Someone suggested that I make a "conditioning bar" so I played around with the soap calc until I came up with a recipe that uses cocoa/avocado butter, and castor, olive and almond oils. I could also add a small amount of palm oil. The calc profile says that it will have very high conditioning (85) and creamy properties, but low hardness and zero cleansing! Am I on the right track, or would this be a ridiculously soft and oily mess? Any tips for superfat % and temps would be helpful as well.
Conditioning Bar
- Thread starter Azoraa
- Start date
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I can't really say without seeing percentages of the ingredients. Olive oil does have a low hardness value on soapcalc but will eventually become hard. So, it might be fine if the OO percentage is high enough. Don't worry about zero cleansing. It just means it will very mild. It's still soap and it will clean.
Sure - The recipe now is Castor @ 40%, Almond @ 30%, Cocoa butter @ 20%, Olive @ 10% (I'll use a 24% water to oil weight) and superfat of 5-10% perhaps with vitamin E added on. It is high in ricinoleic and oleic acids and low to none of the other types. I wonder how this might compares with other conditioning bar formulas - this is quite different from what I have made which uses a lot of coconut and palm oils!
This soap is going to be extremely soft. I don't recommend using castor at such a high percentage. Here are some links to discussions about castor percentages.
viewtopic.php?t=4287
viewtopic.php?t=31326
viewtopic.php?t=25372
Is there a particular reason you picked these oils as compared to others? You could make a conditioning soap with just using 95% olive and 5% castor but it would take awhile to cure.
viewtopic.php?t=4287
viewtopic.php?t=31326
viewtopic.php?t=25372
Is there a particular reason you picked these oils as compared to others? You could make a conditioning soap with just using 95% olive and 5% castor but it would take awhile to cure.
Sure, I'll check the links - thanks. The oils are chosen from what is more easily available to me and resulted in the highest conditioning and creaminess qualities. If the result is going to be too soft and not able to hold its shape, then perhaps it could be adjusted by adding palm and lowering the almond oil and/or increasing the butter component. What do you think and would you consider this kind of oil configuration as something that you could use on your hair, or skin (or both) :?:
Some other remarks suggested that high castor content was more of a problem when combined with high olive oil, but I was not going to use much if any olive. :?
Some other remarks suggested that high castor content was more of a problem when combined with high olive oil, but I was not going to use much if any olive. :?
Azoraa said:
You'd do better to use more olive and less castor. Olive will eventually become very hard after a long cure. Palm would increase the hardness. Try adjusting the recipe by adding palm, upping the olive, lowering the castor and almond. I don't know what to recommend for the cocoa butter. I've only used it at 5%.
