How Much Cocoa Butter

[HowieRoll]

Thanks for the report, MissE, and look forward to hearing your opinions on it after it cures!

 

[cherrycoke216]

I thought Howie Roll is a girl. At least the way he/she descdibe things…
anyway, this is a great thread, and now I have to make more experiment soap.

 

[HowieRoll]

Yes, I am a girl but I can see why there is confusion! I picked my user name based on the name my husband and I use for our travel blog (we often say 'that's how we roll'), but would probably do things differently if I had to do it over again. To help alleviate confusion, I've added my name as a signature but either way, it's no biggie to me!

 

[Arimara]

I would not throw in the towel yet. It's early in the game. Test the soaps for the next few weeks and report any changes.

 

[bathgeek]

I'd be VERY interested to see how this turns out too. MissE, we are eagerly awaiting the results, but don't rush the cure just because we're impatient... ^_~

 

[Zany_in_CO]

'that's how we roll'

 

[MissE]

cherrycoke216, you so much more perceptive than I am! Will be good to be able to give HowieRoll the right pronoun from now on

Arimara, bathgeek, will do!

 

[Millie]

Happy to report that I've made soap based on HowieRoll's Recipe at #11!


What I did different:

I didn't have avocado oil at hand and didn't want to fuss since the object of my test batch was to figure out the scent without an fo. To enhance the scent, I added the avocado oil amount to the cocoa butter (30%). If my test batch falls too short in terms of performance, I will be willing to add back the avocado oil, of course). Also, following his advice at #19, I dropped my olive oil (40%) down and upped my coconut oil (25%); the courage to do that high coconut oil amount came from Zany_in_Co's advice at #35. I left my castor oil (5%) amount alone.

What I added:

I decided to divide my batch into three: I added cocoa powder to one, cocoa powder and finely ground coffee to the other, and left the last one without any additives.

What I'll do differently next time:

I stayed with my 33% lye solution, just because in my own experience I am always rushing against soap thickening/tracing on me and I rather hoped that going by HowerRoll's notes about the runny consistency of his recipe, it would just buy me a little more time with mixing in my additives. Big mistake. My barter was running everywhere and I just couldn't get it to trace! At this point I was praying for even a false trace so I could sb it thoroughly and at least have everything suspended without the oils separating. Anyway, it finally did show signs of a trace and I triumphantly poured them. Phew! If anyone else is interested in trying this, please do go with the 40%, and you are welcome!

The Result:

I am yet to test this soap in the shower to observe how it lathers and so on, but as per the scent fresh out of the mold, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't quite get the chocolatey smell I wanted. The smell was more markedly that of cocoa. I used raw cocoa butter, by the way. But if I must pick one, I'd say the scent came through best in the cocoa powder-coffee soap. The one with only cocoa powder barely had the cocoa scent. And the one without any additives just had no discernible cocoa/chocolate scent.

#soaptestdone!

I'm curious about how these soaps are doing.... :angel:

 

[MissE]

Hi Millie, thanks for the reminder to post an update. At a little over four weeks, I would say the soap turned out great. The lather is a bit dense but abundant. I love the way it leaves my skin feeling really soft, so much so I think I'm going to use butters a lot more in my recipes. The scent didn't turn out so great, but overall I will definitely return to this recipe!

 

[Millie]

Thanks for taking the time to share your results!

 

[HowieRoll]

Thanks for the update, MissE!

(and thanks for asking, Millie - the other day I found myself wondering about it, too!)

 

[MissE]

You are very welcome!

 

[lsg]

I don't use over 15% cocoa butter and that works for me.