# Shea Butter and Olive Oil soap/ Shea Butter



## Guywithsoap? (May 25, 2011)

Hi

I'm looking to make an Olive Oil soap and add some Shea butter. I am not going to use any other oils.

What would be a good recipe/ratio. I have seen only recipes that use 4-5 oils and that is not something i'm planning on doing.

is a 9-1 ratio ok Olive-Shea or should i go even lower....

If anyone has a recipe they would like to share i would appreciate it.


Also.....If there is some form of skin cream recipe I would appreciate it.

I don't want to use any form of preservative. I saw a recipe for whipped shea butter.


http://blackhair.about.com/od/products/ss/howtowhipsheabutter_9.htm

Does this look ok? Might I be able to add Lavender Oil. Will this stuff not go rancid, etc...? 

Here is another:
http://www.sheabutterskincare.com/shea-butter-cream-recipe

it appears they use Vitamin E as a preservative but I thought that this did not work well?


I would only make a small amount as a test. Thanks


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## busymakinsoap! (May 26, 2011)

Hi guywithsoap

As far as your soap recipe - anything is possible.  You dont need 4 - 5 oils to make a good bar.  I dont make high percentage olive oil bars, but from what I have read, they are loved by many - they just take a long time to cure (6 months I think).

As for your whipped shea.  I have made it once, and didnt realy like it.  Its quite greasy, you can add cornflour to it and it is ment to take away the greasy feel - but it didnt work for me.  Im a bit fussy though.

I've only made lotions a couple of times, but from what I can gather, you only use a preservative when you are adding water.  Because whipped butters are just...well butters that are whipped, there isnt a need for a preservative.  They will last as long as your shelf life of your shea.

hope this helps a little


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## ToniD (May 26, 2011)

I made a batch with 15% avocado butter and olive oil. I was going for a facial bar. I also had a small amount of white clay in it.    I let it cure for 6 months and it still did not have any appreciable lather.

Now,  1 yr later, they have become nice bars.    So,   I am guessing shea with olive probably would be a nice bar after a long cure.

I like whipped butters--mango/shea/ricebran being my favorite since it seems a bit lighter than  shea. Shea and olive would be very heavy.     They are basically 80% butter and 20% oil, whipped with a beater.    You can google swiftcraftymonkey and find all sorts of recipes on her site.

Sadly the problem with not preserving whipped butters is that stuff  can be introduced while the product is in use--especially if pkged in a jar..  I have wondered if malibu tubes would work, or if it would be to thick.


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## madpiano (May 30, 2011)

100% Olive Oil soap is perfectly fine (although not very nice in very hard water areas), you can add Shea Butter but the question would be why as it doesn't really add anything to the soap other than a nice name on the ingredient list. It won't make the soap harder or create any kind of lather and Shea can speed up trace (if you are using EVOO that might be a reason to add some shea as EVOO is very slow to trace)

Whipped Butters WITHOUT WATER is the way to go, if you want to go preservative free. So it will be 80% Shea and 20% Oils whipped up with an electric whisk. The oils can be anything you like. Play around to find what you like. It is a Body Butter in it's truest form (not just a heavy lotion like things from Soap & Glory), so it will be heavy and greasy. 

If you want something lighter you will have to add water. Which means Preservatives are a MUST, not optional and need to be researched. VitaminE is NOT a preservative. It stops fragile oils like Grapeseed and Hemp from going rancid too quickly, it doesn't preserve your formula. 
Not every preservative will work! You need to check with your supplier on PH range and Oil content of your formula to make sure it will work. 

To start with I would stick to water-free formulas, until you have a bit more experience with b&b products. Once you know why you are adding certain things and what they do, you can look into creams and lotions.


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## hobbiz (Jun 3, 2011)

madpiano said:
			
		

> 100% Olive Oil soap is perfectly fine (although not very nice in very hard water areas), you can add Shea Butter but the question would be why as it doesn't really add anything to the soap other than a nice name on the ingredient list. It won't make the soap harder or create any kind of lather and Shea can speed up trace (if you are using EVOO that might be a reason to add some shea as EVOO is very slow to trace)
> 
> Whipped Butters WITHOUT WATER is the way to go, if you want to go preservative free. So it will be 80% Shea and 20% Oils whipped up with an electric whisk. The oils can be anything you like. Play around to find what you like. It is a Body Butter in it's truest form (not just a heavy lotion like things from Soap & Glory), so it will be heavy and greasy.
> 
> ...


So brilliant. Love it. Thanks


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## NewSoapGuy (Jun 3, 2011)

madpiano said:
			
		

> 100% Olive Oil soap is perfectly fine (although not very nice in very hard water areas), you can add Shea Butter but the question would be why as it doesn't really add anything to the soap other than a nice name on the ingredient list. It won't make the soap harder or create any kind of lather and Shea can speed up trace (if you are using EVOO that might be a reason to add some shea as EVOO is very slow to trace)



I've never made an OO and shea ONLY soap, but I use a lot of both in my recipes.  I may actually try a shea butter bastille because I love what shea does in all my other soaps, it definitely has qualities that come through in the lather and conditioning "feel."


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## newbie (Jun 3, 2011)

I made a 90% OO and 10% shea soap back in early February and tried one recently for the lather. It has excellent lather already and seems to be a great bar. I also made on with 90% OO, 5% Castor Oil and 5% shea which also seems good, but I think I like the 90/10 one better.

You could make a couple of small batches with varying amounts of shea (a 5, 10, and 15% bar and see how they do down the road. the problem is having to wait for months to see the results!


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## soapbuddy (Jun 3, 2011)

Vit E is an anti-oxidant. Just as long as there is no water in the whipped butter and no chance of introducing wet fingers into the butter you should be ok.


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## madpiano (Jun 10, 2011)

our water here is definitely not OO friendly - I made some 100% OO soap 2 years ago and it still feels like snail slime under the shower. 

Not sure why - I do know that we have very hard water here that isn't just hard from Calcium (funny enough we only have a PH of 7.2), but there are quite a lot of other minerals in here - absolute nightmare if you want to keep Discus Fish or use 100% OO soap....


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## Guywithsoap? (Jul 23, 2011)

I've decided to do a whipped shea.

I am going to use Shea and Grapeseed oil. Plus Lavender EO.

I have looked at a few different recipes and have some questions. 

One of the links I provided in the first post uses Coconut oil. I am under the impression that this is too hard. Is it?

I looked at Swiftmonkeys blog and saw the ratio as 80 (shea) 20(oil). Does this sound good for those who have made it.
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2 ... tters.html


I saw that most recipes require you to whip the shea. Some videos I saw on youtube said as much as 45 min of whipping.

But then i saw this vid...the women in the video did not whip the butter?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5gbdL0yUIY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5gbdL0yUIY[/ame]

Any general comments would be helpful. 

Thanks.


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## FreeRabbit (Jul 23, 2011)

I did shea- OO- CO in my first 3 batches, less bubbly (small bubbles only), but very hard, creamy and nice.
also it would seem shea is very ashy for some reason and it makes little white dots on the soap surface (dont know why?)

now I moved on to try the palm instead of the shea- looks like more bubbles bigger bubbles, a little less hard, and a little more creamy.

also a good point is that palm is much cheaper then shea


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## MissMori (Jul 23, 2011)

NewSoapGuy said:
			
		

> madpiano said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I make true Castiles and Bastiles all the time.  Castiles are better after a good long cure.  Lather is sparse compared to my bars with a high % of coconut or pko, but I love the Castile for when my hands are chapped and there is nothing better for bathing a baby.

As for the olive/shea combo... try 5% shea, 10% shea, but not too much more.  With such a high degree of olive, it won't speed trace that much.  Also, watch your liquid (water or otherwise) amount.  To get a firmer bar without having to wait until next summer, reduce your water amount.  I typically use a 1:1 or a 1:1.5 ratio of NaOH to liquid with a castile.

I don't know if EVOO in London is the same as I purchase, but I do have to warn against using it.  For one, it is much more expensive than olive oils from second or third pressings.  I typically use what is labeled here (USA) as "pure" or "pomace."  My pure olive is exactly that, 100% olive oil.  Secondly, all the unsaponifiables, the stuff that really makes EVOO so tasty will not turn into soap.  You risk having the bars get funking... DOS... do they have the dreaded orange spots in London?

Another tip, after you pour it in your mold, stick it in the oven for 4 hours at 150F.  It will force the gel and you will get a harder bar a bit sooner.  It can also reduce the sliminess of castile soaps.  Other thing that reduces sliminess is a good long cure.

Have fun!  Cheers!


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## hanabi (Dec 31, 2017)

newbie said:


> I made a 90% OO and 10% shea soap back in early February and tried one recently for the lather. It has excellent lather already and seems to be a great bar. I also made on with 90% OO, 5% Castor Oil and 5% shea which also seems good, but I think I like the 90/10 one better.
> 
> You could make a couple of small batches with varying amounts of shea (a 5, 10, and 15% bar and see how they do down the road. the problem is having to wait for months to see the results!




Hey
could could I get the exact recipe from you on how to make this soap.
Thank you 
PS: do you have a recipe for whipped soap made only with OO, Shea and Coconut oil ?


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## shunt2011 (Dec 31, 2017)

hanabi said:


> Hey
> 
> could could I get the exact recipe from you on how to make this soap.
> 
> ...



This post is almost 7 years old. You would be better off starting a new thread.  

That is the exact recipe. You would need to enter it into a soap calculator for the size batch you want to make to get the Lye/water needed for your recipe size.  

Can’t help with whipped soap as I’ve never made it. Sorry.


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