Babassu oil

[Cactuslily]

I was wondering if anyone has soaped with Babassu oil. I formulated the following, which looks good as far as I can tell...
5% castor
20% CO
10% Babassu
35% OO
15% Palm ( or lard )
10% shea
5% sunflower
SF @ 7%
Full water
I want to avoid rapid trace. I'm working with a FO that has been great so far, but I've never used Babassu. Would I be better off using lard instead of Palm?
Any advice welcome.
To those affected by recent bad weather...stay safe

 

[Dahila]

It looks ok but, it would be very drying; babassu and coconut are almost identical, your soap has a cleansing number of 21 , for me it would be too high, The rest is awesome I would leave babassu for a body butter, our skin loves it. When I want to have a lot of time I use lard which you consider also and soap at 36-38 Celsius )

 

[cmzaha]

You are really going to up your cleansing with the added babassu. Babassu, Palm Kernel and Coconut really work the same in soap. I only use pko or babassu when I want a coconut free soap and usually save babassu for solid lotions. It costs more than pko. Babassu actually has slightly higher cleansing properties than coconut being a little in myristic and lauric acids. I would oust the babassu add that to the sunflower use 25% lard and oust the shea. Shea with it stearic will speed trace, although you are using a small amount. Actually I am just not a fan of shea in soap but that is me. In my opinion it only adds label appeal and deters lather

 

[Cactuslily]

Thanks for input. My son has really oils skin. He works out daily, so I wanted to try a soap he could try on his face, chest, and back, as he breaks out a bit there. In future, will save Babassu for something else. I've wanted to try adding coconut milk. It contains agar ( in the can ), will that interfere with anything! Should I dilute 50:50? Or use straight up, frozen, then added to the lye? I also got aloe Vera juice, and was wondering if anyone has experience using that. Perhaps this is off topic, but I see a lot of people adding kaolin clay. What does that bring to the party?...I'm such a newbie. Despite lots of reading and video watching, nothing takes the place of others experiences.

 

[Obsidian]

Coconut milk can speed trace but if you are using a well behaving FO, it should be fine. I use just enough water to dissolve lye then add the coconut milk to the oils, blend really well then add the lye solution.
I would toss the sunflower & shea, add that to your lard amount. Lard will significantly slow your trace, I use it in place of palm in all my soap.

 

[Cactuslily]

Obsidian, do I deduct whatever water amount I use from total? Then add remaining balance with the coconut milk? The can contains guar gum, is that ok? Thank you!

 

[Dahila]

Thanks for input. My son has really oils skin. He works out daily, so I wanted to try a soap he could try on his face, chest, and back, as he breaks out a bit there. In future, will save Babassu for something else. I've wanted to try adding coconut milk. It contains agar ( in the can ), will that interfere with anything! Should I dilute 50:50? Or use straight up, frozen, then added to the lye? I also got aloe Vera juice, and was wondering if anyone has experience using that. Perhaps this is off topic, but I see a lot of people adding kaolin clay. What does that bring to the party?...I'm such a newbie. Despite lots of reading and video watching, nothing takes the place of others experiences.

My hubby has an oily skin, and he responds the best to charcoal soap based on lard and olive oil

 

[Obsidian]

Obsidian, do I deduct whatever water amount I use from total? Then add remaining balance with the coconut milk? The can contains guar gum, is that ok? Thank you!

Yes to all the above

 

[Cindy2428]

I adore coconut milk in my soap and really don't plan on soaping without it anymore. I haven't used the split method yet. I use 50% frozen coco milk, coconut water. I blend the 2 together (room temp), pour into ice cube trays, brownie bite molds and freeze in ziploc bags. I keep some refrigerated coconut water on hand to make up any small difference from the frozen portion. Note: the guar gum won't be a problem. A couple of things using though to note - Your lye water will thicken up and almost change to pudding. I was a little nervous the first time, but I'm used to it now. I stir it well and strain it to make sure there is no undissolved lye.

 

[Cactuslily]

Thanks to you all who have helped me. One question, if I add just enough water to dissolve lye, then add remaining fluid as coconut milk to my oils, will the lye burn it, or since my lye is dissolved in water and cooled, it won't burn the sugars in the coconut milk

 

[shunt2011]

I have oily skin as well and still suffer from adult acne on occasion, but it's improved 99% since I started using my salt bars on my body and face. I do alternate though now as I'm getting some dry spots as I get older so I use a mild charcoal bar every few days in place of the salt on my face. I use buttermilk or coconut milk and love them in my soaps. I've kind of gotten away lately from using GM as I prefer the other two more.

 

[Cactuslily]

Also, do I need to freeze for 30 minutes, then refridgerate for 24 hours? My first soap was a goats milk, but I insulated it. Nothing bad happened, but maybe I got lucky and it didn't overheat? So many ?'s...

 

[Cindy2428]

Yes you can split your liquid with your lye - use a minimum of 50% water/liquid with your lye. Can't help with whether or not to freeze/fridge or not. By using frozen coco milk/water and oil temp approx. 100F, my soap temp drops to the 80's and it hasn't overheated yet.

 

[Obsidian]

I've never really had trouble with coco milk overheating my soap but if you are worried about it, go ahead and put it in the fridge. I personally never mix anything with lye except water. I prefer to blend my coco milk into my oils before adding the lye solution. This way I don't have to worry about the coco milk scorching, getting thick (which it does) or the icky smell.

 

[Cactuslily]

Obsidian, I should've listened to you. Hopefully the end result will be ok. However, the smell, the smell! I froze the milk, added the lye, made sure it heated to dissolve the lye, and popped back in freezer. Not sure I needed to do that, but I did...yes, it was pudding, as I was warned. I strained it. Extra mess for sure! I put it in a cylindrical mold and insulated it. Should I keep an eye on it? Had a bit extra, so I made a couple of small molded soaps, and put them in the fridge. I've always tried to gel, but I'm curious what happens if I dont...a newbie thing I guess. Thanks for the advice!

 

[cgpeanut]

i always master batch my lye 50/50 with water. when I go to use my lye I subtract the lye weight from the recipe water weight (since I have that much water already in my water lye solution) I then use the resulting result of the subtraction in what ever liquid I want to add be it more water or some other liquid. I add my other liquids to my oils and make sure it is emulsified before I add my room temperature lye.

 

[cgpeanut]

I've never really had trouble with coco milk overheating my soap but if you are worried about it, go ahead and put it in the fridge. I personally never mix anything with lye except water. I prefer to blend my coco milk into my oils before adding the lye solution. This way I don't have to worry about the coco milk scorching, getting thick (which it does) or the icky smell.

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