Process for making translucent soap bars

In a process for the production of translucent soap wherein a blend of tallow fat and coconut oil or other fats and oils useful in the production of soap or the corresponding fatty acids derived therefrom are saponified or neutralized, with the resulting neat soap being dried, amalgamated, refined and formed in bars, the improvement comprising:

• conducting the saponification or neutralization with a mixture of from about 90-95% sodium hydroxide and from about 5-10% of potassium hydroxide, adding to the resulting neat soap from about 0.8 to about 2.1% of glycerin, from about 1.2 to about 2.0% of a superfatting agent and from about 0 to about 1.2% of a polyethylene glycol having a molecular weight of about 600, the foregoing percentages being based on the weight of the neat soap, drying said neat soap to a moisture level of from about 14% to about 18%, thereafter passing the dried soap through a refining plodder provided with a screen having hole sizes no greater than 0.8 mm., subjecting the refined soap to amalgamation where a non-aqueous slurry containing polyethylene glycol having an average molecular weight of about 600 and additional glycerin is added to and mixed with said soap, the amount of said polyethylene glycol added to said soap being from about 2.5 to about 4.5% by weight of said soap including any of said polyethylene glycol that is added to said neat soap, the amount of glycerin so added being at least about 0.5% by weight of said soap with the total amount of glycerin in said soap including that added to the heat soap not exceeding 3.5% of the weight of said soap, subjecting said soap to refining using a screen having openings no greater than about 0.8 mm. and thereafter compacting and extruding said soap in a continuous log which can be cut and stamped into bars.