Tienne
Well-Known Member
I have been tinkering around, trying to come up with a clone of a brand-name Dead Sea Mud soap. (Am I allowed to mention the name of it? I'm new here, so I don't know, but it's name starts with an "A".)
Their ingredients list says it contains 80% Palm Oil and 20% Palm Kernel Oil.
At first I baulked over such a high amount of Palm Oil, but seeing that their soap is famous, then they must be doing something right, so I decided reluctantly to just go with it. So far, so good, but there was a problem... I live in Sweden and here it is simply impossible to get a hold of Palm Kernel Oil, so I dabbled around with a soap calculator for a while and came up with a recipe using other oils, that brings me as close as I could possible get to their soap quality numbers;
Their numbers are; 55, 14, 43, 14, 41, 46 and INS 161
My recipe's numbers are; 54, 14, 42, 14, 41, 46 and INS 165
Close enough! The recipe I make is at 5% SF, soaped at 50C and CPOP'ed uncovered for an hour. I unmold and cut it 12 hours later. It hits pH 8 / 9, just 24 hours later. It gives a really hard bar of soap, just the way I like it. Here's the recipe;
Palm Oil 77%
Coconut Oil 19%
Avocado Oil 4%
1 heaped Tbs (wet) DSM ppo
I add 1 capsule of Vitamin E ppo as well, just for luck. I scented it with "Energy" FO at 15 g ppo, but I reckon 10g ppo would have been sufficient. It's a very androgenous scent. Next time I'll probably go for something a little more "dusty" or earthy or powdery smelling, but it's okay.
The recipe is really easy to work with. It isn't in any hurry to trace, so it's a very relaxing recipe to deal with. I slurry up the DSM with a little of my weighed out (rain)water and add it to the recipe after emulsification and then I just SB'ed it until it reaches light to medium trace. (I don't want it too sloppy in case the mud settles towards the bottom, so I make sure it had just a little gooeyness to it before pouring. I also hold back pouring the last teensy bit of the slurried up mud in, just in case there's any grit at the bottom, which you don't want to get in the soap. There usually isn't, but it's better to be safe, than sandy. LOL I use my plastic SB for this recipe and don't use any metal utensils at all while making this soap, since it's rumoured that metal will de-charge the mud and ruin it's properties (or some such thing, but there you have it. )
I love this soap and so does my face... but there is ONE little aber dabei about this recipe, though. It has a tendency to create ash. Now, some proper soapers are probably going to be horrified, but I actually like this soap to ash! :clap: I think it gives this particular soap character and a nice silvery-looking contrast to the otherwise monotonous metallic grey/brownish colour. So I embrace the ash! If I can't beat it, I use it! 8)
I guess you could alcohol-spray the bazeezes out of the soap after pouring, in an attempt to fight off the ash, but I like that this recipe is stress free to make, so I'd rather just work with it and make it work for me. To get the most out of the ash, you don't want to pour at too heavy a trace or make a wildly textured top with big peaks and valleys. Ash can be finicky and it will have a tendency to show up unevenly and look blotchy. So it goes for smooth-topped versions as well. The ash won't appear uniformly and it just ends up looks mucky. You want a pour consistency where you keep the top level and can just make small delicate little swirls on top and the ash will be ever so obliging and show up neatly and evenly across the level top, giving it a little 3D look about it. (Well, it does for me anyway, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :grin: )
A few tips; This recipe wants to be gelled. I CPOP mine at 75C and preheat my mold before pouring to make sure I get a full and even gel and the ash top I like. I haven't tried just insulating, but you do not want to leave it ungelled. The ash will be horrendous looking and the soap won't get that rich look to it and the colour will have more of a greenish murky tint to it. Also, cure the cut bars upright, textured side up on a rack. If you lay them down you risk getting ash on the sides. That can of course be planed off, but better to just leave them standing upright for a few weeks to get the ash where you want it, that is on the top and on the top only.
This is my first post on the forum and I hope it hasn't been too long or boring or has put me in bad light, me being an ash-enabler and all... LOL... but all in all it's a very nice soap. It's a mild and gentle facial soap and it's very hard-wearing. I really like it and I hope you like it as well. I have read so many good tips and advice on this forum already and I had to wring my brain to think of something that I could contribute with and this is what I came up with.
I'm not sure I know how to do this right, but I'll try to attach a few pictures of the soap. For comparison, you can see how the soap turns out when un-gelled and in single cavity molds. The gelled loaf version is to the left and the un-gelled single cavity soaps are to the right. Both were poured at the same time and made from the exact same batch of soap. See what I mean? The ash is having a field day on those un-gelled soaps!
So to make a long story short, (Ugh! Too late!) pour at a light to medium trace, keep the top level and just do some ever so slight texturing, gel, cure standing upright and then just relax... and embrace the ash. :smile:
-Tienne-
Their ingredients list says it contains 80% Palm Oil and 20% Palm Kernel Oil.
At first I baulked over such a high amount of Palm Oil, but seeing that their soap is famous, then they must be doing something right, so I decided reluctantly to just go with it. So far, so good, but there was a problem... I live in Sweden and here it is simply impossible to get a hold of Palm Kernel Oil, so I dabbled around with a soap calculator for a while and came up with a recipe using other oils, that brings me as close as I could possible get to their soap quality numbers;
Their numbers are; 55, 14, 43, 14, 41, 46 and INS 161
My recipe's numbers are; 54, 14, 42, 14, 41, 46 and INS 165
Close enough! The recipe I make is at 5% SF, soaped at 50C and CPOP'ed uncovered for an hour. I unmold and cut it 12 hours later. It hits pH 8 / 9, just 24 hours later. It gives a really hard bar of soap, just the way I like it. Here's the recipe;
Palm Oil 77%
Coconut Oil 19%
Avocado Oil 4%
1 heaped Tbs (wet) DSM ppo
I add 1 capsule of Vitamin E ppo as well, just for luck. I scented it with "Energy" FO at 15 g ppo, but I reckon 10g ppo would have been sufficient. It's a very androgenous scent. Next time I'll probably go for something a little more "dusty" or earthy or powdery smelling, but it's okay.
The recipe is really easy to work with. It isn't in any hurry to trace, so it's a very relaxing recipe to deal with. I slurry up the DSM with a little of my weighed out (rain)water and add it to the recipe after emulsification and then I just SB'ed it until it reaches light to medium trace. (I don't want it too sloppy in case the mud settles towards the bottom, so I make sure it had just a little gooeyness to it before pouring. I also hold back pouring the last teensy bit of the slurried up mud in, just in case there's any grit at the bottom, which you don't want to get in the soap. There usually isn't, but it's better to be safe, than sandy. LOL I use my plastic SB for this recipe and don't use any metal utensils at all while making this soap, since it's rumoured that metal will de-charge the mud and ruin it's properties (or some such thing, but there you have it. )
I love this soap and so does my face... but there is ONE little aber dabei about this recipe, though. It has a tendency to create ash. Now, some proper soapers are probably going to be horrified, but I actually like this soap to ash! :clap: I think it gives this particular soap character and a nice silvery-looking contrast to the otherwise monotonous metallic grey/brownish colour. So I embrace the ash! If I can't beat it, I use it! 8)
I guess you could alcohol-spray the bazeezes out of the soap after pouring, in an attempt to fight off the ash, but I like that this recipe is stress free to make, so I'd rather just work with it and make it work for me. To get the most out of the ash, you don't want to pour at too heavy a trace or make a wildly textured top with big peaks and valleys. Ash can be finicky and it will have a tendency to show up unevenly and look blotchy. So it goes for smooth-topped versions as well. The ash won't appear uniformly and it just ends up looks mucky. You want a pour consistency where you keep the top level and can just make small delicate little swirls on top and the ash will be ever so obliging and show up neatly and evenly across the level top, giving it a little 3D look about it. (Well, it does for me anyway, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :grin: )
A few tips; This recipe wants to be gelled. I CPOP mine at 75C and preheat my mold before pouring to make sure I get a full and even gel and the ash top I like. I haven't tried just insulating, but you do not want to leave it ungelled. The ash will be horrendous looking and the soap won't get that rich look to it and the colour will have more of a greenish murky tint to it. Also, cure the cut bars upright, textured side up on a rack. If you lay them down you risk getting ash on the sides. That can of course be planed off, but better to just leave them standing upright for a few weeks to get the ash where you want it, that is on the top and on the top only.
This is my first post on the forum and I hope it hasn't been too long or boring or has put me in bad light, me being an ash-enabler and all... LOL... but all in all it's a very nice soap. It's a mild and gentle facial soap and it's very hard-wearing. I really like it and I hope you like it as well. I have read so many good tips and advice on this forum already and I had to wring my brain to think of something that I could contribute with and this is what I came up with.
I'm not sure I know how to do this right, but I'll try to attach a few pictures of the soap. For comparison, you can see how the soap turns out when un-gelled and in single cavity molds. The gelled loaf version is to the left and the un-gelled single cavity soaps are to the right. Both were poured at the same time and made from the exact same batch of soap. See what I mean? The ash is having a field day on those un-gelled soaps!
So to make a long story short, (Ugh! Too late!) pour at a light to medium trace, keep the top level and just do some ever so slight texturing, gel, cure standing upright and then just relax... and embrace the ash. :smile:
-Tienne-
