Production of Bleach:

LIQUID HAND WASH/SOAP
If you are familiar with making soap, you almost certainly know that solid soap is made with sodium hydroxide and that liquid soap is made with potassium hydroxide (KOH). Potassium hydroxide is similar to sodium hydroxide, but makes soft soap, which combined with water, makes liquid soap. This guide will teach you how to make liquid soap from scratch, using potassium hydroxide.

There are basically two methods of producing liquid soap- The first method is outlined here;
Liquid Soap Ingredients
Potassium hydroxide (KOH) –

Water – Water is used to dissolve the caustic to make soap.

Palm Oil & Cosmetic Butters – Palm oil and cosmetic butters such as shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, etc. are great in liquid soap in smaller percentages. Keep them to 3-7% of your formulation.

Standard Liquid Oils – Olive oil, rice bran oil, apricot kernel oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, etc. are all magnificently nutritious oils to use in liquid soap. A combination of these oils should make up the volume of a liquid soap formulation.

Additives in Liquid Soap –Both fragrance oils and essential oils can be used to scent liquid soap. Let’s discuss each:

Fragrance Oils – Fragrance oils are synthetic man-made aromatic ingredients that are used to scent soap and other products. Sometimes they can even contain natural essential oils. The typical usage rate is about 2% of diluted liquid soap.

Essential Oils – Essential oils are considered a natural way to fragrance your soap and are concentrated hydrophobic liquids containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are extracted from plant materials (flowers, bark, seeds, peel, roots, leaves, etc.) by expression, steam distillation or solvent extraction. The typical usage rate is about 2% of diluted liquid soap.

Liquid Dyes – are the best way to color liquid soaps.


Easy formulation 
Base Oils: Coconut Oil – 10 oz.
Olive Oil – 10 oz.
Rice Bran Oil – 8 oz.
Avocado Oil – 8 oz.
Castor Oil – 6 oz.

Caustic Solution: Potassium Hydroxide – 9 oz.
Distilled Water – 27 oz.

Additives:
Essential or Fragrance Oil – 3.12 oz.

Equipment
Crockpot – A Crockpot or slow cooker is a great way to cook liquid soap.
Immersion Blender – An immersion blender is what is used to mix the liquid soap to emulsion.
Digital Scale – Liquid soap ingredients are measured by weight.
Stirring Utensil – You will need a stainless steel spoon or silicone spatula.
Stainless Steel Pot – To dilute your soap.
Hair net and gloves

· Basic Process
Step 1: Weigh out the water needed for the caustic solution. Weight out the potassium hydroxide.

Step 2: Pour the potassium hydroxide into the water while stirring gently. Sometimes it will ‘hiss’ at you while it dissolves. Set aside to cool down.

Step 3: Weigh all of the oils into the Crockpot. You can melt any solid oils before putting them in the crockpot.

Step 4: Turn the Crockpot onto high and let the oils heat up.

Step 5: Pour the potassium hydroxide solution into the oils. Heat helps to emulsify the caustic solution with the oils, so you don’t need to let your solution cool down. As soon as the oils are all melted and the solution turns clear, you can mix.

Step 6: Stick blend to trace. Sometimes getting to trace with liquid soap can take a while. Stick blend for about 10 minutes. Keep your Crockpot on high because heat helps. Walk away for about 10 minutes. Come back and stick blend some more and you should get to trace. If you still aren’t there. Walk away again for 10 minutes and come back to try again. You’ll get there eventually. Don’t stress, because it will all come together. Some liquid soap formulas are quick and some take a long time to trace.

Step 7: Put the lid on the Crockpot and let cook for about 30 minutes. Don’t stir. The soap will get puffy and rise a bit. Some of it will turn translucent.

Step 8: After 30 minutes, stir really well.

Step 9: Let cook for another hour or so until most of the soap has turned translucent. It helps if you do not stir, because then you can see which soap has turned translucent and which hasn’t.

Step 10: Boil 62.4 oz. of water and 15.6 oz. of liquid glycerin in a stainless steel stockpot.

Step 11: spoon out liquid soap paste into the pot. Turn off heat, cover tightly and let sit. Dilution takes hours. As you walk by the pot, stir every now and then. When it cools off, turn the burner onto med and heat it up again. Stir. Turn off. Allow the mixture to sit. It takes time for the liquid soap paste to absorb all of the water. Start dilution at night so it can sit overnight to do most of the work. Time and heat are your friends during the dilution phase.

Step 12: Once diluted, you can add scent. You can scent the whole batch or you can divide out into different scents. Scent is added at 2% of liquid soap base. Weigh out the soap that you want to scent, multiply by 0.02 and that is the amount of scent you will use.

Important note: Fragrances and essential oils effect liquid soap in different ways. Sometimes they can thicken liquid soap, they can loosen liquid soap, they can cloud liquid soap…etc. ALWAYS test a fragrance oil or essential oil prior to scenting a large amount of soap. To test, weight out 200 grams of liquid soap. Add 4 grams of scent and see what happens. Allow it to sit overnight and examine the next day.