Butters?

OHello · Apr 29, 2013

I am playing with a new recipe and thought I might add a butter this time for extra moisturising (or rather, for less drying...). I'm not sure if I should go with cocoa or shea. I see shea pop up in a lot of ingredient lists. Is there a reason that it seems to be preferred over cocoa?

Do butters make a difference in the quality of the soap or does your favorite recipe not include them at all?

Sorry for so many questions...I feel as though the more I research soap making the less I feel I know if that makes sense.

kazmi · Apr 29, 2013

I'm still too new at this to give any input of value other than my limited experience. Some people like shea while others don't but I think it's about how it feels on your skin. If I keep shea at less than 5% it's less drying for me than at a higher percentage. I've also increased my superfat percentage when I plug my numbers in at soapcalc.net and I think my soap feels moisterizing to me. Haven't used cocoa so can't comment there. Try adding a little bit of a butter at trace (while the batter is still warm enough to melt the butter) and see if that feels good on your skin.

cursivearts · Apr 30, 2013

I haven't tried cocoa butter, but I have used shea and I love it. I just formulated a recipe that's 20% shea and even though it is super-girly smelling, my husband loves it for his super dry skin.

Cocoa butter has an odor, so that may have something to do with it.

mel z · Apr 30, 2013

I think the differences may be personal preferences. I know that just applying shea or cocoa butter to my skin, shea is very nice and moisturizing, cocoa butter, on the other hand, actually dries my skin.

As far as soaps, it could be the above, it could be the aroma (but you can buy both in refined odorless if you wanted to, although some claim the properties are not present then), or it could be the color they turn, or the density and or ash issues.

Check out Zensoaps blog on single oil soap, and see what happens with just shea and just cocoa butter.

http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm

hoegarden · Apr 30, 2013

As most others have said, it actually defer from people to people. I have a friend who love to have both shea and cocoa butter in her soap. Whereas for me, I prefer mango butter and shea butter. I put 5% of each in some of my formula. I think you should start with a small batch to experiment and I guess you will find your perfect match.

OHello · May 1, 2013

I think I will probably try some shea as everyone else seems to like it so much - all those soapmakers can't be wrong!

I also bought some tussah silk that I am very excited to try.

And some melt and pour for instant gratification...and some colours....and some fragrances...and a few moulds.

This soap making is getting to be expensive!

btw, the zensoaps article was really interesting. It would never occur to me to make soap using just one oil.