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Several things are going on here. First, if the aromatic chemicals in the FO are altered by strong lye, the scent will fade quite a bit from the presence of lye until saponification is complete. Takes a few days for CP. Second, some of the aromatic chemicals will evaporate from the soap...

I started by making shaving soap, and figured it was cheap so I might as well make bath soap too. I'm a bit picky about scents and have always had trouble finding soap I liked, so I jumped right in. My mother is 93, and has been complaining about itching skin for a couple years. Her helper...

I plan to try this when I get some time. Next rainy weekend day perhaps (although around here that could be December, fall keeps getting warmer and dryer). I will follow the initial instructions on the Spanish Journey blog post -- dissolve the lye in the water, let it cool, then add the olive...

Week Six update: I'll be starting to use these in the shower soon, will post updates as I use them. Fierce: Has faded considerably, and is now the spicy scent I was expecting from the descriptions. Helped a bit by the fact my house is full of basil scent at the moment, harvested a big...

Week five update: Fierce: Faded a bit more, but still present. Still smells like arrogant adolescent at the mall to me, but other people will like it. Still slightly pink, too. Drakkar: Faded some a mellowed, much nicer now that when fresh. Close to the original, but no my personal idea...

Personally I like high lard and tallow soaps. Nice very hard bars. last a long time, decent lather, get me clean, which is the point. I have fairly oily skin, though, so someone who finds commercial soaps very drying may want a different mix of oils. Don't waste large amounts of cocoa butter...

Flash point has a specific definition -- quite literally, it is the temperature where the substance will "flash" a temporary flame across a defined size pool of liquid when a flame (usually a natural gas flame) it "touched" to the surface. It is a measure of how easy the liquid is to ignite...

Tetrasodium EDTA will also reduce the soap scum effect, although if you have water as hard as mine is, nothing is going to remove it completely. It's easier to use than citric acid as no compensation is needed for lye consumption.

Week four update: Fierce: Has faded considerably, but not changed. Much less offensive to me at the current odor level, but I'm not looking forward to using this bar. Not my kind of scent. Reminds me of the locker room at the Y in Sault Ste. Marie for some reason today. Drakkar: Also much...

I would either drop back to the well known "30, 30, 30" formulation of coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil (or at least put that in SoapCalc and look at the fatty acid profile) or greatly reduce both the unsaponifiables and coconut oil. Compared to the soaps I like, you have too much lauric...

The number for hardness, cleansing, etc in SoapCalc are simply calculated from the ratios of the fatty acids. They do not account for differences in soap composition, so they are really not steady numbers anything but comparison. I pay more attention to the fractional amounts of fatty acids --...

Some recipes have a distinct and obvious "vaseline" gel stage and other's don't. I suspect it depends on the stearic/plamitic acid to oleic/linoleic ratio, with higher stearic acid soaps not showing much "vaseline". If you did a water discount, you won't see much gel either, and the end...

I prefer my shaving soaps to have very muted scents, and would use half a gram of each ppo. If you use at least 60% KOH, the soap should be soft enough to knead in more if that isn't enough. I've not used those eo's so can't say for sure, but that amount should be equivalent to Haslinger's or...

Drakkar was released in 1972, just about the peak of the Disco craze. Very popular with the "bigger than their britches" fraternity types and other wannabe fakers, at least in my part of the world. Too many guys who thought "if two drops is good, half the bottle of something expensive is much...

Made a mostly successful "fluid" HP soap. Ended up a bit lumpy, will use a little more water initially next time I think. Actually turned into soap in less than 15 min, though. I think the secret is to use some sugar in the lye water for extra heat, otherwise it tends to hang for a long time...

Week three update: Fierce: Has faded down to a spicey cologne scent I might even like. Quite faint (thank heavens) compared to the initial, will see how long it hangs in there, and if it scents my skin when I use it (a big NOT for me). Drakkar: Still singing Donna Summer, but not nearly...

There are two Great Value shortenings, one has tallow (and a picture of fried chicken on the label) and the other is vegetable oils, probably cottonseed oil and soy (and a picture of a pie on the label). Both are reputed to work well in soap. Just make sure you get the one you want. The...

Those should both be very nice shaving soaps! I like to add my superfat after the cook, usually cocoa butter and shea butter, occasionally lanolin for a friend of mine.

I've gotten a wild hair to play with color in soaps since my red palm oil worked out nicely -- 5% gives me a solid dark yellow, so I can use less and get a variety of yellows. I'd like to stick with natural colorants at the moment, so decided I could get some indigo powder and get a range of...

I'm not sure you can put enough EDTA in soap to prevent soap scum while washing with it, the volume of water used in rinsing will contain enough calcium/magnesium to use up whatever EDTA was in the soap. You might try 1% EDTA and see if that helps, I'm not sure more than that is a good idea...