Upcoming New Year Castile Soap Project

Actually, it's going to be a Bastile this year as I'm giving Castile a break. In prior years I've made 'conventional' CP, heavy lye CP, and 'conventional' HP, and in all honesty, am unable to detect any differences in lather-ability. I can't say I don't like Castile, it's just that I don't like it as much as I want to.

In any event, this is the recipe I'm making on 12/31/2016 (mine have always been made on NYE):

80% Olive Oil
15% Coconut Oil
5% Shea Butter

CP, 3% SF

I'll treat it the same as always and let it cure for a full year. Anyone else have Castile / Bastile plans?

-GL63

I have done one two months ago and I think my oo was altered still kind of soft

Thank you for posting this, GrantLee63. I just found it while searching for a thread about the 'annual Castile soap project'. I was hoping it would pop up on the 'recent threads' list on the right, but it wasn't, so I thought no one was doing this. I wanted in and was disappointed that it wasn't happening! So I'm glad your thread turned up in my search.

I did 100% Olive Castile last year on NYE, and plan to do one again tomorrow. I usually add a fragrance but haven't decided on one yet.

Traderbren, what fragrances have you added to your Castiles and how do they hold up in the long-term?

I made a dual lye Castile back in June with a Pear scent that I really like so far. I hope it holds up through the cure and when I gift the lot as a wedding present next year. I was thrilled when I saw the colors chosen for their bathroom towels that this soap will fit into their decor so perfectly! The scent is a 50:50 blend of MadOils 'Grow a Pear Tree' and CandlePro's 'PearBerry'. I really like how they blend.

So for this project, I want to make at least 3 or 4 small batches with some different additives to see how they fare over the course of cure. More would probably be too ambitious, but I have so many ideas, I haven't yet settled on the finalists.

1. One possibility is the super-lye Castile, but I MUST finish reading that whole thread and I am only on page 55 (of 68, so not insurmountable) before I finalize my plan for that one. - ETA: I finished it last night, whew! It took me days to get through that whole thread, but I do plan to try this technique. -
- started this on the evening of January 1, 2017

2. Another is a full water dual lye because the ones I made in June were at [40% Lye Concentration].

- Another is with added salt for hardness to compare to no added salt. So that recipe would have to go along with one of exactly the same without salt. - No, this isn't necessary as Castile is already hard. I don't need it to be any harder than it already is, so I'd do a strike-out, but can't see it as an option here.

3. And one with vinegar instead of water, again with full liquid / [default lye concentration]. I think I'll do this one with single lye. It will be a good comparison to the dual lye, especially if it is the same age.

4. Then there would have to be one that is plain jane with no additions and the same amount of water and [lye concentration]. Otherwise I'd have no 'control' soap to compare them to, right.

Now that adds up to 4 small batches. And that doesn't even include the idea of Goats milk or other. See, I haven't settled on the finalists, have I?

I decided there is no need to add salt for a soap that already gets plenty hard to begin with. But I do have Goats Milk in the refrigerator to use, so maybe I'll do a small batch with GM as well.

Y'all are getting me excited about this. I will try to do this tomorrow but if not it will be done in January sometime.

Scooter

I did 2 batches of Bastille soap earlier in December! I am planning a year-long cure for them as well. I keep poking and prodding at them to see how they're doing... I am so impatient, hah. They look so beautiful and creamy though.

This is the recipe I used:

75% Olive Oil
20% Coconut Oil
5% Shea Butter

1 tbsp of sugar PPO
5% SF

Hiya, I made 6 small 0% SF, 100% OO, dual lye batches in the last week. I plan to make more in the next week or two, probably bumping up SF a little. All batches to be withheld from gifting until at least December. The dual-lye and -40% SF discussions have been inspiring and very interesting to read, although the excess lye method seems to me to be more costly because of the excess lye.

I'm probably going to do the super lye again this year!

TheDragonGirl said:

I'm probably going to do the super lye again this year!

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So you really liked the batch(es) you have made before? Were they with a negative SF? What did you use them for? Bath? Laundry?

Just curious...

Thanks!

Scooter

Scooter said:

So you really liked the batch(es) you have made before? Were they with a negative SF? What did you use them for? Bath? Laundry?

Just curious...

Thanks!

Scooter

Click to expand...

hi there! it took me a good minute to find it but this is the soap I'm talking about: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=42922

It actually makes great general use soap for me! And its a really super neat experience to play around with

DragonGirl, I wanted to try that superlye after reading through the thread. It took me days, but I finally got through it last night. I was so fascinated by the entire process and now I have started my first batch of superlye Castile.

It's
250 g Pomace OO (local grocer)
250 g 'Pure' OO (Sam's Club)
500 g distilled water

188.6 g of my masterbatch lye solution (equal to 94.3 g NaOH + 94.3 g water)

EDTA
EOs: Lavender + Spearmint 2:1

I am going to do a gradiant color pour with it, so I have the colorant softening in 26 g of the oil that I held out of the 500 g.

I started hand stirring the lye into the 1000 grams of oil & water mixture at 5:55 pm. Being half pomace it's thickening nicely.

I have a crazy theory. Perhaps it's the sodium carbonate (soda ash) forming inside the bar from the excess lye that causes it to be so long lasting and not gooey. I'd wait a couple months before giving it a zap test though. Haha

I finished my super lye bars early on in the day they actually traced after about half an hour I was thrilled, it took a full hour last time

16oz pomace OO
16 oz water
3 oz lye
we'll see how they set up

DragonGirl, mine went faster than I was expecting also. I think using 50% pomace really helped with that. I didn't want it to go too fast, because I decided to use this one for the gradient color challenge. It worked perfectly. From start to finish was probably no more than 2 - 2.5 hours. I started stirring the lye into the oil/water mixture at 5 minutes to 6 and began separating and mixing colors at 7:30. I actually left the batter sitting in the kitchen unattended for more than half that time, only stirring a little bit every 10 or 15 minutes. Once I had the colors mixed it held at medium to thick trace (not really thick but just a tad past medium) until I got it all poured into my one-pound mold.

I also made 5 individual heart shaped soaps with only one of them being the natural soap color with no added color. I was hoping to have more of the natural color, but I didn't hold out enough for more than one soap.



Tomorrow I'll start on the other 3 Castile soaps on my list. (Now it's 4 more again.)


2. a full water dual lye Castile (default water & lye per lye calculator)

3. one with vinegar instead of water, again with full liquid / [default lye concentration]. I think I'll do this one with single lye. It will be a good comparison to the dual lye, especially if it is the same age.

4. a plain jane with no additions and the same amount of water and [lye concentration]. As a 'control' soap for comparison purposes.


ETA:

5. a full water Castile with salt - I am adding it back in again because I just remembered the vinegar is for hardening also, so of course I should do a salt hardener option for comparison. My mind is playing tricks on me, I think.

I did #3 - the vinegar Castile today. I was going to do at least one more batch, but tiredness hit me like a brick & I won't be getting to the other batches today. My husband has the next 2 days off, so I'm not sure I'll do the rest before Thursday at this point.

ETA update on the vinegar Castile.

I wonder if I didn't do some miscalculations when working out the vinegar & added lye to counteract the vinegar. I've been coming down with a cold my husband brought home, so my mind may not be totally clear. Even normal, I can still make calculation errors, so that's no excuse.

I'm going to post in the help with recipe section to see if others can see some calculation errors. Even if it turns out lye heavy, which is seems like it might be, after a long cure, I do expect it to be a mild soap if the Andalusian-style heavy lye soap is any indicator.

This soap gelled in the oven overnight (CPOP) and unmolded perfectly this morning. But there were large beads of lye water on top (zap test positive) and after turning it out and upside down, it is sweating more water on top (bottom of mold) and even dripped a little bit slowly down the side. I am letting it sit to open air for awhile and will cut sometime today. It's actually very firm to the touch and it is no longer dripping, but there is still a bit of moisture visible in the valleys of the ridges (the bottom of this mold has ridges).

ETA: I cut it a few hours later after the moisture evaporated (or reabsorbed, but I think it probably just evaporated). It's got such a lot of water, the bars were pretty cold to the touch. I weighed one bar and they sit to open air.

My head cold is getting really strong so I am resisting urges to make the other batches as I don't want to make any muddled-mind errors. It's hard sitting here doing nothing at all!

No answers to my calculations questions so far; maybe I should have posted it in one of the many threads on vinegar usage. When my head clears, I'll revisit the calculations and see if I can find out if I did them correctly or seek out TOMH's help via pm. I believe the only thing I should be thinking about right now is soup and getting rid of this cold.

earlene said:

Traderbren, what fragrances have you added to your Castiles and how do they hold up in the long-term?

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In the past I used Ginger Patchouli from BB (faded big time, but I only used 5% PPO), and Sacred Sandalwood from NG (faded, but still can subtly smell it. Again only at 5% PPO)

This year I finally decided on Black Linen & Amber from NG, mainly because I had it, and it's one of my favorite clean scents. I used 8% PPO this time, hoping it will survive the fade a bit better.

Edit: I'm a bit behind, but I just poured mine this morning. It's relaxing in the nice warm, turned off oven, with a thick (unused) cloth diaper on top to insulate. Last year's only partially gelled, and left an ugly ring. I'm hoping for full gel this time. I've learned a lot in the past year.

My cold isn't totally gone yet, but I may make at least one of these batches today. 2 are done and I have 3 more planned. So far, I've stuck with 500 gram batch sizes, but may go to something larger to better fit my molds.

1. super-lye Castile [-40% lye] - done January 1, 2017 - This smells so good with the Spearmint & Lavender EOs I added. It's getting hard pretty fast and has a lot of ash, which is expected.

2. a full water dual lye Castile (default water & lye per lye calculator) - I've done dual lye at [40% lye] so this is to see how it acts differently.

3. vinegar Castile (vinegar in place of full water) - done Jan.2, 2017 - I wouldn't say it's a hard soap as yet, but it was firm enough to cut sooner than I expected.

4. a plain jane with no additions and the same amount of water and [lye concentration]. As a 'control' soap for comparison purposes. - done Jan. 7, 2017, although I did color & fragrance it so it's not so 'Plane Jane'.

5. a full water Castile with salt - I'll do 1/2 tsp ppo to keep it comparable to the vinegar soap. It's supposed to help make the bar harder initially, but make no difference in the long run. This really seems like an unnecessary exercise, but at least I can confirm it in my experience.

earlene said:

My cold isn't totally gone yet, but I may make at least one of these batches today. 2 are done and I have 3 more planned. So far, I've stuck with 500 gram batch sizes, but may go to something larger to better fit my molds.

5. a full water Castile with salt - I'll do 1/2 tsp ppo to keep it comparable to the vinegar soap. It's supposed to help make the bar harder initially, but make no difference in the long run. This really seems like an unnecessary exercise, but at least I can confirm it in my experience.

Click to expand...

Hi earlene, not sure why you are using full water for Castile as it will lead to warped bars for one thing.

Salt does work but you need at least 1 tsp ppo dissolved in part of the water from the recipe.

Not earlene, but I'd guess she is trying just to see for herself. What fun is soaping if you just take the word of others?

As for me, I have an excess of olive oil still that will be out of date before long if I don't give it a purpose. I'm planning a bastile for this week, with 10% each palm (also excess), and coconut. At least a 6 month cure. Because, why not?