Help re castor oil

[LionLady]

Hey. New member here. I'm down in my craft room and making a couple batches of soap. I don't have enough castor oil for the Basic Brine Soap recipe I want to make next., and I've already made two trips out for ingredients.

The idea of adding sugar to the lye water for lather is intriguing. Can anyone tell me if honey would work instead of sugar? I want to use Himalayan Pink Salt.

Thanks much!!
Oh, here's the recipe (From the Nerdy Farm Wife)

Basic Brine Soap
11 oz coconut oil
11 oz olive oil
4 oz shea butter
2 oz castor oil

3.9 oz lye (10% superfat)
9.75 oz distilled water
1.5 oz sea salt

optional: 25-35 gm essential oil

Moved post.

 

[psfred]

It may be a little less bubbly without the castor, but I'm betting you would never notice. Just substitute something else and run it through a lye calculator with the change. Sugar will help with the bubbly -- just remember it will also increase heating if that is an issue with this soap.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

I've made soaps with near identical recipes with and without 5% castor oil and blind tested it with other people and nobody could tell the difference so I've always been a bit dubious about this claim about longer lasting lather. Honey should work in a similar way to sugar for a few more bubbles.

 

[Iluminameluna]

Sugar will help with the bubbly -- just remember it will also increase heating if that is an issue with this soap.

Seems that "fact" has been proven false. Over at www.modernsoapmaking.com they did a test for over a YEAR to see if it was true that sugar increased soap or lather in a basic soap recipe. Here is the link:

https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/updated-lather-lovers-additive-testing/

Didn't mean to hijack the thread but I thought it might help in choosing what oils (or additives) to exchange for the castor oil.

 

[lsg]

IMO, sugar does increase the bubbles. Just remember too much sugar or honey can cause overheating. I use about 1 tablespoon per pound of oils. I dissolve the sugar in warm water and then let it set to cool before adding the lye. With honey, I just add it to the soap at thin trace.

 

[earlene]

Seems that "fact" has been proven false. Over at www.modernsoapmaking.com they did a test for over a YEAR to see if it was true that sugar increased soap or lather in a basic soap recipe. Here is the link:

https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/updated-lather-lovers-additive-testing/

Didn't mean to hijack the thread but I thought it might help in choosing what oils (or additives) to exchange for the castor oil.

First, I have to say when I look at those pictures and compare the sugar soaps (granulated, powdered and if I want to be fair, honey as well because to me honey is sugar), it looks to me like the fact IS proven by the photos. Look at the control soap's LATHER (not bubbles) and then look at the powdered sugar LATHER (not bubbles). Clearly as it appears to me, there is more lather with the sugars, but particularly with the powdered sugar. I could, but don't include the sodium citrate + sorbitol in the sugars category because it's not purely a sugar additive, but it also produces more lather.

At 3* months cure there is visibly more lather, but at 17* months cure, even MORE lather. That's how the pictures look to me.

In fact it looks to me like most of those additives do show a varied degree of changes in both the lather and the bubbles. But this test was about lather and not bubbles.

*To verify the age of the soaps when tested: I couldn't find that information in the post, as it only says It says the soaps were all made on January 1st, 2012, but finding the actual age of the soap required a bit of searching. As it turns out by looking at her Flickr photo stream photos I was able to find the date the photos were taken and therefore the age of the soap when tested in 2012 (photos taken on March 28. 2012). They were 3 months old when tested the first year. I calculated 17 months cure for the testing in 2013 via the date the photos are uploaded to the site (the photos were uploaded in April 2013, so I am only assuming the testing was done end of March or early April because she stated it was one year later).

 

[Lin19687]

I dropped the Castor all together, just not worth it in the end.
Then added the powdered sugar. Seems to lather a bit more but I don't add that much in general.

 

[homesteaders]

My friends, family and I have not noticed any difference in lather in my soaps with or without Castor Oil. Friends and family didn't know which ones they were testing, or why. Now I'm just using up my last bit of castor oil and won't buy it again. I have found a huge difference by using sugar and/or honey. I haven't noticed a difference between sugar and honey. Both are wonderful for improving lather and bubbles, and so much cheaper than castor oil. I dissolve 1 TBSP sugar ppo into my water or other liquid before stirring in the lye. When I do that with honey, even stirring in the lye very gradually, it causes the lye water to turn brown and bubble over my pitcher. So, when using honey, I add it at trace, or after the cook when doing hot process. The first time I added honey after the cook (because I forgot to add it at trace), I expected it to do nothing more than cause my soap to be sticky. That didn't happen. Turned out wonderful! Honey darkens my soaps just a little, so if I want a really white or very light soap, I use either regular granulated white sugar or organic evaporated cane juice.

 

[earlene]

At 3* months cure there is visibly more lather, but at 17* months cure, even MORE lather. That's how the pictures look to me. Edited note: This should say: At 3* months cure there is visibly more lather, but at 15* months cure, even MORE lather. That's how the pictures look to me.

*To verify the age of the soaps when tested: I couldn't find that information in the post, as it only says It says the soaps were all made on January 1st, 2012, but finding the actual age of the soap required a bit of searching. As it turns out by looking at her Flickr photo stream photos I was able to find the date the photos were taken and therefore the age of the soap when tested in 2012 (photos taken on March 28. 2012). They were 3 months old when tested the first year. I calculated 17 months cure for the testing in 2013 via the date the photos are uploaded to the site (the photos were uploaded in April 2013, so I am only assuming the testing was done end of March or early April because she stated it was one year later).

I made an addition error, it appears. 3 months plus 12 months is only 15 months! So it was 3 months at testing in 2012 and 15 months, when tested in 2013. My mistake!