Cream Soap

Cream Soap
What is cream soap?

Cream soap is part liquid, part solid 'Soap'.

Cream soaps are great for: 

shaving, plus as a hand and body wash.

Cream soap is a blend of sodium and potassium hydroxides plus oils.  Sodium hydroxide is used to firm and give body to the soap, and Potassium hydroxide is use to make a smooth, shave-like consistency to the soap.

What is needed to make cream soap:
*Stearic acid
*Coconut Oil
*A soft oil such as: Olive, safflower, castor etc.
*Glycerin for emollience
*Boric Acid as a superfat.
*Phenolphthalein for testing of neutrality of the soap.
I am new to making cream soap, so instead of trying my hand at formulating my own recipe, like I always do, I followed a recipe in Catherine Failor's book:  

'Making Cream Soap'.

I recommend this small paper back book to anyone who may just want to try their hand at making cream soap. It has a wealth of information with five recipes to boot!

I have never made liquid soap (someday I may try) but what I read the making of cream soap is similar to making a liquid soap.

The recipe I choose in Catherine's book has:
Stearic Acid, Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, and (Calendula infused) Olive Oil.
I also used Boric Acid to superfat instead of more Stearic Acid.
For the liquid I used some Calendula steeped water, and Aloe Vera gel. Calendula and Aloe Vera are very good for your skin. I wanted both in my cream soap.

*Calendula infused water and Olive Oil, plus Aloe was not part of her recipe.

I have to admit that making cream soap was, at times, hard work. It is very difficult to stir at points in the cook. I have Muscular Dystrophy and my arms and hands were challenged beyond their normal limits. With the videos I've watched on YouTube though,

I see it is also challenging for the healthy arms. Sooooo with that said it is definitely a challenge to make cream soap! But worth it!
Here I have pictures of the finished product. Sorry I did not takes pictures as I went along. To have a better idea of what it is like to make cream soap 'Mountain Scentaments' has a great video that helped me tremendously.

The finished cream soap

 After a few days 

  

  

Cream soap needs a cure time for a least week, but

some let it cure (or rot) for 2 or more months.

It will develope a 'sheen' to it. Here you

can see that sheen even after a few days.

Here is a small container with a fragrance in it. The color

definitely changed.

  

I the color would have been very white, but because

I added Calendula infused water and oil, plus

Aloe Vera gel, and fragrance oil the color turned a bit creamy. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Life is good!

Valerie