Advice on new recipe...

[cheshiresoapco]

I'm trying to step outside the box a bit with my soaps... I came up with a recipe and would like some feedback from those of you who have more experience...
Here's the recipe...

11oz palm oil
11 oz coconut oil
10 oz olive oil
5 oz sunflower oil
5 oz safflower oil
8 oz shea butter
3 oz castor oil
.25 oz stearic acid

17.57 oz water
7.3 oz lye
1.7 oz fragrance

5% super fat
40:60 sat: unsat ratio
Hardness: 38
Cleansing: 14
Conditioning: 58
Bubbly: 19
Creamy: 29
Iodine: 59
INS: 146

 

[Susie]

Way too many oils. I think you are going to not know what each oil is bringing to the soap.

Why do you want so many?

What kind of soap are you trying to make?

What kind of skin are you trying to make this for?

We need a few more answers before giving much useful advice.

 

[snappyllama]

A couple of things jump out to me once I put it into percentages (how my brain works)

palm oil 20.66
coconut oil 20.66
olive oil 18.78
sunflower oil 9.39
safflower oil 9.39
shea butter 15.02
castor oil 5.63
stearic acid .47

I feel like the linoleic + linolenic is high at 19. I use the rule of thumb of keeping it less than 15 to keep DOS trolls away.

I'm guessing you're putting in that stearic acid to try to harden it up - be mindful that stearic acid is not a fun ingredient to add unless you're lacking excitement - it tries to instantly solidify.

That much shea will probably cut your lather down.

Like Susie mentioned, a little more information would be really helpful of what you're trying to make and why you've picked what you've picked.

 

[cheshiresoapco]

My Normal recipe is just the palm, coconut, sunflower, safflower, and Shea, and it's worked out amazingly. I've always used full water at 38% but I recently have had issues with soft batches so that's why I added the stearic acid. I added castor for more lather and skin benefits. The olive was just something I thought I would try. I used a few soap percentage charts online and it was within the range and recommended as an oil that gives a hard bar...
As I said I'm just trying to improve my soaps. Most everyone has loved the original recipe but a couple found it drying.

 

[doriettefarm]

Thanks for calculating the % of each oil snappy. I'm curious what the previous recipe looks like in comparison to the new one if you thought the original was too soft but drying. Maybe too much CO in the original and not enough palm for hardness? Shea butter will also add hardness and conditioning but can be a lather killer. I try to keep total amount of butters in my recipes no more than 10%.

The new recipe doesn't look bad if you drop the stearic and maybe try 10% shea and 10% castor. I would also simplify my liquid oils and just choose one of these three (olive, sunflower or safflower). If your soap is taking too long to unmold try a water discount and sodium lactate at 1tsp ppo.

 

[Seawolfe]

Stearic is a pain in the butt!!

Might I interest you in some lard instead?

 

[cheshiresoapco]

Thanks for calculating the % of each oil snappy. I'm curious what the previous recipe looks like in comparison to the new one if you thought the original was too soft but drying. Maybe too much CO in the original and not enough palm for hardness? Shea butter will also add hardness and conditioning but can be a lather killer. I try to keep total amount of butters in my recipes no more than 10%.

The original recipe was 11oz each of Palm coconut sunflower and safflower and 9 oz shea with 38% water and I think 7.3oz lye. This made me 5 lbs and always hard, easy to unmold, etc.

The first batch that was soft, only the part that I colored is soft... Maybe too much mica powder? It was light purple powder and turned brown... The 2nd batch that was soft was with fragrance oil. Those were my only differences. The 2nd batch I think was just too much water from the sounds of it. The first one in stumped on. It was honestly only the stripe of colored soap that was soft the rest was hard and perfect...

 

[cheshiresoapco]

Stearic is a pain in the butt!!

Might I interest you in some lard instead?

I've thought about lard but I have a lot of vegan customers who love my soaps for the simple fact that it's organic and/or all natural. Around here we don't have a whole lot of that and the soaps and other products that are available homemade and organic are outrageous in price. Maybe I can consider a line of soaps with lard tho. I've been curious in how soap comes out using it! And especially with the rising cost of Palm oil!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

You can use lard and be organic or "all natural". You can use palm and not be.

Of course, organic is a term with some sort of meaning and usually some sort of certificate to go with it, "all natural" isn't and is essentially meaningless. Both, however, often mean different things to different people when you actually ask what they mean

 

[cheshiresoapco]

I think they look at from the whole animal aspect. They don't touch meat or use anything with animal product or testing all that jazz... While they stand for PITA, I stand with PETA so to me it's not a big deal. I've been curious about the soap it makes so maybe I'll make some for myself and my animal eating friends lol

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

And therein lies a very telling truth about all that - Organic and all-natural in no way mean "vegan" or even "vegetarian" as you can get organic certified animals and also animal fat is as natural as plant fats.