Help with finding CP recipes!

[citronella]

Hi!
I want to start making CP soap and can´t seem to find a recipe that fits my needs:
Im a vegetarian so I dont want to use any animal fat
I dont want to use palm oil
I would like to use both shea- and cocoa butter in my first batch because Im so exited about using this raw ingredients

Im looking to find a recipe with easy to follow instructions since this is my first soap batch and would be really thankful for any help
I really hope someone can help me with this (and excuse my spelling, english is not my first language)

Thanks!

 

[carebear]

millersoap.com has TONS and you can learn to create your own as well.
also, keep soapcalc.com on your bookmarked list so you can calculate the lye.

 

[citronella]

Thank you so much!
Im going to look at that site. Ive read a book about soapmaking and there was a chapter about soapcalc, but Im a little afraid to use it my first time

I would appreciate more tips from others to

 

[AmyW]

Just off the top of my head with the oils *I* have...

Coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, shea and cocoa butters

For a 16 oz batch, I might start with:

Coconut oil: 40% = 6.4oz
Olive oil: 40% = 6.4oz
Castor oil: 10% = 1.6oz
Shea butter: 5% = .8oz
Cocoa butter: 5% = .8oz
6oz water

With 8% superfat, this would need 2.26oz of lye.

If you're willing to use palm oil, try 30% palm, 30% coconut, 20% olive oil to make a harder bar that cures faster.

Play around in soap calc, you'll get comfortable with it. Another good one is at thesage.com too. I did find the soap calculators easier to figure out once I'd made my first batch and had some experience to reference. It's really fun to play with the numbers and then do a batch and see how it works!

 

[judymoody]

What carebear said.

I started with Kathy Miller's wonderful site, millersoap.com I only use vegetable oils and I started with her Castille II soap which is simple, wonderful, and well behaved. It makes a very nice bar of soap. It's mostly OO with small proportions of PO and CO. You can easily reduce it to make a smaller batch.

And don't be scared of soapcalc.net Super easy to use and very informative about the properties of your recipe.

 

[jadiebugs1]

I recently (last fall) took a suggestion from on this forum for a 80% Coconut Oil, 20% Shea Butter....20% Superfat. It turned out pretty darn awesome!
I'm guessing it would be easy enough to change it to 10% shea and 10% coco butter. ?

 

[heartandsoap]

lots of good suggestions here from other soap makers. Try them and then use the soap calc to tailor to your needs.

 

[citronella]

Thank you so much for your helpfull answers!!!
Now I actually had some time to play around in soapcalc and Ive made a recipe that I would like to hear your opinions on, I measure in Grams so the nubers get weird when I translate the to ounces:

1.552 Oz Castor Oil (=11%)
1.411 Oz Cocoa butter (=10%)
3.527 Oz Coconut Oil, 76 deg (=25%)
1.975 Oz Shea Butter (=14%)
5.644 Oz Olive Oil (=40%)

5.362 Oz Water (=38%)
1.893 Oz Lye (=26.092%)

Hardness: 39
Cleansing: 17
Condition: 57
Bubbly: 27
Creamy: 32
Iodine: 58
INS: 149

What do you think of this recipe, can I pull it off?
If this sounds good to you this will be my first batch

 

[jadiebugs1]

Did you really type all that out with the perfect indentations and spaces?? Awesome!

I didn't analyze your recipe, but I don't see any red flags!

I'm curious how it turns out!

ETA: after another look...to me it seems like it MIGHT be a little high on the liquid oils side. Too soft? Anywhoot...another reason to be curious how it turns out!

 

[judymoody]

Your recipe looks great to me. I may have to try it myself! :wink: Good luck!