My first cold process recipe

[kstacy84]

Hi everyone! Totally new here, I appreciate anyone who is taking the time to read my first post. I'm a total newbie to soapmaking and I'm currently still in the planning stages of coming up with my first recipe. The whole thing is definitely daunting, but I've always been very drawn to soap-making and I am a science nerd at heart. There are two local soapmakers I currently buy my soap from. I enjoy using soap from both makers, so I figured I'd use their ingredients as a guide:

Soap 1: canola oil, coconut oil, rice bran oil, distilled water, olive oil, sodium hydroxide, avocado oil, castor oil, cocoa butter, fragrance, cosmetic mica, titanium dioxide, biodegradable glitter

Soap 2: saponified oils of sustainable palm, olive, coconut & shea butter, scented with essential oils, botanicals, and herbs.

Soap 2 is definitely a harder soap. It lathers nicely, but isn't nearly as creamy as soap 1. Soap 1, however, melts faster, but you can't beat it's creaminess. It also feels more moisturizing.

To be on the safe side, I feel like I should start with this basic lots of lather recipe from the soap queen:
32% Coconut Oil
32% Palm Oil
32% Olive Oil
4% Castor Oil


Do you think I should modify my first recipe much, or just start super basic and go from there? I really love a creamy, foamy soap with that doesn't strip the skin of it's moisture. Any input would be amazing, thank you so much!!!

 

[Arimara]

I'd say try it as you wrote it but run it through a soaping calculator. That way, after the soap cures for 4-6 weeks, You can gauge what you'd want to change. Just make sure you don't use more than 454g/16oz of oils for your first batch. You'd also want to try a 7% superfat too if you feel the standard 5% is too drying.

 

[Zing]

No! Turn back while there's still time!
Seriously, welcome to the forum.
For your first recipe, yours is fine. Just note that sensitive skin can find coconut too drying. I love high percentages because of the bubbles personally, but then it is a soggier and shorter lived soap I use 20-25%. You could chop off 6% from coconut and add to olive and palm.
Keep us posted, and we like photos!

 

[kstacy84]

Thanks to you both for your helpful responses!!! I'll come back here once my first batch is made and post pics!

 

[KiwiMoose]

If you lower the CO as Zing has suggested then maybe just stick to the standard 5% superfat. But if you were going to use over 30% maybe increase the superfat to offset the drying effect.

 

[kstacy84]

What do you guys think of this? Is there one butter you prefer over the other? I definitely want something somewhat creamy (avg. creaminess) with a nice, bubbly lather. Not necessarily a bar for older skin but for the average individual. Wondering if I should add some palm kernel oil for more bubbles? So many possibilities lol

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Ahh yes, the soap calculator numbers … (“creamy”, “bubbly”, “cleansing”). They have their value, but they don't exactly mean what the uninitiated might think they do:
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapCalcNumbers.asp
Just as your initial recipe, your new recipe will have abundant lather! No need to complicate it further with palm kernel oil – PKO behaves practically identical to coconut oil (hard but soluble soap, fluffy lather, stripping/irritant in high percentages), the two are fully interchangeable, and choice between them is mostly due to price/availability or allergies, but not for the performance in the final soap. I recommend you to just stay with those 25% coconut for now, and be amazed how it comes out! If you then feel the need to to step up a gear, you can either increase coconut, increase castor oil to 5–7%, or add some sugar/sorbitol/aloe vera juice. Or make a liquid soap and dispense it with a foamer, or or or… but when you don't have a starting point to compare your modifications with, you won't know!

On a similar note, the addition of apricot oil and mango butter kind of might appear a bit “unmotivated” to the trained eye. At such low usage rates, they cannot change the emollient/conditioning qualities or hardness of a soap bar much, but with each ingredient the preparation complexity, the shopping list and requirements for ingredient storage space grows.
Castor, though, is something different, because it is the only oil you will notice when you add 3% of it. In fact, 3–6% of castor oil is some of the most “universal constants” in soapmaking (just look at the “ricinoleic acid” graph of Modern Soapmaking's recipe survey).

 

[KiwiMoose]

Here, here, @ResolvableOwl . Stop tweaking recipes and start making. Make one batch of 500g and see how you like it, then start tweaking that recipe to improve it. Don't bother with 3 or 4 % of anything unless it's castor. It's not going be enough to make difference. Not sure about where you live, but here mango butter is very expensive, so I use shea. I used to use cocoa butter but that's quite expensive too ( though not as much as mango),
I don't use any palm in my recipes so I can't speak for the creaminess of palm, but I do use oils high in stearic, and that helps with a dense creamy lather. Offset by the coconut and aloe juice I have a bubbly and creamy recipe.

So go back to your 'lots of lather first' and I'd suggest these tweaks:
25% Coconut Oil
30% Palm Oil
30% Olive Oil
10% Rice Bran Oil
5% Castor Oil
Don;t add any sugar or aloe to the water yet - see what you think of it as-is first.

Remember - that's just my suggestion and there a million others I could make, but that's just off the top off my head.

Make it today!

ETA: at step (3) of your recipe calculator please change that to to lye concentration and set it at 33%. Unless you are hot processing?

 

[kstacy84]

Thank you both!!! Will definitely go back to basics. What will the rice bran oil do? One thing I do like for sure is a slightly softer bar of soap. Other than the soap queen, if you both have any recommendations for online soap making education I'm open to suggestions. I'd love to know how you both got good at your craft! I'll be buying my ingredients this weekend, I have to plan making the soap though around my kiddos not being in the house (they are 1 and 3)

 

[KiwiMoose]

Thank you both!!! Will definitely go back to basics. What will the rice bran oil do? ☺

I just like it - and it's cheap. Otherwise up your OO to 40%. Or 35% OO and 35% Palm.

 

[Zing]

Just to pile on @KiwiMoose's recommendations, jump in and do it! I was soaping for months before I discovered this huge sub-culture with YouTubes and forums and rabbit holes. I do have a YouTube recommendation but won't share it until later.

But, Lord knows, parenting 2 toddlers is already a full-time job! It took me weeks to paint my small garage during naptimes. So keep it simple to just 4 or 5 oils. You got this!

 

[Susie]

The fewer the ingredients and the more locally available they are increase your likelihood of continuing to soap. I started with oils I could buy at the local Walmart and for the most part, I have circled back to that. I find no benefit for me and my family from the more expensive butters. I do order other ingredients from online, but my oils all come from local stores.

 

[kstacy84]

Thanks Zing!!! I stayed up way too late reading comments on here last night, many of them yours and they were all super helpful I can't wait to do it!

Susie - I plan on keeping it simple. I know two successful soap makers that only use a few ingredients, more is definitely not better. I really want to end up with a soap that is on the milder side, leaving skin feeling clean and silky but not dry. We have harder water where I live. Thanks so much for your input

 

[Zany_in_CO]

To be on the safe side, I feel like I should start with this basic lots of lather recipe from the soap queen:
32% Coconut Oil
32% Palm Oil
32% Olive Oil
4% Castor Oil

The combination of Coconut + Palm + Olive is known among soapmakers as the Basic Trinity of Oils. It you click on the link, it will take you to a recipe with a more balanced formula -- lower coconut for one. It's a good starter formula that you can build on.

 

[Cat&Oak]

I agree with the sentiment jump in and start making because honestly once you do you will try countless recipes and experiment with your own recipes till you find what you like.

 

[Meldoesasoapy]

No! Turn back while there's still time!
Seriously, welcome to the forum.
For your first recipe, yours is fine. Just note that sensitive skin can find coconut too drying. I love high percentages because of the bubbles personally, but then it is a soggier and shorter lived soap I use 20-25%. You could chop off 6% from coconut and add to olive and palm.
Keep us posted, and we like photos!

Sorry, creeping here lol. Coconut oil makes the soap soggy???

 

[Zing]

Sorry, I should've been more precise and I will try to explain -- my smart experts peeps on here likely will explain better. Coconut oil does contribute to hardness. But it's a must to use a good quality soap dish/soap saver because the bar will slowly dissolve if it sits in water.