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This...may not be popular, but cut the coconut oil completely (I know, it's supposed to be much more friendly these days, but I still try to avoid usage on things I need to import). If you're OK with animal fats, tallow or lard, preferably the waste fats from the butcher or you can buy them...

It's the salt, isn't it? And the enchantment from the bicarb of course, but mostly the salt. :cool: Yeah, I'll try that, thanks! It'll be a lot easier than banking soap for two whole years in the bedroom closet!

I've actually used lye soap on my hair for years. Now, a warning. (NOW a warning?) (I love that film). I'm male, have hair about half an inch long, no processing, no color, and very, very oily. I simply use the same soap on my hair I use on me--tallow based. I condition occasionally if I...

Agreed with DeeAnna (as usual). Lye concentration can take a bit to adjust to, but once you do? Everything just becomes so much easier. I wrote my own basic calculator that only includes what I need and didn't even bother with water as percent of oils. It's no longer a useful calculation...

Price, mostly. It's not that I dislike OO. It's that I can get lard and tallow much cheaper and...they'll do just fine for basic soap. For my winter soap, I use OO. I love the softer feel and less-stripping properties. I just use it in smaller percentage with tallow as the heavy-hitter to...

3-5% means you can safely use it at three to five percent of the total weight of the product. Or about half an ounce to three quarters of an ounce per pound! Which I certainly wouldn't recommend. :-) For light coloring, the tip of a teaspoon per pound is great. For darker coloring, you have...

Ultramarine blue and black oxide, here, rather than the charcoal. It's just what I have on-hand. It doesn't take much black oxide to darken the ultramarine! Just the tiniest bit deepened it enough to make a navy blue swirl in white soap.

I use tons of Neem...in the gardens and on the sprouting plants. Yes, it stinks. :-) In soap, I might be inclined to try a nutty scent to push that particular scent note that Neem already has. It might overcome the more pungent notes enough to cover it. Perhaps a bitter almond crossed with...

If you have a sensitivity to high levels of CO, no amount of oil will work, I'm afraid! And what with already being at 20% SF, I personally wouldn't be adding any more, or any other type of oil. What I might try is chopping that small, into curds, inserts, or fine shavings, and using it as an...

I had one a few days ago, now that I think of it. I was making my gardener's soap and printed the recipe. I'd printed it at 3% SF instead of my usual 0% for that. So I had to do an on-the-fly adjustment to the lye of (checks sheet) 6 grams (it was a pretty big batch). A chunk of lye fell in...

ROE is sometimes added to raw meats instead of BHA/BHT mixes. Some people do seem to be able to detect it, although I've never gotten a meat product that tasted at all of rosemary... It's also used in soup and stew stocks for flavor. I'd take the herbalism claims with a grain of salt unless...

Sorry, so sorry. Yeah, low to mid 30% range. Straightened record and all that. I was wrong, you are right.

I sense you're getting inundated with good, but lots of, information. :-) The above, plus some fragrances just don't play well together, or with some additives. In my case, I have to be a little careful what scents I use with high-oatmeal soap as it can end up smelling really funky.

Keep in mind, we all differ. DeeAnna likes about 30%. I just blasted together a soap with 42% palmitic and stearic. You could dent the floor with this stuff. :-)

Most of the butters can render things rather brittle--and some can kill lather. I'm not sure about cocoa as I've never used it as anything more than an accent! You can remove OO from almost any recipe and substitute--if your sensibilities allow--lard. Or tallow if you must (I find tallow a...

Higher humidity, colder surrounding temperatures, gel, no gel, slightly more water in the mix, forgetting the water you used to dissolve a colorant, changing colorants, changing additives that would alter saponification speed or heat, and so on. I'm always surprised when a base recipe acts the...

If you haven't tried salt, sodium lactate, or vinegar as a mold release in the soap, I think I'd try that first. Those tears look like the intermittent problems I sometimes have with my molds. Leaving the soap in even longer to harden up might help too. Even in a regular square mold, I think...

Strangely, I'm the reverse; in winter, my skin is dry here in Pennsylvania, USA. In summer, I'm fine and actually need a more cleansing soap because I sweat more. :-) Everybody's skin and everybody's climate differs. In your case, you might reduce the palm a bit, and raise the pomace to...

We all differ; I find high CO soap too harsh, particularly in winter, but I tend to have somewhat dry skin everywhere but on my face. I also detest high OO soap. :-) It lacks lather, and what little it has is snotty. I tend to sit in the middle with lots of tallow and lard, and just enough...

So I'm thinking about a soap based on "It's Raining Men." :-)