How to Improve Glycerin Soap Base

If you are using a glycerin soap base and want to improve its properties, particularly increasing foam and adding exfoliation, here's what you can consider:

Increasing Foam

Glycerin soap bases sometimes produce less foam than desired. To boost the lather and make it creamier, you can incorporate additional surfactants. Consider adding a foam booster like Creamy Foamer™, IseFoam™, or Powderly Foam™. These ingredients can help create a richer, softer foam.

Adding Exfoliation

Chemical exfoliants like BHA are not suitable for the high pH environment of glycerin soap bases and can cause instability. To achieve exfoliation, it is best to use physical scrub particles. You can add scrub beads such as Magnetite Scrub or Camellia (Tea) Seed Scrub to your melted soap base before it sets. Choose a scrub particle size appropriate for the intended use (face or body).

Incorporating Milk and Extracts

Adding ingredients like fresh milk, pineapple extract, or BHA directly into a glycerin soap base is generally not recommended. Fresh milk and fruit extracts can lead to stability issues and may not deliver their intended benefits due to the soap's composition and pH. BHA requires a low pH to be effective, which is incompatible with soap. While ingredients like Lactoferrin are derived from milk, their stability and efficacy in a melt-and-pour soap base, especially considering heat during processing, can be challenging to maintain. It is difficult to incorporate these types of ingredients and guarantee their benefits or the stability of the final soap product.