. . . the 2nd was the same except I used 46% soy wax instead of cocoa butter with the same proportions. SF at 7% for both. I made them both about a week ago so I need to wait on the cure. But just from cutting them I noticed the cocoa butter one was very brittle and "waxy". The soy wax one was still hard, but softer than the cocoa butter one. From what you said, maybe I'm going to have to lower my SF on the soy wax bar.
It's been about 10 years since I used cocoa butter in soap, so I have no comment about that. What I will say is that my soy-wax soap tends to start out a little softer, but it hardens up nicely by week 4. I think you're seeing the same results as I do. With 20% coconut oil, I personally like a 4% SF. I also test the purity of my NaOH, so my 4% is closer than what comes out of SoapCalc. With my initial test batches, that I made side-by-side with a lard batch, I soaped with a 5% SF (not adjusted for purity), and I found the soy soap left a "waxy" film that the lard did not. I almost gave up with that first batch, but after having an epiphany while washing hydrogenated-soy-shortening-based buttercream out of a bowl at work, I decided to try a lower SF (I used to work as a baker, and it was very scary how much shortening was left behind, even with large amounts of VERY hot water and Dawn detergent). The lower SF did the trick!
I don't use soy wax as a 1-1 replacement of lard, tallow, palm, shea (or in your case cocoa butter). My "Veggie Lard" is a blend of 40% Soy Wax, 60% HO Sunflower; I use this as a 1-1 replacement for animal fats. For your cocoa butter replacement, I probably would have done a blend of 60% Soy wax, and 40% soft wax (to come close to the correct FA profile). The following is a recipe that I think looks closer to your 46% cocoa butter batch:
28% Soy Wax
46*.6 = 27.6
52% Liquid Oil
46*.4 = 18.4
18.4+34 = 52.4
20% Coconut
(I’ve never used Rice Bran, but it looks high in linoleic and linolenic acids. . . . I’d probably go for a mix of Rice Bran and HO sunflower instead of straight RB.)
emi said:
I'm also concerned about the type of soy wax I bought. I'm pretty sure it's the type used mainly for candles based on the questions asked about it on amazon. It came in a bag of flakes. It's a 3 lb bag and it literally only says "Akosoy Natural Soy Wax" on it. It says on the site it's "natural 415 soy wax" with "no additives" but I have a feeling it's not the kind you're advising to get.
Sounds like the right stuff! Somewhere (CandleScience.com, maybe?) it was stated that Golden Foods 415 was now labeled as Akosoy. In fact, the last case I bought from Natures Garden was labeled as Akosoy.
emi said:
Is there anything in particular I should look out for in the cured product? Also, what do you mean by "tempering" the oils? Just to keep the temp above 125 at all times? Or the process of heating the oils to 155 then cooling it down? I probably reached at least 130 or so when I melted my oils. I cooled it to about 96 and my lye water was at about 92 when I combined them
Nothing comes to mind as far as cure, and I find my soaps are good to go at 4 weeks. I recently bumped the Soy Wax to 35% and the lather is so creamy!
As for tempering, WeaversPort covered it nicely. I picked 155F (~70C) as that is what I saw for shea and I thought, why not? My procedure is pretty simple:
1. Make your lye solution and set aside.
2. Heat 75% of our oils to 155F (~70C), stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the remaining 25% of your oils and stir. For my recipe, and my kitchen, this is enough to drop the temperature to about 135F. Let it cool to about 125.
4. I mix the lye solution and oils at about 125F and I try to keep my temp in that range. If you stick blend, you probably will reach trace before the batter cools too far. I only use a whisk and occasionally have to place the soap pot back on the fire to warm it back up. My experience is that trace comes quickly with a SB—too quickly for my nerves. I prefer to take things slowly with a whisk. Besides, the SB always gives me bubbles—no matter how many times I burp it.
I’ve tried soaping cooler but I often ended up with stearic spots. Natures Garden says that for candle making, the soy wax will be slushy at 110F, so I would definitely soap hotter than that! Maybe 115-120, but everything is working so well for me that I don’t see any reason to change!