from the oil?
@Jen–I’m sure you could, but it wouldn’t be as bubbly.
To make this or the bar soap recipe colorful would you add regular food coloring or would it have to be something special?
THX, Jackie
This is really useful thank you!
I have loved making fragrances ever since i was younger. I have looking at some of these amazing looking soaps that are now available and have been searching for ways of making them.
So again many thanks for the help!
This is great. Just wondering what the first ingredient is? NaOH? And where do I get it? Also the coconut oil – where can I get this inexpensively?
Coconut oil comes from Walmart and the lye can be ordered online…or if you can find it at Lowes or Depot….it’s Roebic crystal drain opener.
Hmmm…. I don’t know what went wrong. I let it rest but it hardened and I had to cut it in chunks to get it out of the jar. Then they were so hard I had to put a chunk in the Bullet with some water to blend it up. It was looking pretty good but now it looks like brown water and its not thick at all. I was wondering if my lye was the wrong kind but I am not sure, would it make a difference which one I used? I think I might try bar soap, I am not giving up.:)
You used NaOH? I use that all the time. Yes, it will harden a bit, but overnight it shouldn’t be THAT hard. But I don’t know what was brown. Did you put in any additives?
I am a newbie with soap making. I have had great success with cold processing except when it comes to coloring? Any suggestions….I’ve used the colorings for candles…my instructions also suggested crayons….spices works very well…but my colors are not coming out..please help
@BetsY–I don’t color, so I don’t really know. Have you checked Kathy Miller’s site? She knows everything about it.
what a great site!
@jaki–Thank you!
Glad I found your article on liquid soap. Have 50 lbs. of NaOH that I bought to make my homemade soap and now I have something else to use it on. Anyways, I made some liquid hand soap yesterday as per your article and it came out great
I’m using my current hand soap dispensers, those that you push down and squirts the soap onto your hand, and was wondering if you recommend those or are they going to plug up really quick? Is that what you use or what do you use? Thanks again.
@Alma I find that they work just fine. You might have to shake it, or add some more water from time to time, but I’ve never had it plug.
Hi Ivory,
Have you tried using this for hand washing dishes? I’m guessing so since you say you use it for everything, but thought I’d ask. I’ve been looking for a recipe for dishwashing soap for a while now.
Do you need to use a certain type of pan for the soap making and mixing of lye and water? I thought I’d heard about not using anodized pans…or something to the like.
What kind of pans to your recommend?
raeofsunshine–No aluminum, and if your lye/water container is plastic, make sure it is a thick plastic. Stainless steel pans are good. Enamelware tends to have nicks exposing the underlying corrosive metal, so be careful with those kinds of pans. Hope this helps!
sounds great, but is this soap ready to use??
I am new to soaping myself but have learned that vanilla additives will typically go brown. Did you use vanilla for fragrance, Lonna?
Another question, please: You say this makes good suds? Does it cut grease properly for dishes?
Oh Tomato Lady. I’m botched this recipe twice. I was able to make the lavendar rosemary soap like a charm but this one has got me bamboozled!
It got too hard in the jar so I had to kinda melt and chip it out. I went ahead and diluted it with distilled water and it doesn’t seem to be getting thick at all and it’s not white.
I was wondering if it may have to do with the temperature that I poured the lye water in. You stated to pour it when they were cool enough to touch. I was waiting till about 110 degrees.
Any thoughts or shall I try try again? I’m very new at soaping and your blog has inspired me so much to make things at home. I love it!
Hi Jen–I’m terrible at liquid soap myself. Ivory may be able to trouble-shoot this for you. (When I make liquid soap I just grate up a bar of my soap, cover with warm water and let it sit overnight–total cheat).
Magic. I was frustrated and I left my watery soap disaster on my counter for about 3 hours. I decided to whip it once more with the stick blender and I walked away one more time. Came back about 30 minutes later and it was white and thickening into a nice looking soap!
So pretty much my last step in the recipe was to send a frustrated message to TL and then poof… problem solved. You ladies are so magical.
Do you have to wait 4-6 weeks to use this or can you start right away. I just had a BAD experience with not quite “ready” soap and am a little scared:-) Thanks.
Does anyone know if they still make the original white ivory liquid and where I can get it?
Dear Ivory,
we are the trader of soap and skin care products, and i would like to make the handmade soap in paste type (like thick spread cheese form) and i have soap noodles, does this soap noodles can make the paste soap, and what are the other ingredients to add.
thanks for your cooperation
Amin
My liquid soap got hard when it sat overnight, too…about like cold butter, so I decided to experiment with it.
I cut off 1/4th of it, chunked it up in a bowl and started adding distilled water and using a stick blender. It came to a nice consistency, but would get thicker when I let it set for a few hours. I kept adding water. When it came to a consistency I liked, I added a combined total of 1 Tbs scent oil and tea tree oil.
After adding the oils, the soap doesn’t seem to lather much anymore, but it does clean nicely. It’s still too thick to use in a foam pump bottle, but I’ll thin it more for that.
On day 3, after making the original batch, I took a second 1/4th chunk and just added distilled water to a liquid soap consistency. I think I’ve added about 6 or 8 cups thus far. I used the stick blender to mix the water in. I’ve just let it sit for awhile to see what it does. Today it is very thick and looks like melted marshmallow that clings to the whisk and just oooooozes off. It’s kind of slimy.
I’m thinking of warming it a bit the next time I add water. I am totally open for suggestions for using the last half of the original batch (which is still hard). I love this recipe and I hope to make it again….maybe with KOH next time.
I’m a long-time soaper and when I saw your recipe I was filled with glee! Finally someone with some sense! Soap is supposed to be a practical everyday object–while I enjoy making it, and it is a creative challenge, I don’t appreciate the expectation that I’m going to slave over a hot process liquid soap just so it will be clear! WHY there isn’t even ONE recipe in all my soaping books for a simple cold process MILKY (gasp!) soap, I will never know! Also, since we all know we can grate our soaps and turn them into liquid soaps if we want, it only makes sense to make a soap with that intention from the first.
So, I made a batch yesterday. Of course, I couldn’t follow the recipe exactly. That would be too easy! I didn’t have any vegetable shortening because I’m allergic to soy, so I used soft oils like canola and sunflower instead. (I ran it through a lye calculator, of course.) To start, it looked just like yours, just a little more ivory than white. After 20 hours of being snuggled up in warm towels, I was surprised to find it was a bright golden yellow hard gel. I scooped it out into a large bowl and added about 4-5 cups of boiled water. After mashing a bit, I used my stick blender to whiz it up. Well, it is disappointingly thin. After reading through my soaping books, including my copy of Liquid Soaps by Catherine Failor, I decided it might be due to a lack of stearic acid containing fats. I intend on making another batch soon.
Bring on the creamy, milky, liquid soaps, baby!
I’m going to keep working on this till I get it right. I love soaping and this is clearly an area that is missing. I’ll need to experiment with potassium hydroxide as well. My soap is still soap, but even though it seemed to fully react and I only added about 4 cups of water, as well as a borax solution, it still separated. Maybe it needs more time to saponify or maybe its the oils I used. I’ll know in time. Do you have any ideas?
Thanks again for giving us this recipe!
I’ve been talking about making soap for a while, especially liquid soap, so this is SUPER EXCITING for me. I did have one question, do you think this could be done with olive oil for something like body wash?
This is going to make a creamy soap, not true liquid. Scoopable soap. And I would think any oil would be fine if you ran it through a lye calculator
I made this for the first time this week and it turned out beautifully! It was my first attempt at soapmaking, and I am very pleased! Yippee! Love the rich, creamy lather! Thanks for a great recipe!
Howdy! I’ve been looking forever for a decent liquid soap without shavings from a bar of soap. I like the comment someone put up that overall meant that the intentions of liquid soap should start and end that way (not using a bar).
I would say that I am still a greenhorn when it comes to soap making even though I’ve been making it for a few years. My own soap recipes are awesome, and I have regular customers that buy in bulk so I don’t see them for a few months. I created my own scent that is a big hit, but I keep getting request for liquid. I really want a recipe that I know will work each time in order to make larger quanities.
I buy my lye from the Amish (they get it in huge bulk). I have no clue where to get Potasium Hydroxide. Any ideas?
Any suggestions for books on liquid soap making? I’m currently looking into this recipe and thanks for sharing Ivory!!!
Hello ladies,
This is a little late on this message, but it is very interesting. Finally getting tired of all the garbage in “factory” soap, we are going to give this a try. The situation is a little different though – we are on a sailboat in Alaska – been here 3 years and loving it.
The soap question relates to rinseability of the soap. I have a bar of natural olive-oil castile soap, albeit “store-bought”, but it takes forever to rinse with cold water. Any experiences with different oil combinations that don’t dry too much (the wind & salt water does enough of that) but something that rinses well in cold water?
Thanks for the insight and the great info.
Dean
The Mad Dogs
http://www.TheMadDogs.com
Exploring to inspire…
Dean–You may be searching for the holy grail of soaps, but I’ll give it my best shot. I would go with a soap high in olive oil or other conditioning oil, that is to say, any soaps high in conditioning perhaps olive oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil or cocoa butter (you can search on soap making sites for the qualities of different oils). Avoid soaps made from coconut oil. It’s great for lather, but unfortunately has drying properties for the skin. You are likely going to have to sacrifice some lather for mildness and conditioning. Then I’d say use a lotion bar (recipes on our site and others–easy to make) for a convenient and lasting skin protectant/moisturizer. Best of luck in your search!
Hi Tomato Lady,
It might be the Holy Grail of soaps, but if your going for a goal… go high!!
Thanks for the tips, I have a little better idea and direction now.
Cheers,
Dean
Hello again,
Well, Alaska (at least Ketchikan…) doesn’t seem to have any Potassium Hydroxide in town. I did find some NaOH, but am wondering…
Ivory made her soap using NaOH, and I see that when used to make bar soap you need to let it cure for 3 – 4 weeks. Is this just for the bar to harden or does it need to perform some chemical process? If I give Ivory’s recipe a try and make up some liquid soap using NaOH, can I use it right away in a few days, or do I need to wait a while for it to do its thing??
Thanks again for all the advice. By the way, I’m also going to make a few of the moisturizing bars as well.
Cheers,
Dean
The Mad Dogs
Exploring to inspire…
Dean–Prevailing wisdom is that bar soap needs 3-4 weeks to become mild enough to prevent a drying, caustic effect on the skin, although some will say technically the chemical reaction is complete in a shorter amount of time. Beyond that, the 3-4 weeks is for additional water evaporation to make the bar more durable so it won’t dissolve so quickly in the soap dish. You can test it out periodically and see what you think is the magic time lapse for your soap.
With liquid soap (made using potassium hydroxide, that is), the soap is considered usable immediately.
Another thing to consider if you want to use homemade bar soap sooner is the hot process method. It is considered “done” basically as soon as it is hardened, although as with all bar soaps, the longer it cures the longer it will hold up in use.
I hope you like the lotion bars. I find they are much more serious than any liquid lotion, which seems pretty tame in comparison to me now.
Good luck, let me know if you have any further questions, I’ll see if I can steer you in the right direction.
Thanks for the info.
Cheers,
Dean
Hello,
I’m relatively new to homemade hand soaping. I thought it would be another fun craft like CP soaping. I had a hard time getting my oils to completely cook down into the soap paste & ended up burning a lot of the soap around the edges, and I never put it on any higher than ‘Low’ setting. Finally I had to keep a timer & switch it from ‘Low’ to ‘Keep Warm’ every 15 minutes. (Rediculous) I think I’m gonna use the double boiler method next time. I used a lye calculator for my formula:
-6 oz. Olive Oil
-5 oz. Coconut Oil
-3 oz. Palm Oil
-3 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
-3 oz. Sunflower Oil
-4.27 oz. Lye (KOH)
-12.8 oz. Distilled Water
I also added about half an ounce of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate to give it more suds. Well, it was supposed to yield about 32 oz of paste, but I only ended up with 19 oz. after scrapping off the burned soap. I went ahead and mixed my paste with 56.4 oz. of water (wich is about a 1:3 ratio). My soup is a pretty golden color & clear as a bell, but has almost NO SUDS!! What did I do wrong? It’s also a little thinner than I want, any advice on ways to thicken it without loosing clarity? Is it the choice in oils, or maybe too many different oils? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Heidi
Wanted to say thanks for the recipe. Just tried to make it last night, but made a mistake and used olive oil instead of the coconut oil, so ended up making two batches. Like some of the others, the soap went hard in the jars, but was able to scrape them out and right now the chunks are soaking in distilled water so I can break up the chunks.
By the way, love the site, have gotten some great ideas from it.
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