A gentle and mild cp soap

[winusuren]

Hi,
I'm planning to make a mild baby soap. Please do suggest if this recipe would be fine??

Olive oil pomace - 80%
Castor oil - 8%
Shea butter - 7%
Cocoa butter - 5%

Superfat - 7% or 8%

Cure time of almost 3 to 6 months is better I guess. Which EO can be added?? Many suggested Lavender EO in the forum and at the same time it can cause DOS. So which EO is better for a long cure time?? Should I use a preservative?? I've seen many people got DOS in their castille soaps. Some people said they add ROE directly to their oils after opening the package to extend the shelf life of the oils and some suggested to add Vitamin E oil while soaping to prevent DOS. Will adding Vitamin E oil really prevent DOS??

Sorry for asking too many questions. Kindly share your suggestions.

Edit: I'm planning to add home made coconut milk as a replacement for water and planning to work with 35% lye concentration.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

So which EO is better for a long cure time??

None. When the soap is unscented, nothing can interfere with the soapmaking process, nor can you be disappointed by fading scent or increased DOS risk. It's also cheapest, and as gentle and mild as you can get with some soap recipe.

Vitamin E is tricky to work with in soap (difficult to find the right dosage to be effective yet not pro-oxidant). Anecdotally, success is more likely with ROE than with vitamin E/tocopherol:
https://classicbells.com/soap/tocopherols.aspNote that neither can “really prevent DOS”. There is no absolutely effective countermeasure to DOS. Usage of fresh oils from reputable sources helps to delay rancidity. Adding ROE as early as possible to the oils helps. Curing/storing in a dark, dry environment helps. Limiting PUFAs to single-digit percentages helps. Adding chelators and avoiding contact to metal helps. But all these things are no guarantee against DOS. There is no absolute security.

 

[Zing]

I am not an expert by any means on soap for babies. I'm wondering if you should skip scent and colors. Our two babies seemed to get a rash if you looked at them wrong. Just a thought.

I keep my castor oil to 4 to 6%. I hear amounts like 10% can turn soap mushy.

Good luck!

 

[Dawni]

If it was me I'd take the 3% off the Castor and add it to my shea. If it was also me I won't use olive, but RBO, but you already know that by now haha. I'd also reduce my superfat since there's no coconut at all. With your current recipe, it would take a longish cure and that high a superfat might make your high olive oil soap even more snotty with a short one.

Side note, mango butter is relatively cheap where you are, and is slightly higher than shea in both palmitic and stearic acid (for hardness and longevity). I'd love to use it more if it was cheap here. There's also kokum as an alternative to cocoa butter.

Our two babies seemed to get a rash if you looked at them wrong. Just a thought.

LOL

 

[Arimara]

Is Ezcema a thing for you in India? If it is, I would strongly suggest you use just water. Coconut milk on that type of skin might increase the likelyhood of a tree nut allergy with coconut in the mix. You want basic with children.

@Zing Mine had a rash no matter what if I didn't stick to certain things that worked. Unscented everything included. These days, she's finally branching off and trying new bath products so I think the years of cetaphil baths paid off.

 

[winusuren]

Is Ezcema a thing for you in India?

@Arimara Actually I've not heard of any of my friends or relatives having Ezcema but it may exist here...I'm already using store bought coconut cleansers(made for 0 to 5 years) for my newborn as well as my toddler. They are fine with that.. Moreover I don't use any lotions for them. I just apply plain extra virgin coconut oil for both body massage and after bath..As I belong to southern part of India, we have plenty of coconuts here. But ofcourse store bought cleansers contains a lot of chemicals, so I want to switchover to hand made soaps.

If it was me I'd take the 3% off the Castor and add it to my shea. If it was also me I won't use olive, but RBO, but you already know that by now haha. I'd also reduce my superfat since there's no coconut at all. With your current recipe, it would take a longish cure and that high a superfat might make your high olive oil soap even more snotty with a short one.

Side note, mango butter is relatively cheap where you are, and is slightly higher than shea in both palmitic and stearic acid (for hardness and longevity). I'd love to use it more if it was cheap here. There's also kokum as an alternative to cocoa butter.


LOL

@Dawni I'll better modify my recipe..I have some Shea and cocoa butters so that I'll soap with that..Next time I'll go for mango and kokum as you've suggested..

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

When ours were very small (they are still quite small) we just used oil in the tub with some salt to help it disperse. Obviously this was in the stage where they need holding and don't play in the bath, where oil might cause some slipping accidents.

But for when they got older, I did make a 100% olive oil soap. Unscented, uncoloured.

Now that they play in the bath, it's a squirt of some foamy stuff so they have bubbles

 

[winusuren]

My modified recipe:
Olive oil pomace - 75%
Shea butter - 10%
Castor oil - 6%
Cocoa butter - 5%
Coconut oil - 4%

Superfat - 5%

I'll substitute my water part with frozen homemade coconut milk...

I'm 30 years old and Coconut oil with more than 17% is very drying for me, so I feel it'll be more drying for my kids too.

I'm waiting for your valuable suggestions for this recipe.

@Dawni I'm planning to make two recipes simultaneously. One the above recipe if I get positive feedback and the other as you suggested with little modification as I have excess Shea and cocoa butters at home.

Rice bran oil - 70%
Cocoa butter - 15%
Shea butter -5%
Castor oil - 6%
Coconut oil - 4%

Superfat - 5%

Will this work out??

 

[Benjifrazer]

my go to recipe is olive, coconut, coca butter, apricot kernal and castor. It been brilliant on my skin and beard strangly. both are softer - if im doing arty soaps i use a slower tracing recipe but that soap is for Art not use so the properties of it are less important.

You can give more hardness in your soap with a little salt and more bubble with sugar - but I’d experiment around a recipe you like (run it through soap calc ALWASY) and have fun

Oh and i super fat at 10%

 

[Hope Ann]

I'm planning to make a mild baby soap. Please do suggest if this recipe would be fine??

My recommendation is Zaneys No Slime Castille. You can search the group for it. It cures fast (though improves with age) and is incredibly gentle. Another option is a 100% lard soap, ideally with a 4 to 6 month cure. Super mild and creamy.

No fragrance, essential oils, or other additives. I would skip the milk as well.

Hope

 

[Dawni]

Try them and see how you like it. You can test once every 2 weeks after the initial cure to see what they feel like.

My son's soap currently has only 12% coconut, reduced from the initial 16% and my superfat is 2%. Just to show you. If you read up on superfat, you'll find it's not necessary to make it high, depending on your recipe.