# Sapwn's Soaps



## Sapwn (Jun 12, 2013)

Thank you Hazel and AngelMomma!


Thank you Relle for your comments.
I post here some picks of the unwrapped soaps. 










The reason I wrapped many of them is that I don’t have enough space to store them unwrapped. Wrapping them helps me store them better.

Since I made a lot of bars, there will be plenty of time for curing and maturing.



Here you see Marseille soap in the front, Aleppo soaps in the Middle, and Rosemary soaps in the end.









　

While here you see olive oil soaps. The first ones are 70% olive pomace oil and palm or coconut oil, and the last ones in the end are 100% extra virgin olive oil soaps.









The three dark soap bars are the Sulphur soaps. These last ones are a total failure. They turned from yellow to brown-black after one day of trace formation and since then they seem to have stop the saponification progress. I cannot understand why :shifty:


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## Sapwn (Jun 14, 2013)

I saw that some moderator moved the above post here starting this thread. 

Excuse me for posting it initially in the wrong place :-|
 
　

I will continue to present my soaps here. Any comment is welcome. 

Note that these are my first attempts and that all the recipes are practically an experiment. 

　

Unrefined Cocoa butter

Unrefined Shea butter

Castor oil

Superfat: 5%

Gardenia FO

Curing time: 1 month



















　

This is a very hard bar. It smells something between cocoa and gardenia. The do not combine well together. I thought that the cocoa scent will go away after reacting with NaOH but it is still present. It must be the superfat that kept the cocoa scent.

The lather is not great. However, it cleaned very decently my hands.


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## Hazel (Jun 14, 2013)

It's okay about posting in the wrong section. People do it all the time. :grin:



Sapwn said:


> Note that these are my first attempts and that all the recipes are practically an experiment.
> 
> Unrefined Cocoa butter
> Unrefined Shea butter
> ...




Nice soap! Please correct me if I'm wrong but the way you posted the above recipe makes me think you only used butters and castor oil for your soap. Is this what you did?

As for the soap, can you take up close pics of the ones you're having problems? Detailed pics and the recipes you used may be able to help us troubleshoot the batches.


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## Sapwn (Jun 14, 2013)

Hazel said:


> Nice soap! Please correct me if I'm wrong but the way you posted the above recipe makes me think you only used butters and castor oil for your soap. Is this what you did?
> 
> As for the soap, can you take up close pics of the ones you're having problems? Detailed pics and the recipes you used may be able to help us troubleshoot the batches.


 

Yes. This is a two butters and one oil soap.
Didn't know if it could work. I was just experimenting the while thing.


These are closer pics.

One side:







And the other:








And this is the lather I get. It is not the best, however, it is better than the lather of an olive oil soap. And it really cleans well.
It also leaves the skin smooth after washing the hands.


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## Hazel (Jun 14, 2013)

The lather looks very creamy which is consistent with an all butter/castor soap. Have you seen the info about Zen Soaps' single oil experiment? You might find it useful to read what the different oils turned out like. http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm

What did you want the lather to be like? Did you want more bubbles and cleansing? If so, I'd suggest adding some coconut or palm kernel oil to the recipe. However, you'd also want to add a conditioning oil to offset the dryness from the coconut.

Which batch was it that you said appeared to stop saponifying and which batch turned a dark color?


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## Sapwn (Jun 14, 2013)

Hazel said:


> Have you seen the info about Zen Soaps' single oil experiment? You might find it useful to read what the different oils turned out like. http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm


 
Yes, I have seen this site and I found it very useful to understand the characteristics that each oil can give to the soap.

Thank you for reminding it, I will check it again.

　



Hazel said:


> What did you want the lather to be like? Did you want more bubbles and cleansing?


 
I made it to see myself how it is. I cannot say that I am satisfied with this kind of lather. I would prefer it with many many more bubbles. However, it is cleansing enough. 

　

　



Hazel said:


> Which batch was it that you said appeared to stop saponifying and which batch turned a dark color?


 
Thank you for asking! This is my greatest failure! 

I am really disappointed because I love sulphur soaps and it seems that I am not able to make one. I have made some excellent melt&pour soaps with sulphur, but I cannot make a real one.

Since sulphur is a salt, I thought it would be the same process as making a salt bar.

So I followed a recipe with 1/3 coconut oil, 1/3 palm oil and 1/3 canola oil.

After trace formation I added 10% sulphur. At the beginning it was nice and yellow as it should be, but after an hour it turned dark brown. After two days it was still very difficult to take it out of the silicon molds. This would never have happened if no sulphur was added in the recipe. I did other soaps with the same oil and they were hard enough to take them out of the mold just 5-6 hours after trace.

After 3 weeks of curing they are still dark brown and very soft. Note in the pictures how easy it is to destroy them with one figure.
































I consider these soaps failed and I am keeping them only to see how they change with time.

The problem is that I have not understand yet what went wrong.

I repeated the whole process again, and the result was the same. I through them away.

I really don’t know how to make a sulphur soap and I desperately want to do it since sulphur soaps were always my favorites. They deep clean my face as no one else does.

Any suggestions?????


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## Hazel (Jun 14, 2013)

I've never used sulfur so I had to do some digging. These discussions may help you.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f34/sulfur-soap-32787/
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/sulfur-soap-6539/
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/soap-mushy-sulfur-walnut-13407/

If the softness of your soap isn't due to an incorrect amount of lye, you might want to consider making the recipe without the sulfur to make sure the problem isn't with the recipe. If the soap firms up, then I'd suggest rebatching to add the sulfur. I don't know why it turned dark unless it had something to do with the sulfur causing discoloration. I will check around to see if I can find any more info on sulfur. I'll post the info if I find something. 

Hopefully, someone will be able to give an answer. You may have to be a little patient for a response.


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## Sapwn (Jun 14, 2013)

Thank you for helping Hazel.

And yes, the recipe was correct and the amount of lye as well. I repeated the procedure without sulphur and the soaps were excellent.

Note that i can only do the cold process and maybe the solution in this is the hot process. Hope not :cry:


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## Sapwn (Jun 14, 2013)

Hazel said:


> http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f34/sulfur-soap-32787/
> http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/sulfur-soap-6539/
> http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/soap-mushy-sulfur-walnut-13407/


 



I had read two of the three threads you suggest Hazel.

The one that I see now for the first time suggest to add sulphur within the oils and let them cool before adding the water with the lye.

This is something I never tried.

So I did it right away. 

18gr Canol oil

18g Coconut oil

24g Palm kernel oil

7g sulpur

23gr water

10g NaOH

0% superfat




It appears to have the right color. 

Let’s see how it changes until tomorrow morning.


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## Hazel (Jun 14, 2013)

I don't feel like I really helped since I couldn't offer an answer other than directing you to other discussions. Good luck! I hope it works.


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## Sapwn (Jun 15, 2013)

Failed again!



This is 5 minutes after trace:











This is one hour after:














And this is 8 hours after. Changed completely to dark brown. Somehow, the lye reacts with sulphur and the soap changes completely.










I don’t know if there is any way to make a sulphur soap with CP :-?


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## DeeAnna (Jun 15, 2013)

Honestly, from what I'm finding out about sulfur soap making (and I'm not finding much, by the way) --

I am not certain you can successfully make a CP soap with sulfur. 

Sulfur and water react to form sulfuric acid  and hydrogen sulfide.  The hydrogen sulfide will stink. Sulfuric acid is a strong acid. It will react with the lye and break down the oils, so I believe it is the acid that is making  your soap too soft and very dark.

I would recommend that you rebatch one of your nice CP soaps and add the sulfur to the rebatch. Or make a hot process soap and add sulfur after the cook.


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## DeeAnna (Jun 15, 2013)

Okay, I just stumbled upon this work done by a fellow in Portugal to make sulfur soap. His report may answer a lot of our questions, although I have not read it carefully. Here is a link:

http://www.japudo.com.br/en/2013/04/30/sulfur-soap-a-trial/

Enjoy!

Edit: I stand corrected -- Robert Akira is from Brazil, not Portugal.


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## Sapwn (Jun 15, 2013)

Thank you very much DeeAnna for your useful comments.

As I was losing any hope of making this soap with CP I tried today morning a HP with palm kernel oil, coconut oil and canola oil and added the sulphur after cooking and before placing it to the mold.
 
The soap became immediately dark brown when I added the sulphur:









　

But after a couple of hours it changed to yellow, as industrial sulphur soaps are:










And after 7 hours it is yellow. The brown one is the CP sulphur soap that I tried to do yesterday.








　

I will leave this to cure for a couple of days and then I will try it.
 



And now I am going to read the site you gave me.


Thank you very much!!!


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## DeeAnna (Jun 15, 2013)

I think you are moving in the right direction with adding sulfur to HP soap. It is good that your HP soap is the right color and not too soft. Bravo!


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## Hazel (Jun 15, 2013)

It sounds like you're on your way to a solution for this problem.


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## DeeAnna (Jun 15, 2013)

I think it is amazing how the color darkened so dramatically, then changed back to a light yellow. Wow. :shock:


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## Sapwn (Jun 16, 2013)

I couldn’t wait 2 two days to cure.

After 24 hours it appears like this:






　

It is not even yellow any more. A pale beige / white would say.

I used it to clean my face and it did fine.

The lather is acceptable. Creamy and effective.






　

I think I finally made real sulphur soap.

Now I need to improve the recipe and the cooking method. 

　

Thank you all for your help!


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## Sapwn (Jun 16, 2013)

Another soap presentation.

　

This one is a single acid soap. 100% stearic acid soap and Marseille FO witch I really like.

Made about a month ago. Superfat at 5%.

Rich lather. I think I like this stearic acid a lot!


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## soapart (Jun 16, 2013)

Hi Sapwn,
I have been reading your Sulphur Soap posts with interest.  I am delighted that you seem to have solved the problem you were having.
Please excuse my ignorance but I was just wondering what the benefits of sulphur are in CP soaps?
Thanks Kerry


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## Sapwn (Jun 16, 2013)

Hi Soapart. Thank you for the comment.

Sulphur soap was one of the many things I was advised to use by a dermatologist when I was a teenager and had a face full of acne. The soap, combined which the rest of the treatment helped me a lot to depress my acne. Since then I always use it once a week or once every two weeks. 

I have noticed that it helps me to regulate my oily face skin and that it reduces my dermatitis seborrheic. When I feel that the dermatitis seborrheic returns I use the soap daily and it really helps me a lot.

This soap has deep cleansing properties and I don’t think that it would be beneficial for any type of skin. But in my case it is really good.


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## Sapwn (Jun 18, 2013)

Am I right that a 100% stearic acid soap will not produce any glycerin at all?


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## DeeAnna (Jun 18, 2013)

A soap  will not contain any glycerine if the soap has been made only from pure stearic acid. Pure stearic acid is a fatty acid, not a triacylglyceride. A triacylglyceride (aka triglyceride) is what you need to make soap that contains glycerin. This is a specific type of fat that is made (speaking loosely) of 3 fatty acids fastened to a glycerin backbone.


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## Sapwn (Jun 18, 2013)

Thank you DeeAnna !


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## Sapwn (Jul 2, 2013)

*A failed weekend*

Three batches of soap, three miserable failures :thumbdown:. 


The first batch is the shampoo bar. Made with HP and having difficulties to harden from the beginning. Two days after it remains a very soft bar. Unacceptable for hot process. I cannot understand what went wrong. I am thinking to through it away and make another batch with CP this time.









　

　

These two bars are made with tallow. 100% tallow the one in the north, 70% tallow plus 30% coconut the one in the south. Cold process both.

The color was white one day after as you see in the pic:











　
 
But 48 hours after they both turned light brown   :









　

　

Are they already rancid, or this is the color from the 5% cocoa butter at trace?


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## mel z (Jul 2, 2013)

For your tallow bars, I think the color is from the cocoa butter.

The north one has a partial gel, that is the oval shaped spot in the middle. It is perfectly fine, just what you are seeing. That is not rancidity.

The white powdery parts on the edges look like they could be soda ash, which can be washed off, scraped off, steamed off, rubbed off with some alcohol, or dipped into a salt bath and wiped off. The soap is still fine, not rancid, that is just ash and easily removed. It will not hurt the soap.

Then again, it could also be where the cocoa butter may not have blended into those parts fully, now that I look at it again and see it around the partial gel ring. Still it is not a problem.


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## Sapwn (Jul 2, 2013)

Thank you very much for the comments Mel!!!

I am happy to hear they are fine. They must cure now for at least 4 weeks before using one of them.


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## Sapwn (Sep 1, 2013)

*Butter Soap*

30% Unrefined Shea Butter
30% Unrefined Cocoa Butter
20% Mango Butter
20% Coconut Oil

5% Superfat

Calendula dried leaves.


This is a 80% butter soap.

Very hard. Excellent lather with many bubbles, even if i was worried about this. 
Very nice sensation on the skin after the use.


I did add some FO, but FO and Cocoa butter do not go well together.
The soap smells cocoa, which I find pleasant.


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## DeeAnna (Sep 1, 2013)

Sulfur soap is helpful for acne. Some people use it as a repellant and a treatment for chiggers -- the small insects that burrow into the skin. Some like it for other skin issues, such as dermatitis and rosacea.


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## PinkCupcake (Sep 1, 2013)

I love the pictures you posted in the beginning of the thread, especially your olive oil soaps. I haven't made any 100% olive oil soaps yet, but now I think I will have to! Beautiful work!


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## Skatergirl46 (Sep 1, 2013)

Interesting. I have all of those ingredients. How did it behave when you were making it?


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## Sapwn (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you Skategirl.
I don't remember any particular issues when making it 3 months ago.
I did CP and waited some time to cool down the melted butters but keeping them liquid before adding the lye solution.


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