Avocado, hemp soap recipe help?

[Candiland]

I'm new to making CP soaps but want to do a Christmas gift batch. I am buying hemp oil in quantity for massage oils and was thinking I wanted to use it in the soap making as well.
Can I make a soap with Coconut, Avocado, Hemp and olive oil? What ratios would you recommend? Also was wanting to do smaller molds is that going to affect saponification?

 

[Candiland]

This is my current plan. Not sure I care that the ins number is a tad low... convince me I should?

 

[lsg]

I would reduce one of the oils and add 5% Castor oil. Be sure to add ROE to prevent DOS when using hemp oil.

 

[AliOop]

Also, since you are new to soapmaking, consider using soy wax, cocoa butter, or a mix of those two, instead of the 10% beeswax. Those will both add hardness to your soap, and are easier ingredients for a new soapmaker to use.

But if you really want to use beeswax, consider lowering it to 2%. That's usually more than enough to make a very hard bar of soap, without affecting the lather too badly. Beeswax has a high melting point, so the more you use, the hotter your oils must be, and the faster the whole thing will trace.

 

[Candiland]

I would reduce one of the oils and add 5% Castor oil. Be sure to add ROE to prevent DOS when using hemp oil.

What is ROE? And I unfortunately don't have access to castor oil nor do I feel comfortable buying any as it's super toxic.. that's my problem with many of the recipes I find they all use either palm oil or castor oil and I'm just not sold on using toxic, or problematic oils as that's what I'm trying to avoid by making my own...

Also, since you are new to soapmaking, consider using soy wax, cocoa butter, or a mix of those two, instead of the 10% beeswax. Those will both add hardness to your soap, and are easier ingredients for a new soapmaker to use.

But if you really want to use beeswax, consider lowering it to 2%. That's usually more than enough to make a very hard bar of soap, without affecting the lather too badly. Beeswax has a high melting point, so the more you use, the hotter your oils must be, and the faster the whole thing will trace.

Thanks I'll look into cocoa butter I only added the beeswax to make the bar harder and in playing eith the calculator it had issues if I reduced the amount but I'd rather not use so much wax. I want a good lather. Would it be best to nix the beeswax all together then and replace it with coco butter?

 

[AliOop]

Thanks I'll look into cocoa butter I only added the beeswax to make the bar harder and in playing eith the calculator it had issues if I reduced the amount but I'd rather not use so much wax. I want a good lather. Would it be best to nix the beeswax all together then and replace it with coco butter?

Yes, I think that's a great idea.

 

[Candiland]

Also, since you are new to soapmaking, consider using soy wax, cocoa butter, or a mix of those two, instead of the 10% beeswax. Those will both add hardness to your soap, and are easier ingredients for a new soapmaker to use.

But if you really want to use beeswax, consider lowering it to 2%. That's usually more than enough to make a very hard bar of soap, without affecting the lather too badly. Beeswax has a high melting point, so the more you use, the hotter your oils must be, and the faster the whole thing will trace.

How does this look? I like the stats better too!

 

[AliOop]

That looks better! But.. I will be honest, that bar would be way too cleansing for me. I try to keep my cleansing number at 12 or lower, since "cleansing" on the soap calculator refers to how much of your skin's oil it will strip off.

People tend to want to use lots of coconut oil to get lots of bubbles, but unlike raw coconut oil (which some folks use as a moisturizer), saponified CO in soap is very drying to the skin. So I'd reduce the CO to 20% max, and put the other 5% into something like shea butter.

Even with less CO, there are ways to get more bubbles. The easiest one for a beginner is to dissolve some plain sugar (organic or regular is fine) in your batch water before you add the lye to it. A good starting point for that is 1 T for each pound of oils, or 2% of total oil weight if you prefer to measure it that way. Other people choose to use aloe vera juice instead of distilled water, which is even easier since no dissolving or measuring is required! Just know that the bubble action from sugar or AVJ doesn't show up in the soap calculator numbers. You simply must trust us when we say that it does work!

Sorry, I do have one last recommendation if you can stand it. Consider changing your water measurement from "liquid as percent of oils" to "lye concentration." That will give you more consistent results as you make different-sized batches with different types of oils. A good starting place for CP soap is 33% lye concentration. Then you also don't have to faff around with so-called water discounts - you just raise or lower the concentration to decrease or increase the amount of water.

 

[Ford]

Another benefit of dropping beeswax. Lowers your working Temps.

Please, I have never heard palm oil ,Castor oils. Being referenced as toxic. Am I missing something? Can you explain. I use Castor oil in every batch. Should I be?

 

[Tammyfarms]

Another benefit of dropping beeswax. Lowers your working Temps.

Please, I have never heard palm oil ,Castor oils. Being referenced as toxic. Am I missing something? Can you explain. I use Castor oil in every batch. Should I be?

I was wondering the same thing. It’s often sold as a medication to take internally. @Candiland, Not being adversarial, genuinely curious.

 

[2lilboots]

Ricin in the castor bean is toxic. If you chew and swallow a castor bean it can release the toxin into the body. Ricin is contained in the bean pulp following the separation of the oil.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3087745/

 

[lsg]

This from The National Library of Medicine-
"The extraction process of castor oil due to ricin's water-soluble properties negates these toxic properties.[10] Castor oil gets purified of ricin during the extraction process. Castor oil is completely safe for human consumption with minimal toxic effects in both acute and chronic settings. Castor oil has also demonstrated no genotoxic effects. Due to its well-known safety, castor oil is also used widely for nonmedical purposes, such as lubrication, cosmetics, and coatings."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551626/

 

[Tammyfarms]

Ricin in the castor bean is toxic. If you chew and swallow a castor bean it can release the toxin into the body. Ricin is contained in the bean pulp following the separation of the oil.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3087745/

Thanks for the article, this is an excerpt for anyone who doesn’t want to ready the whole thing and is concerned about using castor oil. Ricin does not remain in the oil, just the bean. Same thing you said, the ricin remains in the bean, just clarifying that’s it’s not in the oil.

 

[Candiland]

I was wondering the same thing. It’s often sold as a medication to take internally. @Candiland, Not being adversarial, genuinely curious.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3087745/Castor bean contains ricin a very potent toxin, the oil is also not recommended by doctors due to overdose risk.
Palm oil isn't toxic but it's problematic as palm oil farming leads to much of our deforestation. I avoid it in life in general.

 

[Candiland]

That looks better! But.. I will be honest, that bar would be way too cleansing for me. I try to keep my cleansing number at 12 or lower, since "cleansing" on the soap calculator refers to how much of your skin's oil it will strip off.

People tend to want to use lots of coconut oil to get lots of bubbles, but unlike raw coconut oil (which some folks use as a moisturizer), saponified CO in soap is very drying to the skin. So I'd reduce the CO to 20% max, and put the other 5% into something like shea butter.

Even with less CO, there are ways to get more bubbles. The easiest one for a beginner is to dissolve some plain sugar (organic or regular is fine) in your batch water before you add the lye to it. A good starting point for that is 1 T for each pound of oils, or 2% of total oil weight if you prefer to measure it that way. Other people choose to use aloe vera juice instead of distilled water, which is even easier since no dissolving or measuring is required! Just know that the bubble action from sugar or AVJ doesn't show up in the soap calculator numbers. You simply must trust us when we say that it does work!

Sorry, I do have one last recommendation if you can stand it. Consider changing your water measurement from "liquid as percent of oils" to "lye concentration." That will give you more consistent results as you make different-sized batches with different types of oils. A good starting place for CP soap is 33% lye concentration. Then you also don't have to faff around with so-called water discounts - you just raise or lower the concentration to decrease or increase the amount of water.

Thank you for the help, I'll play around with lowering the CO, I did raise the amounts to raise the lather... I saw someone add honey and thought that was interesting so it's even more interesting to see you can do the same with sugar.

 

[AliOop]

Thank you for the help, I'll play around with lowering the CO, I did raise the amounts to raise the lather... I saw someone add honey and thought that was interesting so it's even more interesting to see you can do the same with sugar.

Yes, honey works just like sugar to increase lather. However, because honey can really heat up your batter in a way that sugar does not, I don't recommend honey for someone who is just starting.

 

[Candiland]

Got it! OK so I dropped the CO a little and will do the sugar, so does this look right then? I'm not sure I understand what changing the calculation to lye % does but I did it lol didn't seem to change anything..

Yes, honey works just like sugar to increase lather. However, because honey can really heat up your batter in a way that sugar does not, I don't recommend honey for someone who is just starting.

 

[AliOop]

Sure, you can give that a try and see what you think. I personally don't go over 20% CO, but there are folks who can handle higher amounts.

One thing I did just notice is that your batch is super small - 32 grams, which is about 1 oz. You probably want at least a 500g batch, which would be just over 1lb. That makes about 4-5 bars of soap - perfect for a trial batch!

 

[Candiland]

Sure, you can give that a try and see what you think. I personally don't go over 20% CO, but there are folks who can handle higher amounts.

One thing I did just notice is that your batch is super small - 32 grams, which is about 1 oz. You probably want at least a 500g batch, which would be just over 1lb. That makes about 4-5 bars of soap - perfect for a trial batch!

Yeah I didn't know grams I'll be using ounces based on the percentages, the app was just wierd

 

[AliOop]

Yeah I didn't know grams I'll be using ounces based on the percentages, the app was just wierd

That happens! Just be sure to change the app setting to ounces before you measure anything - I'm sure you know it is not a one-for-one swap with grams and ounces.