Homemade Foaming Handsoap - Part II

In a previous post, I revealed how astonishingly easy it is for me to be amused. By handsoap. No, I'm not Patrick, SpongeBob's brainless, starfish friend, but I have pursued my attempt at homemade foaming handsoap one step further.

My first recipe is as follows:
palm oil, 150 g
coconut oil, 50 g (both oils melted in a ca. 600 mL glass bottle)
water, icy cold, 240 g
potassium hydroxide, 90% w/w, 42 grams

I mixed the KOH with icy water (very exothermic and the icy water makes this part pretty non-smelly, resulting solution about 100-deg-F). Then I added it to a mixture of palm and coconut oils (melted and cooled to ca. 100-deg-F) and added some more water (ca. 100 mL) and shook the crap out of it. It was initially pretty lumpy and two phases. (I think I'd use an immersion blender next time.) For the next day, I shook this high tech glass mixing jar (old mayo jar, Hellman's) and let it set with the lid loosened (just in case the mixture got exothermic or something) and placed the entire jar inside a deep plastic bowl (just to contain anything unexpected). Within several days of leaving it alone, the resulting solution became homogeneous with a bunch of foam sitting on top.

So far, there's roughly 200 grams of solid soap in this mixture (roughly the amount of fat used). After some reading, foaming hand soap is mostly a result of the dispenser, but, equally important, it needs to be pretty dilute; somewhere between 4-10% solids by weight. If I shoot for a first guess of 5% solids (w/w), this would dictate taking this mixture and diluting it (ideally in deionized water) to a total weight of 4000 grams (roughly a gallon). I'm going to let it sit a while longer. After Easter, I'll dilute it and put it in bottles (I scored 5 of those pump bottles on ebay this morning for about a buck each, including shipping) and will let you know the results.

I'll probably also scent the mixture with lemon verbena essential oil if the soap foams nicely (not going to waste it until I know it works).

Parents of small children, you may be reading about the development of your xmas present.

Where to buy stuff:
1. Oils can be purchased here.
2. KOH can be purchased at the Science Co.
3. Hellman's Mayo can be purchased at Giant Eagle, but you have to eat 600 mL of it or dump it in the drain and use the bottle.

Part I
Part II
Part III

Calm before the storm

Most of the bubble stuff's out (got some nifty stuff in hiding), food, favors, etc. ready.

If there is a god, please, just this once, make it not rain tomorrow, and please don't let a kid stuff the toilet with all of our toilet paper ... or just send heaps of valium.

Ha, ha, ha. - update - 3/28/07
I'm at my girl's daycare today and I heard the reccommendation for little kid parties is one friend for every year of her life. According to this formula we should've had 4 friends to Frankie's rather than the 20 or so that showed up. And, no melt-downs! Guess we got lucky.

Here goes ...

rsvp's are trickling in and in approximately 48 hours, somewhere between 5 11 and 18 bunnies and accompanying parents will descend upon the ranch.

We have stuff ready for them, but much needs to be done. I don't think we'll ever be ready, but we'll be preparing a station for bubble art, scads of bubble blowing paraphanelia will be on the deck outside, a treasure hunt is being planned, party favors are being prepared, hot dogs/carrots/juice & pretzels are on the menu (and Spinelli's bagels , coffee and Bloody Marys for the adults brave enough to stick around).

Wish us luck (or send valium). Have a good weekend all. Photos on Frankie's site when the "event" is finished.

And, tunes by Loopy Moose.

Bubbles

Frankie and I explore various bubble formulations found on bubbles.org. In this one we investigate the bubbliness of using karo light syrup (less expensive) than glycerin. Formula = 150 g tap water + 15 grams ultra Dawn + 5 grams Karo. Then we blew through a 3/8" id tube to see how much it bubbled. Looked about the same as the forumla with glycerin instead of Karo.

Still need to try distilled water instead of tap (although most city water supplies are pretty soft). And here are some of the bubbles I scooped off the top and blew around the kitchen. A littel messy, but fun.