My Soap is Sticky!!

[Sinead McGrannachan]

I think the high superfat came from calculations before we had the weights (see the first posts). All good.

For your next recipe, if you lower your water a bit, and use either water:lye ratio (between 2.4 and 2.0 to 1), or lye concentration (between 30% and 33%), you will not have so much water to evaporate out from your soap (Olive oil soaps don't need that much water, and those concentrations I gave you are pretty good for just about any recipe - go more water for fast recipes and less water for slow ones - you'll catch on which is which pretty quick, but olive oil recipes are slooooow!).

Thanks for the recipe - I'll have a good look in a day or so, but there should be a few people able to pop by and offer concrete suggestions with that level of detail

Okay so if I stick with my Olive Oil cut the Coconut Oil and add some Castor at a low rate and then some type of butter that might help with some issues? As well as decreasing my water by a bit? Sounds good to me and I'm happy to experiment a bit more too

I think the high superfat came from calculations before we had the weights (see the first posts). All good.

For your next recipe, if you lower your water a bit, and use either water:lye ratio (between 2.4 and 2.0 to 1), or lye concentration (between 30% and 33%), you will not have so much water to evaporate out from your soap (Olive oil soaps don't need that much water, and those concentrations I gave you are pretty good for just about any recipe - go more water for fast recipes and less water for slow ones - you'll catch on which is which pretty quick, but olive oil recipes are slooooow!).

Thanks for the recipe - I'll have a good look in a day or so, but there should be a few people able to pop by and offer concrete suggestions with that level of detail

I did a quick change up with some of the oils as it turns out I can save almost 50% on Olive Oil if I buy Rice Bran instead. What do you think of the look of this. I bought the water content down to a 2:1 ratio.

 

[DeeAnna]

...I'm finding that it's quite sticky after washing with it. So to explain further it is a bit harder to wash off vs my regular soap....

Another possibility not yet mentioned so far --

Is your "regular soap" actually a synthetic detergent cleanser, rather than lye-based soap? If so, that could explain a lot.

Lye-based soap reacts with hard water minerals (calcium and magnesium) in water to form sticky soap scum that sticks to your skin. If the water is very hard, the scum can be irritating to the skin and/or very sticky feeling. The effect of soap scum is most noticeable right after washing and when drying off with a towel. Synthetic detergents (syndets) do not form soap scum.

One way to prevent soap scum is to remove a lot of the hard-water minerals with a whole-house water softener. A secondary way to reduce soap scum is to use a chelator such as sodium citrate or tetrasodium EDTA in your soap when you make it. A chelator will work best when the soap is used for showering or handwashing -- not so much if the soap is used in large amounts of water, such as tub bathing, laundry, or dish washing.

 

[SaltedFig]

Okay so if I stick with my Olive Oil cut the Coconut Oil and add some Castor at a low rate and then some type of butter that might help with some issues? As well as decreasing my water by a bit? Sounds good to me and I'm happy to experiment a bit more too



I did a quick change up with some of the oils as it turns out I can save almost 50% on Olive Oil if I buy Rice Bran instead. What do you think of the look of this. I bought the water content down to a 2:1 ratio.

I would have stuck with the Olive for that recipe (the linoleic in Rice Bran oil is too high for my liking), but I like the addition of Cocoa Butter, and the water ratio is great

Having said that, I think you might like the recipe. Worth a try!
(In a smaller batch - 2kg is a bit much for a test recipe, maybe bring your total oil weight down to around 400g to 500g).

 

[shunt2011]

I use 30-35% Rice Bran with no issues. I got 2 huge containers of Rice Bran for6.00 each. I don’t care for OO in my soaps. Switching to HO Sun or Safflower once the rice bran is gone.

 

[penelopejane]

Okay so if I stick with my Olive Oil cut the Coconut Oil and add some Castor at a low rate and then some type of butter that might help with some issues? As well as decreasing my water by a bit? Sounds good to me and I'm happy to experiment a bit more too



I did a quick change up with some of the oils as it turns out I can save almost 50% on Olive Oil if I buy Rice Bran instead. What do you think of the look of this. I bought the water content down to a 2:1 ratio.

Your first recipe looked much better. Shea butter and cocoa butter are much more expensive than OO.

You already had 10% shea butter in the first recipe which is fine. Do as saltedfig suggested earlier: keep the OO, replace some of the CO with RB and Castor oil and reduce the super fat and it will be great.

look at this thread but use it as a soap not a shampoo bar:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/shampoo-bar-thanks-lindy.30946/page-42#post-720981

 

[Sinead McGrannachan]

Another possibility not yet mentioned so far --

Is your "regular soap" actually a synthetic detergent cleanser, rather than lye-based soap? If so, that could explain a lot.

Lye-based soap reacts with hard water minerals (calcium and magnesium) in water to form sticky soap scum that sticks to your skin. If the water is very hard, the scum can be irritating to the skin and/or very sticky feeling. The effect of soap scum is most noticeable right after washing and when drying off with a towel. Synthetic detergents (syndets) do not form soap scum.

One way to prevent soap scum is to remove a lot of the hard-water minerals with a whole-house water softener. A secondary way to reduce soap scum is to use a chelator such as sodium citrate or tetrasodium EDTA in your soap when you make it. A chelator will work best when the soap is used for showering or handwashing -- not so much if the soap is used in large amounts of water, such as tub bathing, laundry, or dish washing.

Yes I believe this is a big reason for why. I have a friend here who has used many handmade soaps before so I am going to ask her to test it and see what she thinks of these for me as she has experienced it before. I didn't have much of a problem with the extra feeling of it and the longer wash off but my partner thought it was inconvenient. He has used body wash his whole life and obviously that is fast because of all the icky chemicals so will see what some more people think of it instead.

I will see if I can purchase those items here as well. What amount would you add per lb of soap? We use kg here but I can easily convert numbers.

 

[Sinead McGrannachan]

I would have stuck with the Olive for that recipe (the linoleic in Rice Bran oil is too high for my liking), but I like the addition of Cocoa Butter, and the water ratio is great

Having said that, I think you might like the recipe. Worth a try!
(In a smaller batch - 2kg is a bit much for a test recipe, maybe bring your total oil weight down to around 400g to 500g).

Oh yes I didn't change the weight. Silly me. I will bring that down to a smaller amount for testing. We are just about to move house so will test once my new soap room is all set up. I'm thinking I will test Rice Bran and then Sunflower just to see which I like better. I think the cost of Cocoa Butter will hopefully be outweighed by the lower cost of these two oils in NZ, Rice Bran is $9 at the supermarket for 2litres and olive oil is $12 for one litre sunflower is even lower with 2litres for $6 so hopefully the savings offsets the addition.

I'm looking forward to tinkering and yes I think the water ratio will definitely help a lot more too. I shall report back with my findings

 

[DeeAnna]

@Sinead McGrannachan -- I normally use metric units too, so you won't have to fuss with the conversions.
More about EDTA: https://classicbells.com/soap/EDTA.html
More about citrate: https://classicbells.com/soap/citrate.html