Making Soap Base: Clarification and Options

Liquid glycerin alone cannot be used to create a soap base. Glycerin is a humectant and is actually a byproduct of the traditional soap-making process, which involves the saponification of fats or oils with a strong alkali like sodium hydroxide (for solid soap) or potassium hydroxide (for liquid soap).

For easier soap making, especially for clear or opaque bar soaps, you can use pre-made melt-and-pour soap bases. These bases have already undergone the saponification process and are ready to be melted, customized with additives (like color, fragrance, beneficial ingredients), and poured into molds.

• Clear Soap Base: You can use a product like Clear Soap Bar (Amino Acids Based, pH 5-6, Soap-Free). This type of base is clear, gentle, and can be easily melted and poured.
• Opaque Soap Base: To make an opaque soap bar from a clear base, you typically add an opacifier such as Titanium Dioxide to the melted clear soap base.

While Glycerin is an excellent moisturizing ingredient and is present in many soap formulations (both as a natural byproduct and sometimes added separately), it does not act as the primary soap base itself.