# After shower, my skin becomes dry and white residue



## tarkus

Hi All,

I noticed after bathing my skin becomes dry and white residue. I tried 5% then 20% super fat. it looks like 20% is better. I know the water in Glendale is too hard. every time i shower after i apply coconut oil to solve the problem. is this quality of oil i use. any idea ?

thanks

Andre


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## snappyllama

Can you post your entire recipe so we can have some ideas on which oils might be the culprit?


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## tarkus

Sure,

Palm 27.43 %
coconut 27.43 %
olive oil 27.43 %
cocoa butter 8.85 %
caster oil 8.85 % 

also

100% coconut


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## Susie

That's a lot of coconut oil.  Try using less than 15%.  Put the balance into the palm oil.

Also, do you have an objection to using animal fats?


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## gigisiguenza

Holy moly ... With my skin, I wouldn't even have to actually wash with that soap to dry out.... I could just enter it's gravitational field and it would start sucking the moisture outta me like a big ole deathstar of dryness LOL.


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## DeeAnna

Waaaaay too much coconut. I agree with Susie and Gigi!

To answer your questions -- this problem has nothing to do with the quality of the oils you are using and everything to do with the KIND of oils you use. It may also have something to do with having some unrealistic expectations about what soap can and cannot do.

Keep in mind that soap is supposed to clean, not moisturize. Soap with zero "cleansing" will still get you perfectly clean, by the way, so don't feel the need to use lots of coconut oil to get that "cleansing" number up there. 

What soap does not do is condition the skin. Even if you make your soap with an absurdly high superfat, you won't get the conditioning your skin may need -- and get a soap that has less lather, more softness, and more likely to become rancid (DOS). For serious conditioning, you need to be using a lotion or other leave-on product. 

Also, if your water is very hard and you are used to using commercial detergent-based "soap", then some of the "ash" you're seeing on your skin when you use your lye-based soap might actually be soap scum. A home water softener would be the best solution, but if that's not an option, you may want to consider adding a chelating chemical such as sodium citrate or tetrasodium EDTA to your soap.


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## tarkus

thank you for replay. good information.  Can I use salt instead of sodium citrate ?


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## DeeAnna

No. Salt (NaCl, table salt) is not a chelator. You need to use a chelator such as sodium citrate or tetrasodium EDTA to reduce soap scum.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman

You can make your own sodium citrate using citric acid (baking isle) and either lye or baking powder. I use it and really notice the difference with the scum.


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## cmzaha

I use my total batch weight times it by 3% to get how much citric acid I want. Then multiply the needed citric acid by 0.624 (thankyou to DeeAnna for the formula) for the extra lye necessary to make the sodium citrate. Recommended citric acid ranges from 1-3% depending on your water hardness. I use the sodium citrate method because I always have citric acid on hand and I do not have to purchase tetrasodium EDTA


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## tarkus

Thank you for your replay. now i have more questions.

1. how much sodium citrate to add I assume at trace?
2. I can use animal fat no problem. does this mean adding animal fat it will help ? if yes how much to add ?

Andre


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## DeeAnna

1. You can add sodium citrate directly to your soap OR you can let your soap make its own sodium citrate by adding citric acid plus the extra lye that the citric acid needs to change into sodium citrate.

Citric acid method: Read Carolyn's (cmzaha) reply for the citric acid method. She is adding 3% citric acid plus extra lye.

Sodium citrate method: If you want to add sodium citrate directly, then you would add 1.5% to 4% ppo of sodium citrate. _No extra lye_ is needed if you are using _sodium citrate_.

Add the sodium citrate or citric acid to the water before you add the lye OR add the sodium citrate or citric acid to the oils before you add the lye solution. Either way works, but some prefer one way or the other.

More info: http://classicbells.com/soap/citricAcid.html

2. Lard (animal fat) is an alternative to the palm oil and/or cocoa butter in your recipe. Many people think lard makes a milder soap compared to palm. It may also be less expensive than palm or cocoa butter. 

Lard won't change the problem with soap scum, however, if that's what you are wondering. 

If you replace the palm or cocoa butter with lard, be sure to run the new recipe through your favorite soap recipe calculator to make sure your lye weight is correct. Don't substitute fats without re-calculating the lye!


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## IrishLass

I know I'm in the minority in this thread 

, but for what it's worth, your recipe would be quite welcome in my household. The fatty acid profile is almost identical to my tallow/lard formula with only a few minor differences. I actually use a 31% combo of coconut and PKO in mine and I superfat it @ 8%. We find it to be quite lovely, which just goes to prove that not everyone's skin-likes are the same. 

A good case in point regarding the fact that our skin-likes are very individual things - at the end of August I was inspired by our 80% Lard thread here and made a soap with a high amount of lard (66%) with only 15% coconut oil, and my hubby and son did not like it any where near as much as they like my aforementioned tallow/lard formula. They gave me 2-thumbs down on it- they didn't like the diminished bubblage that they are used to from my usual recipe. I must confess that we are quite the household of die-hard bubble-fanatics. lol 

We have hard water, too, and I use tetrasodium EDTA to chelate mine, since I always have some on hand for my lotion (it works with my preservative system).


IrishLass


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## tarkus

Susie,

you asked about animal fats? do you have any suggestions to try ?

thanks

Andre

This weekend I am going to try less then 15% coconut as suggested also I have to buy sodium citrate to test. to make correct soap the way I am seeing it  is not that simple.

thank you all for your help.

Andre


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## The Efficacious Gentleman

Not Susie, but I can take a guess at her answer - LARD!  It might not sound like it, but it is really an amazing soaping oil.  Try a recipe with 50% Lard, 30% Olive, 15% CO and 5% Castor (or put that 5% in to the lard or olive if you can't get castor) and you will be in love.


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## Wildcraft_Garden

IrishLass said:


> I know I'm in the minority in this thread
> 
> , but for what it's worth, your recipe would be quite welcome in my household. The fatty acid profile is almost identical to my tallow/lard formula with only a few minor differences. I actually use a 31% combo of coconut and PKO in mine and I superfat it @ 8%. We find it to be quite lovely, which just goes to prove that not everyone's skin-likes are the same.
> 
> A good case in point regarding the fact that our skin-likes are very individual things - at the end of August I was inspired by our 80% Lard thread here and made a soap with a high amount of lard (66%) with only 15% coconut oil, and my hubby and son did not like it any where near as much as they like my aforementioned tallow/lard formula. They gave me 2-thumbs down on it- they didn't like the diminished bubblage that they are used to from my usual recipe. I must confess that we are quite the household of die-hard bubble-fanatics. lol
> 
> We have hard water, too, and I use tetrasodium EDTA to chelate mine, since I always have some on hand for my lotion (it works with my preservative system).
> 
> 
> IrishLass


I agree with Irish lass, I often use a 30% coconut recipe. 

My husband has very dry hands during our dry Canadian winter, and last year when I was making enough soap that we almost exclusively used it (and it was often the 30% coconut) - neither of us had dried cracked hands all winter. I'm sure we only used moisturiser a handful of times. 

Personal skin reactions and water definitely play a big role!


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## tarkus

Hi All,

I ordered sodium citrate it looks like this weekend I will get it. I checked it I have tallow not lard. can I replace lard with tallow? I will recalculate to get correct lye amount. so that's

50% tallow
30% olive
15% coconut
5% calstor

I never used lard or tallow.

thanks

Andre


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## Dharlee

tarkus said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I ordered sodium citrate it looks like this weekend I will get it. I checked it I have tallow not lard. can I replace lard with tallow? I will recalculate to get correct lye amount. so that's
> 
> 50% tallow
> 30% olive
> 15% coconut
> 5% calstor
> 
> I never used lard or tallow.
> 
> thanks
> 
> Andre



I use tallow in the same recipe and it works beautifully. Of course run it through the soap calculator. You will love the soap it produces. I superfat at 5% for this one, but you can go higher if you like.


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