# High Shea butter soap



## Nao (Mar 12, 2017)

I happens to have a lot of Shea butter that I want to make use of and I tried making a soap with 20% when I was.. Well, newer to soap making and it wasn't very good with or without the Shea. Does anybody have any recipes/ thoughts they want to share? Would a higher superfat help with the drying effect maybe?


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## shunt2011 (Mar 12, 2017)

If you post your recipe we would be happy to help you out.


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## Nao (Mar 13, 2017)

Coconut oil 30%
Olive oil 20%
Rape seed oil 20%
Shea butter 20%
Palm 10%

I just ran it throu soapee and it's not actually that bad of a bar, minus the drying effect. But it would be fun to make a soap with 30% or so of Shea, somebody mentioned a 50% Shea bar so I assume it's doable. I wouldn't solely blame the coconut either since my skin doesn't seem ta have any problems with high coconut oil content. 

For what it's worth I also have the following oils:
Apricot kernel
Sweet almond
Neem 
A very small amount of avocado
Stearic acid
Mango butter
Cacao butter


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## Soapprentice (Mar 13, 2017)

Yup, Dixie has a recipe with 50% Shea. I want to give it a try though.


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## shunt2011 (Mar 13, 2017)

Nao said:


> Coconut oil 30%
> Olive oil 20%
> Rape seed oil 20%
> Shea butter 20%
> ...


 
In your first point you mentioned drying effect.   Then in this said it doesn't affect your skin.  So, my first question is what SF are you using?  I would change out the Rapeseed with Avocado or Apricot (I've not used it yet) oil or even add the difference to your Palm or lower it's percentage to 10% at most. And lower your CO to 20-25%.  I don't have a problem with higher CO but I also use either Coconut Milk or GM so it ups the SF from 6% to 7 or 8 ish and my skin has no problem even in the cold snowy winter time. 

I've not yet used more than 15% Shea or Cocoa in a recipe and plan on someday trying Dixiedragon's recipe.  

It may take several batches of your tweaking the recipe until you find what works best for your skin.  I know it took me a long time to find just the right recipes.  A lot of trial and error for sure.


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## Susie (Mar 13, 2017)

My first thought is that your coconut oil is quite high for me.  I seem to be one of the ones that are really sensitive to high CO.  I use no more than 15%.  If you post your entire recipe in weights, we can better help you troubleshoot.  We can quickly run it through a lye calculator, and make sure it has enough oils, etc.


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## Zany_in_CO (Mar 13, 2017)

I ran it through SoapCalc and it looks good, altho the cleansing value might be a little high? I'm wondering if it's new soap? And maybe if after a full 4 weeks cure   it would mellow out and not be as drying?

4.8 oz Coconut oil 30%
3.2 oz Olive oil 20%
3.2 oz  Rape seed oil 20%
3.2 oz Shea butter 20%
1.6 oz Palm 10%
16 oz TOTAL

6 oz Water (38%)
2.25 oz NaOH (5%)

Hardness    (29 - 54)    42
Cleansing    (12 - 22)    20 <<< High
Conditioning    (44 - 69)    54
Bubbly    (14 - 46)    20
Creamy    (16 - 48)    21
Iodine    (41 - 70)    58
INS    (136 - 165)    150

Sat:Unsat Ratio    45:55 <<< Good


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## Millie (Mar 13, 2017)

Are you using it as a face soap or a body soap?


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## cmzaha (Mar 13, 2017)

Here is a post from one I have made using 56% shea. If I make it again, which I am thinking about doing I will lower the superfat to 2% -3% which is normal for me. There are more answers from others. I still have one bar left from 2012 and it is lovely with big fat bubbles.   http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=62326&highlight=shea&page=2


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## dixiedragon (Mar 13, 2017)

Soapprentice said:


> Yup, Dixie has a recipe with 50% Shea. I want to give it a try though.


 
It's not my recipe, I copied it from somebody here. I can't remember the poster - I would gladly give them credit! For some reason I think it was a guy??

Castor 5
Coconut 20
Shea butter 50
Sunflower 25
2% superfat.

IMO this soap needs a longer aging than a lard soap. I made this in June 2016 for the Fragrance Blend swap. The first time I used it didn't lather well, but after the first few uses it's good!


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## dibbles (Mar 13, 2017)

dixiedragon said:


> It's not my recipe, I copied it from somebody here. I can't remember the poster - I would gladly give them credit! For some reason I think it was a guy??
> 
> Castor 5
> Coconut 20
> ...



Dixie, I got a bar of that soap in the swap. Since I had to try them all, I have just finished using the last of it. I thought it was a very nice soap, and would make it. I don't remember any lathering issues, even at the beginning, but I have soft water and that probably makes a difference.


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## dixiedragon (Mar 13, 2017)

Glad you liked it!


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## Nao (Mar 14, 2017)

Thank you everybody for your help and input, I will keep those things in mind when making the new soap. I will also try the recipes you suggested.

Though I wonder why a fair amount of people experience high shea soaps as drying since Shea doesn't have a high cleansing number on its own. Is there something else in it that makes it drying or is it just that some people's skin doesn't tolerate it for no particular reason or can it happened to be that the soaps they make is made up of a lot of cleansing oils and they just misinterpreted  it as being the sheas fault?


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## Zany_in_CO (Mar 14, 2017)

JUST AN FYI

First of all, people who are allergic to latex may also be allergic to  shea butter. Secondly, I just checked a Single Oil Swap that included  both raw shea and refined shea. The refined shea was far better than the  raw shea in every respect.   Thirdly:

SHORT STORY: One  day I was toodling along, NaOH solution was made, and I was measuring my  oils into my soap pot, when I discovered I didn't have enough shea  butter to finish the batch! YIKES! What to do? My second rule for  soaping is "Don't Panic", so I took a deep breath to calm down. I then  decided to use soap calc to see if there was a good sub for shea butter.  I put 100% shea butter in and hit Calculate. The numbers showed up in  the right column on the upper left corner of the page. Then I started  ticking one oil (on the selection list) after another to see what came closest. Those values showed up in the left column, right beside the shea values for easy comparison. Lo and behold,  you'll never guess! It was (lardinator alert) LARD! It's qualities and  fatty acid values were almost identical to shea butter. Lard saved the  day! and I honestly could not tell the difference between it and the  original formula. 

So, since I love lard soaps, maybe a 100% shea butter soap is in order? It's on my Round Tuit List! 

HTH


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## dixiedragon (Mar 14, 2017)

CeeMoor - yes, I too am a lardinator! I made that soap as an experiment, and also b/c I'd like to have a good all-veggie recipe.


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## Zany_in_CO (Mar 14, 2017)

dixiedragon said:


> CeeMoor - yes, I too am a lardinator! I made that soap as an experiment, and also b/c I'd like to have a good all-veggie recipe.


Cool!


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