New theoretical recipe but would like feedback on lye discount

[JuneP]

I figured this new recipe just now, basing it on keeping the hard oils a bit lower, avoiding palm, etc. I tried to balance the hard oils, keep the olive down a bit to avoid that green discoloration from too much olive, and adding the sweet almond and he rice bran for what it contributed to skin moisturizing, etc.

Would love some feedback on this and maybe some suggestions how to improve it. I read that for slow tracing you want to keep the hard oils around 45 %, but one person said that they could go up to about 55 %. I assume that would be because they omitted Palm and kept the coconut down a bit. June

%
30.0 Lard
24.8 Olive oi
20.0 Coconut oil 76
12.0 Rice Bran Oil
8.0 Sweet Almond Oil
5.2 Castor Oil

Hardness 36
Cleansing 14
Conditioning 54
Bubbly 19
Creamy 27
Iodine 66
INS 140

Super Fat 7% Water as % of oil 38%
Fragrance 0.7%
Sat/Unsat ratio 38:62
Lye Concentration 26.287%
Q
Water/Lye Ration: 2.8042:1

I have another one with 47% hard oils. The olive at 27.99% is a bit higher than the first, coconut at 20.29%, castor 5% sweet almond and avocado oi 10% each, and a bit less lard at 26.72%. This would seem to be the safe recipe since it has 2+% less hard oils.

hardness 35
Cleansing 14
Conditioning 60
bubbly 18
Creamy 26
Iodine 64
INS 143

 

[Obsidian]

Are you trying to come up with a slow tracing recipe? If so, lard traces slowly and you can easily increase it if you want. I've used 75% lard and it took forever to trace, I do soap around 85* F though and that helps slow trace.
If you use plain OO or pomace, it won't discolor your soap. Its the extra virgin that will make your soap green.

 

[IrishLass]

You'll probably get 20 different answers to your question based on people's personal preferences, so please take my opinion for what its worth. If I were going to make either recipe, I would drop the superfat to 5% since they both have good built-in conditioning, and the soap profiles show they will finish out on the softer side of things and will melt/get used up faster than a soap made with a higher % of saturated fats. The higher the superfat on these kinds of already soft-type formulas will only serve to increase the softness and lessen the longevity even more.

I agree with Obsidian, you can go higher on the lard and still have a slow-tracing soap. But then again, it may all come down to what each of us considers to be a 'slow tracing' soap. For me, a slow tracing soap is one which takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to come to trace (20 minutes is really slow for me and anything beyond that is extremely slow). lol

IrishLass

 

[JuneP]

Thanks, so much! I'll play with it a bit more and see what upping the lard does to the overall formula; but if I want to keep those hard oils below 50%, upping the lard too much lowered the coconut to the point that my hardness number went down and it also lowered the conditioning number which I'd like to keep at 60 for this old, dry skin of mine and friends and relatives. .

I'll also lower the super fat to 5%. That was the one number I really thought I needed the most help with. I see people super fatting at even higher numbers and I was concerned that too much lye would hasten trace, which was the reason for lowering the lye - glad to hear that won't be a problem. I will soap around 85F which is what I did with my CP that is still curing.

While waiting for input on the other post, I sort of loosely merged those two recipes a bit. I : Lowering the rice bran. omitting the avocado and upping sweet almond. I found when I lowered the rice bran and upped the sweet almond, and it upped my conditioning number to 60, as opposed to the 58 in one of the recipes. Now I just have to decide between the one below or the one with the rice bran and sweet almond oil in my previous post, .

Hardness 35
Cleansing 14
Conditioning 60
Bubbly 19
Creamy 26
Iodine 65
INS 142


June

 

[Obsidian]

super fat is something that is quite varied for each person. I absolutely can't use a SF lower then 8%, no matter how conditioning a recipe is. Even a 100% olive oil soap dried me out if it has a low SF. This is where making multiple small batches with minor adjustment comes into play. Sooner or later you will find the perfect recipe for your skin.

My favorite winter recipe for my old, dry skin is 75% lard, 20% OO or rice bran and 5% castor. Its not super bubbly but is very gentle. If your cleansing number is on the low side, you won't need a highly conditioning number and lard has low cleansing.

 

[JuneP]

Super fat amount

Thanks Obsidian. I too have very dry skin - always have had; and in my 70's you can imagine how much drier this old skin is! So maybe I should stick with my original plan of 7% super fat, and see how that works. I read recently where one gal super fats at 10%.!

I know it will make the soap softer, but I'm making this batch for myself and for adult family members and friends who are all middle aged (around 50 and much older like myself). I'm a soaping newbie, so if I ever decide to sell soaps after I have a lot more experience, I can always lower the super fatting % to make the soap harder.

Thanks for you input! It is all so appreciated!

June

 

[Obsidian]

I've used 10% SF before and didn't notice it making the soap softer. I did try 20% SF once and that soap is softer and its also dissolving away quite quickly, I won't go that high again.
My 87 yr old grandmother uses my soap and hasn't said anything about it drying out her skin.