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[Mom and daughter]

We made quite a few batches of cp soap with a recipe of 20% co 20% olive oil and 20% Shea 5% sf. Some people said it felt too greasey like the water didn’t rinse off. We were thinking about reducing Shea to 2% and 35%co and 20% babassu. My daughter refuses to use pro. Any suggestions?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Welcome to the forum! You will get the best advice if you post your entire recipe, including the amount of water and lye used and any additives. 20% CO, 20% OO and 20% Shea = 60%. What did you use for the other 40% of the fats? Did you allow the soap to cure for 4-6 weeks before you used it?

 

[ResolvableOwl]

First, take a breath. Welcome to SMF.

Then, realise that “some people” isn't everyone. If anyone else (like, for example, you yourself) liked how the soap felt, then it wasn't all off. Skin feel of soap is a matter of taste, some people love what others dislike, and yet others don't care about.

5% SF doesn't sound exotic. Shea butter at high percentages brings quite some “unsaponifiables”. They counteract the cleansing properties of the soap itself – which could be perceived as “not washing off properly”, but doesn't have to be a bad thing (e. g. for people with dry skin).

Coconut and babaçu are very similar to each other (both are “lauric oils”, from the fruit of palm trees). Using 55% lauric oils will make a soap that is very cleansing and bubbly, but at the same time can attack the skin barrier and cause irritations. It is somewhat consensus to stay below 30% (or better 20%) for the sum of lauric oils, to avoid this effect.

What is that “pro” that you daughter doesn't want to use?

 

[Mom and daughter]

6 babassu 3 tallow 6 castor 9 rice bran 6 sw almond 6 kokum. Lye 4.6 goats milk 5 h205

That should be palm kernel oil. We were looking for other oils to make a hard bubbly bar. We do add sodium lactate

We used the after 5 weeks

 

[ResolvableOwl]

So, something like this:

(Still 4% missing, but that's not the point)

That's quite a lot of different oils, at that low usage rates that they can't play off their strenghts at all. It is a well-balanced recipe that should give a lovely bar, that should harden up eventually. But you see, the soapmakingfriend calculator still doesn't fully agree (red “longevity” indicator). Five weeks might be the bare minimum from which on the bars don't dissolve too quickly.

Another downside of such many ingredients is that troubleshooting and tuning becomes more difficult. You are having a hard time to get a feeling what the respective oils bring in the soap.

Let me propose these simplifications:

• Don't use babaçu for now. With coconut, you don't need it (nor the palm kernel oil, which is another lauric oil).
• Also throw out the rice bran oil, almond oil, and kokum butter (they are all great ingredients, and you might include either of these – once you've mastered a more basic recipe)
• “Hard oils”: Rise tallow to 30–35% (it's a classic base oil to make hard bars with a creamy lather), leave shea butter around 15–20%.
• Castor can impede hardening. 6% max, 3–4% will do the job just as well
• 20% coconut, not more.
• Fill up with olive oil. Use a soap calculator to determine lye, feel free to share your recipe.
• Add sugar (1–2% of the oil weight), or if you have it: sorbitol. Dissolve into the goat's milk/sodium lactate, before adding the lye.

 

[lsg]

Try this percentage:

20% coconut
5% Castor
30% Palm
30% Olive
15% Shea Butter

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Please read ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS.

Beginner's Learn to Soap Online

There are many "tried and true" recipes in that thread which is what you should be making at this point in your soapy journey to get off on the right foot. Scrolll down to "Lovin' Soap Studio" to learn all the things we talk about here. Then, after you've successfully made a few batches, you will be better prepared to troubleshoot any problems you have. That will also help us to help you.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Both of the suggestions will get you to good soap. If you’re trying to stay away from palm products, the second one won’t work, but it’s in the same spirit as the earlier suggestion. A soap that has longevity = 29 or 30, 40% oleic, coconut at 20% or less and a lather booster (sugar or aloe juice) added will bubble well and be mild. There are plenty of members on the forum that like soap with 20-25, or even 30% coconut oil, but at those percentages the soap will be more cleansing (remove more oils from the skin). Deciding on the “best” recipe really depends on personal preference and the preferences of those using the soap.

 

[Quilter99755]

When I first came to this site, I was looking for a nice hard bar of soap,too. It took a while but I finally realized I was looking for longevity in my soaps, not necessarily hardness. After spending hours on here I was glad I hadn't popped for getting some of the ingredients that I thought would help. I am basically a "keep it simple" person and found that my skin doesn't "feel" a lot of the little extras that people put in their soaps.

I may vary the percentages of the oils and switch some around after reading one thread or another, but usually use two or three oils, plus 5% castor oil which is the only one that is less than 10% of the total. My next experiments will be to substitute sugar, honey or sorbitol for the castor oil for my bubbles and then I will only be using the three oils in my soaps.

I've recently gotten into syndet bars for shampoo, and one of the things I hate about them is the number of ingredients they use. So my advice would be to limit your oils as several have already said. You will at some point find a soap you love...and maybe another soap that your daughter loves. The two may not be the same soap because everyone's skin is different. Happy searching.

 

[SoapDaddy70]

I know I am going to sound like a jerk here but I commend all of you people out there who are so well thought out and so thorough in your responses even though the OP has given very little information to go on..

6 babassu 3 tallow 6 castor 9 rice bran 6 sw almond 6 kokum. Lye 4.6 goats milk 5 h205

What does this even mean? Please if you are looking for help @Mom and daughter at least take the same time and care with your responses as everyone here has done with theirs. It's just common courtesy.

 

[Johnez]

I know I am going to sound like a jerk here but I commend all of you people out there who are so well thought out and so thorough in your responses even though the OP has given very little information to go on..

What does this even mean? Please if you are looking for help @Mom and daughter at least take the same time and care with your responses as everyone here has done with theirs. It's just common courtesy.

It looks like most of the remaining recipe percentages that were left off in the original post. It's probably a matter of information overload and not knowing what's critical to know and what can be left out. New thing (soaping), new format for expression (forum), new tools (soap calc), and new "language." Some are not inured to the language of this forum, or any specialty hobby forum.

OP, take a screen shot or pic of whatever recipe your using, so we can get an idea of what's going on. RO seems to have deduced most of it, but it would be incredibly helpful for more of us to chip in in helping you. Many here are very quick in figuring out the issue with a soap calc screen shot or pic (with ALL the details). It's a matter of removing one layer of interpretation really.