Dry my skin

kokoro · Jan 4, 2009

Dear all,

I followed the lye calculator and made the first batch of my soap. Gonna say it looks quite pretty so I decided to try it after curing for 3 weeks. However, it does dry my skin and I am not sure whether its because of my receipe / curing time. Can somebody please help?

g
Oil - Olive 1,782
Oil - Coconut oil 927
Oil - Palm 606
Oil - Castor oil 107
Oil - Avocado oil 71
Oil - Macadamia nut 71
Water 1,188
Lye 493

Also, I found the soap has lost the smell after curing 3 weeks in my store room. Is this normal? Any advise anyone?

Cheers
Mel XO

Tabitha · Jan 4, 2009

I am no help with the recipe. I can tell you about the scent though. You can use 100 different scents & come out with 100 different results.

Which fragrance did you use? How much? Who did you purchase it from?

NMAriel · Jan 4, 2009

I ran your numbers through 2 calculators, and it seems fine. Maybe next time use goat milk and not water. I don't use water, and my lye % is the same as yours and it's not drying.

Try premeasuring the goat milk, and freezing it in a zip lock bag. This way it's ready for you when you want to make soap.

And Tabitha's right. Scent can disappear easily.

Lindy · Jan 4, 2009

I just ran it through SoapMaker and it shouldn't be drying at all - you're running at about 7.5% Lye discount and 4% water discount.....it shows 6.1 Hardness - 4.9 Fluffy Lather - 6.2 Stable Lather - 6.4 Moisturizing.

Could you be allergic to one of the ingredients? What did you use to scent it with?

Cheers
Lindy

kokoro · Jan 4, 2009

I only used 100% pure essential oils:

(ml)
Essential oil - Orange 50
Essential oil - Lemon 7
Essential oil - Lavender 3

Btw, i saw a soap looks just fantastic the other day. Does anyone know how to make those bottom and top bit?

carebear · Jan 4, 2009

the bottom portion is likely made with grated darker soap mixed in with the fresh soap "batter". the top is easy - drizzle on some colored and as it thickens simply move it around with a spoon. the bottom should be poured at med-thin trace and the top at a fairly thick trace tho it can be allowed to thicken in the mold to make things easier (and to give fewer bubbles).

orange EO is not stable in soap, nor are other citrus oils very stable. you can get some scent with "folded" oranges but sill.

your soap recipe looks nice and mild - but let me ask, do you have dry skin to begin with? I mean, it's soap so it's job is to remove oils - it's not a moisturizer or anything. But it should be milder than most commercial soap I'd think. You might try waiting another week. Oh and be sure your soaps are "zap free" and that your scale is accurate.

Lindy · Jan 4, 2009

Citrus in any form strips oils and IMO would create a very drying soap. Although we use soaps to clean I find that since I started using hand-made soap I don't need hand lotion which thrills me to death.....