# Cream Soap Question



## Stinkydancer (Sep 24, 2013)

Any Guru's out there?? This may not be a hard question I don't know yet- LOL.

Can I do anything to make my Cream Soap less drying? I mean it made my skin tight and dry. I haven't felt this in a long time. 
So can I add anything to make it less so?

I tested with Phenol and it was clear. I have rotted it for over a year so it probably isn't that.

I just want to know what if anything I can do to fix it.

Oh and pray I don't blow up my kitchen tomorrow- making Liquid soap with the Glycerin method if I don't chicken out again. LOL I have made LS before but never heating KOH. Yikes!

Thanks in advance!
Recipe:
Coconut 12.5%
Castor 9.38%
Olive Oil 6.25%
Jojoba 9.38%
Stearic 62.50%- I think this is where I messed up with the recipe formulation?


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## lsg (Sep 25, 2013)

I can't help you with the cream soap, but once you have made liquid soap using the glycerin method, you won't want to do it any other way. That is the only method I use to make liquid soap. The lady in the link below has a method of making cream soap that uses grated cp soap, liquid soap and stearic acid. That is the method I like best because it uses up some of my cp soap scraps. You will have to pay to access the site as it is paid tutorials. She has lots of tutorials and recipes though.
http://www.soapgradpage.soapmakingschool.com/


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## Stinkydancer (Sep 25, 2013)

lsg said:


> I can't help you with the cream soap, but once you have made liquid soap using the glycerin method, you won't want to do it any other way. That is the only method I use to make liquid soap. The lady in the link below has a method of making cream soap that uses grated cp soap, liquid soap and stearic acid. That is the method I like best because it uses up some of my cp soap scraps. You will have to pay to access the site as it is paid tutorials. She has lots of tutorials and recipes though.
> http://www.soapgradpage.soapmakingschool.com/



Thanks I'll check it out. I'm still working up the courage this morning for the LS- lol. I don't know why it's freaking me out so bad, I think it's just the heating part of the KOH.
I'll let you know how it goes!


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## Lindy (Sep 25, 2013)

I do an 8% SF when making cream soap which does help but other than for shaving cream it's not my favourite soap...


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## Stinkydancer (Sep 25, 2013)

Lindy said:


> I do an 8% SF when making cream soap which does help but other than for shaving cream it's not my favourite soap...



I think I'm with you. I'm probably going to pitch it.


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## Lindy (Sep 25, 2013)

Turn it into shaving soap.  Experiment on yourself and add some clay to use it.


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## hellil soap (Sep 26, 2013)

Dear dancer,

I add to my soap shea and coco butter to get soap with cream feeling ( max 10 %) 





Sent from my iPhone using Soap Making


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## Stinkydancer (Sep 26, 2013)

Thanks to you both!


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## Robert (Sep 28, 2013)

If you're used to using bars of soap, it's possible that with the cream soap you're just using more soap at a time, because you can, and therefore it's drying.


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## Lindy (Sep 29, 2013)

Actually Robert because of the Stearic Acid it is not as conditioning.


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## Robert (Sep 29, 2013)

Lindy said:


> Actually Robert because of the Stearic Acid it is not as conditioning.


That's strange.  Usually stearic acid is included in soaps & other toiletries for conditioning!


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## lsg (Sep 29, 2013)

I don't really think it is a conditioning agent in cream soap. Its surfactant-like characteristics in shaving cream may hydrate the beard making it softer and easier to remove, but I don't recall reading of it as a conditioning agent in soap. I know it is used to harden cp soap.


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## Robert (Sep 29, 2013)

lsg said:


> I don't really think it is a conditioning agent in cream soap. Its surfactant-like characteristics in shaving cream may hydrate the beard making it softer and easier to remove, but I don't recall reading of it as a conditioning agent in soap. I know it is used to harden cp soap.


Sodium & potassium stearate are of low solubility and certainly are believed to make soaps milder and less drying than shorter chain soaps.  Excess stearic acid is put in as a conditioner or at least a demulcent.


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## Lindy (Sep 30, 2013)

Actually Robert I beg to differ.  In soap it increases the depth of the lather but reduces the conditioning properties.  If you use SM3 you can use the graph to detail it.

Let me run a simply recipe and I will demonstrate the properties


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## Lindy (Sep 30, 2013)

Here is a recipe without Stearic Acid, please note the graph...


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## Lindy (Sep 30, 2013)

I've now added stearic acid at the rate used in cream soap, you will note how much the moisturizing level has dropped.  Hence drying....


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## Robert (Oct 1, 2013)

Then I'll point out that the model used by the program for "moisturizing" may not reflect reality at certain extremes.  But I'd also have to say that if you're using that much olive oil to start, you shouldn't expect to change the moisturizing by much by adding stearic acid.


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## Lindy (Oct 3, 2013)

Robert that is a sample recipe.....  this was for demonstration purposes.  You can accept or reject, but it doesn't change the science.  

I prefer to not beat dead horses so I'll just let this stand now...

Cheers


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## DeeAnna (Oct 3, 2013)

"...Sodium & potassium stearate are of low solubility and certainly are believed to make soaps milder and less drying than shorter chain soaps...."

Your statement is correct as shown. A soap made with higher palmitic or stearic levels will be milder by virtue of its lower solubility, compared with a soap with higher lauric and myristic. Less soap on your washcloth => milder. 

But conditioning is more than just reducing the solubility of a soap so it does not remove the body's oils as efficiently. Oleic, ricinoleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids are the ones that add the most to the property of conditioning. 

Several specific properties contribute to the overall property of "conditioning" IMO -- occlusion, emollience, and humectance. It may be that palmitic and stearic contribute some to these properties, but the unsaturated fatty acids do even more.


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## Robert (Oct 3, 2013)

DeeAnna said:


> "...Sodium & potassium stearate are of low solubility and certainly are believed to make soaps milder and less drying than shorter chain soaps...."
> 
> Your statement is correct as shown. A soap made with higher palmitic or stearic levels will be milder by virtue of its lower solubility, compared with a soap with higher lauric and myristic. Less soap on your washcloth => milder.
> 
> ...


That's true, and I wasn't thinking about that, but as I wrote, if you started with as much olive as in the sample calculation given above, you couldn't expect to affect that much.

Which reminds me: One thing I haven't seen mention of on this site is the role of unsaponifiables in kettle process soap for skin softening or conditioning.  I don't have an opinion about them based on experience, though apparently a lot of people in industry and hobbyists give a lot of credence to their role, so there's probably something to it.  Added fatty acid would contribute nothing to that fraction, but certain oils to be saponified would.


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## Evik (Oct 3, 2013)

Stinkydancer said:


> I tested with Phenol and it was clear. I have rotted it for over a year so it probably isn't that.



I just wanted to add that Phenolphtalein turns back clear at pH>12, so there is a slight possibility that your soap might be lye heavy... does it zap?


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