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- #21
Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
Well I came to learn something and I have never made soap so thanks for thoughts on soap making. So lye is used to siphon off oils and fats to start process and then wanted oils are added afterwards for scents and lubrication is my thinking.Actually the pH of 8-10 of bar soap and shave soap is inherent to the process of making soap. You use lye which is highly alkaline and then you use that to saponify fats/oils. The alkalinity decreases as the reaction happens and once all the lye has reacted with the oil lye you end up in the 8-10 range of pH value. It is just what it is. Remember how they always said that lye soap is harsh on the skin. That comes from when you do not have good control of the amounts to use and there is left over lye in the soap. If that happens you end up with a harsh soap, because it is more than 10 in pH i.e too alkaline.
Now if you take a non lye based "soap" like CeraVe, Dove men+care, VDH shave soap, Col Conk shave soap etc the pH can be whatever they adjusted it to. In most cases they probably keep it pretty close to neutral pH 7. A bit acidic as in CeraVe's case.
Some soaps use Vegan base and then add oils for fragrance or for better lather qualities, I'm not sure if I got that right?