New Recipe

[Soapisticated]

Hi guys!

So first of all I'm sorry to ask a question again, haha.
I'm soaping for a few months now and always used the same recipe which is 30% coconut oil, 30% palm oil, 30% olive oil, 5% castor oil and 5% sweet almond oil.
It was great for the start, but I personally don't like the amount of coconut oil in it and don't want to use too much palm oil.

With a bit of research I came up with this recipe:

15% coconut oil
15% palm oil
30% olive oil
30% rapeseed oil
5% castor oil
5% sweet almond oil

>5% superfat and 30% water

Now to my question: Would the amount of hard oils be enough? I don't want the soap to be too soft, nor sticky.

 

[toxikon]

Love that username!

I'd recommend checking out this resource to learn what each oil brings to a bar of soap and what different types of "fatty acids" do: http://www.lovinsoap.com/oils-chart/

Rapeseed oil is generally not used in soapmaking because of its short shelf-life which can lead to DOS (dreaded orange spots) in soap. Rapeseed oil is about 13% Linoleic and 9% Linolenic which contributes to the short shelf-life.

Your basic goal with soapmaking is to create a balance of soft oils and hard oils. In your current recipe, you have 70% soft oils, which means longer curing time and a softer bar. A normal balanced bar might have 60% hard oils (palm, lard, tallow, coconut, babassu, butters) and 40% soft oils (oils liquid at room temperature).

I would modify your recipe to something like this:

40% Palm Oil/Lard/Tallow
30% Olive Oil
15% Coconut Oil
10% Sweet Almond Oil
5% Castor Oil

I assume by "30% Water", you mean "30% Lye Concentration"?

Another note: Sweet Almond Oil and Olive Oil have veeeery similar fatty acid profiles, so you could easily just use one instead of both.

 

[Seawolfe]

5% sweet almond oil doesn't seem enough to really add anything. Split it evenly with the OO or do one or the other. +1 on avoiding the rapeseed oil.

 

[WeaversPort]

I agree that 5% almond oil might not do much for you, but it could be worth doing one with and doing one without and seeing if you can tell a difference. That's part of the fun of soap making!

Some people use shea or cocoa butter as ways to get a harder bar. I'm guessing not over 10% - 15%. Too much cocoa and it gets brittle. Too much shea and it becomes waxy.

There is a recipe on Modern Soapmaking that has a palm and no-palm option. If you have ethically produced Shea it can be a great substitute. Of course ethically produced palm is a substitute for general palm and you wouldn't need to make any substitutions.

Instead of rapeseed, you might consider some of the high oleic oils, there is high oleic sunflower oil and high oleic soybean oil. Those would contribute to a softer bar, but provide the conditioning without as high linoleic.

 

[lsg]

Below is a recipe that I like. IMO, neither rapeseed oil nor sweet almond oil add much to soap.

30% Palm Oil/Lard/Tallow
20% Coconut Oil
45% Olive Oil
5% Castor Oil

 

[Arimara]

I agree that 5% almond oil might not do much for you, but it could be worth doing one with and doing one without and seeing if you can tell a difference. That's part of the fun of soap making!

Some people use shea or cocoa butter as ways to get a harder bar. I'm guessing not over 10% - 15%. Too much cocoa and it gets brittle. Too much shea and it becomes waxy.

There is a recipe on Modern Soapmaking that has a palm and no-palm option. If you have ethically produced Shea it can be a great substitute. Of course ethically produced palm is a substitute for general palm and you wouldn't need to make any substitutions.

Instead of rapeseed, you might consider some of the high oleic oils, there is high oleic sunflower oil and high oleic soybean oil. Those would contribute to a softer bar, but provide the conditioning without as high linoleic.

I've used 20% for both before. I would stick to a 20% cap for cocoa butter and 15% for shea but those are my preferences.