Castile without slime?

[Maythorn]

I don't get why some soapers say they get a great bar of soap out of 100% olice oil and others like me get a slimey bar. I 've even soaped it with a little coconut oil and some avocado and still gotten that. What is the secret to this if there is one? I did a long cure, too, and the bar was gentle but gooey.

It was the 16 ounces of oil with 2 oz lye with just water same as someone else just posted here.

 

[ToniD]

My castile reacts differently depending on the use conditions. When I use it at my moms it is really slimey, but at my house it is not noticeably so. My soap dish keeps it drier and my house is less humid. I am not sure if our different water types make a difference or not, but I would imagine it might.

 

[IrishLass]

I empathize with you. I get the 'slime', too. Any high OO soaps I make from 60% to 100% OO ooze a layer of oliec colloid on the surface, but it only oozes out when the soap is wet during bathing/showering. It goes back indoors so to speak when there's no water outside to play in, and returns to being hard and dry until the next time it gets used.

When I first started soaping, one of my favorite soaps to make were Castile-types with 60% or 80% OO, and back then, I just didn't 'get it' when others said their soaps made with a high % of OO were slimy. I didn't know what they were talking about, because to me, my Castile-types felt luxurious and creamy to my skin- not slimy.

It wasn't until after I had read some posts on a different forum by a fellow soaper with a chemistry background who explained what the 'slime' was and how to look for it that I began to examine my soaps more closely. By that time I had made a slew of other kinds of soap other than Castile or Castile-types and was able to compare, and sure enough, I was finally able to see the slime!

I honestly didn't know how I had never noticed it before. It appeared as a thin layer of barely perceptible gel on the surface of my mostly OO soaps when wet, and when I pressed my finger into it and very slowly lifted my finger up, tiny strands of 'slime' came up with my finger. I suppose I had never noticed it before because I always use a wash cloth to lather up with when I shower or bathe, and the cloth camouflaged it or made it feel like something other than slime to me, like an extra boost of silky creaminess or something. Also making it hard to notice is that I always set my soap on a well-draining soap dish when done showering and then I forget about it until the next time I bathe. When I go to use it again, it is always hard and dry before I lather it up in my wet cloth.

Now that I know what I'm looking for, I'm able to see it even in my Castile and Castile-types that I made 4- 5 years ago that I still have on hand when wet from bathing- even if I used a steep lye solution in the 40%+ range in the making of it.

The way it was explained to me is that of all the natural oil soaps, oleic acid soap is the most water soluble, meaning that it absorbs water and goes soft more easily than other soaps. Also- instead of dissolving in the same way as other soaps do, it forms a colloid, that stuff we all refer to as 'slime'.

To me, the 'slime' is just the nature of the Castile beast. Some love it, some hate it, some don't necessarily perceive the 'slime' as slime, but as a silkiness or creaminess, while others percieve it as snot or goop and refuse to bathe with it. I must admit- if I didn't have a wash cloth or a nylon pouf to lather it up with, I'd refuse to bathe with my Castile's too. They feel very slimy in my bare hands and the lather is nil...... but not so with my wash cloth or pouf. They turn my Castiles/Castile-types into something wonderful.


IrishLass

 

[Tabitha]

Castile without slime is like water without wet.

 

[Maythorn]

Castile without slime is like water without wet.

Good. I mean I'm glad it's not something I'm doing or not doing. I've never tried liquid soap but I wonder if Castile wouldn't be better that way somehow.

 

[PrairieCraft]

I agree with IrishLass, that it is all about perception. Before I knew about slime, castile or soaps with a high % of OO just seemed very creamy and mild and lush to me. I'm over it and love my mostly OO soap. I also use a scrubby cloth and am sometimes confused when someone says it isn't bubbly enough. With a good washcloth or poof every combination of oils I've tried has good bubble action so to me creaminess and low cleansing are more important.

 

[Dragonkaz]

My soaps sit in a dish that allows air all round them and they dry quickly between uses. I don't think my castille is slimy, but it's very creamy and shiny to use.

I think our perception of what slimy is, does affect how we view 100% OO soap. I love mine!

 

[Fragola]

Based on my perception, salt radically cuts slime (tried on various recipes, but none was 100% castille).

This is a very easy experiment that you can try: cut a piece from a bar that is full of slime (not a dry one). Add 1-2 tablespoons of pure table salt (enough to cover it completely, on all sides). Leave it on a plate for 24 hours, at which point you wash away the salt and check the new slimeness level (see if you notice any change).

I can't tell you how much salt added to your recipe will or won't make you happy, but this is something you can look into.

Of course, salt - depending on quantity does other things to your soap, which things you may not like. But I am thinking that possibly you can find how little salt to add in order to reduce the slime, while not altering the soap texture too much.

 

[debbism]

Sounds like a good experiment. I may have to try it. My last batch was actually bastile, 91% POMACE and 9% castor, SF at 8%. After 5-6 months curing, the "lather" was gooey and stretchy like thin mucous. I decided then I did NOT like castile (or bastile) soaps but many people did like it. I think I might try the recipe again with salt.

Which salt would be best.....regular table salt, or could I conceivably use Himalayan pink?

 

[Fragola]

I used pure table salt (not sea salt).

From what other people say, pink salt works fine for soap. But my guess is that it it isn't better than regular salt for slime control purposes.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Try making it with 5% castor and use a 40% lye solution and gel it in a warm oven for an hour or so. Then age it for a good 6 months at least. No slime for me. :wink:

 

[Fragola]

Yes, I was wondering if the gel/ungel factor has any bearing on the sliminess.

 

[soapbuddy]

Yes, I was wondering if the gel/ungel factor has any bearing on the sliminess.

No, it doesn't.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I've got another one that I HP'd that isn't slimy either. I'm talking about lack of "mucous" factor or perhaps it's nicer to call it the "raw egg white effect". One of the first high olive oil soaps that I made was quite disgusting. I'd be using it and and open my fingers to see stringy stuff clinging between the fingers. YUK.

 

[debbism]

............perhaps it's nicer to call it the "raw egg white effect"........

Point taken.....other terms to describe the texture eluded me at the time. Thank you!!

 

[Maythorn]

Try making it with 5% castor and use a 40% lye solution and gel it in a warm oven for an hour or so. Then age it for a good 6 months at least. No slime for me. :wink:

This is what I did and aged teh bars for almost a year and still slimey. Whic I wouldn't consider a Castile because of the castor and coconut I also had in their in small amounts.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

............perhaps it's nicer to call it the "raw egg white effect"........

Point taken.....other terms to describe the texture eluded me at the time. Thank you!!

Haha I usually call it the "snot factor".

 

[Stinkydancer]

Try making it with 5% castor and use a 40% lye solution and gel it in a warm oven for an hour or so. Then age it for a good 6 months at least. No slime for me. :wink:

This is what I did and aged teh bars for almost a year and still slimey. Whic I wouldn't consider a Castile because of the castor and coconut I also had in their in small amounts.

This is one of those things that you have to embrace with Olive Oil it seems.
That being said- it is still one of my favorite soaps especially for hand washing.

I have soaped OO everywhere from 70-100%. As far as the snot factor- it happened the least at 70 or 80% and the soap is still insanely mild and bubbly. I stick it in a soap saver sock. I do find even in well draining dishes- the soap gets soggy on the bottom and sticks to the dish at times.

Sodium Lactate can help if you aren't opposed to using it.