Only natural soaps for this noob!

[gruntedsoaps]

hey guys!!!!

So a while back i got into natural soaps, and then wanted to make my own. My first soap was a pure olive oil soap with some castor oil and oatmeal with honey and flax seed as an exfoliator.

It was.....ok. it cleaned really well, but no real lather... so i finished it and moved on.

This time a pure coconut oil soap with orange Essential oil....its flingin fabulous. but it wears out SUPER fast. lather is awesome, does an awesome job, but what can i add to make it a more longer lasting bar?



pics to come

 

[lsg]

Adding palm oil and sodium lactate will make a harder bar.

 

[Hazel]

Hello and welcome! I moved this topic to the CP section since it's more about asking about soap questions than introducing yourself.

I second palm oil but also add some olive. I've found my batches with CO, PO and OO hold up much longer than 100% CO. On the other hand, you could make salt bars with the CO and bars will last a looong time.

I'm curious about what lye discount you used for the CO batch.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...a pure coconut oil soap ... flingin fabulous..."

Anything you do to increase the longevity of the bar is going to affect the lather, at least to some degree, because the "fabulous" lather is what's making your soap not last long enough -- your coconut oil soap may be hard like a brick, but it's too soluble in water. You can either have abundant lather or you can have a bar with a long life, but you will have to compromise to get a reasonable amount of both.

If you want a longer lived bar at the expense of some lather, look at increasing the palmitic and stearic acids in your recipe -- that means adding palm, lard, tallow, or similar fats. You're going to get more creamy lather, a less soluble bar, and less of the bubbly lather that coconut makes.

 

[tryanything]

I just want to ask about your first bar, the olive oil soap. How long did you let it cure before using? High olive oil soaps need a long cure (upwards of 6 months is best) for a really good bar. They still aren't the best lathering soaps but after a good cure they are incredibly hard, very mild, and last longer then with only a few months cure. You can always add sugar or something to up the bubble factor as well.

And regarding the CO soap, I second the salt bar option. I absolutely love salt bars. I make mine on the higher end salt content (80%) and they are incredibly hard and last a long time. The lather is more like a lotion and I absolutely love the way it makes my skin feel.

 

[sistrum]

Also how long did you let the bar cure and what lye solution strength are you using?

 

[gruntedsoaps]

Hm, I have never heard of salt bars before. that sounds interesting. I had a 20% super fatting on my CO bar;;; Truth be told im no scientist nor soapologist. lol. I was looking up recipes and just followed them; Though this isnt a CP soap. I used Hot process.

33 ounces of coconut oil
4.8 ounces of lye
9.6 ounces of water
1.5 ounces of Orange Essential oil.

That was my mix on this one. Since Im new, i didnt catch the info on all the lather properties of soap. I just thought the moisturizing and cleansing properties changed, not lathering properties. the original pure OO bar nearly didnt lather at all; and lasted so long. now Im on the other end of the spectrum. I do have a large container of palm oil, and castor oil. which would be better for a harder longer lasting bar, without losing too much of that beautiful bubbliness?

 

[judymoody]

Try a mix of all of them for a balanced bar:

5% castor
25% coconut
25% palm
45% olive oil

8% lye discount (superfat)

 

[DeeAnna]

Just to clarify -- pretty much any cold process soap recipe can be done hot process and vice versa. The only difference is most folks use more water for HP to compensate for the evaporation during the cooking stage.

 

[gruntedsoaps]

Thanks Judy, Im going to look into that a bit more. That recipe looks like the lather would be alot less then this bar that I made. How much of a difference are we talking in lather? pure olive oil soap really changed my mind in the lathering dept because of it not lathering at all, even with castor in it.

 

[Hazel]

I like the recipe judymoody posted because it's similar to what I like to make for what I consider an all purpose bar. By this I mean I'd primarily use it in the shower but I also wouldn't hesitate to use it on my face.

20% superfat is good for 100% CO but this is just what I like - I tend to use 18%-20% for salt bars. Here are some links to discussions about salt bars which you might find interesting to read. There are more discussions but I thought these discussions really covered the subject.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=27346
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=22009
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=29875

 

[judymoody]

Thanks Judy, Im going to look into that a bit more. That recipe looks like the lather would be alot less then this bar that I made. How much of a difference are we talking in lather? pure olive oil soap really changed my mind in the lathering dept because of it not lathering at all, even with castor in it.

My base recipe is pretty similar to this and lathers fine, at least to my taste. Any recipe you make will involve compromise. If you want something that lasts for a reasonable amount of time, has reasonable lather, and won't strip your skin, a balance is best.