How do you make a soap that is moisturizing?

[kuurt]

How do you make a soap that is moisturizing? I have been using dove moisturizing soap because unlike the other soaps I try it doesn't leave your skin feeling dry or tight and grubby (if you know what I mean). Some soaps actually make me itch. I want to make my own soap because I want to start using a soap that is made with more natural ingredients like olive oil. But, I'm afraid I will get the recipe wrong and it won't be moisturizing like the dove soap that I'm use to. Any tips or recipes on how to get your soap moisturizing like Dove?

Thank you

 

[Genny]

I've never used dove, so I don't know how they feel.

In my opinion, hand made soap doesn't add moisture to your skin. Instead, it just strips less of our natural oils from our skin than soaps that contain high percentages of surfactants & detergents.

If you have sensitive skin, plain olive oil soap may be wonderful for your skin. It's the only soap I use for my 8 month old baby, my 3 yr old son and my daughter with eczema.

But if you want to add other oils & butters, here's some links on the properties of different ingredients and what they bring to the soap:
http://www.soapnuts.com/indexoils.html
http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/prop ... aking-oils
http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/oils.html

 

[Cosmo]

I believe Dove makes your skin feel nice because it is ph balanced, but not necessarily because it is moisturizing. For sensitive skin, a soap high in olive is really nice, but can take a long time to cure if water is not discounted, meaning that less water is used to make the soap so it gets harder faster. A great moisturizing recipe would look like this:

Olive oil 60%
Palm oil 20%
Shea butter 15%
Castor oil 5%

I didn't use coconut in the recipe, because it can be drying in soap. The palm will help make your soap harder so you can unmold more quickly. The shea adds creaminess and the castor is moisturizing and bubbly.

 

[Genny]

I just wanted to add that superfat is important as well when you're trying to create a soap that's not drying.

 

[Cosmo]

Very true! I forgot to mention that. I personally superfat all of my soaps at 7%, but my recipe is mainly olive which is conditioning already. For soaps less conditioning, I have heard that you can superfat up to 10%.

 

[Genny]

I have a 90% coconut oil 10% castor oil recipe that I superfat at 25%. It's a salt bar though. It leaves my skin feeling wonderful

 

[Cosmo]

That sounds awesome Genny! I'll have to try that!

 

[judymoody]

Dove is not soap technically. It's a cleansing bar and is made with synthetic detergents and surfactants. As mentioned earlier, this allows it to be pH balanced. It "moisturizes" (doesn't strip) because it has glycerin added. When you make CP soap, the natural glycerin is retained in the soap.

If you learn how to use soapcalc.net to formulate soap recipes, you should go for a high conditioning number. As mentioned earlier, soaps high in olive oil are very kind to the skin.

My skin is much less dry since I switched to handcrafted CP soap from commercial cleansing bars.

You might want to try the following to start out:

50% olive oil
5% castor oil
25% coconut oil
20% palm oil
8% superfat

Plug it into a lye calculator like soapcalc and it will give you lye and water amounts.

 

[IrishLass]

I used to use Dove when I was growing up. The closest I have ever come to making a soap that came out close to how I remember what Dove felt like to me as a kid is this recipe:

80% olive oil
10% babassu oil (can use coconut instead if you don't have babassu).
10% castor oil
33% lye solution
My total liquid amount was split up into 30% goat milk and 70% aloe vera juice (George's brand from the health food store).
7% superfat.

I nicknamed it my 'Better than Dove soap'.

IrishLass

 

[winusuren]

I used to use Dove when I was growing up. The closest I have ever come to making a soap that came out close to how I remember what Dove felt like to me as a kid is this recipe:

80% olive oil
10% babassu oil (can use coconut instead if you don't have babassu).
10% castor oil
33% lye solution
My total liquid amount was split up into 30% goat milk and 70% aloe vera juice (George's brand from the health food store).
7% superfat.

I nicknamed it my 'Better than Dove soap'.

IrishLass

Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe..How long this soap has to be cured?? I'm planning to make this soap for my sons. One is 2 months old and the other is 6 years old. If this soap requires a long cure, then I'll be using it after 8 to 12 months. Since this recipe has a super fat of 7%, won't the soap develop DOS after a long cure??

 

[IrishLass]

Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe..How long this soap has to be cured?? I'm planning to make this soap for my sons. One is 2 months old and the other is 6 years old. If this soap requires a long cure, then I'll be using it after 8 to 12 months. Since this recipe has a super fat of 7%, won't the soap develop DOS after a long cure??

Hi winusuren! As with most of my recipes, I typically let this one cure for 4 weeks before using, but 6 weeks is even better.

Re: DOS: I've never had a problem with DOS with this recipe. I normally save a bar of soap from each of my batches and set them aside for long periods of time (one to two years or more) and for what it's worth, I've never observed DOS in it.


IrishLass

 

[Rsapienza]

If you learn how to use soapcalc.net to formulate soap recipes, you should go for a high conditioning number.

I believe that DeeAnna has an article about these numbers and how misleading they can really be. The conditioning number, in particular. I don’t think I’d pay too much close attention to that number.

 

[Trinbago27]

I used to use Dove when I was growing up. The closest I have ever come to making a soap that came out close to how I remember what Dove felt like to me as a kid is this recipe:

80% olive oil
10% babassu oil (can use coconut instead if you don't have babassu).
10% castor oil
33% lye solution
My total liquid amount was split up into 30% goat milk and 70% aloe vera juice (George's brand from the health food store).
7% superfat.

I nicknamed it my 'Better than Dove soap'.

IrishLass

Question…do the aloe Vera juice benefits make through the lye?

 

[winusuren]

Hi winusuren! As with most of my recipes, I typically let this one cure for 4 weeks before using, but 6 weeks is even better.

Re: DOS: I've never had a problem with DOS with this recipe. I normally save a bar of soap from each of my batches and set them aside for long periods of time (one to two years or more) and for what it's worth, I've never observed DOS in it.


IrishLass

Thank you so much for your reply @IrishLass. Since I don't have goat milk, I'll substitute coconut milk and use fresh aloevera juice as I have aloevera plants at home.
I usually add salt to distilled water before adding lye to increase the hardness of the bar. How can I add it here as we are using milk and juice?? I just thought of freezing the coconut milk and add lye slowly and then add the alovera juice during light trace..

 

[linne1gi]

How do you make a soap that is moisturizing? I have been using dove moisturizing soap because unlike the other soaps I try it doesn't leave your skin feeling dry or tight and grubby (if you know what I mean). Some soaps actually make me itch. I want to make my own soap because I want to start using a soap that is made with more natural ingredients like olive oil. But, I'm afraid I will get the recipe wrong and it won't be moisturizing like the dove soap that I'm use to. Any tips or recipes on how to get your soap moisturizing like Dove?

Thank you

I don’t think you can ever make soap that is moisturizing. It’s not the function of soap. Soap is a surfactant and like every surfactant it’s job is to dissolve the dirt and oils from the skin. That said, you can make soap less drying (I vastly prefer handmade soap over Dove, that used to make me itch like crazy). - You can increase the super fat and decrease the cleansing #. I like to keep my cleansing # at 10-14. But you can’t make soap moisturizing no matter what you do. For that you need lotion.

 

[IrishLass]

I usually add salt to distilled water before adding lye to increase the hardness of the bar. How can I add it here as we are using milk and juice?? I just thought of freezing the coconut milk and add lye slowly and then add the alovera juice during light trace..

You can just dissolve the salt into the coconut milk before freezing it. Or you can dissolve it into the aloe juice.


IrishLass