Coconut oil max

[squeakycleanuk]

Is 30% CO too drying / cleansing? I'll be superfatting at 8% and I've put it through soapcalc and it appears to be within the ideal ranges for everything but with a cleansing value of 20, I was wondering it might be a bit too drying. What do you think?

 

[Susie]

I don't use CO over 20% except in liquid soap. In bar soap, 20% strikes a good balance between cleaning/bubbling and not drying for me. I do use at least 5% superfat, though. What is the rest of your recipe, if I might ask? Sometimes you can get away with "not perfect numbers" depending on the other oils.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It might be okay, depending on what else is in the mix, but personally I keep my CO under 20% for a 'normal' soap

 

[squeakycleanuk]

I also have olive oil, avocado oil and cocoa butter in there. I wouldn't usually have it over 20% either but as we (in the UK) are only allowed to have 8 variations of the same basic recipe, it would mean I wouldn't be able to include my salt or castille soaps, so I was hoping to find a way of keeping my salt soap by increasing CO content only slightly and just using a little salt but I think if I did it would be at the expense of soaps in terms of quality. Its probably easier to just drop the idea of salt altogether, just a shame really but no big deal

 

[shunt2011]

I generally don't go over 22% but it's a combo of CO & PKO. With a 7-8% Superfat. But I love my salt bars best at 80% CO, 15% Avocado & 5% Castor. 20% Superfat. 25-30% Salt.

 

[pamielynn]

I frequently use 25%, depending on the the oil mix. When I use a lot of butters, I will up the CO. When I don't use butters, I only go with 20% CO. May sound weird, but to me - the butters seem to kill the big bubbles. And, yes, I use sugar.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Sorry - if you're selling then please do a lot more research before unleashing something on paying customers. Questions about whether or not 30% co is too much and so on should have been answered by now.

 

[DeeAnna]

"... I was hoping to find a way of keeping my salt soap by increasing CO content only slightly and just using a little salt..."

The problem with adding more than just a dab of salt (the usual 1 tsp ppo or so that's used for hardening), is that the soap has to be soluble in salty water. Most soaps aren't if they're not high in PKO or CO. I don't know what amount of salt you're wanting to add, but if it's much more than a dab, you're going to need enough CO or PKO to keep the solubility of the soap high enough to lather.

 

[squeakycleanuk]

Sorry - if you're selling then please do a lot more research before unleashing something on paying customers. Questions about whether or not 30% co is too much and so on should have been answered by now.

I'm not selling yet, I am working on my base recipe and intend to get my assessments done sometime in the middle of NEXT year (I began soap making a couple of years ago, so I wouldn't exactly call that rushing into something). I am asking (yes admittedly naive) questions in the hope of learning, as I said I've never used over 20% before except for in salt soap but just trying to work out what my options are before committing to something, as like I say we are limited to only 8 variations.

 

[squeakycleanuk]

Ok, thanks for your replies everyone I will drop the salt soap idea and just stick to my usual base recipe, which actually works pretty well

 

[lsg]

I usually use 30% coconut oil and it works OK for me. The Sage blog has a recipe for a salt bar with 93% coconut and 7% shea butter. It is one of my favorite recipes.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Have you checked that each variation will be small enough to be classed as one recipe?

I have to have more than one recipe to include things like salt bars, shave soaps and so on.

 

[MorpheusPA]

We're all different. I'm more different that most. I don't care for more than 10% CO in a recipe or I find it drying.

Most people are giving you numbers around 20%, and that's entirely reasonable. People with very oily skin will find 30% CO perfectly fine and may even prefer it.

Regular body soap and specialty soaps, like shaving soap, shampoo bars, and salt bars, all differ as well. I'm far more tolerant of CO in a shampoo bar than I am in a standard bath bar.

One thing I've noticed is that we, as the maker, are more critical of our recipes and designs than anybody else ever will be. Make the soap you enjoy using and you'll find that many people absolutely love it.