Feedback on recipe for Sandalwood Soap

[DomTheDillyHoo]

Hello! Over the past month or so, I have been researching and creating my first-ever soap recipe. This bar's name is Sandalwood Scrub, and this bar includes a base of Olive, Palm, Coconut oil, and Shea butter. I add a bit of kaolin clay for a texture and a bit of salt to help with skin, help the hardness of the soap, and help it come out of my mold easier. I am also going to maybe try working with colorants here (Mica.) I'm pretty faithful that this will work well, but I must keep my expectations low as this is my first soap recipe. Might do it Tonight, I want to be 100% sure everything looks good to you guys before I do anything.

INSTRUCTIONS:​

1. Mix 1.4tsp of kaolin clay with 12g of olive oil until there are no clumps, and set aside.
2. Mix your essential oils into a cup, and set aside.
3. Fill a cup with 339g of water and add 1 tsp of sea salt. Stir until dissolved.
4. Slowly and carefully add 124g of lye to your saltwater. Stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear and set aside to cool.
5. In a large pot, combine 273g olive oil, 221g palm oil, 221g coconut oil, and 166g of shea butter and set on the stove on low heat. Turn off the stove once the oils have fully melted and have been stirred.
6. Add your kaolin clay mixture into your oils, and stick blend well.
7. Add 2 tsp of orange mica or less/none depending on preference.
8. Using a Lazer thermometer, consistently check the temperature of the oils and the lye water. Once the oils and the lye water have cooled to 105 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other, add the oils and the lye water to a lye-safe bucket, and stick blend until thin trace.
9. Add your mix of essential oils to your soap.
10. Pour your heavenly mixture into a mold and let sit. Remove soap from the mold and cut soap 1-3 days after pouring it into the mold.

 

[AliOop]

It's so awesome how you are researching so thoroughly before starting! Once you give it a try, I'm sure you will see what all this fuss is about.

I would like to note a couple of things:

1. Kaolin clay doesn't really give much "texture" to the soap. What it does add is "slip" to the feel of the bar.

2. This is a matter of preference, but rather than pulling out some of your oils from the recipe, I recommend that you simply mix your kaolin clay and your mica into your EOs. That would save you some extra dishes and some math.

3. Now, the important piece: your amount of water is much too high for a standard CP recipe. Too much water means the recipe will take a longer time to trace, the bars will take a longer time to firm up, and you are more likely to get soda ash. My guess is that your soap calculator is defaulted to select 38% Water as Percent of Oils. That setting was designed for hot process soap, where a lot of water evaporates during the cooking process. Since you are doing CP, I strongly recommend selecting Lye Concentration instead, and setting it to 33%. Make sure you do that each time you make soap until you are comfortable knowing when and why to use less or more water.

I hope you try this soon!

 

[DomTheDillyHoo]

It's so awesome how you are researching so thoroughly before starting! Once you give it a try, I'm sure you will see what all this fuss is about.

I would like to note a couple of things:

1. Kaolin clay doesn't really give much "texture" to the soap. What it does add is "slip" to the feel of the bar.

2. This is a matter of preference, but rather than pulling out some of your oils from the recipe, I recommend that you simply mix your kaolin clay and your mica into your EOs. That would save you some extra dishes and some math.

3. Now, the important piece: your amount of water is much too high for a standard CP recipe. Too much water means the recipe will take a longer time to trace, the bars will take a longer time to firm up, and you are more likely to get soda ash. My guess is that your soap calculator is defaulted to select 38% Water as Percent of Oils. That setting was designed for hot process soap, where a lot of water evaporates during the cooking process. Since you are doing CP, I strongly recommend selecting Lye Concentration instead, and setting it to 33%. Make sure you do that each time you make soap until you are comfortable knowing when and why to use less or more water.

I hope you try this soon!

Oh wow, that sounded important.. I set it to Lye Concentration and set it to 33%. Ill send the new recipe. So should I be mixing my kaolin clay with my essential oils to prep before starting, and add it when I would normally add my essential oils? (Light trace)

1. Add your essential oils, kaolin clay, and mica into a cup. Stir until dissolved and set aside.
2. Fill a cup with 251g of water and add 1 tsp of sea salt. Stir until dissolved.
3. Slowly and carefully add 124g of lye to your saltwater. Stir until the lye has fully dissolved and the liquid is clear and set aside to cool.
4. In a large pot, combine 285g olive oil, 221g palm oil, 221g coconut oil, and 166g of shea butter and set on the stove on low heat. Turn off the stove once the oils have fully melted and have been stirred.
5. Using a Lazer thermometer, consistently check the temperature of the oils and the lye water. Once the oils and the lye water have cooled to 105 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other, add the oils and the lye water to a lye-safe bucket, and stick blend until thin trace.
6. Add your mix of essential oils to your soap. Stick blend until mixed well.
7. Pour your heavenly mixture into a mold and let sit. Remove soap from the mold and cut soap 1-3 days after pouring it into the mold.

 

[AliOop]

That all looks great to me - you are ready to go!

I do like to cover my lye solution while it is cooling, to limit exposure to air, which in turn reduces the amount of lye lint, aka soda ash, that may form on the surface.

You can also experiment with different ways of adding in your clays, micas, and EOs as you make different batches. Lots of methods will work, and really it is just my opinion that doing it the way I suggested is easiest for a first batch of soap with one color. But everyone's brain is wired a bit differently, so do what makes the most sense and helps you not to forget anything.

 

[DomTheDillyHoo]

That all looks great to me - you are ready to go!

I do like to cover my lye solution while it is cooling, to limit exposure to air, which in turn reduces the amount of lye lint, aka soda ash, that may form on the surface.

You can also experiment with different ways of adding in your clays, micas, and EOs as you make different batches. Lots of methods will work, and really it is just my opinion that doing it the way I suggested is easiest for a first batch of soap with one color. But everyone's brain is wired a bit differently, so do what makes the most sense and helps you not to forget anything.

Update!! So everything went great until I poured my mix of EOs, kaolin, and mica. I have never seen such intense acceleration.. it was wild. I blame my essential oils lol. Whatever its not fully mixed but maybe it will have a cool swirl design then.. either way it smells amazing and came out pretty good. Looks very similar to raw meat lmao. Does acceleration also mean it will cure faster?

 

[AliOop]

Good job! Unfortunately, acceleration of batter will not affect cure time.

What EOs did you use? Some are known for acceleration. They can also cause acceleration if they are older and a bit oxidized, or if they are from a branch that adulterates their oils.

If you want to continue to use that blend, then that's a good reason for blending your kaolin clay and mica in some batch oil, and mixing that in before adding the EOs, so you can get those thoroughly mixed in before the EOs get the trace train going.

 

[DomTheDillyHoo]

Good job! Unfortunately, acceleration of batter will not affect cure time.

What EOs did you use? Some are known for acceleration. They can also cause acceleration if they are older and a bit oxidized, or if they are from a branch that adulterates their oils.

If you want to continue to use that blend, then that's a good reason for blending your kaolin clay and mica in some batch oil, and mixing that in before adding the EOs, so you can get those thoroughly mixed in before the EOs get the trace train going.

I used patchouli, bergamot, australian sandalwood and lemongrass eo! I don't know where to look to find acceleration traits for them.

 

[AliOop]

There are some great threads here on SMF about which EOs tend to accelerate or decelerate trace. I'm not seeing any in your list that should have been problematic. However, true sandalwood EO is quite expensive for tiny amounts. If yours was "affordable," it may have been a mix of other unknown components.

Oh well, I bet it smells fantastic!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...ures-while-making-cp-soaps.86360/#post-924098
For NOTES - See SoapCalc.net PDF attached.

Kenna of Modern Soapmaking: If you want to encourage gel, raise your initial temps, don’t use a water discount, use a mold that insulates Source: Tips & Tricks (see PDF attached)

 

[KiwiMoose]

One thing to note for future reference, is that it is usual to melt the hard oils together until clear, and then add the liquid oils. I'm not sure why - but that seems to be the norm. Anyone else know why?
Congratulations on your first soap baby !

 

[AliOop]

@KiwiMoose when I'm not using masterbatched oils, I do it the way you recommend, because adding the cooler liquid oils to the heated hard fats/butters helps them cool down faster to my desired soaping temp. Also, no need to waste energy heating liquid oils, yah?

I prefer to soap with the oils around 90-100 at most, and my MB lye at room temp. To discourage ash, I use low water. To encourage gel, I either insulate, or insulate and use a heating pad.

 

[Iluminameluna]

What @AliOop said. I do the same. I don't even heat my solid fats until they're clear, just mostly melted, then turn the heat off. Then I add my liquid oils. Not so much in the Winter, but then I don't soap much when the cold weather hits. Neither of my boys lives where I can store my soaps in a warm place.
So to summarize, I learned to soap at room temperature early on and never looked back.

 

[penelopejane]

Update!! So everything went great until I poured my mix of EOs, kaolin, and mica. I have never seen such intense acceleration.. it was wild. I blame my essential oils lol. Whatever its not fully mixed but maybe it will have a cool swirl design then.. either way it smells amazing and came out pretty good. Looks very similar to raw meat lmao. Does acceleration also mean it will cure faster?

I'd try adding your clay and EO (both will accelerate) before your lye and stick blend well. Then add your lye and you can stir the mixture by hand if it accelerates quickly or stick blend for just 2 or 3 seconds at a time until you reach light trace. Then pour. If your mixture has reached light trace it will cure fine. It will take just as long to cure if you pour at any stage of trace.

If you add your EOs (or FOs) after trace they sometimes leave pockets in the soap.