How to improve this,please.

[Dreams]

Help, I know this can be improved before I make.. Could this make a good base? Using the pomice up then switching to regular olive oil,bought a bunch of it then realised the quick trace,good thing is I only mix by hand now Thank you for any advice..

. What about now?

 

[AliOop]

Sorry, I'm not understanding your question; what do you want to improve?

Did you mean to include a picture of something, or a recipe, as a "good base?"

 

[Dreams]

Sorry, I'm not understanding your question; what do you want to improve?

Did you mean to include a picture of something, or a recipe, as a "good base?"

Sorry the pic didnt make it first time around...

 

[AliOop]

Gotcha, thanks for adding the recipe pic.

Honestly, that's a little high on cleansing for me; I typically keep my cleansing number at 12 or below to avoid drying out my skin. If your skin is oilier, your recipe is probably fine. Otherwise, I'd reduce to CO to 18% to 20%, and make up the difference with your regular OO (or the pomace if you have more of it). Then use 1 Tbsp of sugar PPO to replace the bubbles you lost from lowering the CO; it won't change the calculator number for bubbles, but the bubbles will happen.

That's also a whole lot of water unless you are planning to hot process this soap. If you are doing CP, with that much water, your soap is likely to be soft, and to take a long time to set up. It might also warp while curing.

Instead of using "Water as percent of oil weight," select "Lye Concentration" (a few boxes below that) and change it to 33%. That is a good average number for a CP soap recipe like this. Besides hand-stirring, you can hopefully slow things down by soaping at room temp, too.

Good luck, and show us the pics when you are all done. Please

 

[KiwiMoose]

I also notice that your superfat is quite high at 8%. So change that while recalculating your lye concentration too. We usually use about 5% to start and maybe tweak it once you have more experience.
I typically use CO at 20% BTW.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

IMHO, there is no reason to use both rice bran oil and sunflower oil. Adding two high-linoleic oils at low usage rates appears to me like trying to prolong ingredient list. Either replace sunflower by RBO, or RBO by olive.

If you want to have sunflower oil in there, and you can get high-oleic sunflower oil, you can fully replace your 52% olive+sunflower+RBO by 26% of each RBO and HO sunflower.

I second the others to not overdo superfat. Particularly not with that much linoleic acid in the recipe. In my experience, SF well above 5% might lead to a sensation that the soap hadn't properly cleaned the skin.


But, as also noted, context is of paramount importance. Talk about what your goals and intentions are, to find out with which things you are unhappy with.

 

[artemis]

I agree that we need a more specific goal.

Everyone has a different favorite recipe. With a question like "how would you improve this" you are going to have everyone just suggesting changes that resemble their own favorite recipes.

 

[Dreams]

Gotcha, thanks for adding the recipe pic.

Honestly, that's a little high on cleansing for me; I typically keep my cleansing number at 12 or below to avoid drying out my skin. If your skin is oilier, your recipe is probably fine. Otherwise, I'd reduce to CO to 18% to 20%, and make up the difference with your regular OO (or the pomace if you have more of it). Then use 1 Tbsp of sugar PPO to replace the bubbles you lost from lowering the CO; it won't show in the calculator but the bubbles will happen.

That's also a whole lot of water unless you are planning to hot process this soap. If you are doing CP, with that much water, your soap is likely to be soft, and to take a long time to set up. It might also warp while curing.

Instead of using "Water as percent of oil weight," select Lye Concentration and change it to 33%. That is a good average number for a CP soap recipe like this. Besides hand-stirring, you can hopefully slow things down by soaping at room temp, too.

Good luck, and show us the pics when you are all done. Please

Thank you,yes the cleansing was to high for me, that's why I added 2 to super fat thinking,that might help and warping,thank the heavens haven't had that problem yet, learning water discount is a learning experience for me in its self..tried before,took it to 30 and my soap crumbled when cut on one side but was soft think,that was problem. Have and will add sugar for bubbles..Thank you so much for the info on taking it to 33% helps alot.. results to come

I also notice that your superfat is quite high at 8%. So change that while recalculating your lye concentration too. We usually use about 5% to start and maybe tweak it once you have more experience.
I typically use CO at 20% BTW.

Thank you,took to 8 to help with the cleansing#...see that's why I'm here for your valuable information

IMHO, there is no reason to use both rice bran oil and sunflower oil. Adding two high-linoleic oils at low usage rates appears to me like trying to prolong ingredient list. Either replace sunflower by RBO, or RBO by olive.

If you want to have sunflower oil in there, and you can get high-oleic sunflower oil, you can fully replace your 52% olive+sunflower+RBO by 26% of each RBO and HO sunflower.

I second the others to not overdo superfat. Particularly not with that much linoleic acid in the recipe. In my experience, SF well above 5% might lead to a sensation that the soap hadn't properly cleaned the skin.


But, as also noted, context is of paramount importance. Talk about what your goals and intentions are, to find out with which things you are unhappy with.

Thank you,nope not trying to prolong list.. thought had enough of pomace and didn't want to add more and cure longer or to add to the coconut or soy and had about what I was told in sunflower and castor to use so that's where rice bran came into play and good for my old skin..I'm trying to make a good base with a few ingredients that are reasonably priced without the butters.I would like it hard, lasting,bubbly and non striping.Im not asking for much,am I?

I agree that we need a more specific goal.

Everyone has a different favorite recipe. With a question like "how would you improve this" you are going to have everyone just suggesting changes that resemble their own favorite recipes.

If that helps me tweak this mess,sure I would like a good base.. hard, lasting,creamy, bubbly and non drying..I have a few other oils,canola, grape seed, soybean and avacado.Thank you

 

[KiwiMoose]

If that helps me tweak this mess,sure I would like a good base.. hard, lasting,creamy, bubbly and non drying..I have a few other oils,canola, grape seed, soybean and avacado.Thank you

Lol - so you want want we all want.
In accordance with what @artemis has said, I would take the sunflower out altogether since you already have OO which is high oleic, and i would use the RBO since that's my favourite oil. Simply replace the sunflower amount with it in your new recipe.

Lol - so you want want we all want.
In accordance with what @artemis has said, I would take the sunflower out altogether since you already have OO which is high oleic, and i would use the RBO since that's my favourite oil. Simply replace the sunflower amount with it in your new recipe.

Also - I wouldn't bother so much with grape seed or soybean (liquid) oils. They don't have a good shelf life. Avocado oil is nice - I changed my base recipe after trialling it because i thought it added a denser, creamier lather. Canola is ok - I've used it but it didn't 'bring' anything noticeable in the way of qualities, so I haven't kept it on as mainstay.

 

[Dreams]

Lol - so you want want we all want.
In accordance with what @artemis has said, I would take the sunflower out altogether since you already have OO which is high oleic, and i would use the RBO since that's my favourite oil. Simply replace the sunflower amount with it in your new recipe.


Also - I wouldn't bother so much with grape seed or soybean (liquid) oils. They don't have a good shelf life. Avocado oil is nice - I changed my base recipe after trialling it because i thought it added a denser, creamier lather. Canola is ok - I've used it but it didn't 'bring' anything noticeable in the way of qualities, so I haven't kept it on as mainstay.

Thank you

 

[Quilter99755]

I'd start with much smaller batches. That way you aren't wasting a lot of oils when trying to find your "perfect" soap. I found out the hard way that I don't get along with olive oil...it makes my skin feel dry and itchy. I had shelves of bars with OO that I couldn't use before I figured that out.

My recipes are mainly lard and RBO, with 2% SF and various butters/oils that I want to try out. I keep my cleansing on the very low side, Longevity at 30 and above and try for a reasonable balance on fats.

I put in 10% or less of Coconut oil for a little bubbles, but really like creamy lather better, so may stop CO altogether in the future. Need to test out sugar rather than CO but haven't done that yet. I'm still trying to find that one recipe that I like the best. LOL

 

[Dreams]

I'd start with much smaller batches. That way you aren't wasting a lot of oils when trying to find your "perfect" soap. I found out the hard way that I don't get along with olive oil...it makes my skin feel dry and itchy. I had shelves of bars with OO that I couldn't use before I figured that out.

My recipes are mainly lard and RBO, with 2% SF and various butters/oils that I want to try out. I keep my cleansing on the very low side, Longevity at 30 and above and try for a reasonable balance on fats.

I put in 10% or less of Coconut oil for a little bubbles, but really like creamy lather better, so may stop CO altogether in the future. Need to test out sugar rather than CO but haven't done that yet. I'm still trying to find that one recipe that I like the best. LOL

Thank you..this sure is a learning experience

 

[Dreams]

Gotcha, thanks for adding the recipe pic.

Honestly, that's a little high on cleansing for me; I typically keep my cleansing number at 12 or below to avoid drying out my skin. If your skin is oilier, your recipe is probably fine. Otherwise, I'd reduce to CO to 18% to 20%, and make up the difference with your regular OO (or the pomace if you have more of it). Then use 1 Tbsp of sugar PPO to replace the bubbles you lost from lowering the CO; it won't change the calculator number for bubbles, but the bubbles will happen.

That's also a whole lot of water unless you are planning to hot process this soap. If you are doing CP, with that much water, your soap is likely to be soft, and to take a long time to set up. It might also warp while curing.

Instead of using "Water as percent of oil weight," select "Lye Concentration" (a few boxes below that) and change it to 33%. That is a good average number for a CP soap recipe like this. Besides hand-stirring, you can hopefully slow things down by soaping at room temp, too.

Good luck, and show us the pics when you are all done. Please

Just wanted to get back to you and say, I did change the second recipe to show Lye Concentration at 33% not water to oil at 33% caught after posted and here's the cut..thank you for your help

 

[AliOop]

Wow, that turned out beautiful - great job!!!

 

[Dreams]

Wow, that turned out beautiful - great job!!!

Thank you super excited today..made pics last week bout 5 mins to do and sent to a few friends to get opinions before, I sent to my family(,that finds all faults in all I do) got sample request,which wasn't cheap but paid off got a order for 8 bars...$64.00 to go back into soapin