Please share your opinions on this recipe

[ridnovir]

First post here. I am about to try my hand at soapmaking. I plan to make soap primarily for my family. This is my first recipe. I am trying to achieve a nice hard bar that lathers good and is easy on the skin. Please help me out to tweak it or reformulate it.

I do not want to use more than 15% Coconut oil (if I can help it) to avoid drying effects (I have two young kids and I prefer more moisturizing soaps) and I do want to use butters and hemp oil but % are not set in stone.

Things that concern me are:
40:60 sat to unsat fats ratio even though I am using 60 hard and 40 soft oils
High iodine number (based on the range provided by soapcalc - not sure if it is good or bad)
low INS number (not sure if it is good or bad but I read that it should be closer to 160
Linoleic + Linolenic is 14 which I read could cause DOS and decrease shelf life and can cause snooty lather

Also, need advice on lye concentration at%40 (I want to keep water on mid to law but not sure if that is a good idea with all of those butters) and superfat I have it at 6%

I tried my best to source every ingredient as organic raw and unrefined.
My castor and Hemp oils are both passed the shelf life I used them in my bear oil as carrier oils so they have been sitting around for a bit (they do not smell rancid and are clear so I figured I will use them up in the recipe but I am not sure if that is a good idea)

here is the recipe:

 

[Misschief]

First impression? You're using way too many oils. For a first batch, keep it simple. Second thing? You have too many hard oils; that's going to move pretty quick. Again, keep it simple. I would drop the Cocoa and Kokum butters, the hemp and almond oils and up the olive oil. The Red Palm is going to colour your soap orange; you have it as 20% of your oils; I'd lower that.

Those are my first impressions. Others will chime in, I'm sure.

 

[AliOop]

I agree with @Misschief. As a first-time soapmaker, try something much simpler, maybe:

45% palm oil (not red palm unless you want orange soap) or lard if animal products are ok for you
30% olive oil
15% coconut oil
5% castor
5% hemp (since you are trying to use it up)

This won't be super bubbly, but it will make a nice bar of soap after curing. I'd also make a smaller batch to start - 2lbs max.

Your INS, iodine, and sat:unsat are fine for now. You may want to tweak them later, but your first order of business is to learn basic soapmaking skills. Patience, grasshopper!

 

[cmzaha]

I would nix the red palm oil and go with.
15% CO
40% Palm Oil
10% Hemp Oil
15% Shea Butter
15% AVO or SAO
5 Castor
3% superfat
30% Lye Concentration not water as percent of oil
2 month cure
add sugar or sorbitol to help lather. The lower superfat will also help the lather. I find sorbitol help lather the best at 1% total batch weight

 

[lenarenee]

There's nothing wrong with your recipe - keep it to use another time when you've gotten a few soaping skills.

Any castor or hemp you don't use now, stick in the fridge.

The red palm will also add a beta carotene scent to your soap - so you if you don't like how it smells in the jar, you may not like it in the soap.

10% castor is higher than most people use because it can make your soap sticky and it can also make it trace faster, so 5% is more appropriate for your first experiences.

Good luck!

 

[earlene]

Regarding your hemp oil. I would replace it with fresh if you really want to use it in soap. Hemp oil has a very short shelf life and you absolutely will risk rancidity with old hemp oil in soap. But for your first soap, I'd recommend leaving it out. The nice thing about hemp oil is that it really bubbles a whole lot. But, you can experiment with that later when you have a fresh bottle.

Castor, I'd drop that to 5%, but also buy fresh. You can get a small 3 or 4 ounce bottle in the pharmacy department of many stores, even grocery stores and it's usually enough for one or two batches of soap.

I agree a beginners soap should be less complex (fewer oils) although I do get the inclination to add so many. I did that, too.

As for the hard oils, I'd leave out the Koku, and just use the 15% Coconut, keep the shea, maybe cocoa butter at half the amount of shea (like 12% shea & 6% cocoa butter), keep the one of the soft oils (Almond or Avocado or Olive).

Red Palm oil does smell odd. Depending on you and your family's levels of sensitivity of smell (some folks have really good sniffers, while others tend to not be all that sensitive to odors), I'd recommend against using it in soap. It will definitely color your soap, so that's a plus if you don't want to use a colorant, but it will also create an odor that remains for the sensitive nose.

If you can switch to regular palm oil, but find it hard to source, the Spectrum Brand of shortening is all palm oil, and if you have a Target near you or a Whole Foods or a Vitamin Shoppe, they carry it (although I've not shopped all stores in NJ, so maybe you would have to look elsewhere.) I've soaped with Spectrum shortening as my palm oil and it works fine. There are cheaper sources for RSPO palm oil, but as a trial it works just fine.

For a beginner soap, I would also recommend a 33% lye solution or 2:1 water to lye ratio. If you want the 6% SuperFat, that's fine, but be aware that your lye calculator already has a range for saponification values with a little leeway built in, so going higher than the default SF isn't really necessary with a balanced formula. In fact some of us go lower (2-3% SF)and still have fine soap without any leftover lye.

Also, be super conservative with stick blending. In fact, if you use high percentages of hard oils, I recommend avoiding the stick blender altogether after the oils & lye reach emulsion. That is if you are planning to use a stick blender. There are times I only stir by hand with a whisk or a spoon or silicone spatula.

 

[shunt2011]

Way too much going on. Even for an advanced soapmaker. I don’t use anything under 10% except castor at 5-7%. Cmzaha gave a good advice and good recipe. Keep in mind soap will never bee moisturizing as it’s a wash off product but it can be less cleansing.

 

[ridnovir]

Thank you for your input thus far. Looks like I must simplify this recipe, so back to the drawing board...sigh... I am also surprised by the red palm oil consensus. The only reason I have it in is that I could not find regular palm oil that is not bleached - deodorized - refined. I looked long and hard for unrefined raw palm oil both online and locally to no avail so I finally decided to go with a red palm which I figured is the same thing.

 

[AliOop]

Thank you for your input thus far. Looks like I must simplify this recipe, so back to the drawing board...sigh... I am also surprised by the red palm oil consensus. The only reason I have it in is that I could not find regular palm oil that is not bleached - deodorized - refined. I looked long and hard for unrefined raw palm oil both online and locally to no avail so I finally decided to go with a red palm which I figured is the same thing.

Is it important for your recipe to be vegan? If not, and if you are open to using animal fats, then lard is a wonderful substitute for palm. Many soap makers actually prefer it to palm.

Tallow is also nice, but not as similar to palm. If you have access to a butcher, you may be able to get unrendered tallow or lard pretty inexpensively. It is not hard (just time-consuming) to render it, and it makes use of something that would otherwise be discarded. The result is wonderful in soap and in other skin-care products.

 

[ridnovir]

I am not a vegan. In fact, it was my plan to use animal fat in my next recipe. From what I understand the grass-fed sheep tallow is the best to use and substitutes palm oil in a recipe and the grass-fed beef tallow is a close second. I have not looked into lard yet.

 

[AliOop]

Lard is actually the closest to palm. If you want a grass-fed option, I've ordered from this company in the past and been very satisfied: US Wellness Meats

 

[earlene]

If you want unrefined keep in mind that sometimes debris is included. I have never used it myself, but some here have mentioned finding debris in unrefined shea butter, for example. I don't know where you can access unrefined animal fats unless you process (render) them yourself. Red Palm oil is what you will have to use if you want to use unrefined palm, as naturally it is red when processed out of the palm fruit (see this link.) There is also unrefined palm kernel oil, which is apparently brown in color (I have never seen it personally.) PKO is more similar to Coconut oil in terms of the fatty acid profiles.

I admire your dedication to sourcing oils that are raw, organic and unrefined, however once it is mixed with your lye solution, the lye has pretty much chemicalized away whatever benefit one may expect to obtain from the qualities the rawness, organicness and unrefinedness may have brought to the oils. Some do expect and claim that some of these qualities do survive the saponification process, but so far as I know it can't be substantiated by science. If it could be substantiated by scientific method, we would have heard about it by now, I think.

Of course many, if not all, oils contain some unsaponifiables, so perhaps enough remains in the soap that could be beneficial to the skin. Still, it is a wash-off product and most folks don't let soap sit on the skin for very long before rinsing.

 

[SoapSisters]

I second the "smaller batch" comment above. It's the best advice I got as a new soaper! I have been soaping for about a year and a half and still make 500g of oil recipes. This way I can experiment a lot and not worry too much about "waste" if a batch is not to my liking. And it does take quite a lot of experimenting to find out what you and your family like.

 

[linne1gi]

First post here. I am about to try my hand at soapmaking. I plan to make soap primarily for my family. This is my first recipe. I am trying to achieve a nice hard bar that lathers good and is easy on the skin. Please help me out to tweak it or reformulate it.

I do not want to use more than 15% Coconut oil (if I can help it) to avoid drying effects (I have two young kids and I prefer more moisturizing soaps) and I do want to use butters and hemp oil but % are not set in stone.

Things that concern me are:
40:60 sat to unsat fats ratio even though I am using 60 hard and 40 soft oils
High iodine number (based on the range provided by soapcalc - not sure if it is good or bad)
low INS number (not sure if it is good or bad but I read that it should be closer to 160
Linoleic + Linolenic is 14 which I read could cause DOS and decrease shelf life and can cause snooty lather

Also, need advice on lye concentration at%40 (I want to keep water on mid to law but not sure if that is a good idea with all of those butters) and superfat I have it at 6%

I tried my best to source every ingredient as organic raw and unrefined.
My castor and Hemp oils are both passed the shelf life I used them in my bear oil as carrier oils so they have been sitting around for a bit (they do not smell rancid and are clear so I figured I will use them up in the recipe but I am not sure if that is a good idea)

here is the recipe:
View attachment 50206

I agree with the above - Way too many oils/butters. As a new soapmaker, keep it to 5 or less. I also don't think it's worth it adding 5% of anything, exception being Castor Oil. That is best kept at 5% - higher amounts of Castor accelerate the batter while giving you a sticky soap. Castor doesn't make bubbles, it sustains them. Go with 40 Palm (not red), 40 Olive, 15 Coconut, 5 Castor.
I also think you should increase your water (I can't believe I'm even saying this, because I am always telling people to decrease their water!) - but you have a 1.5:1 ratio and I would suggest a 2:1 water to lye ratio, at least until you have a few batches done - also as stated above - keep your batches small - one pound if possible. That way you can try out different recipes, different ingredients/oils/butters to see what you like best - without breaking the bank.

 

[Relle]

First post here. I am about to try my hand at soapmaking. I plan to make soap primarily for my family. This is my first recipe. I am trying to achieve a nice hard bar that lathers good and is easy on the skin. Please help me out to tweak it or reformulate it.

I do not want to use more than 15% Coconut oil (if I can help it) to avoid drying effects (I have two young kids and I prefer more moisturizing soaps) and I do want to use butters and hemp oil but % are not set in stone.

Things that concern me are:
40:60 sat to unsat fats ratio even though I am using 60 hard and 40 soft oils
High iodine number (based on the range provided by soapcalc - not sure if it is good or bad)
low INS number (not sure if it is good or bad but I read that it should be closer to 160
Linoleic + Linolenic is 14 which I read could cause DOS and decrease shelf life and can cause snooty lather

Also, need advice on lye concentration at%40 (I want to keep water on mid to law but not sure if that is a good idea with all of those butters) and superfat I have it at 6%

I tried my best to source every ingredient as organic raw and unrefined.
My castor and Hemp oils are both passed the shelf life I used them in my bear oil as carrier oils so they have been sitting around for a bit (they do not smell rancid and are clear so I figured I will use them up in the recipe but I am not sure if that is a good idea)

here is the recipe:
View attachment 50206

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