New Soaper - Tell Me What You Think

[armyjung2079]

Alright I will! I'm thinkin about trying one if the bars tomorrow morning bc I'm impatient lol

 

[Obsidian]

You really don't want to do that. Even the gentles soap can feel kinda icky when its just a few days old. Let it cure at least a week before you give it a go. Waiting is one of the hardest parts when you first start soaping.

 

[armyjung2079]

Way to be the voice of reason!

 

[Hazel]

IrishLass brought up a good point about increasing your superfat when using higher percentages of palm kernel and coconut. Babassu oil also has the same properties so it's also one which you'd want to not use too high of a percentage if you're only using 5% lye discount like in this recipe.

It's hard to state a specific percentage to use for the more drying, cleansing oils. You'll have to experiment to see what you like. I use coconut anywhere between 19% to 35% for regular, milk and bastile soaps. I use coconut 75% to 80% for salt bars and use a superfat of 18% to 20%. However, I have combined 20% coconut with 20% palm kernel in a kitchen/garden soap with a lower superfat (about 7%-8%). It was too drying for me but one of my nephews thought it was great. He said it took grease and resin off his hands better than the commercial soap. He took all of the bars. You might find your soap is great as a mechanics' soap.

If you do find the soap too drying, you can set it aside for months to maybe a year. When I first started CP, I made a salt bar (high %age CO/lower superfat) and it was too drying. I didn't want to toss it so I stored it in a cardboard box thinking I'd use it later. Embarrassingly, I forgot about them until a year later when I was moving soap around, saw the box and thought "what the ???" I opened it and saw these salt bars. I decided to use them because I didn't want them to go to waste. I was very surprised when I tried the first bar that it wasn't as drying as it had been. It still dried my skin more than I preferred but it was great hand soap. So, an extended cure time for drying soap might make them mild enough to use.

Below are some links to soapmaking oil properties which you might find helpful.

https://summerbeemeadow.com/content/properties-soapmaking-oils
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingoils/tp/qualitiesofsoapmakingoils.htm
http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/mas_assets/pdf/soapoils.pdf

As for EOs, I buy most of what I get from http://www.newdirectionsaromatics.com/. However, you might have to do some comparison shopping. soap_rat kindly shared her spreadsheet on EOs so you might want to look at her topic. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=39214

 

[armyjung2079]

Thank you!

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome!

I forgot to mention http://www.lebermuth.com/essential-oils/. They have a minimum purchase of $300 but who knows? Down the road, you may find you want to buy EOs in bulk.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

A good point to remember is that MOST people find high co recipes cleansing - but some do not. You might be okay with it, but if you give it to someone else they might not find it so lovely.

 

[Consuela]

Waiting is one of the hardest parts when you first start soaping.

....and that never really goes away lol...