Question about sticky/draggy soap (recipe posted)

[tessa]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum but have spent many years making CP soap. I haven't made any for well over a year now but am ready to get back to it.

The recipe I always used before was always a bit sticky/draggy on my skin. It would have that feeling the first few times I used it and then the draggyness would go away and it'd be nice and slippery. I liked the lather and moisturizing qualities of the soap and only used it for myself, so it was never a big deal. Now I want to get rid of that feeling and create a nice slippery soap that is just as bubbly and nice without the stickiness.

If I can remember correctly off the top of my head, my recipe was roughly 30% olive oil, 35% coconut oil, 30% palm oil, and 5% castor oil (not sure if that is exactly it, but it's close).

In the past when researching this, I found that the palm and castor oil can cause the draggy feeling, so I cut it back a few times but was not as happy with the lather anymore.

Can anyone help me tweak this recipe so that it is both bubbly and moisturizing but NOT draggy? I love the soap on my skin once it's passed the draggy stage and would love to figure out how to get rid of that while keeping the rest of the soap qualities similar.

Thank you so much!

 

[Hazel]

You could try adding some clay or tussah silk to the batch to increase the slip or silkiness of the lather. I'm not sure it would help but it's worth a try. I've noticed more slipperiness of the lather in batches in which I've used tussah silk.

 

[Soap Techniques]

You could try adding some clay or tussah silk to the batch to increase the slip or silkiness of the lather. I'm not sure it would help but it's worth a try. I've noticed more slipperiness of the lather in batches in which I've used tussah silk.

That's exactly what I was going to suggest!

 

[KrisAnt]

You a recipe for a very hard bar, maybe add a little liquid oil, like sunflower? and be sure to run it through a lye calculator.

 

[Trxflyer]

You could try adding some clay or tussah silk to the batch to increase the slip or silkiness of the lather. I'm not sure it would help but it's worth a try. I've noticed more slipperiness of the lather in batches in which I've used tussah silk.

I just bought some Tussah silk and was sitting here wondering how much to add per pound of oil....so how much? Also do you put it directly into the lye water mixture or mix it into a bottle first?

 

[MaitriBB]

I just bought some Tussah silk and was sitting here wondering how much to add per pound of oil....so how much? Also do you put it directly into the lye water mixture or mix it into a bottle first?

Depends on the size of your batch. For a 4-pound batch, I usually use a pea-sized bit of silk. If you use water to mix your lye, just add the silk to your water before adding the lye, and the hot lye/water mix will dissolve the silk.

I also like kaolin clay to add slip to the soap. I use the clay and silk in all of my batches.

 

[Hazel]

. If you use water to mix your lye, just add the silk to your water before adding the lye, and the hot lye/water mix will dissolve the silk.

Just a suggestion - let the silk soak a little while (maybe 10 minutes) in the water before adding the lye. The silk seems to dissolve better if it's well saturated. I do have a stainless steel mesh which I pour the lye solution through as I add it to the oils. This will strain out any bits of cocoon if you have silk that hasn't been thoroughly cleaned (like I have ).