Hello, first post for me. I am a wetshaver, with 0 experience in soapmaking. Since I saw how good, where the local artisan shaving soaps, in compare with some very well known soaps, it came to my mind to make my own soap, for my relatives and me. I don't intend, and I think I can't anyway sell what I will make, by any means. Every source led me here, where really exists a treasure of information. I finished reading all of this huge thread, plus some other threads, plus silver fox soap (which I understand belongs to a member here). These are my primary sources, while I understood that most other that exist on the net, does not take account of crucial factors.
After all this reading, I think I am ready to make my first batch, with dual lye, NAOH and KOH 90%, probably 30/70, or 20/80, I will choose at the end which. I will post my recipe, in oil percentages, and explain to you my problems. If you can help me, I am open to any suggestions, because I may think I am ready, but still I am a novice, and I must not forget that. Let's start. The soap I am calculating, right now is this:
45% stearic (it is actually a combo of palmitic, stearic, and myristic, from where i will buy it, i am aware of it, and i know how to calculate it)
Coconut Oil: 25%
Shea Butter: 20%
Cocoa Butter: 10%
Superfat will be 5%, and I intend to keep 5% of the shea butter, and add it after the cook, and water will stand at 38% of the oils.
If i make this recipe, the percentage of palmitic and stearic combined stands at 63 percent. So my questions are these:
1) Is the recipe ok? I am concerned about the CO, i wonder if it should be higher, since right now, the soap wont be bubbly. Of course, i need good lather, not bubbles, but still, there are a lot of hard fats. Also the other fats, are ok? I also can have access to avocado oil, and jojoba oil as the low percentage oils, to substitute the cocoa. Is there a valid reason to do it?
2) I wanted to make a tallow/lanoline soap, but here in greece, tallow is not available, I have to make it on my own from beef fat, and it is quite a procedure, also lanoline, is kinda expensive to use only as superfat. I won't make so much soap. I started to make a recipe with Stearic 40/ CO 25/ Shea B 15/ and Palm oil as substitute to tallow at 20% . I do not know if it stands. If u have advice for this recipe also, i would be grateful.
3) And last. As you see, one of my goals is to make a cheap soap, with the only goal to shave good, for me and the people close to me. At first, i thought the difficult procedure and oils would be the problem, but at the moment, my biggest problem is the fragrance. Being in Greece, creates another issue. We have not valid corporations here, who sell good mixes of fragrance oils for soap. We have some who sell for perfumes. But not soaps. I understand that these fragrances, are something i should not try. So the only solution is EOs. But again, I understand that to mix them on my own into something that is not a complete failure, needs hours of trial and error, and a lot of money, which i can not give, cause I am a student.
So, I am thinking of using either a solo EO soap, like lemon (maybe with menthol?), or something like DeAnna's recipe who posted in the thread a fougere, with lavender/rosemary, and a bit of wild mint. If you can tell me about similar herb/fougere combinations, with two or three EOs, that you have tried (like cedarwood etc), or a simple citrus combination, you would help me a lot. Or standalone EOs, that are not repelling. As I have already told, i do not need a complex aroma to sell the soap, I just want my brother, or father to not let the soap aside, only because it does not smell good.
Sorry for the many things that I asked, and if I made you tired from reading all this, a very big thanks to all the amateur soapmakers, who contributed to this thread, you already have been a great help for me!
