CPHP shaving soap

[Soapmomma]

I think my first shaving soap experiment has went awry! I have never had such a wet texture and separating before with hot process. I have a small 1 lb round plastic can that's perfect for making test batches, after pouring my mixture in the can, 15 minutes later there is a half inch of liquid floating on the top.

My recipe was: 16 oz total oils
Castor 25%
Coconut 76- 24 %
Cocoa butter 13%
Lard 11 %
Crisco 9%
RBO 8 %
Soybean Oil 10%

water at 36% and 6% superfat

2.76 oz water and 3 oz Aloe Vera Juice, water was slushy and I added the 2.2 oz lye to the water, let it cool and then added cold AV juice to it, didn't get any burning.

Added the lye mix to melted oils and stick blended to trace before remembering my clay oops! So I quickly mixed 1 tbsp bentonite clay with 2 tbsp water, there goes my water discount -- stick blended like crazy and seem to have gotten it all incorporated in.

It cooked pretty fast, like 15 minutes then immediately seperated, so I stick blended it back to some kind of thickness, added my .8 oz FO, stirred and stirred and poured. It ended up looking like really traced CP instead of HP but it did go through the entire cooking process ( I watched lol) and no zap.

I have never worked with aloe vera juice, cocoa butter or clay before so is extra liquid common, or the consistency that different with any of those? Thank you so much for any ideas.

Rissa

 

[Lindy]

My recommendation would be to put it back into a pot, put it in the oven at 200 F. It is going to separate, but if you wait long enough it will come back together....I haven't checked your recipe, but I have had this happen to me and I found putting it right back into the oven worked well for me....HTH

 

[mamaT]

Not sure what happened to your batch, but when you add clay you need extra liquid because the clay swells and sucks it up.

 

[beachgurl]

Aloe vera juice is the same as water for soapmaking purposes.

 

[Soapmomma]

Not sure what happened to your batch, but when you add clay you need extra liquid because the clay swells and sucks it up.

Ooooh did not know that, I discounted because I just wasn't happy with the hardness number that come up on soapcalc, but my goofup made me put more water back in (just a bit) so hope it was enough

As for putting it back in the oven, I don't really have any oven dishes for soap, no pyrex just aluminum so I crockpot, would putting it back in the crockpot work or just keep it separating?

I keep looking and what's floating is definitely excess oil, not water or aloe vera. Maybe it'll get sucked back in? Hope so! Thank you everybody for your replies.

Rissa

 

[Lindy]

Hey Rissa,

Your crockpot would be just fine - since I don't know what is separating it's hard to say it will soak back in. You can give it a couple of days and see what it does......

Cheers
Lindy

 

[Soapmomma]

Thanks Lindy, it's slowly sucking back into the log so fingers crossed! Hopefully it's not just sinking to the bottom of the mold We'll see when DH tries it if his face stays oily. Maybe I superfatted too much, not sure of the saponifiables in those oils, esp cocoa butter.
Oh well, at least it was a small batch.

 

[Etelka]

Check your aloe vera, was it 100% pure. The same thing happened to me once and it wasnt 100%, coconut powder did the same, I always used a particular brand and then I couldn't get it so I bought this new one and few minutes into stirring, bang, seperation you wouldn't believe, I ended up heating it on the stove and sb-ing the hell out of it, finally it worked.
Etelka

 

[Soapmomma]

The juice is Fruit of the Earth brand from Wal-mart and it says 99.8% pure. Ingredients say: Organic aloe vera gel, citric acid, sodium benzoate.

Edit to add:

The oils (mostly) sank back in, had to paper towel dry it a little when I got it out of the mold.
I'm an extremely impatient person so I had to try it this evening after it dried all day. It sucks

DH didn't want to shave tonight so I thought what the heck and tried it myself (without the actual shaving part) Either I'm totally shaving brush ignorant (which I am but read a how-to lol) or it's just not gonna work. I got really nice bubbly run off your skin lather. On the upside, I washed my face with it and it's really nice! I have naturally oily skin and it seems to have sucked the oils right out and left it nice and soft.

I've played with that soapcalc 9 for hours on end, my problem is I just don't know what numbers I'm shooting for. Here is what I got:

Hardness 38
Cleansing 16
Condition 58
Bubbly 39
Creamy 44
Iodine 65
total INS--143

Should I try to get the bubbly down and keep the creamy up? I just don't know how to make a stable rich lather that I'm needing. Appreciate any help.

Rissa

 

[Soapmomma]

Any ideas?

 

[Lindy]

With my shaving soap I use the following:

OO
CO
Vitamin E Oil
Sweet Almond Oil
Castor
Icing Sugar (extra lather)
White Clay

I have heard that Tallow really adds to Shaving Soap but I haven't tried it. Now I personally have never used a brush but my bath pouf works wonderfully. Keep in mind that this is not going to be like the commercial shaving products because you're not adding a detergent. Having said that - if you wanted to add a foaming agent you can put in a surfacant......

HTH

 

[Soapmomma]

Thank you Lindy. I was thinking about getting some slsa to try but wasn't sure what kind of bubbling it would create. I'll do some research into surfactants. Also might try one with coconut milk instead of aloe juice, see what that creates. Appreciate the help

 

[Lindy]

Be really careful with Coconut Milk - I've heard some people who have had absolutely wonderful success with this - for me it has been a disaster every single time. I know that means I don't understand how to use it properly, but for now I'm simply not using it... And it's funny because I don't have trouble handling cream, milk and Goat's milk, but Coconut Milk is not my friend.....sheesh

Maybe someone will come along who can tell you (and me for that matter) how to successfully use coconut Milk...

 

[Soapmomma]

I've never used it but read lots and lots of disaster stories on it -(which is why I haven't been brave enough for goat's milk yet, that stuffs expensive!)- I think what I'll try is mixing my lye with half the amount of liquid in water, then add the rest in coconut milk after my water/lye mix goes in the oils.
I think I saw on here where someone added it at trace and it was ok but that was prob CP, my crockpot might not be friendly to it :? If I get some time to myself tonight I'll give it a go with a more simple oil combination and see how it does.
Rissa

 

[Maria]

Coconut milk is easy to use if you cook the soap a bit longer until it just starts to look dry. Take some out of the pot and mix with the coconut milk and add back in and stir thoroughly.

 

[Soapmomma]

Thanks for the tip Maria, I'll have to give that a try next time.

I did do the coconut milk shaving soap tonight. Used Coconut, castor, RBO and lard with bent. clay and coconut milk/water half and half.

I used half the water in the lye mix, let it cool totally down and added my coconut milk. It didn't burn or stink and didn't get too thick so I hope it will be ok. BUT it is still leaking, it's got to be the clay. Maybe I'm adding too much. I'll try less next time and see how it does.

 

[Soapmomma]

This time it turned out great! After the oils absorbed back in and it has cured a few days, DH tried it tonight. It lathered well and stayed on his face perfectly (smelled really good too! cedarwood ) I will make it again and half the clay to see if that is the oil problem but I'm happy with it. In case anyone is interested I used:

30% Lard (could sub palm probably if you don't like animal fats)
40% RBO
15% coconut oil 76
15% castor oil

half the water was replaced with coconut milk and 1 tsp bentonite clay was added directly to the oils and stickblended.
I HP so I used the full 38% water and 5% superfat

Thank you everyone for your help