My handmade soap is making my skin feeling dry

[karenative]

I've made few batches of cp soap early november. After curing for more than 8 weeks I am excited to finally get to use them! However, after 3 showers I notice my skin started peeling
Gave some out to family and friends, which sadly they also finds it drying.
I don't think it is lye heavy as I've tested its ph on litmus paper (ph is between 9-10) and did the cabbage test and the color is blueish.

Recipe #1:
40% olive oil, 20% coconut, 20% palm, 10% shea butter, 10% castor, 5% superfatting, no eo/fo

Recipe #2:
40% olive oil, 20% palm, 15% coconut, 15% rice bran, 10% castor, 5% superfatting, no eo/fo

I've also done up hp, by using the same recipe as above and left it cure for 2 weeks before using. It also does the same to my skin - drying.

Please, can anyone tell me what went wrong with my recipe or method?

 

[Millie]

Can you post pictures and share your exact recipe? Then we could all run it through our lye calcs. Some people find coconut oil and/or castor oil drying, but it is strange that your testers are all having the same reaction. 2 weeks is a bit short for a cure but 8 wks is fine.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Some find lye based soap gives a squeaky feeling which commercial soaps don't - it can come off as feeling drying at first. Another possibility is that your palm is actually palm kernel oil/flakes instead of palm.

Other than that, the recipes look okay

 

[shunt2011]

It could be several things. YOu could be sensitive to Coconut. May just need a longer cure. Maybe you need to up your SF a tad.

As long as your soap didn't zap and it's had a good cure you just may need to tweak your recipe some and keep trying till you find what works best for your skin.

Maybe lower your CO to 10% or lower for that matter.

In my experience I've found that something I didn't like (Castille, Aleppo Style) when first made or even a year out I was liking it a whole lot better at longer than a year.

There are so many reasons a soap doesn't feel good on the skin and that will vary from person to person.

 

[cmzaha]

Also, some people simply cannot use any lye based soap. Maybe you should try leaving out the CO and see if it helps, and make sure as EG mentioned, that it is not Palm Kernel instead of Palm oil. Palm Kernel comes from the kernel and is very similiar to CO in bubbly and cleansing. Palm is extracted from the fleshy part of the Palm Fruit.

 

[lenarenee]

I've made few batches of cp soap early november. After curing for more than 8 weeks I am excited to finally get to use them! However, after 3 showers I notice my skin started peeling
Gave some out to family and friends, which sadly they also finds it drying.
I don't think it is lye heavy as I've tested its ph on litmus paper (ph is between 9-10) and did the cabbage test and the color is blueish.

Recipe #1:
40% olive oil, 20% coconut, 20% palm, 10% shea butter, 10% castor, 5% superfatting, no eo/fo

Recipe #2:
40% olive oil, 20% palm, 15% coconut, 15% rice bran, 10% castor, 5% superfatting, no eo/fo

I've also done up hp, by using the same recipe as above and left it cure for 2 weeks before using. It also does the same to my skin - drying.

Please, can anyone tell me what went wrong with my recipe or method?

Your skin started peeling with a bar that had cured for 8 weeks? Or with the hot process bar that cured 2 weeks?

Check to make sure, (like mentioned above) that you had palm oil, not palm KERNEL oil in your recipe.

Did you, yourself, use a lye calculator, or someone's recipe with already calculated amounts? (checking to see if the recipe is off)

pH testing isn't accurate with soap

It's curious that many people thought the soap was drying. Can you give us an idea how many out of the number you gave soap to - found it drying? Did they get the 8 week cure, or the 2 week cured soap? (Hot process needs to cure as long at cp soap, so I can understand why the 2 week soap would be drying to a lot of people)

If most people received the 8 week soap, found it drying, then I think that points more toward a problem with the recipe calculation, measuring/scale problem, or having palm kernel oil (similar to coconut oil and strips skin's natural oils) instead of palm oil.

 

[dixiedragon]

I think lenaree is right. If it was only you, I'd think that you have a sensitivity to one of the ingredients - perhaps the olive oil or the coconut. But that many people means something is wrong with the soap itself.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Skin is peeling or flaky?
There's a big difference there.
My soaps arereally nice, but in wintertime I find I have to moisturise a lot after shower.
There's a good advice already given.
I would also check my recipe again, oils etc.
I personally find olive oil very drying. I know I'm weird. I tend to use 10% or none in my recipes.
Same with coconut oil. For some 20% is too much. Try and lover it to 10-15. I always keep it around 15 and bar is still nice and bubbly

 

[karenative]

I calculated my recipe using soalcalc.net

The palm oil I used for my recipe is RBD palm olein. I wonder if it has the same properties as palm oil? At where I'm staying it is rather difficult for me to get pure palm oil for soap making

Sorry fuzz-ruzz, I supposed my skin is flaky and not peeling

I'm attaching how my skin condition looks like and one of the bar I'm using

 

[lenarenee]

Hmm. Now that is interesting. When I have dry skin, it doesn't look like that.
But, when I've been washing the car or cleaning the house with detergent water and no gloves - my hands look like yours.

Have your hands been exposed to cleansers or other new products aside from your soap? Do the people you gave your soap to have the same issue with their skin?

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Ouch, that does look dry and I guess from the photo, it really looks more like peeling, you were right.

Lenarenee is right, it may not be your soap only? Did you get some cleaning chemicals on your hands as well?
My hands look like that after being lazy and using Ajax without gloves.

 

[CTAnton]

Karenative...2 things come to mind....
1.do a zap test.Just put the tip of your tongue on a moistened bar of the soap to be SURE it's not lye heavy.
2.Perhaps a longer cure will help?
I agree with the others...my hands only look like that after using some really caustic cleaner without gloves...like oven cleaner.....

 

[Susie]

My hands (and feet) look like that every spring and fall. Twice a year they peel. The dermatologists are stumped. If it was just my hands, we could attribute that to not wearing gloves. But with my feet also peeling, it is not that. I use a sugar scrub and get all the dry skin off at once, then I can go on with life until the next peel.

 

[navigator9]

I once had my hands look like that after I scooped up some raw soap batter that had spilled on the counter, with my bare hands. I know, stupid move, but I did it without thinking, wanting to save my counter! Anyway, the lye in the batter was obviously still active, and my hands ended up looking like yours. Are you sure your soap isn't zapping? I'd do a zap test if I were you. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[karenative]

Hi all thanks for your feedbacks.

Ok maybe the dryness on my hand is overly scary haha. Just above my elbow area also showing some flakiness after using my handmade soap.
Everyone is saying by using handmade soap our skin supposed to be moisturised by default without the need to apply lotion. I'm dissapointed that mine does totally the opposite. My skin feels better with the commercial ones instead.

On another thought, do you think it is possible for my to add glycerin in my cp soap to make it less drying? If yes, how much to add?

 

[Gerry]

I'd like to add that my hands looked exactly like that and the peeling got even worse as the days went by. So I went to the doctor where he took a small sample of peeled skin. Turned out to be a fungal infection that was easily fixed with an anti-fungal cream he prescribed.

 

[karenative]

Hmm. Now that is interesting. When I have dry skin, it doesn't look like that.
But, when I've been washing the car or cleaning the house with detergent water and no gloves - my hands look like yours.

Have your hands been exposed to cleansers or other new products aside from your soap? Do the people you gave your soap to have the same issue with their skin?

People who have used my soap commented that it is not as mild as compared to other bathing products they have used/have been using. They commented that after usage there is a dry tightness over the skin. Skin felt squeky clean but at the same time very thirsty.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I don't know who "everyone" is, but soap will not be moisturizing and will be unlikely to replace your lotion - it's a wash off product, after all. I find it much better than commercial soaps, though, which is why I use it

 

[lenarenee]

The dry and tight feeling can be explained by the use of the 2 week cured bars - very common for uncured bars to cause that. The pH of the soap slowly continues to decrease as the soap cures which is why most soapers recommend a 4 - 6 (even longer) cure time. And just wait until you've been soaping long enough to pull a 1 year old bar of soap off the shelf and give that a whirl! It's awesome!

Your skin makes me think something else is going on. Maybe a lye heavy soap, maybe a sensitivity, maybe something not even related to your soap.

What kind of scale do you have to weight the lye, btw?

How about trying some different recipes - maybe one without olive oil, and one with a lower amount of coconut oil (or babassu oil in place of it)?

Handmade soap contains glycerin already. That bottle of glycerin sitting on the shelf in the store? Like came from a commercial maker of soap - they extract the glycerin to sell as a separate product. You can add a small amount (someone else here will need to give you amounts) but it can detract from the quality of the soap.

 

[Soapmaker145]

I think you have a problem with your supplies and you ended up with a lye heavy soap. The oils may have been blended which changes their SAP values. Your calculations become inaccurate. Make sure your lye is pure lye with nothing else added and you are weighing in grams not oz.

The superfat is used to compensate for variability in ingredients, both the lye and the oils. Most of us tend to stick with particular suppliers once we're done testing to make sure we get a reliable product. Repeat your recipes using a higher superfat (try 7 to 10). You should reach a superfat level where your testers no longer find the soap drying. The peeling you're experiencing may go away once the pH drops with the higher superfat or you may be allergic to one of the oils. If it's an allergy or sensitivity, it becomes a game of testing various combinations until you identify the culprit.

I would still drop the castor to 5% and make sure you have palm and not palm kernel.