Bath soap for dry skin - does this look ok?

[Flyrod77]

In the Winter months the cold weather also takes a toll on my skin, drying it out. I'm wanting to make a bath soap that is high in conditioning and good for my dry skin. Thanks in advance for giving me feedback on this recipe, I appreciate your help.
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[penelopejane]

Meadowfoam oils is far too expensive for me to include in soap.
I'd cut out all the Coconut oil as I find it drying. You may not.

Don't know about stearic acid in CP.

PJ

 

[toxikon]

There are a couple oddities with this recipe:

- Castor shouldn't be used higher than 10% or it'll leave you with a very sticky bar of soap. 5% is normal for most recipes.
- Stearic acid is very hard to work with as it saponifies instantly when in contact with lye and has a very high melting point, its generally used for hot process shaving soap. I don't know if you're planning hot or cold process, but I wouldn't even try it in cold process.
- I'm not sure how much you're paying for your Meadowfoam, but I find that it's quite expensive and better used in leave-on products (like facial oils). I'd remove it and make up the difference in another soft oil, like olive.

Is there a reason you're not including any of the "holy trinity" of hard oils: lard, tallow and palm?

 

[Obsidian]

Agree with the castor, tried it at 20% once and it wasn't pleasant. I've used a little stearic (5%) in bath soap to help harden it and I really don't think it added anything to the soap besides a waxy feel that wasn't nice. If you do try more than 5% stearic, you absolutely need to do it HP. If you try CP, you will get soap on a stick.

I don't normally use expensive oils in soap but I used argan once and I really like the soap. It was a small batch and only I use it. If you are ok with the price, I don't see a issue with using the meadowfoam.

If you are ok with lard, it makes a really nice, creamy gentle soap.

 

[Flyrod77]

There are a couple oddities with this recipe:

- Castor shouldn't be used higher than 10% or it'll leave you with a very sticky bar of soap. 5% is normal for most recipes.
- Stearic acid is very hard to work with as it saponifies instantly when in contact with lye and has a very high melting point, its generally used for hot process shaving soap. I don't know if you're planning hot or cold process, but I wouldn't even try it in cold process.
- I'm not sure how much you're paying for your Meadowfoam, but I find that it's quite expensive and better used in leave-on products (like facial oils). I'd remove it and make up the difference in another soft oil, like olive.

Is there a reason you're not including any of the "holy trinity" of hard oils: lard, tallow and palm?

I was going to use hot process. I want a vegan recipe, and no palm oil.

 

[Obsidian]

This is my only vegan recipe. I need to tweak it some, I think the coconut is a tad bit high but I'm not sure what to add in its place.
http://www.evernote.com/l/ANjoJN_KydBFo4Yme_5bfh5wqR-lIaRRku8/

Keep in mind that stearic is usually derived from tallow or palm, your supplier should have that info. If you are ok with beeswax, at 3-5% its a much better hardener than stearic. There is also candelilla wax that is 100% vegan as its from a plant. Its a very hard wax, I would only use 1-2%. Tried it at 5% once, was terrible, had to toss the soap out as it was too hard and didn't lather.

 

[Flyrod77]

This is my only vegan recipe. I need to tweak it some, I think the coconut is a tad bit high but I'm not sure what to add in its place.
http://www.evernote.com/l/ANjoJN_KydBFo4Yme_5bfh5wqR-lIaRRku8/

Keep in mind that stearic is usually derived from tallow or palm, your supplier should have that info. If you are ok with beeswax, at 3-5% its a much better hardener than stearic. There is also candelilla wax that is 100% vegan as its from a plant. Its a very hard wax, I would only use 1-2%. Tried it at 5% once, was terrible, had to toss the soap out as it was too hard and didn't lather.

Thanks that is super helpful. I'm new to all of this, and greatly appreciate the help.

 

[mx5inpenn]

My go to vegan recipe is 11% each of shea and cocoa butters, 5% castor, 25% coconut, 7% superfat. The balance can be any soft oils you like, ie olive, rice bran, avocado.

 

[SaltedFig]

A quick side-note: You are much better off using lye concentration (picking somewhere between 28% to 33% to learn in, and sticking to that percentage for a while, would make it easier for you to see what changes the oils bring).

The default 38% water as a percentage of oils will cause all sorts of weird effects as you change your formula, that will have nothing to do your oils.

The amount of water you need is related to the amount of lye you use, not the amount of oils that you use. Each type of oil needs a different amount of lye, so if you leave this at the default setting, you are forcing the water to stay the same by weight of oil and your lye concentration will be all over the place, depending on your recipe.

 

[psfred]

Try this:

45% HO safflower
20% shea butter
20% soy wax 145
10% coconut oil
5% Castor oil.

Should end up very close to 40:60 saturated:unsaturated, cure quickly, and make a nice hard shower bar. I've made a soap with 80% veg oil (half soybean and half canola) which worked well, although it's taking a long time to cure. Castile is always an option, but that would be for next year, it takes a long, long time to cure.