New to Soapmaking: Will this recipe work?

[Awru]

Sunflower oil 15%
Coconut oil 30%
Canola oil 40%
Rice bran oil 10%
Castor oil 5%
Water as percwnt of oil 38%
Fragrance oil 31%
Super Fat 5%

I am a beginner soap maker and this will be the first cold process i ever make. I put all the oil percentages in soap calc and it gave me the recipe but I dont know if it will end up making a good bar of soap or not. My concern if what if its aoft bcz according to soap calc the hardness will be 30. How much salt or citric acid or anything should i add in it to make it a really good bar if soap. Pls help

 

[LynetteO]

Sunflower oil 15%
Coconut oil 30%
Canola oil 40%
Rice bran oil 10%
Castor oil 5%
Water as percwnt of oil 38%
Fragrance oil 31%
Super Fat 5%

I am a beginner soap maker and this will be the first cold process i ever make. I put all the oil percentages in soap calc and it gave me the recipe but I dont know if it will end up making a good bar of soap or not. My concern if what if its aoft bcz according to soap calc the hardness will be 30. How much salt or citric acid or anything should i add in it to make it a really good bar if soap. Pls help

At 1st glance…The coconut oil is too high for myself and friends with dry skin. Also, I think there is an error above. You listed fragrance at 31%. Did you mean to type in 3%? I’ve never put more than 5% of any scent in my CP soaps.
The water percentage is high. I typically use 2:1 water/lye ratio. I think it’s the canola that is causing the low hardness. Canola is know to cause DOS in soap at high percentages. Are you using High Oleic Canola?
Personally, I like a lard soap so I’d swap lard for canola & lower the coconut amount. I would also adjust fragrance to 3%.
Just swapping out canola for lard & leaving everything else as is helps the hardness quite a bit. Here’s a snapshot.

 

[Kari Howie]

Hi, Awru. I agree with LynetteO’s analysis. The coconut oil is rather high and could be pretty drying. I also note that is the only hard oil you’ve listed so that could contribute to a soft bar. In addition when I ran your recipe through soap calc I was struck by how high the linoleic acid is, which could contribute to DOS (Dreaded Orange Spots) and rancid soap. Here’s an article I use all the time to double check my formulas.

https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/blog/the-most-popular-fatty-acid-profiles-in-soapmaking

I also think before you add things like salt and citric acid to repair an inherently difficult formula, it would be better to create a simpler recipe. Less is more, especially for your first soap. Citric acid can be tricky to work with and salt isn’t necessary if you use a formula with a balance of hard and soft oils. I also agree with LynetteO about lard. It is pure wonderful to work with and produces great bars.

 

[Awru]

At 1st glance…The coconut oil is too high for myself and friends with dry skin. Also, I think there is an error above. You listed fragrance at 31%. Did you mean to type in 3%? I’ve never put more than 5% of any scent in my CP soaps.
The water percentage is high. I typically use 2:1 water/lye ratio. I think it’s the canola that is causing the low hardness. Canola is know to cause DOS in soap at high percentages. Are you using High Oleic Canola?
Personally, I like a lard soap so I’d swap lard for canola & lower the coconut amount. I would also adjust fragrance to 3%.
Just swapping out canola for lard & leaving everything else as is helps the hardness quite a bit. Here’s a snapshot.

Hey thank you soo much for replying and yes i meant 3 percent of fragrance oil sorry about that. Can yyou pls pls tell me a recipe using these oils or some more like even olive oil. I cant use lard bcz its not available here

 

[Awru]

At 1st glance…The coconut oil is too high for myself and friends with dry skin. Also, I think there is an error above. You listed fragrance at 31%. Did you mean to type in 3%? I’ve never put more than 5% of any scent in my CP soaps.

Hi, Awru. I agree with LynetteO’s analysis. The coconut oil is rather high and could be pretty drying. I also note that is the only hard oil you’ve listed so that could contribute to a soft bar. In addition when I ran your recipe through soap calc I was struck by how high the linoleic acid is, which could contribute to DOS (Dreaded Orange Spots) and rancid soap. Here’s an article I use all the time to double check my formulas.

https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/blog/the-most-popular-fatty-acid-profiles-in-soapmaking

I also think before you add things like salt and citric acid to repair an inherently difficult formula, it would be better to create a simpler recipe. Less is more, especially for your first soap. Citric acid can be tricky to work with and salt isn’t necessary if you use a formula with a balance of hard and soft oils. I also agree with LynetteO about lard. It is pure wonderful to work with and produces great bars.

Hey thank you for replying your right i have no idea about using citric soap and ig canola oil is seeming to be a bad choice for cp. Canyou pls tell me a simple recipie using these oils. The problem is in my country alot of the oils normally used are either too expensive or not even available. Alsoi cant use lard either. Plspls tell a simpler recipe

 

[LynetteO]

Can yyou pls pls tell me a recipe using these oils or some more like even olive oil. I cant use lard bcz its not available here

Besides coconut oil, what hard oils do you have access to?

For 1st CP batch ever, I’d recommend a tried and true recipe rather than going through the process of formulating one on your own.
If only have access to oils above, I’d go simple for first soap. For example: olive oil, coconut oil & castor oil soap (70/20/10). Which will need a longer cure time (6months or more) due to the high olive oil content. I’d recommend a search this group for ZNSC soap recipe that uses a faux sea water recipe in replace of plain water in a olive oil soap or a combination of olive, coconut @ castor.

 

[Kari Howie]

If you don’t have access to lard, you can try palm oil, which is part of the traditional “holy trinity” of oils: Coconut, Olive, Palm that Soap Queen uses in her “Lots of Lather” premixed oils to which she adds canola and castor oils along with Vitamin E:
33% Coconut oil
33% Palm oil
16% Canola oil
14.9% Olive oil
3% Castor oil
0.1% vitamin E oil
I think most folks would consider that to be a drying amount of coconut oil, but it’s a starting point from which to tweak your formulas.

 

[LynetteO]

@Awru If you have access to palm oil, I’d recommend @Kari Howie recipe above. If not and olive oil isn’t too expensive then go with high olive oil recipe with long cure time. I do love rice bran oil, but again for 1st soap it should be simple soap. I myself would have a hard time waiting 6months to use my 1st soap, thus my faux sea water recommendation above.


A favorite no coconut, gentle soap of mine (with 6mo-1year cure) is 90% olive oil with 10% castor oil.


Link to thread about faux sea water in olive oil soap.
Thread 'Zany's no slime castile'
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/zanys-no-slime-castile.72620/

 

[Awru]

Besides coconut oil, what hard oils do you have access to?

For 1st CP batch ever, I’d recommend a tried and true recipe rather than going through the process of formulating one on your own.
If only have access to oils above, I’d go simple for first soap. For example: olive oil, coconut oil & castor oil soap (70/20/10). Which will need a longer cure time (6months or more) due to the high olive oil content. I’d recommend a search this group for ZNSC soap recipe that uses a faux sea water recipe in replace of plain water in a olive oil soap or a combination of olive, coconut @ castor.

I have access to Shea butter, coco butter and I will try to find palm oil I think it will be available as well. Thank you!

 

[Awru]

If you don’t have access to lard, you can try palm oil, which is part of the traditional “holy trinity” of oils: Coconut, Olive, Palm that Soap Queen uses in her “Lots of Lather” premixed oils to which she adds canola and castor oils along with Vitamin E:
33% Coconut oil
33% Palm oil
16% Canola oil
14.9% Olive oil
3% Castor oil
0.1% vitamin E oil
I think most folks would consider that to be a drying amount of coconut oil, but it’s a starting point from which to tweak your formulas.

Thank you! This could work for an affordable option

 

[Awru]

@Awru If you have access to palm oil, I’d recommend @Kari Howie recipe above. If not and olive oil isn’t too expensive then go with high olive oil recipe with long cure time. I do love rice bran oil, but again for 1st soap it should be simple soap. I myself would have a hard time waiting 6months to use my 1st soap, thus my faux sea water recommendation above.


A favorite no coconut, gentle soap of mine (with 6mo-1year cure) is 90% olive oil with 10% castor oil.


Link to thread about faux sea water in olive oil soap.
Thread 'Zany's no slime castile'
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/zanys-no-slime-castile.72620/

I will try this recipe with faux sea water when I find palm oil. It should be available here. Thank u soo much for the help

 

[LynetteO]

I will try this recipe with faux sea water when I find palm oil. It should be available here. Thank u soo much for the help

If you have access to palm oil you won’t need to use faux sea water. You can just make 33% palm oil recipe that @Kari Howie listed above (copied below) and use plain distilled water.
33% Coconut oil
33% Palm oil
16% Canola oil
14.9% Olive oil
3% Castor oil

The faux sea water in ZNSC is to combat the long cure time and “slime” that seem to come along with of high olive oil soaps.

 

[Becky1024]

For your first batch do not use any fragrance, salt, citric acid or other additives. Keep it simple! Use just your oils, water and lye. Once you are comfortable making soap you can try additives.

 

[Saponificarian]

I have access to Shea butter, coco butter and I will try to find palm oil I think it will be available as well. Thank you!

Replace the Palm oil with Shea and Cocoa butters.

30% Shea
10% Cocoa Butter
20% Coconut Oil
40% Rice bran oil make a nice soap.

Reduce superfat to 2% because of the butters. Add teaspoon of sugar per 500g, I think this recipe is hard enough to take a tablespoon per 500g but I would start with a teaspoon and experiment from there.

 

[CecileBC]

I agree with @Saponificarian about the palm oil replacement. Cocoa butter makes a lovely soap, however its price has tripled in the last few months - worldwide "shortage" also called speculation...

 

[Awru]

Replace the Palm oil with Shea and Cocoa butters.

30% Shea
10% Cocoa Butter
20% Coconut Oil
40% Rice bran oil make a nice soap.

Reduce superfat to 2% because of the butters. Add teaspoon of sugar per 500g, I think this recipe is hard enough to take a tablespoon per 500g but I would start with a teaspoon and experiment from there.

What is super fat exactly?

 

[artemis]

What is super fat exactly?

It's a little bit of extra oil added to the recipe.

 

[GracieRose]

The extra oil added does not saponify.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

What is super fat exactly?

From the Soapy Stuff website, here:

"Superfat is any excess fat that remains in a soap after saponification is done. Most handcrafted soap intended for bathing almost always contains some superfat for two reasons.

The first reason for superfat is safety. A soap must include enough fat to make sure all of the lye is used up. Since our recipes are based on estimates of the saponification values and alkali (NaOH or KOH) purity, the general policy is to add a little more fat than is strictly necessary to ensure all of the alkali is used up. A superfat of 1% to 3% is good safety margin.

The second reason is to increase the mildness of the soap on the skin. Soap sometimes cleans so well that it dries or irritates the skin. Increasing the superfat above the 1% to 3% safety margin can help tame this tendency."

Soap calculators allow you to select a desired superfat percentage.

 

[Awru]

From the Soapy Stuff website, here:

"Superfat is any excess fat that remains in a soap after saponification is done. Most handcrafted soap intended for bathing almost always contains some superfat for two reasons.

The first reason for superfat is safety. A soap must include enough fat to make sure all of the lye is used up. Since our recipes are based on estimates of the saponification values and alkali (NaOH or KOH) purity, the general policy is to add a little more fat than is strictly necessary to ensure all of the alkali is used up. A superfat of 1% to 3% is good safety margin.

The second reason is to increase the mildness of the soap on the skin. Soap sometimes cleans so well that it dries or irritates the skin. Increasing the superfat above the 1% to 3% safety margin can help tame this tendency."

Soap calculators allow you to select a desired superfat percentage.

Ohhh ok ok i get it. Thankyou sooo much!