# is it possible to have too much castor?



## seven (Feb 24, 2014)

sorry if this sounds silly.. i am making my 2nd ls as we speak. my 1st try , i was a bit disappointed with the bubbles and so i decided to up the castor from 15 to 35%. it is currently cooking in the crock, but i'm seeing signs of separation? there was this thin pool of oil at the bottom of the pot.

right now all i can do is keep stirring.. and pray that it'll go smooth sailing..

my recipe:
5% palm
35% castor
20% coconut
10% soybean
10% sunflower
20% pomace

bad recipe? yes? no?

ETA: the problem wasn't castor after all. solved


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## shunt2011 (Feb 24, 2014)

I wouldn't go that high with your castor.  Too much can make your soap sticky.   I would up your Coconut a bit like 22-25%.  I do 22 and have been pleased with that.  I would also up your palm to about 15-20%.  You can also add some sugar to your water and make sure it's dissolved before adding your lye.   I've never gone higher than 15% with castor but I also used sodium lactate so it didin't cause any problems.  Now I don't use more than 10%.


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## FGOriold (Feb 24, 2014)

The two things that I have noticed will increase bubbles in liquid soap are coconut milk as part of the liquid (I replace a portion of the water with coconut milk but add it at trace not with the KOH) and using a combination of KOH and NaOH instead of just NOH.  Cannot comment on that amount of castor oil as I have never used that much.


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## seven (Feb 24, 2014)

thanks guys. i finally figured out what i did wrong. it was a bit funny... if i was following the post at chickens on the road, it said to stick blend till it was very thick and stir till the soap got real thick, a spoon can stand on it. this obviously did not work for me. the soap got thick but ended up separating again. i think long and hard what i did with my 1st LS, and i finally figured it out. i only stick blended till about applesauce stage and left it to let it cook. it obviously worked. 

perhaps i forgot the part that i was using part glycerin as the liquid, while the blog post at chickens was using only water. i dunno if that was the case that caused my problem, but it's the only difference in the method.

ended up throwing the batch that separated and did a fresh batch. lowered the castor to 25 and it's cooking along beautifully as we speak


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## FGOriold (Feb 24, 2014)

Each formulation will go through the stages differently - some never get to that thick taffy stage, especially those very high in soft oils.


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## cmzaha (Feb 24, 2014)

seven said:


> sorry if this sounds silly.. i am making my 2nd ls as we speak. my 1st try , i was a bit disappointed with the bubbles and so i decided to up the castor from 15 to 35%. it is currently cooking in the crock, but i'm seeing signs of separation? there was this thin pool of oil at the bottom of the pot.
> 
> right now all i can do is keep stirring.. and pray that it'll go smooth sailing..
> 
> ...


 
This is the recipe I use for a supermild LS
Palm 30%
Olive 30%
Castor 20%
Coconut Oil 6%
Sunflower High Oleic 5%
Cocoa Butter 4%
Avocado Oil 5% 

Lauric =3
myrstic =1 
bubbly 22
cleansing 4

It lathers fantastic.
I stick blend and stir until it becomes very thick trace on low on the stove then remove the pan from the heat put a dish towel over it and a lid let it sit until it forms a hard paste. Then in the oven for cook for approx 3 hrs


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## seven (Feb 24, 2014)

FGOriold said:


> Each formulation will go through the stages differently - some never get to that thick taffy stage, especially those very high in soft oils.



ah okay.. good to know this. still learning a lot about LS. only 2 batches so far. i was very surprised when i saw what happened with my failed batch. it traced, and looked exactly like the blog post at chickens, thick, stiff, and all. but in 30 mins it all came to a horrid mess, LOL! no matter what i did (god knows how many times i've tried to SB it back), it just won't...



cmzaha said:


> This is the recipe I use for a supermild LS
> Palm 30%
> Olive 30%
> Castor 20%
> ...



thanks so much for sharing your recipe. one question, with that much palm, did you find your soap cloudy? i've read that too much palm can interfere with the clearness of the soap. that's why i didn't dare to go above 5%.


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