Baby soap takes too much time to set.

[IrishLass]

I agree with DeeAnna that almond oil is not the best oil to add to your soap formula if your aim is to cut down on the oleic acid content, and that high stearic fats such as lard, tallow or palm oil are better options to use instead of the almond oil. I see that you live in India, so beef tallow may not be an option for you, and pre-made lard may be hard to find, although you could render it yourself at home if you are able to find a butcher shop that sells pork products (the pig fat from around the kidneys of a pig is best). Palm oil may probably be the easiest to find, but other options to use in case you can't find palm are any of these: mango butter, or cocoa butter, or shea butter or kokum butter.


IrishLass

 

[dixiedragon]

What is the most-eaten meat in your community? It might be easier for you to get goat or sheep fat, rather than pork fat.

We Americans are huge fans of pork. Apparently in the early days of our country there was a tongue-in-cheek campaign to name us the Republic of Porkdom.

Early explorers - such as DeSota - brought pigs with them from Europe. They herded the pigs with them on their travels so they had a reliable supply of meat. Pigs are omnivorous, pretty formidable (check out the tusks) and a sow can have 10+ young a year. Much better than a cow which has a much more limited diet, only has 1 (maybe 2) young a year and is not very well able to defend itself. Feral pigs are actually becoming a big problem, and many of those pigs are descended from Desoto's pigs.

I suppose the sheep and goats were considered too valuable to eat, since they produced wool and milk, so perhaps only old (meaning not very tasty) sheep and goats were eaten?

I'm done rambling for now! Is rice bran oil available in your area? I would try something with low or no coconut oil (under 10%), a higher superfat (probably around 10%).

 

[Steve85569]

"
Lard, Colloidal Oatmeal, syndet bar.. all new revelations for me

I would like to try lard sometime, but dont know where to get it.. Its not available online. Or can I just go to the meat shop and ask for pig fat?"

If you live in an area that butchers pigs you may be able to find lard in the oil or baking section of a grocery store. Sometimes they hide the lard in a refridgerated section. DW found me some flake lard in the meat section and brought home just this week.

I love that woman!

 

[pcs]

Thanks for all the replies and very interesting comments!

The easiest and purest oil to find in my part of the world is coconut oil. The name of my place itself is Kerala, which means "Abundance of coconuts"! But I know it can be very drying to the skin, so I ll keep that to a minimum.

"Have you compared the fatty acid profile of almond oil and olive oil?"
No! New perspective! thanks!
Also I was under the assumption that the goodness of oils that we use infuses into the soap that we make. But yeah, ultimately the oil breaks down when combines with lye. But I guess the nutrients and superfat stay in the resulting soap and that nourishes skin.

I have to check availability and price of Palm oil, Tallow and lard.

How do we make sure animal fat does not contain infectious micro organisms harmful for babies?

I dont know what is the outside world s image of meat consumption in india especially after controversies about beef eating, but Kerala s national favourite remains beef. We are separated from the mainland by the western ghats, so we have a flavor of culture and preferences of our own. There is a political agenda to ban beef, but we have resisted by organising beef festivals So beef tallow might not be hard to find afterall, only I have to make sure that its good quality - no infections, should be fresh etc. Pig butchering is not very common, but I might be able to find a couple of places. I might try one of these as my next project.

In the meanwhile, what if I use 90%olive oil, 10%coconut oil with 40% Lye concentration? How long will it take to cure?

Cheers!

 

[Dahila]

It will need at least 6 months of cure, many people make this kind of soap and cure it for a year. It is called bastile soap , I cure mine 4-6 months

 

[dixiedragon]

I don't think a bacteria or virus would survive the rendering process and the lye process.

 

[pcs]

Hmm.. So either I make a bastile soap or use lard/tallow/palm and cut down on olive oil.

Palm oil (Red)seems very costly online - 40$ for 8oz. Clearly not an option for me.

Have to explore the other two. Until then, gram flour cleansing for my baby!

Thank you everyone for responding to my post!

Cheers!

 

[Obsidian]

You don't want to use red palm, it will make bright orange soap with orange lather.
Do you have any solid cooking shortening available? Sometimes you can find a brand that is refined palm (white)

 

[Arimara]

You don't want to use red palm, it will make bright orange soap with orange lather.
Do you have any solid cooking shortening available? Sometimes you can find a brand that is refined palm (white)

I have to agree but it's the smell of red palm oil soap that gets to me more. :-?

 

[dixiedragon]

I think palm is a fairly common cooking oil in India? Check out shortening and read the ingredients. You may find a shortening that is a blend - for example here in the US shortening is a blend of palm and a few other things. Great Value (Walmart brand) has a shortening that is a blend of beef tallow and other things. Both of these are in the soap calc. While you may not have these exact brands, I would wager that if you find an all-veg shortening with palm as the first ingredient, or a beef tallow shortening with tallow as a first ingredient, you would still be able to use those in the soap calc.

You may also want to experiment with using coconut oil at higher rates and giving your soap a higher superfat.

For example, salt bars are usually 90-100% coconut oil with a 20% superfat. The salt is somewhere from 50% to 100% of oil weight. The soap does have to age a while, but it is very nice.

Also, what about mango butter?

 

[pcs]

You don't want to use red palm, it will make bright orange soap with orange lather.
Do you have any solid cooking shortening available? Sometimes you can find a brand that is refined palm (white)

I will explore the supermarket next time. It must be available I too feel.

"For example, salt bars are usually 90-100% coconut oil with a 20% superfat. The salt is somewhere from 50% to 100% of oil weight. The soap does have to age a while, but it is very nice."

whoa! 100% coconut oil?? Cant wait to try this one! sea salt is easily available too! this one is my next project! Thank you!!!

Cheers!

 

[Obsidian]

I love salt bars but make sure to ask advice before making them. They can be a bit tricky the first couple times and they have different guidelines then regular soap.

 

[cmzaha]

Hmm.. So either I make a bastile soap or use lard/tallow/palm and cut down on olive oil.

Palm oil (Red)seems very costly online - 40$ for 8oz. Clearly not an option for me.

Have to explore the other two. Until then, gram flour cleansing for my baby!

Thank you everyone for responding to my post!

Cheers!

Not sure what gram flour is, but be careful or oatmeal etc when using it on a baby when you still do not know if they have allergies. I ended up in the hospital when I was one, according to my mom, after a dermatologist told her to bath me in an Oatmeal Bath. I was severely allergic to oatmeal baths as a child, although I could eat oats. You an make a lovely soap for baby if you want to use bar soap with shortening, castor (5%) with some soft oil such as Sweet Almond or Avocado. Anything you use for cleaning baby needs to be tested on a small area for reactions. My kids used a nice gentle m&p base soap for their kids with no fo and that is what I recommend when someone ask me for "Baby Soap". Lye soap is not the perfect answer for everyone...

 

[pcs]

um.. I will look out for allergies on my baby s skin.. mostly I will use only warm water to wash him/her.

I am going to try salt bar.. I do feel its tricky, I have started another thread for suggestions on how to make it. I m gonna try it within a couple of weeks I can take a couple of failures, but the idea seems really good

cheers!