Coconut soap

[shunt2011]

I just finished a 100% coconut oil soap earlier this week. Be prepared for this soap to be very hard! I used only 1% superfat and after only 16 hours of curing the soap was so rock hard is destroyed my soap cutter. I had to buy a new one and cut the rest of the loaf with a large knife.

That soap would skin the hide off of me and I can use soap at 20-30% CO. I use 100% CO soap with 0% SF for laundry. Never on the skin. Any high coconut soap will need to be cut sooner than a well balanced soap. I cut my 100% CO Salt soap at 3 hours. None salt at bout 6 hours. They will be hard but won't last long. Difference in hardness and longevity.

 

[Stevenc]

I've been making a coconut oil soap which I absolutely love that uses 36% coconut oil, and only 5% superfat. I've been playing around with coconut oil as I don't want to use palm oil and I found this recipe is provides a long lasting bar with great lather. I also use cocoa butter (30%) to offset the dryness of coconut and the other oil is Rice bran (33%) as its cheap and easily available I only cure the soap for a month before using it. If you would like the recipe, let me know

Hi Aromasuzie. Thank you for proposing me a recipe that is what i would really appreciate. I have everything to start my soapmaking now. Do you know if there is any risk in using aluminium pots for mixing the substances or should they be made of glass of ceramics or what materials are to be avoided?

Does anyone know if there is pots, i mean the material they are made of, to avoid for mixing the substances in? I ask because i would prefer to buy cheap pots. The ones made of light material are the cheapest

 

[dibbles]

@Stevenc don't use aluminum - it will react with the lye. Plastic (recycle codes 2 and 5), stainless steel and silicone are your safest options.

I mix my lye solution in a stainless steel frothing pitcher and I mix my soap batter in plastic mixing bowls or buckets.

 

[Aromasuzie]

Thanks for that, I'm all very new to this and the SoapCalc graphs did help me play around with the hardness of the bar, which hopefully increases longevity . I haven't had any issues with DOS as yet, but all Rice Bran oils are solvent extracted and not exposed to any heat during extraction so hopefully that reduces the rancidity issue, and of course making sure I store the soap correctly. I make my own moisturiser so haven't worried too much on how the components of the soap affect my skin, I was just trying to make my own soap without palm oil, that was "cleansing" and didn't cost too much to make

@Aromasuzie here’s a good website where you can learn more about hardness vs. longevity:
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapCalcNumbers.asp

Mobjack Bay, thank you for that thread, its given me a lot to think about. So when we look at certain soap recipes with oils that have "skin conditioning " properties, we should really look at what oils contain particular saturated/unsaturated fatty acids and use those that give us the correct %. I always wondered why you would use an omega 3 oil in a soap when you are better off taking it internally

 

[penelopejane]

I was given a 100% coconut soap recently. I didn't make it so I don't know what SF it was. It was a big bar: 1 inch thick, 3.25 inches wide and 2.5 inches high. It was drying but the most annoying thing was that it only lasted for 7 showers for one person and then it was totally gone! Admittedly I am a paint my skin with soap type of shower person but still! A bit crazy.