Bubbly Soap

[Aquarius]

I had limited or better no success so far regarding the bubbly properties in my soaps, they all have good stable cream, but none of them seems to produce bubbles when used in the shower as a body bar. I was playing around in soap calc and found that the only ingredients that I have and produce bubbles are castor, coconut and palm kernal...but i made a batch with 20% castor and 30% coconut, 50% palm before and there were no bubbles at all just thick white cream. (Is it even possible to have cream and bubbles in the same soap or is it either one or the other?)

Now I know coconut should be max. 20-30% of the base, so I am not sure about using 20%coc. and 20% pkr. together in a base...well I don't know if that would be too drying for the skin.

I also heard something about adding sugar to your lye solution to improve bubbles. Anyone knows if that is true and to what extent? And if it is how much of it should i put in, I'm currently using a 3.1 L mold.

And how do you add it...directly in the DW before you mix the NaOH, or after you poured in the Naoh?

 

[Hazel]

Yes, 20% CO and 20% PKO would be too drying for a lot of people. I won't say all because I made a kitchen/gardener soap with these percentages and my nephew thought it was the best hand soap. He said it cleaned resin off his skin better than the industrial soap he used at work. I'm not entirely sure this was a compliment but he did ask for more when he used up the bar I gave him.

There has been disagreement on whether sugar contributes to increasing bubbles. I've tried batches with and without sugar and I do think it makes a difference. I generally use 20%-25% CO, 10% castor (at the highest percentage) in my batches and I add sugar if I'm not using something else like beer, wine or honey. I base the sugar amount on approximately 4% of the weight of the oils so I'd use 1.3 oz for a 2 lb batch. That may be slightly higher than recommended but this amount seemed to turn out best for me. BTW, I do up the percentage of CO if I'm adding cream or buttermilk to a batch.

I remove enough water from my liquid amount for the sugar. I warm the water in the microwave and dissolve the sugar in it. Sometimes I add this sugar solution into the lye solution before I pour it into the oils, other times I add it to the batch after I stir the lye solution in (I'm forgetful at times ). I've found either way works out fine. In the beginning, I tried adding sugar to the lye solution because I had read the heat would dissolve the sugar. It didn't work for me and I had lumps of undissolved sugar in the bottom of the pitcher. This is why I switched to dissolving the sugar before adding it to the lye solution or directly into the bowl.

This is just a thought because I'm not an expert soapmaker - both palm and castor really increase the creaminess of lather. This might be why the lather was more creamy since you were using them at high percentages. You could try lowering the percentages and add another oil.

For example

35% OO
25% PO
30% CO
10% Castor

or

40% OO
25% PO
27% CO
8% Castor

 

[Aquarius]

Tnx i'll try making that recipe. One more thing I forgot to ask...what kind of sugar should I use, just regular white sugar or something else?

 

[new12soap]

Yes, plain white sugar. I use it to boost bubbles, too, but less than Hazel uses. I live in a hot, humid climate and too much sugar can make the bars soft and contribute to sweating, so I use no more than 1 tbs PPO, and often about half that. It still makes a big difference. Experiment! And I second making SURE that your sugar is dissolved before you add it. I just add one part sugar and one part water and pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stir and pop it back in until completely dissolved.

 

[Hazel]

I just use regular sugar, too. I did use brown sugar for an oatmeal batch. It didn't make a difference. I used it mainly because I liked the sound of brown sugar & oatmeal. I also added some cream and used Almond & Honey FO. Everyone thought it smelled like maple syrup.

 

[IrishLass]

I was playing around in soap calc and found that the only ingredients that I have and produce bubbles are castor, coconut and palm kernal...but i made a batch with 20% castor and 30% coconut, 50% palm before and there were no bubbles at all just thick white cream. (Is it even possible to have cream and bubbles in the same soap or is it either one or the other?)

The oils that produce the big, fluffy-type bubbles are coconut, palm kernel oil (PKO) and babassu oil. I've personally found in my own soap formulas that castor does not directly produce the big, fluffy-type bubbles as much as it enhances or adds a depth to the fluffy/bubbly lather that is already presesent from the CO, PKO or babassu. It helps to prop it up, if that makes sense.

Yes- it is possible to have both creamy and bubbly lather in the same bar of soap. As a matter of fact, I always shoot for a good balance of each when formulating my recipes.

Now I know coconut should be max. 20-30% of the base, so I am not sure about using 20%coc. and 20% pkr. together in a base...well I don't know if that would be too drying for the skin.

I've found that prescribed maximum amounts of CO or PKO are not written in stone, although that doesn't keep some books and info on the net from trying to write such things in stone. In truth, the amount of CO/PKO or babassu that one feels comfortable using will differ greatly from person to person, because it all depends on ones' particular skin-type. You'll just have to do a little 'trial & error' testing to see what works for you. And if you find that a 40% combo of CO/PKO is too drying for you, you can still use that amount but just increase your superfat to counterbalance the drying effect. For example, I and many others make a 100% CO soap with a 20% superfat that is not drying in the least to us.

I also heard something about adding sugar to your lye solution to improve bubbles. Anyone knows if that is true and to what extent? And if it is how much of it should i put in, I'm currently using a 3.1 L mold.

And how do you add it...directly in the DW before you mix the NaOH, or after you poured in the Naoh?

I use 5% white sugar ppo in my soap, which translates to 2 tablespoons sugar per pound of oils. I notice a very tangible, bubbly boost in my all-veggie Castile-types which contain at least 50% OO. The results are more subtle in my other formulas. I dissolve my sugar in some of my water amount and add it to my oils along with the lye solution.

As an aside, I've used as much as 10% sugar before as an experiment, but it made my soap very soft (albeit wonderfully extra-bubbly).

Also- I've found that honey @ 1 tbsp ppo boosts bubbles very tangibly in all my soap formulas.


IrishLass

 

[judymoody]

Do you know what kind of water you have in your area - harder, softer, ground water, etc?

The reason I ask is that I participated in a lather additive swap on another forum. We tried over twenty different additives (in some cases the "additive" was an alternative liquid like coconut milk, goat's milk, or beer). We then all tested the sample bars (each had the same base recipe of 50% OO and 25% each of PO and CO with full water and 8% SF) and got wildly divergent results based on the quality of the local water supply.

As others have mentioned, many of the best lathering oils are also drying so coming up with a good balance can be tricky. And as Irishlass explained very clearly, you can compensate for the drying potential by increasing the superfat (which then can depress lather slightly). It really is a balancing act. Don't get discouraged and keep experimenting!

 

[sudbubblez]

If you have hard water, that will be cutting down on the bubbly. the minerals in hard water react with the soap to make scum instead of suds. Many commercially available bars have additives that combat this. Do they lather different in distilled water?

 

[honor435]

Ive never used sugar( heard it works), but know for a fact that 10% castor does make nice bubbles, I use, po, oo, pk, shea and castor, it took me 1 yr to come up with this recipe and now its the only one I make.