Hi, and welcome to the forum! That said...
I see some things that jump out at me. I would like to give some suggetions, if you don't mind.
First, 6 pounds is a TON of soap to make while experimenting. I suggest 1 to 2 pound practices until you find what you like. THEN share some with friends after you find nice recipes.
You may love this recipe, but it would strip many a hide off others. That is because coconut and palm kernal oils are both stripping oils. They strip natural oils off skin. Most here stick to 10 to 20% coconut. If you want pko with co, split it a total of 10 to 20% only. Like pko 8% coconut 12%.
Palm kernal oil or pko flakes? I use pko hydrogenated flakes. High pko (flakes at least) creates a waxy weird consistency, if I recall. I *think* obsidian on here experimented with 100% pko flakes soap and discovered that. (May be wrong). That said, looking at soapcalc, pko is less hard slightly and more conditioning than the pko flakes I use, BUT they're virtually just as cleansing which is the main problem with using too much pko with too much co.
You have no hard oils. Only stripping oils and soft liquid oils. Hard fats/oils like lard, tallow, and plain ole palm oil create a better creamy balanced and hard recipe. Lard is easy to get at walmart if you're in the states. Lardy lard. Lllaaaarrrddd.
Yes that was a subliminal message.
Lard
Oils @ less than 5% honestly don't bring anything to the table (this isnt the case with things like beeswax, but oils, not worth it). High oleic sunflower is better for the rancidity issues plain sunflower can have. Sunflower does have many different qualities than olive, so experimenting may be worth while. Just remember if it isnt ho sunflower, you may run into rancid issues at high amounts.
Your olive is almost 60%. If making high olive soaps, it gives a snotty slimy lather and needs a LONG cure. Castilles (100% olive oil) cure best at 6 months to a year (a year is much better I hear). Some like it, a lot do not. The snot feel will get better with that longer cure, I think. I never used a high olive oil recipe. Who wants to wait that long when this is a hobby for them?! Not me
If you reformulate a
20% co OR 8%co 12%pko
15%olive
5% sunflower (since you got it anyway)
60% lard, tallow, or regular palm
It would be better balanced, and then you can alter and play with percentages from there. If you grab castor oil you can try it @ 5% and it stabalizes the bubble lather...do not be fooled, it shows it is a high bubbly oil in soapcalc, but it is NOT, it just helps stabalize them. You can find a small bottle in the laxative section at walmart to try and experiment with one batch.
Now if you switch recipes and find a white flakey drying effect on skin, it may be hard water issues. Hard water can affect homemade soaps and your skin with that leftover scum that dries out. I use sodium citrate @ 2% ppo to combat that drying feel, scummy sink and bath issue. Edta works great as well.
One thing I noticed, you're using 33% water as a % of oil weight. It is better to use it as "lye concentration " on soapcalc. The reason is, you're using your water amount against the total oil weight. If you change your oils up, 33% water as oil weight will not yield the same amount of water because different oils weigh different amounts. Thus your water amounts change each time. To be more consistent with water amounts, use it as lye concentration. That way water amount is always measured to the amount of lye needed to saponify everything. It yields better consistent results.
You may know all this or most of this already having made soap before. I wanted to share it, not just for you, but for newbies that may be reading as well. I hope this helps some
