Palm oil and Shea butter difference?

[new12soap]

How low can I go on coconut? Should I use the smallest amount I can get when I plug it into soapcalc, just to get the number at 12 (the minimum number for cleaning)?

You can use zero coconut if you want to. A 100% olive oil soap will have a cleansing value of 0, so there really is no minimum. This is why the numbers on soapcalc make for a good rough guideline but should not be considered written in stone. No coconut oil (or palm kernal oil, or babassu) will give you lower cleansing numbers, but it will also give you far less bubbly lather. If you like a creamy lotion-y lather, then that's fine, but if you want big bubbly lather you need something to give you that boost. As I said, if you want to use coconut oil but you are worried about it being too drying, just up your superfat a bit to compensate.

 

[drksoapcompany]

Profiles are similar, but unfortunately cost is not! Shea Butter for soapmaking is simply not economically feasible, unless you're in Africa (black soap

 

[VanessaP]

Thanks for letting me know about cleansing. Where would I look for lard at wal-mart, is it in the oil aisle?

I have found it both with the cooking oils and in the Mexican food section.

 

[Soapman Ryan]

Big bubbles aren't that necessary, I like a creamier bar. I did try a 100% olive oil soap that I bought from Whole foods to give this type of bar a try and hated it so much I just threw it away. I seamed to have no lather.

 

[Candybee]

Lard will give you a creamy bar. Also, coconut oil is moisturizing as long as you don't go overboard with it or are allergic or sensitive to it. 20% CO in a recipe gives you nice bubbles. I typically use 25% CO in my recipes.

 

[VanessaP]

Big bubbles aren't that necessary, I like a creamier bar. I did try a 100% olive oil soap that I bought from Whole foods to give this type of bar a try and hated it so much I just threw it away. I seamed to have no lather.

If you like creamy, try 50% lard, 25% olive and 25% coconut at a 7% superfat. That should do plenty well for a creamy bar

 

[new12soap]

Lard will give you a creamy bar. Also, coconut oil is moisturizing as long as you don't go overboard with it or are allergic or sensitive to it. 20% CO in a recipe gives you nice bubbles. I typically use 25% CO in my recipes.

Plain coconut oil is moisturizing, coconut oil SOAP is very cleansing and can be very drying. Castor oil is another odd one, by itself it can actually be somewhat drying but once it is transformed into soap becomes very conditioning.

 

[VanessaP]

Lard will give you a creamy bar. Also, coconut oil is moisturizing as long as you don't go overboard with it or are allergic or sensitive to it. 20% CO in a recipe gives you nice bubbles. I typically use 25% CO in my recipes.

Coconut oil is not moisturizing in soap. It is one of the oils with the highest cleansing numbers out there. The oil by itself = moisturizing, the oil in soap =/= moisturizing. Even for 100% coconut oil salt bars, the whole reason why there is such a high superfat is to counteract the stripping effect of the coconut.

 

[melstan775]

melstan775,
Since your using shea this may also contribute to why your bars are getting hard. Shea is a very hard oil. Would you share the percentage you use?

In my bars it's not the shea that makes them hard. It's the palm. My bars were considerably harder after I added palm to my formula then before. For shea butter the percentage varies from 5% - 10%.

 

[kazmi]

Ryan since you have a lot of oils, try making your sample batches. Play around with a couple of different blends and see which one you like best. Try one with coconut and another with shea. Try dividing your hard oils in half and do half coconut/half with shea. Since you are making it for yourself experiment until you find something to works for you. I agree, 8 oils is overkill. Since you have them already, experiment with what you have.

 

[Soapman Ryan]

Ryan since you have a lot of oils, try making your sample batches. Play around with a couple of different blends and see which one you like best. Try one with coconut and another with shea. Try dividing your hard oils in half and do half coconut/half with shea. Since you are making it for yourself experiment until you find something to works for you. I agree, 8 oils is overkill. Since you have them already, experiment with what you have.

kazami,
I don't have any oils remaining. This is the reason I was looking for more guidance before spending more money on new oils. After making these lasts batches and failing I needed some help narrowing the oils down in my recipe so I'm not spending another arm and a leg on testing. This is another reason I was going to do such small batches. I just threw out 2lbs. of soap.

 

[judymoody]

Ryan, one more bit of advice - I formulate differently for me and my husband. He needs a higher cleansing number to get rid of his man stink (his words). So coconut at 30 percent but with 8-10 SF to counteract the drying effect. He also isn't big on olive oil lather, so I cut that back to less than 40 percent. Just some thoughts.

 

[melstan775]

How low can I go on coconut? Should I use the smallest amount I can get when I plug it into soapcalc, just to get the number at 12 (the minimum number for cleaning)?

Sorry I just saw this one. I asked this question not that long ago and some people say as low as 20%, or even lower. Some soaps are made with just pure olive oil, and they get rock hard.