# How much butter? (shea, cocoa, illipe, kokum, or mango)



## HeartlandSoap (Nov 18, 2009)

Hi all,

I have finally gotten to the point that I have a recipe that I like with just the oils that I want to use.  I have tried to find a nice hard bar but also find one that won't melt easily and is still conditioning.  Such a fine line indeed.

Anyway, I want to add a butter to add to the hardness and the conditioning.

Butters aren't cheap.  But I want to add enough to make a noticeable difference in the hardness.

What is the best percentage to start with?


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## IrishLass (Nov 19, 2009)

I would say that anywhere between 5% and 10% is good. I use 6% cocoa butter in my Castile-type soap and it lends a good hardness to it.

IrishLass


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## wiccaronja (Nov 19, 2009)

Olive oil makes a very hard soap. Or cacao butter. almond butter. I use 10-20%.

And I use 60-70% of butters for a hard soap.

Good luck ;-)


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## holly99 (Nov 19, 2009)

I have used various amounts but I've decided that I like butters at only 5% and my bars are nice and hard but that is also because of the other solid oils I use. Not to mention that olive makes a hard bar and so on...


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## HeartlandSoap (Nov 19, 2009)

Thanks!  I am going to try a 10% illipe in my current recipe and see what happens.  

I did look at some things on Soapcalc last night though and found that Mango butter looks to be a good balance of hard and conditioning.  Harder than Shea but just as conditioning.

Illipe is the hardest at this point.  But also the most spendy.


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## holly99 (Nov 19, 2009)

Mango is the butter I prefer to use. I love it!


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## HeartlandSoap (Nov 19, 2009)

holly99 said:
			
		

> Mango is the butter I prefer to use. I love it!



Yeah, I was thinking about that too.  I am going to try some lip balms and salves and wanted to save the Mango for those because I hate grainy lip balms and have heard Shea can be grainy.

Mango is half the price of Illipe. 

Just finished my batch a while ago.  I do CP so will know in a day or so how it looks.  Won't know for a few weeks about the smell.


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## alwaysme07 (Nov 20, 2009)

Cocoa butter makes a lovely soap, every recipes I add different amount to see if there is any differents to the soaps and as far as I can tell there isn't. I'm out of cocoa butter so I have to play with the shea butter, but that not a bad soap. My mother like the shea over the cocoa one.


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## kaseencook (Nov 21, 2009)

I just made a cp batch today with coco butter, it was:

300g cocoa butter
70g coconut oil (for bubbles)
550g of olive oil

230g of water
120g of Lye
(25% water as a percent of oil, very low amount of water)

I made it at about 11am, and when I got back to it this afternoon at about 5pm it was very hard and I cut it up and it was even dry/cured enough to use a soap stamp on without sticking.... One of my favorites! I like the hard and dense ones.


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## carebear (Nov 21, 2009)

sounds delightful!!!


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## Zenobiah (Nov 21, 2009)

Sounds wonderful! Hubby prefers OO/CO soap for shaving.


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