New Soaper - Tell Me What You Think

[armyjung2079]

I'm on my third batch of cold process soap and really wanted to try a Dead Sea mud. Could any of you out there tell me what you think of my recipe?



1 oz enrgee Young Living
.5 oz Organic Creations Patchouli
.5 Oz OC pink grapefruit
1.0 Oz OC Cedarwood
.4 oz OC tea Tree oil

2.5 EO

Added 2Tbls of DSM before trace. SB before adding Lye

Then this is what it looks like in the mold





Any and all thoughts, preferably constructive would be appreciated! I have pretty thick skin if y'all can't think of anything constructive

 

[HorseCreek]

I come up with 3.4 ounces total of essential oils, did you add 2.5 ounces of another EO, or what does "2.5 EO" mean? If it's just the 3.4 ounces, for 30.4 ounces of oils that's like 1.8 ounces of essential oil per pound of oils. That's quite a bit.
Your castor oil comes out to around 10% of the recipe. Some people do that and like it. The general rule for castor is 5% give or take. Too much can make things sticky and soft.
Young living essential oils are really expensive for soap making. You might want to check into getting some essential oils from another source.
It looks really pretty though! I love at muds/clays to soap, it really adds something to them.

 

[Hazel]

I'm curious about where you got the recipe. Did you use palm kernel or did you actually use palm oil? Palm kernel has the same properties as coconut and the combination of these two oils comes up to 68.4% of your recipe. You might find the soap to be overly drying. Then again, everyone's different and it may not be an issue for you. The soap looks good. You'll have to let us know what you think of it after it's cured.

I second HorseCreek's observation about the EOs.

 

[armyjung2079]

Oh yeah haha it's suppose to be .1oz of young living and 2.5 total ounces of Essential oils.

It was palm kernel oil. I guess I didn't realize that PKO and CO had such similar profiles. So hopefully it turns out!!!

I like to use as much young living as I can because it's such a high quality and pure oil. I've used some veriditas and now in my two previous recipes but I just like the young living so much. Can anyone recommend good quality Soaping EOs? My wife will kill me if I use all of her YLO so a better alternative would be good for my health

And I sort of pieced it together from a bunch of DSM soap recipes

 

[PinkCupcake]

For my skin, that soap would be too cleansing. On the bright side, with that much PKO, it will be rock hard. Did you run it through a lye calculator?

 

[Obsidian]

It looks nice and I bet it smells really good but there is no way I could use it, its just too cleansing. I would probably give it to hubby for cleaning greasy hands.
General rule is to keep the cleansing oils (coconut, palm kernel and babassu) around 20%.

There are a lot of places you can get EO's at. You might check out wholesaleplus.com or google soaping supplies and see what pops up. Brambleberry.com is another but they can be extremely slow with shipping.

You might want to try a simpler recipe until you learn the properties of oils in soap. A nice basic recipe would be something like this.

Olive oil 40%
Palm oil or lard 35%
coconut or palm kernel 20%
castor 5%

 

[armyjung2079]

Yeah I ran it through a lye calc. Maybe I shouldn't try and go crazy with only three batches under my belt lol

There are just so many different ways to reinvent the wheel so to speak I just got overwhelmed

I really enjoy soap making and would like to make some cash on the side for fun money so I think I'm just getting ahead of myself a bit

 

[JustBeachy]

I'd say you did a good job getting it in the mold with all those hard oils. Was hoping you just made a mistake and meant Palm oil. That would have made a decent recipe. Still good looking soap for your third batch. Good job.

 

[girlishcharm2004]

Young Living essential oils are no more pure than other pure essential oils. Their "therapeutic grade" is a grade they gave to themselves. It's like if I were to tell you that I'm the World's Greatest Cook -- it's self-proclaimed. It sounds like you want what's best for your health, but I would hate see you duped into thinking that you need to spend an exorbitant amount for essential oils.

 

[JustBeachy]

Young Living essential oils are no more pure than other pure essential oils. Their "therapeutic grade" is a grade they gave to themselves. It's like if I were to tell you that I'm the World's Greatest Cook -- it's self-proclaimed. It sounds like you want what's best for your health, but I would hate see you duped into thinking that you need to spend an exorbitant amount for essential oils.

Agreed wholeheartedly. There's scams on both sides of the EO world. There's the guys who dilute it down and sell it as 100%, then there's the other side that says there 100% is better than everyone else's 100%

Then there's a bunch of people in the middle that sell good EO's for good prices. I'd recommend going with them.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Yeah I ran it through a lye calc. Maybe I shouldn't try and go crazy with only three batches under my belt lol

There are just so many different ways to reinvent the wheel so to speak I just got overwhelmed

I really enjoy soap making and would like to make some cash on the side for fun money so I think I'm just getting ahead of myself a bit

One really good tip is post a planned recipe here before you actually make it. That would have caught the pko issue before you actually made it. It makes learning somewhat less expensive as people will often discuss a recipe and what you are looking to achieve so you learn the 'why' of your recipe, not just the 'what'

 

[hud]

It looks great, I am sure it smells very good, too.
For my skin, I would use olive oil instead of PK, and according to that I'll adjust the butters and the caster oil. Would you please share with us how it turns after you try it.
Good Job though.

Is your mold silicon?

 

[IrishLass]

I may be the odd one out, but your recipe 'as is' would actually make a wonderful soap in my household, provided the super-fat was anywhere from 15% - 20%. I've made several formulas similar to yours and they are all quite nice, but they all have high super-fats in order to compensate for the higher cleansing.

IrishLass

 

[armyjung2079]

You all have been very helpful. I will definitely prepost a new recipe from now on haha.

How long until I unmold it btw? I have tht 3lb plastic mold wrapped in a towel then I have three bars in a bar mold in the fridge

 

[Susie]

I unmold anywhere between 18-24 hours. If it feels firm on top, it is probably good to go. once the time has passed.

 

[armyjung2079]

Roger that

 

[xraygrl]

You've already gotten some wonderful advise here so I just wanted to say welcome. Welcome to the forum and welcome to the addiction!

 

[armyjung2079]

Thank you!!!

 

[armyjung2079]

Here are pictures of my soap! I tried a wavy cutter. My soap kind crumbled/broke a little bit when I did cut it.

Also there's some white on the tops of a few bars. Is that sofa ash?

I did use some of the broken off soap to wash my hands and they feel amazing and smooth!! Is it because te soap is still young or did I luck out and not get a super drying bar?

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, the white stuff is ash. The bars most likely crumbled because they are so hard, that can happen when using a lot of hard oils. Its really hard to tell how a soap is from hand washing. Try them in a shower in 4 weeks and see what you think.