Did i do something wrong with the aloe butter?

[Rosey]

ok this has not been a good week for me..lol.

I made an aloe soap yesterday. I took my basic recipe that's SF at 5% and added 5% of aloe so it will be SF 10% ..right? (or am I wrong?).

It has OO, coconut oil, palm oil and castor oil...and then the aloe butter.

So I wasn't sure how to use the aloe butter and I melted it.

I added it and then SBed until trace. I hadn't added the FO and it looked like ricing again.

Now, what the heck happened there?

When I look at the soap, it looks like there are a few white spots in there.

Sheeshness!

Did I use it wrong, was that the wrong thing for cp?

 

[MikeInPdx]

Honestly, and this is just my HO....I would save the aloe butter for something leave on, like a lotion, where you can get the skin benefits.

Superfatting with CP is also a dicey business. You're really better off to just calculate your recipe, and take a lye discount of 5% or whatever. The lye saponifies what it pleases and leaves behind what it pleases, so any benefit is questionable.

Now, if you want to make sure there is some skin benefit, you can calculate your soap for a 1% or so superfat and then hot process it. After it cooks, add about an oz of melted aloe butter to the hot soap paste. Then your superfat will be with the oil you want.

 

[Rosey]

Oh i knew that it wouldn't be the oil "left" out but I just added it at trace cause it was easier and I was still trying to decide how to split my batch.

I'm not making anything but soap right now. I'm going to have to research some more about aloe.

 

[IrishLass]

Rosey- from what I understand, aloe butter is an just extract of aloe infused into coconut oil to help make a soft solid out of the aloe, so it's probably not much different in soap than if you had soaped with plain coconut oil.

I agree with Mike about saving it for lotions rather than soap. I bet it would be great in lotions.

I used to soap with aloe juice all the time for my full water amount instead of water, but I could never tell the difference between my soaps made with aloe and my soaps made with water, so I nixed the aloe and went with the much cheaper water.

Although I search every now and then, to date, I haven't seen any research results that would tell me if aloe had any benefits in soap besides label appeal (not that label appeal is a bad thing, mind you. :wink: )

IrishLass

 

[Rosey]

hmmmm. I do want to make lotion *eventually* because I need lotion in winter..lol.

Ok so the aloe aside, what do you think the ricingness was from? The aloe?

edit: I haven't found anything either. I guess if i want something, I may add shea butter instead.

 

[Guest]

Was the aloe hotter than the oils you added it too , or were the oils you added it hotter than the aloe was . Did you ever add your FO ?

Kitn

 

[Rosey]

I did add the FO but after I noticed the clumps.

The other oils may have been a little hotter since I had mixed in the lye and it was heating up already.

I guess I'll be licking some soap here in a little bit!

 

[vivcarm]

The only times I've had ricing was when I had the soap FAR too hot, I have learnt my lesson, try soaping a little cooler, and see if this changed things.

 

[Rosey]

yeah i was trying to hurry. I'll slow it down and add the lye slower. Hopefully I won't have it happen again.