Do I have a good recipe?

[Julie]

Hi everyone! I am really new to this forum.

I have made a few batches of basic cold process soap so far, but I am still really new to all of this. I am trying to formulate a recipe which will be simple, while making conditioning, hard and bubbly bars of soap.

I have an idea of a recipe, which I put through SoapCalc, and I will list the results below. What I am wondering is, are they good numbers for what I would like to make, or should I tweak them a bit? I don't want it to be too cleansing, and that number looks rather high to my inexperienced eye. And the bubbliness looks kinda low...:-?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

Coconut Oil: 25%
Olive Oil: 25%
Palm Oil: 25%
Castor Oil: 5%
Shea Butter: 5%
Cocoa Butter: 5%
Mango Butter: 5%
Sweet Almond Oil: 5%


__________(Suggested Range) (Your Recipe)
Hardness........... 29 - 54................45
Cleansing............12 - 22...............17
Conditioning........44 - 69................52
Bubbly................14 - 46................22
Creamy..............16 - 48................32
Iodine................41 - 75................53
INS....................136 - 165............158

 

[Dahila]

there is too much of hard oils, and the lather will be minimal even with high CO.

 

[Millie]

Hi Julie, welcome to the forum! It is looking pretty good. My recommendation would be to try one specialty oil or butter at a time around 10% so you know what each one brings to the table before combining them. You can use more olive and/or palm to make up the difference. Also try it with and without castor oil so you can see the difference there too. In some recipes it makes a big difference and in others I could take it or leave it.

As I look into my crystal ball I see many recommendations for less coconut oil and lots of lard

 

[Obsidian]

I would change it up some, maybe like this

palm or lard 35%
coconut 20%
olive 30%
butter of choice, I like shea 10%
castor 5%

 

[Arimara]

1. Coconut Oil %20
2. Olive Oil %40
3. Cocoa Butter %20
4. Shea Butter %15
5. Castor Oil %5

How do you like this? Run this though a calculator.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Excellent job, Julie! Especially for a Newbie. Impressive. I wouldn't change a thing, but that's just me. Give it a go and see how you like it.

Keep up the good work! :bunny:

 

[Julie]

Thanks everyone, for your suggestions!

I have some idea what I need to do now, but I have one more question for you. For a bubbly, conditioning bar, what would be the best numbers to reach? I know numbers aren't everything, but at least it would give me a sort of goal for formulating the recipe.

Also, what contributes to a bubblier bar? My last batches were lacking suds, so I hope to fix that somehow this time.

Thanks again for being so helpful!

 

[mx5inpenn]

Thanks everyone, for your suggestions!

I have some idea what I need to do now, but I have one more question for you. For a bubbly, conditioning bar, what would be the best numbers to reach? I know numbers aren't everything, but at least it would give me a sort of goal for formulating the recipe.

Also, what contributes to a bubblier bar? My last batches were lacking suds, so I hope to fix that somehow this time.

Thanks again for being so helpful!

Coconut, palm kernal and babassu are the big bubble makers. They are also the more "cleansing" oils so most people tend to keep them at 20% or less. Castor sustains bubbles, but at more than 10% tends to make the bars sticky. Sugar helps a lot with bubbles. Try adding 25-303 tsp per pound of oils to your water and letting dissolve before adding lye.

After you have gotten comfortable with the whole process, dual lye soaps have enhanced bubbles. Well, that's what I hear anyway, mine are still curing.

 

[dibbles]

Try adding 25-303 tsp per pound of oils to your water and letting dissolve before adding lye.

After you have gotten comfortable with the whole process, dual lye soaps have enhanced bubbles. Well, that's what I hear anyway, mine are still curing.

Somehow, I have a feeling she means 2.5 to 3 tsp PPO Replacing aloe juice for part or all of the water can also increase bubbles, and doesn't cause any funky reactions with the lye in my experience.

 

[Julie]

Great, I will add the sugar. Hopefully that will help!

With the Aloe juice, will it make the soap have some kind of shorter shelf life?

And forgive my ignorance, but what is dual lye soap?

 

[shunt2011]

Great, I will add the sugar. Hopefully that will help!

With the Aloe juice, will it make the soap have some kind of shorter shelf life?

And forgive my ignorance, but what is dual lye soap?

Nope, Aloe juice doesn't shorten the life of the soap. It is great for adding a some bubbly to your recipes.

 

[mx5inpenn]

Somehow, I have a feeling she means 2.5 to 3 tsp PPO Replacing aloe juice for part or all of the water can also increase bubbles, and doesn't cause any funky reactions with the lye in my experience.

Yes, thank you dibbles! Sometimes I really hate autocorrect :what:

 

[DeeAnna]

Dual lye soap means a recipe that uses both NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and KOH (potassium hydroxide) to make the soap. For a hard bar soap, you'd want to use just a smidge of KOH -- 5% to maybe 10% KOH -- with the rest being NaOH. The KOH causes the soap to lather easier.

I use KOH this way, but unless you've got KOH laying around already and are feeling pretty solid in your soap making skills, you may want to try aloe or sugar or other bubble maker additives like that first. (Beer is another bubble maker.) When you're ready to branch out to KOH, click on the link at the end of any of my posts -- I've got an article there about how to create a dual lye recipe.