Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Liquid African Black Soap Tutorial

Looks like a big turd, huh?!

It's been around for centuries, and it's good for all sorts of skin conditions such as acne, rashes, and eczema! It's even gentle enough to use on babies and toddlers. Some say it's supposed to be good for fine winkles too!

Hmm...

African Black Soap comes wrapped in brown paper. It comes in different sizes too, the one in the picture above is a 6lb block.

It's a long lasting soap with an unbelievable rich lather and light nutty scent. In some areas, you could probably find it locally, but I've never seen anything like it around here! You can find it all over the Internet though! Eclectic Lady purchases theirs though Fair Trade companies and they are supposedly a good online supplier. I got my soap from the same online store I get some of Serenity's hair products, Butters 'n Bars. I purchased 6lbs of Ghana African Black Soap from Butters 'n Bars for $29.99. That will last me a very long time! Great!

Anyhoo...

It's really easy to make Liquid African Black Soap (sorry about the pictures, I did this kinda fast), here's how I did it:

You'll need:
1 Pound (thereabouts) of African Black Soap
Vegetable Glycerine
Aloe Vera Gel
Lavender Oil or whatever scent you like (totally optional)
6 Cups water (You can use distilled water, filtered water, spring water, or tap water - I don't think it really matters.)

See how crumbley it is?

Dissolve the soap. There are two ways you can do this. You can crumble up your soap (it's very easy 'cause it's so "moldable" and "crumbley") in a container, fill it with the water, then cover and leave overnight. OR you can do what I did, and put the crumbled soap and water in a sauce pot on low heat until all the soap is dissolved.

Make sure to stir every once in a blue moon so it don't stick to the pot!

Once the soap is dissolved, put it in a bowl (those hard black chucks are Cocoa pods and perfectly normal!). Add a few drops of Lavender (or whatever scent you want or don't want). The next two ingredients are kinda based on how you like it. I probably added about a 1/2 cup (or just a tad more) of Aloe Vera Gel and about a 1/3 cup (or a tinny bit less) of Vegetable Glycerine. Add a little at a time (don't forget to stir it!), make sure to try it out before adding more stuff. Once it's the way you like it, pour it into your containers.

This was taken before I added anything. It will thicken just a bit after adding the Vegetable Glycerine - but it's not a thick thick liquid soap. It really doesn't need to be since it works so well as is!

POST-IT NOTE: I got my Aloe Vera Gel and Vegetable Glycerine online at Amazon for a pretty good price.

All done! I actually had a lot more than what is pictured, but I put the soap in some old plastic bottles and I didn't want them messing up my pictures of these cute little bottles I got from Target! The soap will last a long time 'cause you don't need to use that much - it lathers up beautifully!

My cute little 6oz. travel-sized bottles!

You can research African Black Soap and find out lots more details than I provided. Youtube also has tons of videos for homemade products made from ABS. One of my favorites is a Homemade Shampoo Video.

Hope you enjoy your soap!!

Have fun!

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this tutorial for the soap which seems AWESOME, I'm going to bookmark this to do one day when I have the time! THANKS for sharing!

Angie - treasuresfortots@gmail.com said...

You're welcome! When you get a chance to try it, come back and let me know if you like it!

Akiya P. said...

Thanks for the tutorial. This is similar to the one I have done. Expect I didn't think about doing it in the skillet. Great idea for when adding the oils. Thanks again!

Frenchie said...

thanks for sharing; how long does this liquid form last without a preservative? how do you know when its not good for use?

Anonymous said...

hi there!
is it necessary to put vegetable glycerin??
and does it need a preservative? how long will it last?

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