Request from housemate: dishwashing liquid that doesn’t dry hands out too much. Preferably foaming

Another fun project idea: making a DIY overhead stirrer. Something like this but simpler.

I think I already have a suitable 12VDC reduction motor somewhere, and I have spare adjustable DC power supplies (12V 2A and 12V 5A) that I could use to control the speed. I would need a chuck and something to attach the motor to my lab stand. Also, a stirrer attachment.

I can’t find my big gear motors right now, but I do have a cute little 6V 30 rpm one and a 24V 18 rpm one. Plenty of torque, but slow and I think they’re only about 3W continuous.

Ideal would be something like the one in the video, which is the larger ~15W continuous cousin of my mini reduction motors. I guess the 470 rpm one would be nice. I could easily attach a drill chuck to the 8mm shaft using a JT0/B10/B12 connecting adapter, then I don’t have to fabricate anything like the guy in the video did. I think B12 is the right size if I mainly want to use it with 6mm and 8mm stirrer attachments. Either that, or an M10 adapter with an M10 chuck.

I’m going with the M10 option. It has better reviews, it’s not missing the set screws and I like the chuck better.

For attachment, I think I will go with the very simplest option first: just clamp it to the lab stand with a lab clamp straight onto the motor. The motor would be facing sideways but that doesn’t matter. If I like the setup, I might find a better solution. Perhaps a piece of 12mm rod with two hose clamps or something.

I’ve ordered a reduction motor, M10 connector, 1.5-10mm drill chuck and stainless paddle stirrer for €25. That should be everything I need, besides the stand, clamp and adjustable power supply I already have.

I’ve decided I want to try this formulation with some substitutions.

I found an old tin of moustache wax with only 3 ingredients; beeswax, lanolin and sandalwood oil. I think it’s 50-70% beeswax, 20-40% lanolin, and up to 10% sandalwood oil. I think I will remelt some of that and use it as the beeswax and heavy oil part of the formulation.

• 6g BTMS-50
• 8g remelted moustache wax
  • 4-5.6g beeswax
  • 1.6-3.2g lanolin
  • <0.8g sandalwood oil
• 5g mango butter
• 8g light to medium oil – grapeseed, argan, almond
• 2 drops vitamin E oil
• 10 drops of essential oil (fir, rosemary, ..?)

Update: I melted down some of the moustache wax with olive oil in the microwave as a simple test. I found out that even with a much lower fraction of beeswax, I really don’t like this type of moustache/beard balm. It’s not a very strong hold, but it is sticky enough that I really don’t want it on my hands.

If I’m going to do a moustache/beard balm, it has to be water soluble.

I just found out that I have some rancid old stuff in a box. I want to see if I can reuse it for something where that doesn’t matter so much.

I have this rancid stuff:

• 250 mL shea butter, bought 4 years ago
• 250 mL shea butter, bought 8 months ago
• 500 mL coconut oil, bought who knows how long ago
• “Jojoba oil” (mostly grape, then jojoba, some vit E and also sunflower), bought I don’t know how long ago
• 150 mL glycerine, bought I don’t know how long ago

I can’t find any uses for the rancid glycerol, I’ll probably just throw it out. I guess it could burn in a diesel stove or perhaps mixed with ethanol in a small burner, although it would produce a lot of particulates and I haven’t got any of those anyway.

The newer shea butter smells slightly vinegary, but the others are most definitely very rancid. I think it would be fun to see if I can reuse at least some of them for something.

One way to reuse rancid butter & oil for soap is to do a brine wash, to salt out the non-saponifiables. There’s a good guide in this thread. Nice video here.

I have an idea to make liquid dish soap from the shea butter and jojoba. Something like the liquid laundry detergent I also want to make, but with 10% soap added. For the soap I could use this calculator to see how much lye I need; since I don’t want superfat and I will brine wash anyway I think I can use an excess of lye.

• 10% soap
  • 1.1% lye
  • 8.9% shea butter
• 15% SLS
• 5% Coco betaine
• 3% Coco glucoside
• Citron essential oil
• pH adjustment to about 9

No idea if this recipe would actually work. It would cost about €2.50 per liter in ingredients which is slightly higher than store-bought washing up liquid. So.. I might as well just try to dissolve the soap in store bought washing up liquid?

Some more research: apparently this would make it a “combo” soap, although that might refer to anhydrous products. These products apparently contain 10-50% mild syndet (surfactant based soap) next to the regular soap. Syndet bars (e.g. shampoo bars) can be around 80% surfactant, so soap:surfactant ratio is roughly anywhere between 10:1 and 1:1.

On the other hand, traditional soap is known to leave film on dishes and on the sink, and regular washing up liquid works just fine, so there is no reason to actually do this other than to use something that I should throw away. Also, rancid oil can cause people to develop annoying sensitivity to specific oils.

Maybe I should just do that and throw all this stuff out.

Update 3 weeks later: I’ve discarded everything rancid in the “used oils” waste disposal bin. I’m proud of myself

I want to buy some ingredients, so I’m making an overview of what I want and what I have. I went through a box of old stuff and found some ingredients, most of which are rancid..

Have

• Shea butter, rancid
• Coco butter, a little rancid
• “Jojoba oil” (mostly grape, then jojoba, some vit E and also sunflower), also rancid
• Glycerine 150mL, possibly rancid?
• Aloe vera gel 92%, still smells ok
• Essential oils:
  • Tea tree 40mL
  • Rosemary 40mL
  • Citron 30mL
  • Lavender 10mL
• Various powdered chemicals, e.g. NaOH and fertiliser ingredients

Want

Assuming 100g toothpaste tablets, 200g shampoo bar, 500 mL conditioner, 500 mL lube, 1 L wool wash, 100g deodorant, 50g beard balm

• 150g Sodium cocoyl isethianate (SCI) – for shampoo bar, wool wash
• 108g Coco betaine – for shampoo bar, detergents
• 30g Coco glucoside – for detergents
• 14.5g BTMS-50 – for beard balm & conditioner & shampoo bar
• 65g glycerin – for shampoo bar, lube, deodorant
• 50g (rehydrated) Aloe vera – for lube
• 2g beeswax – for beard balm
• 4g Triethyl citrate (TEC) – for deodorant
• 12.5g Hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) – for conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, lube
• 1.3g Vitamin E (sort-of-preservative)
• 22g Geoguard (preservative)
• 60g Calcium carbonate – for toothpaste
• 13g Xylitol – for toothpaste
• 300mg Sodium or potassium fluoride – for toothpaste
• 0.5g Citric or lactic acid

Might want:

• Potassium sorbate (preservative)
• 2.5g Panthenol – for conditioner
• Carrageenan – for shampoo bar (try more glycerin / HEC?)
• 31g Almond, argan, grapeseed oil
• 2.5g mango butter – for beard balm
• Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) – for laundry detergent

Simple mustache wax recipe from humblebeeandme (29-44% beeswax):

• 10g jojoba oil
• 4-8g beeswax
• 11 drops of essential oil

Start light, re-melt and add more beeswax as needed. Add essential oils when it’s the right consistency.

Or this softer beard balm (20% beeswax):

• 5g beeswax
• 4g shea butter
• 16g oils (could be replaced with grapeseed, sunflower)
• 11 drops of essential oil

Even a conditioning beard balm (8-15% beeswax):

• 6g BTMS-50 – also helps against build up (could replace with BTMS-25)
• 2-4g beeswax
• 5g mango butter – could replace with shea but greasier
• 12g oils (could be replaced with grapeseed, sunflower?)
• Vitamin E

And an even lighter conditioning formulation (6% beeswax):

• 3g BTMS-25
• 0.9g beeswax
• 3g coconut oil
• 8g oils (jojoba, argan, ..)
• Vitamin E

Also, this guide is great for checking the effect of different percentages of beeswax. Basically:

• 50%: hard & sticky, doesn’t melt
• 33%: firm & not really sticky, melts slowly
• 25%: soft & not sticky, melts averagely
• 20%: not solid, melts averagely
• 17%: not solid, melts quickly
• 13%: not solid, melts very quickly

BTMS and any butters also affect the consistency. BTMS-25 is a more potent hardener than BTMS-50. The butters from soft to hard: coconut, mango, shea, cacao – this matters less at >10% wax. Of these, mango is the least greasy. Only coconut melts directly on skin contact, the others need some convincing.

I think I’d like to try the BTMS-50 & mango butter one, perhaps substituting coconut oil instaead.

Foam: this recipe looks good, but can’t find polyquat

Cream: use same recipe, but instead of polyquat use BTMS and an oil? Would need to keep the viscosity low. Or just use this recipe

Idea: making soap from used deep frying oil. Apparently it’s possible and can be done e.g. to make liquid laundry detergent. Here’s a calculator.

I know very little about making soap but it seems interesting!