I have a 50% cocoa butter soap a year and a half old. The scent was never very strong - maybe about the strength of a fully cured citrus EO soap. Except it smelled just like chocolate cake! The scent of the dry soap is almost gone at this point, but I tried it last night and the scent came back in the shower. I was very pleased with the strength of the lather, although it has an unusual character. In the first few months it was very dry and fluffy, and made me think of egg whites whipped into stiff peaks. Six or so months in it was like whipped cream. Currently it has the most dense, lotion-like lather I've ever experienced. The lather through all stages has been amazingly abundant. Happy to pass along my recipe if you are still looking to experiment, although if I ever make a high cocoa butter soap again I have a few changes in mind.
ETA: It kind of reminded me of a shaving soap last night. I passed my hands over the bar, filled my hands with lotiony lather (um, somewhere between lotion and toothpaste), set the bar down, rubbed my hands, et voila: perfect looking shaving cream lather. Songwind would be jealous
Ok, one last thought: Chocolate Orange Patchouli scent. Next time.
Thanks!
I have a 50% cocoa butter soap a year and a half old. The scent was never very strong - maybe about the strength of a fully cured citrus EO soap. Except it smelled just like chocolate cake! The scent of the dry soap is almost gone at this point, but I tried it last night and the scent came back in the shower. I was very pleased with the strength of the lather, although it has an unusual character. In the first few months it was very dry and fluffy, and made me think of egg whites whipped into stiff peaks. Six or so months in it was like whipped cream. Currently it has the most dense, lotion-like lather I've ever experienced. The lather through all stages has been amazingly abundant. Happy to pass along my recipe if you are still looking to experiment, although if I ever make a high cocoa butter soap again I have a few changes in mind.
ETA: It kind of reminded me of a shaving soap last night. I passed my hands over the bar, filled my hands with lotiony lather (um, somewhere between lotion and toothpaste), set the bar down, rubbed my hands, et voila: perfect looking shaving cream lather. Songwind would be jealous
Alrighty, after much self-made ado, cue the trumpets. Here it is:
50% Cocoa Butter
30% Coconut Oil
14% Olive Oil pomace
5% Castor Oil
1% Jojoba
SF: 4%
To a 26.5 oz batch:
1/2 tsp powdered coconut milk
3/4 tsp kaolin clay
1/8 tsp TiO2
Why the weird additive amounts? It was early in my soaping days and I was aiming for an all natural soap for my vegan palm free friends. I separated the batter and tried to make a small portion a lighter shade for a subtle swirl. Kaolin clay just added a gray tint without lightening the tan batter. I had read that coconut milk could lighten the soap, but it didn't seem to make a difference at that low rate and I didn't want to mess with the superfat too much. I cheated with some mineral pigment. By that time my additive portion was getting too thick for swirling, so I mixed it in with the rest. The bars came out a lovely creamy off white. The additives, though scant, may have contributed to the lather.
Things I would change for next time:
1. Lower the coconut oil! Even though I still like 30% in many recipes, it wasn't necessary for this one. It is the only soap I have ever used in my hard water and thought, 'this is too much lather!'
2. Lower the cocoa butter to 40% - I still want the scent, but would like a little wiggle room to balance out the recipe. I think between the castor and jojoba oils, the cocoa butter lather was well suspended and contributed quite a bit to the overabundant lather.
To balance the recipe, your guess is as good as mine. I know I would like to raise the liquid oil percentage a tad.
Scenting time: I think the scent strength was a little stronger than I wrote in my first post, because I remember my mom sniffing soaps around three months into the cure. She couldn't smell the lemon + litsea soap at all (split evenly for a total 1oz ppo) but she immediately identified the chocolate notes in the cocoa butter soap. I think the scent went through a brief odd phase in the first month when it smelled like all natural doggie biscuits I liked to munch on as a little kid
For next time I would add folded orange and light patchouli EOs. I think they would be killer with the chocolate cake scent.
) but I just was thinking a lot about your 100% Cocoa Butter recipe and so I checked it in soapcalc's lye calculator. Well, cleansing is "0" and lather "0" and now I'm even more eager to hear all about your Cocoa Butter soap! What really is it, is it like a bar of very hard, non-lathering, really chocolatey-smelling piece of washing rock?
