How to Obtain a Very Smooth Bar Soap

Many do ask me what to add to soap to make it very smooth. A very smooth soap is a product of three things: 

1. Your oils 

2. Your water ratio. 

3. Your processing skill. 

 YOUR OILS 

 Oils play a very important role when it comes to texture of your finished soap. To be sure that you will have a smooth soap take a little quantity of the oil and react with half quantity of caustic soda solution. It it thickens fast then the quality of the oil is questionable. In this case you will have to reduce the quantity of caustic soda solution. It is always adviceable to test your oil each time you get a new stock from your vendor. 

YOUR WATER RATIO 

Also, when you are not having hydrometer to gauge concentration of your caustic soda rough soap is likely to occur. Some good caustic sodas at water ratio 1:2 gives strong concentration that thickens soap fast. A good hydrometer gauge to give you a smooth soap is at 1275. To be at safer side use caustic soda to water ratio of 1:3. 

YOUR PROCESSING SKILL 

When you overstir your soap you will have rough soap. Oftentimes many soap makers delay between adding raw materials during soap making. Many add fillers and bulking agents after the soap has already traced. Others continue stiring when the soap has reached trace. 

 In your next production, test your oils before use. If you have hydrometer be sure your caustic soda and soda ash are at 1275 gauge. If you do not have a hydrometer I would advise you to use ratio 1:3 hydrometer reading. If you are doing a cold process soap, mix all your bulking agents and fillers in one container such that you will have just three containers - your oil, caustic soda solution and soda ash solution with all other fillers and bulking agents in. 

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Contact me on Whatsapp: +2347037263653 Odfid Technical Center, Eket, Akwa Ibom State. Nigeria

YOU DO NOT NEED MUCH TO MAKE LAUNDRY BAR SOAP

I made this with just: 1. Oil: that provided the fatty acid: you can use either Palm Kernel Oil or bleached Palm Oil. It is adviceable to blend the oils so the soap will foam well and last. Use 70 percent bleached Palm Oil and 20percent good quality Palm Kernel Oil. (I will teach you later how to test for good quality Palm Kernel Oil). Use 1:4 ratio of caustic soda to oil. 2. Caustic soda: source of alkali. Use 1:2 caustic soda to water ratio and dissolve the caustic soda. Soak for two days. 3. Soda ash: to increase the size. Your soap can contain between 30 to 40 percent soda ash by volume of oil. 4. Liquid detergent: this is to prevent your soap mixture from separating. I reduces the surface tension and helps your mixture to be homogenous. Check my other write up on how to make a good liquid detergent. 5. Colour and perfume are optional. You don't need silicate and calcium carbonate as your soap will already be very hard. I didn't add any colour. For laundry soap, the question is does it foam? Does it last? Hope it doesn't itch? Is the texture marketable? Is it big with profit? Keep your chemical inventory low. Optimize size, quality, and profit.

DON'T ADD SODA ASH TO BATHING SOAP. STOP IT!

Soda ash is sodium carbonate and too much sodium in soap makes the soap harsh on the skin. Soda ash is a weak base added to increase the size of laundary soaps. A bathing soap (Toilet soap) must have more of potassium salt and little of sodium. Factory formulated Toilet Soaps contain Potassium Hydroxide and this gives you that gentle feel in the bath room ~ unlike sodium soaps that we use for laundary. By standard, a Toilet soap should have pH of about 9 while Laundary is 10. Total Fatty Matter in Toilet Soap should be up to 75percent. The standard is indeed high for Toilet soap because it is used to take care of the largest organ of the body ~ the skin. While fillers, bulking agents, foaming agents and hardeners, like soda ash, kaolin, SLS/Sulphonic acid, Silicate, and Calcium Carbonates, are permitted in laundary soaps, you must never put them in bathing soap. A bathing soap must be as natural as possible. An improperly prepared bathing soap may not have effect today but that is cancer (especially cervical) and other dermatological disorder waiting for the future. Use only oils and alkali to make your bathing soaps. Add perfumes and colours that are not carcinogenic. Palm Kernel Oil alone is not suitable for bathing soap ~ you need superfat. Blend the oil with Palm Oil, Coconut Oil or Sheabutter. Caustic soda alone is not suitable add potassium hydroxide. Formulate it well. The glycerol must be intact. Give it time to cure. A toilet soap must be gentle, soft, and supple. From: Odfid Technical Center

WASTE BATTERY RECYCLING

PORT HARCOURT SOOT: DON’T FEAR THAT BLACK STUFF THERE. BE AFRAID OF THE ONES YOU CANNOT SEE

By Idongesit F. Oduok Soot in Port Harcourt has been a cause for serious concern of recent. This is suspected to be from activities of those producing illegal fuels (bunker kerosene) at the creeks. I suppose the soot is as a result of them burning a portion of crude oil to generate energy to cook the crude to obtain kerosene etc. In industrial setting this is done in well designed furnaces to control the release of pollutants. But these folks at the creek are using crude method to distill crude oil to obtain crude kerosene, hence you see these pollutants in addition to the loss of lives of the masses from explosion of this their crude kerosene. Adverse air pollution may be divided into two classes – acute and chronic effects. Acute effects manifest themselves immediately upon short term exposure to air pollutants at high concentrations, and chronic effects become evident only after continuous exposure to low levels of air pollution. The chronic effects are very difficult to demonstrate and are consequently less obvious. Soot is classified as particulate. It is carbon released from the crude oil molecule due to incomplete combustion. Its effect is acute, as you can see and experience its presence almost immediately. The effect include general physical discomfort, skin irritation, damage to paint and aesthetic of both built and natural environment. Other effect includes upper respiratory tract infection. On the positive side, if you can lay hold on a good quantity of this soot you can use it to produce printer ink, paint, and other products that require carbon as feedstock. What should be our greatest fear? That black stuff you see there is a lesser evil compared to several other invisible pollutants you cannot see. In the midst of that black smoke are hundreds of unseen pollutants – they are colourless. These include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene and formaldehyde as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These unseen pollutants are highly carcinogenic. How bad can things be? In future Port Harcourt may turn out to be the cancer headquarters of the world if nothing is done urgently to address this mayhem. And the right time for action is now. (Idongesit Oduok works on achieving a pollution free environment. This he does by designing reactors that efficiently obtain energy and material resources from waste. 07037263653. odfidservices@gmail.com. odfidtechnicalworld.blogspot.com)

FOOD SAFETY: WHY YOU SHOULD DRINK SUGAR DRINKS AND NOT "NO SUGARS"

When you drink "no sugar" products they still taste sweet and even sweeter than sugars. Why? What is added there are sweeteners e.g. Aspartame or Saccharin. When you hear "no sugar" it is more of marketing term than safety. If you consume sugar in excess, worse that will happen is diabetes mellitus but if you consume sweeteners in excess you stand a chance of having cancer - a bigger devil. We need sugar in our body but I doubt if we need sweeteners. Sugars are natural chemicals while sweeteners are man-made. A small dose of sugar is good for you as it will be a primary source of energy. Good news is that you can burn it off completely if you are a hustlers - children are experts on this. Are you scared of diabetes? Only sugars that you can't burn off give diabetes. Meaning you consumed more than you needed. Mind you there are people that do not consume sugar but still have diabetes. Why? This type is due to imbalance of Antidiuretic hormone (ADH). In summary: Consume sugar not sweeteners. Do not take excess sugar. Honey, glucose are awesome for you.

LET ME COACH YOU ON HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY

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