I'm making a soap/shampoo bar using a combination of olive, palm, coconut, castor, sweet almond and avocado oils. Am struggling to get the ph below 10 (i want a mild cleanser with a ph of 9.5 absolute max really). Can anyone advise on my choice of oils and/or a good oil for superfatting...?
oils for superfatting
- Thread starter catikit
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Shea butter is a good superfatting oil.
soapbuddy
Well-Known Member
If this is for cold process soap, add all your oils or butters right up front. Lye is still very active at trace and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that any particular oil or butter will end up as your superfat. The exception to this is if you make the soap as HP and add any oil/butter after the cook.
G
Guest
Oils good for superfatting are often considered those with a high percent of unsaponifiables.
Which is not relevant to your pH mission.
Actually, I would say to avoid those: Because unsaponifiable matter does not react with the lye, in conclusion it doesn't contribute to lowering your pH.
Pure soap has a pH a little over 10. Superfatting means adding oil to pure soap. Oh the other hand, pH cannot really be defined in an oily substance. So the more superfat your soap is, the less known will the actual pH of your soap be.
What you could use to truly tweak the pH is adding some acid (citric, tartric, or Vitamin C, whatever).
But I don't believe that a 9.5 value per se will offer you what you are expecting from this soap. Nobody will make the difference between 9.5 and 10 based mainly on pH.
Shortly:
Instead of worrying about that 9.5 value, to do a "fair" soap and perform superfatting according to how cleansing it "feels".
Which is not relevant to your pH mission.
Actually, I would say to avoid those: Because unsaponifiable matter does not react with the lye, in conclusion it doesn't contribute to lowering your pH.
Pure soap has a pH a little over 10. Superfatting means adding oil to pure soap. Oh the other hand, pH cannot really be defined in an oily substance. So the more superfat your soap is, the less known will the actual pH of your soap be.
What you could use to truly tweak the pH is adding some acid (citric, tartric, or Vitamin C, whatever).
But I don't believe that a 9.5 value per se will offer you what you are expecting from this soap. Nobody will make the difference between 9.5 and 10 based mainly on pH.
Shortly:
Instead of worrying about that 9.5 value, to do a "fair" soap and perform superfatting according to how cleansing it "feels".
