Facial Soap for Combination Skin

[reeeen4]

I'm wanting to formulate a facial bar for my skin, I have combination skin so areas which can be quite dry but by the end of the day my skin is quite oily, I can usually keep the oil at bay if I moisturise well with rosehip or jojoba oil after I wash my face so was hoping to include it in my formula. I also hate washing my face and it's left feeling tight and dry after washing so I want to avoid that if I can.
It is going to be a Hot Process soap so that I can add the Jojoba Oil in at the end as the superfat. So far this is what I have come up with, any help or comments would be appreciated.

20% Hemp oil
20% Avocado oil
20% Coconut Oil
15% Olive Oil
15% Cocoa Butter
5% Castor

5% Jojoba Oil
5% Superfat

33% Lye Solution

Some sort of clay maybe or seaweed powder?

Was also thinking of using goats milk also instead of water, has anyone got any experience of this in a facial soap?

https://imgur.com/a/MWsMJWD

 

[Meena]

Too much coconut oil for your needs! I have combo skin that's older now, so I'm not quite the grease bucket I was, but over-stripping causes skin to produce more oil in response. Definitely keep the castor oil, even up it to 8% and drop the coconut to no more than 10-15%. Some people drop it out entirely, so you could try that if 10-15% is still giving that tight feeling. If you use clay, the White Kaolin is the least absorbing and most gentle option. I've not tried seaweeds. Also, jojoba is a wax and I'm not sure that will be your best SF oil. I'd think about the avocado or maybe the hemp. I hate that tight feeling after washing, too, and have been working on a formulation to clean my skin sufficiently without stripping. I'm just about there. I made one very similar to your recipe, had mango butter and tallow instead of cocoa butter but the same other oils, and it's working really well. Good luck! Make a small batch of about 1 lb to test it out.

 

[reeeen4]

Too much coconut oil for your needs! I have combo skin that's older now, so I'm not quite the grease bucket I was, but over-stripping causes skin to produce more oil in response. Definitely keep the castor oil, even up it to 8% and drop the coconut to no more than 10-15%. Some people drop it out entirely, so you could try that if 10-15% is still giving that tight feeling. If you use clay, the White Kaolin is the least absorbing and most gentle option. I've not tried seaweeds. Also, jojoba is a wax and I'm not sure that will be your best SF oil. I'd think about the avocado or maybe the hemp. I hate that feeling, too, and have been working on a formulation to clean my skin sufficiently without stripping. I'm just about there.

Yeah I had wondered that too, initially I just had 30% Hemp and 30% Avocado Oil but was worried it was too much. I will try that, I might do a small batch with just 10% coconut oil and another with none at all and see if it makes my skin feel tight.
I had wanted to use jojoba or rosehip oil as I use rosehip oil already as a moisturiser and I'm in love with it so thought it might work nice as a superfat. I also read it's very close to the natural sebum produced by our own skin so had hoped it would have a moisturising effect and replace what the soap is taking away. I'm new to soaping so maybe it doesn't work that way

 

[Meena]

There are frequent 'arguments' here about whether soap moisturizers, and the take-away is that it does not. The best it can do is not strip the skin, so I've started to back away from using the expensive 'luxury' oils in soap and am going to make body butters out of them instead. 30% for hemp would definitely be too much. Have you considered HO SUNflower? It's a really nice oil that's not as pricey. If you don't mind lard, I've heard that it is almost identical to human sebum.

ETA: I recently started using Rose Hip oil, too. Directly on specific facial areas. Nice stuff, isn't it?

 

[reeeen4]

Yes I guess that’s true, soap is going to cleanse not moisturise so much. But definitely my aim would be to have a soap that doesn’t strip my skin.
Yes sunflower oil is pretty easy get our hands on in Australia so I’ll give that a try In place of the coconut oil. Thanks for your advice

 

[Meena]

Glad that I could be of some help. Let us know how it goes, and we always love to see pictures!!

 

[reeeen4]

Yeah I will definitly post pics.

Still curious to know if anyone has used any types of milks in facial soap and what it's like

 

[Meena]

Yeah I will definitly post pics.

Still curious to know if anyone has used any types of milks in facial soap and what it's like

I'm pretty sure they have, and do. There's probably a thread on it. Have you figured out how to search the forum? You can also search SMF from GOOGLE this way, according to @Zany_in_CO :

The best way to search SMF: GOOGLE
(type your keywords here) site:soapmakingforum.com
If you want to search for a phrase, put the phrase in quotes.
You can include individual words along with phrases

 

[Dawni]

You'll still probably need at least some coconut, for bubbles and lather. I have a rice soap posted in the photo gallery that's been liked by several relatives, if you're interested. Avocado is good, too. My mom is using an avocado oil based soap and she loves it.

I use coconut milk powder in all my soaps with varying amounts, and others have used all kinds of milk. This forum has tons of info on all, like Meena said.

 

[artemis]

Yeah I will definitly post pics.

Still curious to know if anyone has used any types of milks in facial soap and what it's like

Forum tip: anytime you have a question like "has anybody used X ingredient..."

1) Yes. It's been tried before. Just about everything has been tried before in a soap. You won't believe some of the things that have been put into soap.

2) Try searching the forum for that thing. There are lots of posts and replies that are going to give you answers faster than waiting for people to respond.

As for "facial soap," that's just soap. Your face, combination or no, is going to like something different from anyone else, just like the rest of your body. You'll have to try small batches with different formulations and see what works best for you.

 

[shunt2011]

Check out Genny's Shampoo bar recipe on the forum. It actually makes quite a nice facial soap though I'm made a couple tweaks as I don't use soy. I don't use more than 10% CO in my facial bar.

 

[penelopejane]

I haven’t found HO sunflower here in Oz.
Use the split method for milks whether they are powdered or fresh.m
We have fabulous olive oil here in Oz don’t be put off by all the negativity on this forum about OO.
Hemp oil is subject to DOS.
You don’t need any CO in soap.
As shunt said try Genny’s shampoo bar as a regular soap - don’t use it on your hair!

 

[reeeen4]

@artemis yeah I started searching last night through google and it works so much better then the normal search function found alot of facial soap recipies! I found a cute little mould that makes 1.5" cubes I'm going to try some really small batches in so I don't waste too much oils formulating and testing.

Thanks for the search tip @Meena

@shunt2011 I will check that one out! thanks

@penelopejane Oh I didn't see the HO part yeah I haven't seen that type either, I'll have to do some more googling, Yeah I have an Olive farm down the road from my farm so I am going to contact them about getting some of their oil. I feel like extra virgin olive oil is almost too good for soap though haha