# would this be a good soap recipe?



## mandalee73 (Mar 2, 2010)

excuse me for the dumb beginner Q  

I am trying to find a reasonably hard ( to last longer) but nicely conditioning bar of (cp) soap.
I have very dry skin and a few of my kids have dermatitis.
ok here goes...

coconut oil fractioned-20%
olive oil- 20%
avocado oil-30%
castor oil- 5%
shea butter- 20%
cocoa butter-5%

anything I can do to make it better? anything there that is superflous??

TIA

Amanda


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## agriffin (Mar 9, 2010)

That seems to be a lot of avocado oil which is quite expenseve.  It would help if you had some palm or lard (or tallow).  This is from my blog but this explain my thoughts when I try to formulate a recipe...sorry it's kind of long...  

Make a recipe your own! My favorite combinations:

These are some great starter recipes. Once you are comfortable making the basic recipes...EXPERIMENT! Make your own modifications, adding oils, changing percentages, etc. As always...run your recipe through a lye calculator to get correct lye/water amounts.

For example: 

This basic recipe makes a hard lathery bar. If you want the soap more mild, use more olive and less coconut. You can sub some coconut, olive or lard with hemp seed oil, sweet almond, avocado...etc. to find what you like. You can play around with adding 2-5% cocoa butter or shea butter. Run your recipe through soap calc to get the properties that your combination will produce.

50% Lard

23.5% Coconut Oil

23.5% Olive Oil

3% Castor

This basic recipe makes a hard lathery bar as well, but contains no animal fats. Instead of lard, you can use Palm Oil. And the same as above...if you want the soap milder, use more olive and less coconut. You can sub some coconut, olive or palm with hemp seed oil, sweet almond, avocado...etc. to find what you like. You can play around with adding 2-5% cocoa butter or shea butter. Run your recipe through soap calc to get the properties that your combination will produce.

50% Palm

23.5% Coconut Oil

23.5% Olive Oil

3% Castor 

http://creativebyrd.blogspot.com/search/label/soap


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## carebear (Mar 9, 2010)

[quote="mandalee73"

coconut oil fractioned-20%
olive oil- 20%
avocado oil-30%
castor oil- 5%
shea butter- 20%
cocoa butter-5%[/quote]

I wouldn't use fractionated coconut oil.  I can cause your soap to seize and is really expensive compared to regular (76) coconut oil.  Save it for lotion or such.  I agree that 30% is a lot of avocado oil.  And 20% is a lot of shea - that is one EXPENSIVE bath you've designed!

I like the suggestions from agriffin above.  Lard is really a lovely oil for soap.  Among my favorites!  If not lard, then palm.  If you use those, the shea and cocoa are kinda superfluous IMO.


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## agriffin (Mar 9, 2010)

and be sure to superfat 5-7%, would you go any higher, Carebear?  I usually stick with 5-7 but some people go higher...


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## mandalee73 (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks griffin and carebear, luckily life has got in the way of making any soap as yet lol. 

Carebear, I am going to go with the lard,  thanks for that 

I am sooo glad I joined this forum! 

Amanda


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## Jody63 (Apr 4, 2010)

I also would take down the avocado and add some lard, say make the avocado 10% and add 20% lard.


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## Healinya (Apr 4, 2010)

30% avocado is a lot. I made a test batch once with 30%, I didn't care for it at all at first. A few months later, it was wonderful. This was my recipe:

30% Avocado
27% Coconut
20% Rice Bran (you can switch this with olive oil)
16% Lard
5% Castor

I made this in August '09, so I can only speak for it up to eight months lol.


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