How would this recipe fare?

[Saltwater Scented]

I've been trying to read and watch a lot of tutorials and such and put together this little guy tonight. Maybe a little on the soft side with stearic/palmitic coming in at 28, but if I understand correctly adding 1 tsp of sodium lactate per pound of oils will solidify the little feller right up.

What else could I expect from it? Should I just throw it together and see what happens in when it gets wet in a month from now?

Lard: 45%
Coconut: 20%
O/O pomace 15%
Palm oil: 10%
Castor 5%
Sweet Almond 5%

I put the recipe results from soapcalc down yonder to look at.

 

[lenarenee]

That's a fine recipe - I've made something very similar for years!

 

[Saltwater Scented]

That's a fine recipe - I've made something very similar for years!

Well I'll be darned. My first shot at figuring something soapilicious out. Gonna rock back on my heels and snap my suspenders a bit, "Yes 'em, mighty fine this here beginner's luck."

 

[Dawni]

That's actually enough lard for a hard bar

If it were me though I'd make it 40% and up my sweet almond to 10%. It'll up your conditioning factor slightly but still be hard, especially with the palm also there.

 

[Saltwater Scented]

Thanks to whomever moved the thread to here. I actually never saw there was a recipe feedback sub-forum! My probability of productivity at work tomorrow just had a hard dip since I'll be reading in here for the first half of the day.

 

[shunt2011]

I think that looks like a pretty great batch of soap. I've never used lard and palm together in a batch but it should be just fine.

 

[Saltwater Scented]

Whipped it up tonight. Over did the SB again.

Soap on a stick is so sexy. No. Really.

Used a combination of Amber Moss and Tobacco/Vanilla FO. Not really liking it.

Forgot to put in the sodium lactate so I'm making another batch tomorrow. And then going to attempt a cucumber yogurt version this weekend. Also going to maybe try substituting out 10% of the olive oil for shorea butter in a version and using grape oil in another.

 

[shunt2011]

If you have something seize up. Just leave it in the pot & cover it until it gels then pour into the mold. Not the pretties soaps but still very usable. Over blending is very common when new. We've all been there and done that.

 

[dibbles]

As shunt has said, over blending is something that is very common when starting out. Here is a video made by SMF member newbie showing how little blending is actually required to reach a stable emulsion. It helped me a lot, and I thought you may not have seen it yet.

 

[Nanette]

Good video!

 

[Arimara]

You have quite a bit of water in that recipe. I'm not sure it would be ready in the 4-6 week time span. Lardy soaps tend to do better from an extended cure, which means at least 3 months curing. You soap would definitely feel good by then. Just take a bar to test from week four on to see how long you may want to cure that recipe.

 

[Dawni]

You have quite a bit of water in that recipe. I'm not sure it would be ready in the 4-6 week time span. Lardy soaps tend to do better from an extended cure, which means at least 3 months curing. You soap would definitely feel good by then. Just take a bar to test from week four on to see how long you may want to cure that recipe.

I agree. Between 9-12 weeks is noticeably better (not factoring in water) but 7 weeks up isn't not good either.

 

[Saltwater Scented]

You have quite a bit of water in that recipe. I'm not sure it would be ready in the 4-6 week time span. Lardy soaps tend to do better from an extended cure, which means at least 3 months curing. You soap would definitely feel good by then. Just take a bar to test from week four on to see how long you may want to cure that recipe.

Oh heck. That's supposed to be 2:1 not almost 3:1. I rebuilt the recipe last night in soap calc so I could put notes into it and print capture it so I'll look tonight to see if I had the correct ratio.

 

[Arimara]

Oh heck. That's supposed to be 2:1 not almost 3:1. I rebuilt the recipe last night in soap calc so I could put notes into it and print capture it so I'll look tonight to see if I had the correct ratio.

If you soaped at 2:1 water to lye, then, while a longer cure would still benefit the soap, your soap would be usable at week 4 and on. No need to post the revamped recipe unless you added or changed ingredients around.

 

[Saltwater Scented]

If you soaped at 2:1 water to lye, then, while a longer cure would still benefit the soap, your soap would be usable at week 4 and on. No need to post the revamped recipe unless you added or changed ingredients around.

I checked the notes, I did use 2:1 based on the numbers.

I whipped up another batch tonight. Changed to EVOO rather than the OO I bought from BB and Bulk Apoth because I can get EVOO at $0.14 an ounce locally versus getting 35 pounds from BB at $0.29 per ounce with shipping. 48% savings and I can say I'm using EVOO on top of it? Heck yeah. Probably can knock off a few more cents if I go through a restaurant purveyor. This time I remembered to put in the sodium lactate, and went with a cucumber lime FO. Ran the SB only to emulsion, and it was much better to work with, even though this time it would've been a little better taking it to a light trace.

The batch from last night is still pretty soft so I'm leaving it in the mold for another 24 hours. I pulled one bar out of the massage mold. Such a sad little guy, big old voids in it where I didn't have enough to fill the mold and it was so thick, it wouldn't sink on its own.

 

[Saltwater Scented]

Unmolded the first batch, released fine. Tried cutting and it sticks to the blade. Going to give it another 24 hours and try cutting again.