How To Start Soap Making Business From Home In Nigeria: Guide To Making Liquid,Bar, Antiseptic, Laundry & Toilet Soap

HOW TO PRODUCE LIQUID AND BAR SOAP IN NIGERIA..GUIDE To Starting A Soap Making Business

• How To Make Liquid, Bar Soap At Home In Nigeria: Antiseptic, Laundry & Toilet Soap Making Instruction

Every household in Nigeria uses soap on a daily basis for washing and bathing. It may be liquid or bar soap depending on preferences and the purpose for which the soap is used. This makes soap making a lucrative business in the country and also something you can do at home if you have time. In this article we are going to discuss how to make both liquid and bar soap in detail so that anyone can follow the steps and produce soap on their own with very little money and effort.

How to make liquid soap At Home In Nigeria

Making liquid soap is relatively easy, first because the major ingredient is the bar soap and the other materials are easy to find so let’s look at the steps in making the soap. The ingredients for liquid soap used for dish washing is a bit different though because of oils that have to be washed. First, let’s look at how to make liquid soap from conventional bar soap.

Steps for making liquid soap from bar soap

For you to make liquid soap, you must get your ingredients ready like any other thing you are going to make. The kind of soap you will use for this is determined by what you intend to use the liquid soap for. If you want it to be medicated then use a medicated bars soap etc. ingredients for liquid soap are:

• Bar soap of your choice
• Glycerin to make it gel like
• Water to dissolve the bar
• Food colouring and other ingredients you may wish to add e.g. fragrance

Having gathered your materials, the next thing is to follow the recipe carefully as outlined below.

1. Grate your bar soap into flakes just the way you grate carrots. This is to make it easy to dissolve in water.
2. Boil water depending on the quantity of soap flakes you have but one cup is ideal for a normal bar. Mix the soap in the appropriate volume of boiled water in a container such as a pot that will allow easy mixing until it gets pasty.
3. Add a reasonable quantity of glycerin depending on the number of bars you used. Ideally 1 teaspoon of glycerin per bar is okay so do the math.
4. Add some oils that give it a fragrance that suits you like 10-20 drops. You may also add honey as it is known to be friendly to the skin.
5. Your soap is ready. Keep turning it gently using a whisk like the one used to beat eggs until it cools. The soap is now ready for use and you can pour it in a container where you can store safely.

Procedure for making liquid soap for dish washing

Like I mentioned earlier, the procedure for making liquid soap for washing dishes is slightly different. The following are the steps involved:

The ingredients are:

• Sodium Laureate Sulphate later known as SLS : 3-8 Teaspoonful
• Texapon: 5-10 Teaspoonful
• Sodium Tripolyphosphate later known as STPP: 5-10 Teaspoonful
• Water: 17 litres
• Sulphonic Acid: 1 itre
• Nitrosol: 250g
• Caustic Soda (Sodium Hydroxide): 75g
• Soda Ash: 120g

Procedure: It is important that you stick to the procedure at least for the first few times you use the chemicals to avoid any harm to yourself or those who will use the soap eventually. This is a bit different from the ordinary liquid soap so you will need a little determination to go through with it.

1. First, dilute the chemicals because you bought them in their concentrated form which may be harmful if you touch them. You might want to use hand gloves throughout the process. Dilute Caustic Soda and Soda Ash with 1Litre of water each. Use 0.75 litres each for SLS and STPP while Sulphonic acid and Texapon can be diluted in the same container using 5 litres of water.
2. After 24 hour, put all the ingredients together by adding Nitrosol, Caustic Soda, Soda Ash, SLS and STPP to the already mixed Sulphonic Acid and Texapon in that order. Please make sure you follow the order correctly.
3. Add water to your satisfaction depending on the level of thickness you want. You may add some fragrance to the soap by mixing such fragrance with Sulphonic Acid before adding to the rest of the ingredients. Your dish washing soap is ready for use.

How to make bar soap

Ordinary bar soap can be made by boiling the mixture of ingredients or by just mixing them cold. We will discuss the cold method here because it is safer and much easier to carry out. The following are the ingredients/equipment needed:

• Stamp or stamping machine if available
• Nylon sheets
• Hand gloves
• Nose mask
• A plastic or metal container for mixing. Do not use aluminium
• Measuring scale
• A woodedn, plastic or metal mould 43cm long, 33cm high and 4cm high
• Hydrometer
• Plastic buckets
• Palm Kernel Oil later known as PKO
• Caustic Soda Pearls
• Soda Ash (dense)
• Sodium Sulphate
• Fragrance
• Water
• Food colouring (not mandatory)

Procedure

Ferment caustic soda pearls by mixing it with water in the ratio 1:2 like 2kg to 4litres of water. Leave it for at least 24 hours after Stirring with a stick to mix thoroughly. Use the Hydrometre to test the density of the solution by dipping it in the solution till it floats. If the reading is less than 12.50, add more Caustic Soda and keep stirring until it gets to that level and up to 12.75. If the reading is more than 12.75 then add water slowly and keep stirring until it is 12.75 or less. Repeat this same procedure to ferment Soda Ash and set the fermented solution to 12.00-12.25. Sodium Sulphate doesn’t need to be fermented so mix it with water in the same ratio as above and set it to 12.75. Now that you have everything set, it is time to mix your ingredients. Put them together in the following quantities:

• 3 Litres of PKO
• 5 Litres of Caustic Soda
• 2 Litres of Soda Ash solution
• 6 Litres of Sodium Sulphate.

Add fragrance and colour as desired. Mix them in that order in the plastic buckets you have and then pour the thick mixture in the mould covered with nylon sheets. Pour the soap solution in the mould evenly and allow to stay for three hours to dry and your soap is ready for use.

How to make antiseptic soap

The following are the equipment/chemicals used for production of antiseptic bar soap.

• Stamp or stamping machine if available
• Nylon sheets
• Hand gloves
• Nose mask
• A plastic or metal container for mixing. Do not use Aluminium
• Measuring scale
• A wooden, plastic or metal mould
• 3 Plastic buckets

Chemicals

• 3 Litres of Palm Kernel Oil later known as PKO
• 5 Kg of Caustic Soda Pearls
• 5 Kg of Soda Ash (dense)
• 5 Kg of Sodium Sulphate
• 25 Kg of Sodium Silicate
• Water
• Food colouring (not mandatory)
• Perfume
• Pine oil

Procedure

1. Soak Coustic Soda and Soda Ash with 0.5 litres of water each in separate buckets for at least 24 hours.
2. Mix the 3 litres of PKO in another bucket with 2 litres of water
3. Pour the Coustic Soda and Soda Ash in the bucket containing PKO in that order while stirring in one direction
4. Add the Sodium Sulphate and Sodium Silicate and Pine Oil in that order while stirring in one direction
5. Mix the colour in a separate container with a little water and add to the mixture and continue stirring in one direction.
6. Add perfume as desired while stirring in the same direction.
7. Finally, pour the mixture in the mould and allow to dry and your soap is ready for use.

Be careful when handling chemical as it may explodes during processing. Please pay full attention to detail when producing your first soap.