Quick and easy HP soap.

[sephera]

Batch I made 2 years ago I use EVOO. I recently used Pomace. But I am going to try and buy the most moisturizing soap at the craft markets and test it. All soap I made has a dry feeling regardless of oils and superfat 5-7% I think I am doing something wrong.

I used tsp of raw sugar and tsp of salt per pound in lye water. I think I mixed it into oils whilst solution was a bit cloudy.

 

[Obsidian]

Salt will make the solution a bit cloudy, it's fine. Seriously, get some lard or palm and try a different recipe.

 

[Susie]

If you would post all your recipes, we could better help you figure out what you are doing wrong.

Or you may simply be expecting too much from soap. Soap is not lotion. It is a wash off product. The best you can expect is that it does not dry you out.

But we can't help unless we know what you have already tried.

 

[sephera]

In old threads I did
90% EVOO 10% Canola.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=47288

This is another. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=47550

Salt will make the solution a bit cloudy, it's fine. Seriously, get some lard or palm and try a different recipe.

Yeah ok should I go with 20% Coconut, 50% Palm 20% Olive 10% Castor. Maybe add some Almond Oil somewhere in the mix?
Or use milk.

Can we add glycerine to make it gel faster?
Not keen on using Lard.

 

[Obsidian]

Yeah ok should I go with 20% Coconut, 50% Palm 20% Olive 10% Castor. Maybe add some Almond Oil somewhere in the mix?
Or use milk.

Can we add glycerine to make it gel faster?
Not keen on using Lard.

That a pretty good recipe. Personally I would only use 5% castor but you shouldn't have issues with 10%

It might be a quick moving recipe so don't plan on a bunch of fancy swirls or multi colored until you know how it will behave for you.

You can use some almond in place of the olive if you want but there is no reason to add glycerin, it won't speed gel.

I've never much cared for using milk, never seen that it does anything for the soap. I prefer aloe juice, it doesn't heat up the soap and it boosts lather.

 

[Susie]

^^What Obsidian said!

I don't use milks or aloe in my soap, but I do use lard, so I might would be guilty of adding something. (Not glycerin, the soap makes its own glycerin.)

Just out of curiosity, if you will use milk, why not lard?

 

[maya]

I make one with 10% Coconut, 80 Olive and 10% Canola with 7% but I just think my skin it ultra dry and sensitive. Any ideas for a soothing lotiony bar?

I have found a salt bar is very "lotion-y" but does not, at least for me, bubble or lather like a traditional soap. Have you tried a salt bar?

 

[BrewerGeorge]

...
Just out of curiosity, if you will use milk, why not lard?

I am also interested in this answer.

If you're vegan, so be it (and I'll assume you were talking about almond milk above). But if you're NOT vegan and don't keep kosher or halal, and several very knowledgeable soap makers tell you that lard makes wonderful soap...? Why dismiss it without trying?

 

[penelopejane]

If you are aiming for Castile why are you adding all those other ingredients listed in the soaps in post 24?

Savon de Marseille has salt added and is boiled for days. I agree with others this is to get rid of the crappy ingredients. They don't even use 100% OO anymore. Watch some videos about the process and they add lots of other oils too.

Don't use canola in a soap. It is know for DOS.
I dont like milk in soap it makes the soap slimy to me and others who have blind tested it. I know I know - label appeal but try it without.

If you find handmade soap drying don't use any CO. Keep experimenting until you find something your skin loves.

 

[IrishLass]

Batch I made 2 years ago I use EVOO. I recently used Pomace. But I am going to try and buy the most moisturizing soap at the craft markets and test it. All soap I made has a dry feeling regardless of oils and superfat 5-7% I think I am doing something wrong.

Hi Sephera. Have you zap-tested any of your soap? If not, that would be the first place I would look before looking anywhere else. If there is unreacted lye in your soap it will show up as an obvious and immediate prickly/stinging zap to your tongue.

If the soap is tongue-neutral (i.e., no obvious & immediate prickly zap), you can rest assured that the dryness/tightness you are experiencing is not due to unreacted lye, but something else...... either due your formula or superfat, or maybe even due to your skin not being compatible with lye-based soap (some folk's skins are actually happier with syndet-based cleansers, and there's no shame in that).

Also- I think there is a faulty perception that exists out there in soapdom (due to incessant, misleading advertising claims on TV, no doubt), that if soap does not leave your skin feeling moisturized then something must be wrong with it, and that is just flat out wrong. Soap is a cleanser, not a moisturizer -that's why things like lotion exist.

That's not to say that soap should leave your skin feeling uncomfortably tight, though. The big trick in making your own soap is to get to know the properties that each oil/fat lends to a soap and how your own particular skin reacts to them, so that you can formulate in such a way that the finished soap is not so overly cleansing that it makes your skin feel uncomfortably tight.

To expand on that last sentence- it's important that one always keep in mind that everyone's skin is different. There is not one formula or one oil that is guaranteed to feel wonderful to everyone's skin. Give the same bar of soap to 10 different people and chances are more than good that you will get at least 5 or more wildly diverging opinions...... You can also get the same divergent results by just read through 10 posts of any one of the several recipe threads we have on the forum.

The skin of some folks just doesn't do well with soaps made from certain oils/fats- even olive oil soap, which is generally considered to be mild. It may feel mild for lots of folks, but not everyone's.

My advice would be to make a good handful of 1 pound batches using wildly different formulas and superfats, let them fully cure, and then compare them to each other to see which of them feels the least tight to your skin. Doing that will give you a more solid foundation to work from in order to be able to tweak/custom-design a formula that's friendly to your skin.

IrishLass

 

[sephera]

I am also interested in this answer.

If you're vegan, so be it (and I'll assume you were talking about almond milk above). But if you're NOT vegan and don't keep kosher or halal, and several very knowledgeable soap makers tell you that lard makes wonderful soap...? Why dismiss it without trying?

Yes sorry, I am Christian but am keeping Kosher no pork. Due to spiritual reasons.

 

[Susie]

OK, then, what about tallow? Beef fat is closer to your natural skin oils than vegetable oils, and should not break your dietary restrictions. Tallow makes lovely soap when mixed with other oils.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

OK, then, what about tallow? Beef fat is closer to your natural skin oils than vegetable oils, and should not break your dietary restrictions. Tallow makes lovely soap when mixed with other oils.

No milk soap with tallow though. :mrgreen:

 

[sephera]

Yeah I know that would be cruel. Yes I will try tallow soap, I just didn't think it would be moisturising, as the stain bars and cheap soap from supermarkets is made from Tallow but I guess maybe they don't take as much care. And they mass produce.

Also am not adverse to using lamb fat.

 

[Susie]

The problem with the "cheap soap" sold at supermarkets is that IF they use tallow, they then salt out the bars, and strip all the glycerin from it. When you make a soap at home, you do not. All that lovely hygroscopic glycerin stays right in that soap. It makes a difference.

If I were you, and trying to make a "not drying" bar of soap, the recipe mentioned previously as a lard bar, I would just substitute tallow for the lard, and go from there. It may take you several batches to dial in on YOUR favorite recipe.

I don't use milks in my soaps, as neither I nor my other testers liked the milk bars any better than the non-milk bars of the same basic recipe.

 

[sephera]

Thanks for your advice. Should I add one tsp of salt, and sugar per pound. Also should I add 1% bees wax for a harder bar?

 

[Susie]

You are not going to need salt or beeswax if you use tallow. It makes a good hard bar. I always, always, always use sugar or honey to boost my bubbles. I am a bubbleholic. I use 1-1 1/2 tsp PPO.

 

[lenarenee]

Tallow soap is not moisturizing. Soap isn't really moisturizing - at least in the way people define moisturizing. A superfatted soap can leave a layer of oils on your skin, yes.

Shea butter and avocado work well with tallow - oils that are high on the creamy factor. Soap calc says tallow is creamy - I don't agree. What ever "cream" it provides is thin and milky.

There are people who can't use handmade soap, you may be one of them. What kind of commercial soaps work for you? pH balanced shower gels perhaps?

 

[joy.]

I'm vegetarian so I won't use any animal fats, but even if I weren't, I can't imagine why anyone would want to rub bacon grease all over themselves. I just think lard and tallow soaps are gross. There's my unsolicited two cents worth of opinion

I do both hot process and CP, and I haven't noticed a difference between the two using the exact same recipe, other than the HP soaps being harder and more bubbly sooner. There is a difference when it comes to controlling superfat ingredients with HP - it's kind of cheating though. I'd work on a recipe you like first, then tweak the superfat if you need to...and try some mango butter for that

 

[Susie]

I'm vegetarian so I won't use any animal fats, but even if I weren't, I can't imagine why anyone would want to rub bacon grease all over themselves. I just think lard and tallow soaps are gross. There's my unsolicited two cents worth of opinion

I do both hot process and CP, and I haven't noticed a difference between the two using the exact same recipe, other than the HP soaps being harder and more bubbly sooner. There is a difference when it comes to controlling superfat ingredients with HP - it's kind of cheating though. I'd work on a recipe you like first, then tweak the superfat if you need to...and try some mango butter for that

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/vegetarian


vegetarian
[vej-i-tair-ee-uh n]
Spell Syllables
Examples Word Origin
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
noun
1.
a person who does not eat or does not believe in eating meat, fish, fowl, or, in some cases, any food derived from animals, as eggs or cheese, but subsists on vegetables, fruits, nuts, grain, etc.
adjective
2.
of or relating to vegetarianism or vegetarians.
3.
devoted to or advocating this practice.
4.
consisting solely of vegetables :
vegetarian vegetable soup.

I see nothing in that definition that prohibits using animal fats for soap.