A good shea butter recipe please

[Missmoneypenny]

A friend bought me back a big lump of shea from ghana and I am going to make some soap and give her a couple of bars. Does anyone have a good recipe? What mixes well with shea. I think it will definitely need some coconut, maybe also almond to keep it very mild. I have eczema so want it to be very gentle.
Thank you

 

[Lin]

Have you ever made your own recipes? You can add shea up to 15%. I've mostly made my own recipes with all the soap I've made. I researched the oils, put together a cheat sheat of recommended percentages of oils, and looked at various recipes for soaps I liked. You could easily take a recipe you already like and tweak it to add in shea butter.

 

[Missmoneypenny]

That's true Lyn. I was being a little lazy and just trying to solicit a good recipe! But i have the Melinda Coss natural soap book and will probably tweak one of her shea containing recipes. Thanks for letting me know about the 15% .

 

[cmzaha]

I have eczema so want it to be very gentle.
Thank you[/QUOTE]
I assume you know you have no allergies to shea? People with latex allergies need to be careful with shea. I have actually made 90% with 10% castor. Not much lather but a nice feeling soap. I do have latex allergies and find I can use shea except on my lips. You may find your shea from Ghana is not real clean. I always strain mine before using it because it usually contains some pretty sharp plant material. Mine also comes raw from Ghana

This is a shea recipe I like that makes a very mild gentle bar. I usually add in some sugar to help with bubbles
38% Olive Oil
20% Shea
14% Coconut Oil
11% Crisco (I prefer the 100% palm oil shortening)
10% Canola
7 % Castor

 

[judymoody]

That's true Lyn. I was being a little lazy and just trying to solicit a good recipe! But i have the Melinda Coss natural soap book and will probably tweak one of her shea containing recipes. Thanks for letting me know about the 15% .

The Coss book is NOT a good source for recipes. Many of them are lye heavy so if you do use one as a starting point, I would run it through a lye calculator to make sure.

You can use shea at any % you like. The lather will be more creamy and lotion-like the higher you go.

I also agree that you should melt it down and filter it before using.

Shea also can produce a lot of ash, especially if you don't gel your soap.

If you want something gentle for your skin I'd try:

OO: 45%
PO: 20%
CO: 15%
shea: 15%
castor: 5%
8% SF

 

[roseb]

Have you ever made your own recipes? You can add shea up to 15%. I've mostly made my own recipes with all the soap I've made. I researched the oils, put together a cheat sheat of recommended percentages of oils, and looked at various recipes for soaps I liked. You could easily take a recipe you already like and tweak it to add in shea butter.

I love the idea of a cheat sheet, since I end up looking the info up every time! :clap:

 

[Lin]

Its great, super helpful. Especially since no one place has a complete list of all recommended percentages (as starting points). So everytime I come across more recommended percentages, I check for any oils I'm missing and add them to the list.

 

[neeners]

I have a recipe that is OO, CO, castor and shea. however, it's sitting at home, so i'll check when I get there...

 

[cmzaha]

This is a link to a site that has recommendations and the properties of several oils. Again nothing is written in stone when it comes to soap. I have made 100% shea butter soap and it was nice, like using a lotion. http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/oils.html

 

[neeners]

ok, looked through my notes, and this is what I have for a shea butter soap. it's hard and lathers very nicely. if it's too cleansing for you, you can lower the CO, and up the OO:

OO 50%
CO 25%
castor oil 5%
shea butter 20%

I think I SF at 8%, or 7%....that part I didn't write down....

 

[lizflowers42]

I have used up to 30% Shea Butter and had a crumbly cut once it cured. Made amazingly moisturizing soap though!

 

[neeners]

the recipe I posted didn't result in a crumbly soap. I gelled it too.

 

[Missmoneypenny]

Thanks everyone for your tips and sorry it's taken so long to respond. There's been family illness, and then I forgot my password. But I'm planning a soaping day on Thursday. Will let you know how it turns out.