Okay. I eventually got weak and decided to actually, IRL, take part in this challenge too!
Since I love to make things needlessly complicated, I decided to combine this with my initiation to proper cream soap via the famous
Lindy cream soap.
The original oil blend can be, up to the P/S ratio and <1% SAP deviation (lye amount), replaced by things I've already bought in a grocery store/drugstore/supermarket (or got at by similar means): 55%
canola wax (calculated as soy wax), 23%
HO safflower oil and 19%
coconut oil.
The extra glycerol was difficult. Good thing that a local supermarket had
fog machines for sale an age ago, and my dad bought one, that's now catching dust somewhere – but clever me has secured the
fog fluid, which happens to be a 20% aqueous solution of
propylene glycol. I took the artistic liberty to replace the propane-1,2,3-triol (glycerol) by this propane-1,2-diol (140%ppo fog fluid), plus a 6%ppo pinch of pentane-1,2,3,4,5-pentol (
xylitol) from the hipstery sweeteners shelf. These two have to somehow provide/replace the emollient properties of glycerol. Haven't heard of glycerol in a grocery store/supermarket, but fog fluid
at least once 
.
For reasons discussed later, another candle, this time the cheapest, most rustic looking white candle advertised as 100%
stearin (stearic/palmitic acid blend) came in handy for the infamous “super cream” of the Lindy recipe.
I also left out the kaolin clay.
- Arguably, I am an exceptionally lazy person (particularly when it comes to clean stick blenders). So I will use the canola wax as the main source of stearic acid (and for a small extra kick of glycerol), and exploit its properties to cut down on mechanical tools. I prepared the lye solution (3.6%ppo NaOH + 13.1%ppo KOH) in as little fog fluid as possible and heated it up in a hot water bath. Once above the melting point of the canola wax, I added it, and waited until molten. Note that the amount of oils added here is, contrary to the original recipe, not sufficient to eat up all lye, so the batter will stay lye-heavy for now. I then swapped the hot water bath for cold water, and stirred until reaching deliberate false trace, all the way down until the batter fully solidified – and let rest the clump for one day of partial CP saponification. The idea is that the very hard fat (“wax”) retains an appreciable interface with the lye, so unlike separation with liquid(ish) oils, a noticeable reaction will occur.
- The next day, I put it into a hot water bath once again, and the batter quickly melted up and – separated
. There is no such thing as a free lunch, I guess. It turned out that I needed pretty much the same 1½ hours of HP cooking like mentioned by Lindy, until the batter reached applesauce/mashed potato consistency, and I could consider the “extra” stearic saponification as largely done. At least I didn't need to SB yet.
- Enter the oleic and lauric oils. They blended/melted into the batter quickly, and made it a more malleable, creamy-silky mash. I left them alone for another day of CP, this time at abundantly positive superfat. The split saponification stages were required to match the fatty acid/superfat profile of the original recipe: The stearic acid (that I wanted to avoid because not only I hate how it instantaneously forms hard soap with lye) should exist fully saponified, and the superfats (partially cleaved oil molecules) originate from the natural oils (almond-coconut-shea, or safflower-coconut, resp.). If I had added all oils at the beginning, chances are, the superfat contains major amounts of un- or partially saponified canola wax – clearly an inacceptable intervention into the recipe, which I intend to adhere to as faithfully as the challenge would allow
.
- Heated up another time in the water bath, I added the super cream along the rest of the water/fog fluid: 6%ppo xylitol, and some shavings (3%ppo) of the stearin candle. At this time, we're comfortably in the positive superfat regime, so we wouldn't have lye left any more to convert canola wax into stearic acid for us. So we have to rely on the candlemakers as suppliers of pre-made fatty acid.
- To some (initial) astonishment, after a few minutes of simmering, the soap had become clear and runny liquid. The surprise was not long, when I realised that the original instructions are essentially a (mediocre) melt&pour base recipe – augmented by propylene glycol, which is arguably an even better-performing M&P solvent than glycerol. So I patiently waited for the fluid to cool down. It gradually became thicker and opaque, until, about at body temperature, it developed a beautiful pearlescent shimmer when stirred/kneaded. Oddly enough, later on the cream became a bit thinner again, and the colour became a thick white, think of toothpaste.
- Finally, I scooped the paste into the coconut oil jar, to hand it over into its infamous “rotting” phase. No idea yet at which consistency I'll eventually like it to have, maybe I'll add some water at some time in the future. Anyway, I herewith apply for the laziest and boldest original container usage bonus trophy.
The first jump into cream soap making, zero stearic-HP-soap-on-a-stick(blender) troubles, actual hands-on participation in
@FragranceGuy's challenge (besides eloquent parlando), and no usage (and cleaning) of any kitchen machines – what to expect more?
ETA: Yes, you can expect
photos. People love photos!
Disclaimer: Yes, I cheated. Please forgive me. I didn't actually waste fog fluid, but combined it from pure propylene glycol and water. I also subbed palm kernel oil for coconut, since I don't have CO atm and didn't want to buy some.
After some 7 months of letting this cream soap do its thing, it is about time to give it a test!
Back then in April, I actually did two batches. The above instructions are for the second batch, which I did after I realised that detail about superfat mentioned in bullet point 3. The first batch was all-in, so same ingredients, but indiscriminate superfat composition. Let's see if this makes any difference.
First, the
look&feel: not much has changed. Slightly off-white, and, well, creamy. Opaque but a tiny bit translucent too. Batch 2 has sustained its pearlescent look; batch 1 didn't obtain one and stayed somewhat dull, somewhere between toothpaste and wood glue. Which also is a good wrap-up of the consistency: Think of honey, wood glue, or sunscreen. It is easy & somewhat pleasant to distribute on the skin, and with the first drops of water, it explodes into a heap of
lather. Not the very most lathering soap I've ever touched, but decent for sure!
For some reason, though, I'm actually not a huge fan of the skin feel after
washing off. It leaves behind a sensation that is somewhat chalky (similar to “castile dry”), but at the same time greasy. I have the high superfat under suspicion, plus the fact that the “super cream” isn't actually a half-saponified oil blend (like it would be in usual CP), but pure, saturated FFA (stearic acid). The cream soap principle is appealing, but this very recipe won't be best friends (at least unless heavily modified).
Now for the part that
@KayMay has waited for too long already: About five days ago, I scooped a bit out of each of the two jars of cream soap, and left it
stand open on the radiator since then.
These are 9.0 g each. The first batch (right) dried up down to 5.5 g, the second batch had been a bit more fluid, sank fully to the bottom, hence lost a bit less to evaporation, and weighed 5.9 g in the end. Some 30-40% loss. The original recipe has some 45% water content; I can only guess know how much mine has (according to my notes, I had massive boiling losses during HP cook, and eyeballed replacement). It is for sure not the case that I'm left with a mere 10% water, first that would have needed months … and otherwise the consistency would have been much harder. But that's not to say it can't happen when you wait long enough.
The impact of drying on the soap itself was less pronounced than I expected. True, they got thicker, but were still creamy with a consistency not unlike semi-hard beeswax. Still easy to rub on the hands, and the soap behaviour did not alter at all.
Note however that I've used propylene glycol and xylitol, rather than glycerol, to raise the
polyols (for the sake of the challenge rules; but still some glycerol is still present that was formed through saponification itself). Altering the polyols (and their different hygroscopic properties and/or tendency to jellify soap) might or might not have an impact on how easy the soap hardens up.
A few notes about the
recipe: I've learned a lot since April about the ingredients (the “stearic acid” grated off the stearin candles is actually mostly pure palmitic acid; the canola wax probably holds
at least as much oleic and elaidic acid as it has stearic acid, etc.). Even with turning two blind eyes towards my stretches to fit this recipe into the scope of the grocery store challenge, this is
not the original Lindy recipe by any means. But that's fine! It's great to have a working cream soap at hand (though I honestly have nothing to compare it with, lol), and a lot to learn about ingredients, processes, pitfalls, scaling (up and down), etc.
I just thought you would like to know. I'm bad at this as well but I've learned a few things about it along the way.
)
