Recipe dupe

[Soaped]

Good day,

I had a question about a recipe dupe. I have used the below soap for clearing my skin and I noticed that coconut oil is the first ingredient on the recipe list which is very strange as the soap is promoted as a face soap. I also wondered if this would be a melt and pour soap with additives. I would appreciate any help on understanding/breaking down this recipe a bit more as I would like to create my own version.

The recipe for the soap I mentioned is noted below:

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Glycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, D-Glucitol, Propylene Glycol, Sorbitan Oleate, Hibiscus Flower, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Salicylic Acid, Glycerin, Resorcinol, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Extract, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Azelaic Acid, Kojic Acid, Niacinamide, Retinyl Palmitate, L-Glutathione, Alpha Arbutin

I would appreciate any help you can provide.

 

[ewhitake]

Good day,

I had a question about a recipe dupe. I have used the below soap for clearing my skin and I noticed that coconut oil is the first ingredient on the recipe list which is very strange as the soap is promoted as a face soap. I also wondered if this would be a melt and pour soap with additives. I would appreciate any help on understanding/breaking down this recipe a bit more as I would like to create my own version.

The recipe for the soap I mentioned is noted below:

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Glycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, D-Glucitol, Propylene Glycol, Sorbitan Oleate, Hibiscus Flower, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Salicylic Acid, Glycerin, Resorcinol, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Extract, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Azelaic Acid, Kojic Acid, Niacinamide, Retinyl Palmitate, L-Glutathione, Alpha Arbutin

I would appreciate any help you can provide.

This is a bar soap? Is this for oily skin? What I would do first is google each ingredient and find out how and why it’s used. Some of the ingredients may be left out or substituted if you understand their function.
I couldn’t use this on my face. But if it’s working for you, great!!

 

[lsg]

If it contains propylene glycol, then it is probably not a regular soap product, but one that uses solvents.

 

[AliOop]

If it contains propylene glycol, then it is probably not regular soap product, but one that uses solvents.

Agreed, looks like a melt and our recipe to me, with lots of fairly expensive additives.

You might want to check the Swift Crafty Monkey blog. Most of her info is behind a paywall, but even at the $1 per month level, you can see a lot of her recipe dupes, and read about almost any ingredient.

Just be forewarned that it is a huge rabbit hole due to the organizational style (lack thereof). You can cancel the subscription any time so it is a fairly inexpensive way to research things.

 

[BWt]

Internet search (on the complete list of ingredients as posted). Returned a link copied in below. It is a bar soap that comes in a jar. Interesting read as I am continually learning about consumer soap products. This link describes the possible uses of each ingredient. May be helpful
https://www.cosmeticsandtoiletries....e-label-urbanskin-rx-anti-aging-cleansing-bar

 

[ewhitake]

Internet search (on the complete list of ingredients as posted). Returned a link copied in below. It is a bar soap that comes in a jar. Interesting read as I am continually learning about consumer soap products. This link describes the possible uses of each ingredient. May be helpful
https://www.cosmeticsandtoiletries....e-label-urbanskin-rx-anti-aging-cleansing-bar

This isn’t a “soap” but a 3 in 1 product more along the lines of a cosmetic. Reproducing this might require some experimentation with lotion formulations. I’d check out Humblebee and Me as well. Most of her stuff isn’t behind a paywall and her encyclopedia of ingredients is really helpful!!

 

[Soaped]

Thank you so much for all of your help. I might give Humble Bee and me a try to find something suitable.

 

[AliOop]

This isn’t a “soap” but a 3 in 1 product more along the lines of a cosmetic. Reproducing this might require some experimentation with lotion formulations. I’d check out Humblebee and Me as well. Most of her stuff isn’t behind a paywall and her encyclopedia of ingredients is really helpful!!

It may be an actual soap. Sodium hydroxide is one of the ingredients, which could make soap out of the CO and PKO.

It is also possible that the NaOH was used as a pH modifier rather than to saponify the oils. However, the description implies that it is a hard product, not a cream.

It’s always fun to suss this stuff out.

 

[ewhitake]

It may be an actual soap. Sodium hydroxide is one of the ingredients, which could make soap out of the CO and PKO.

It is also possible that the NaOH was used as a pH modifier rather than to saponify the oils. However, the description implies that it is a hard product, not a cream.

It’s always fun to suss this stuff out.

It is so much fun to suss these things out. I love trying to figure out how products are made. Especially when they cost way too much!!
You could be right, but the preparation comes in a jar rather than a hard bar so I’m more inclined to think that your second possibility is more applicable.

 

[AliOop]

the preparation comes in a jar rather than a hard bar so I’m more inclined to think that your second possibility is more applicable.

Yes, but if it is truly the product linked above by @BWt, which ingredients match exactly, the name of it is:

Urbanskin Rx Anti-aging Cleansing Bar​

and the product description says:

Inside the jar, the product is provided as a solid, brown cleansing bar that lathers with the use of water.

Bar Base​

As stated, the product is a solid bar. Its base comprises a plant oil mixture; coconut, hydrogenated palm kernel, safflower seed and castor seed oils. Sodium hydroxide lye is an alkali used to saponify the fatty acids of the plant oil triglycerides, resulting in the soap bar format.

 

[ewhitake]

Yes, but if it is truly the product linked above by @BWt, which ingredients match exactly, the name of it is:

Urbanskin Rx Anti-aging Cleansing Bar​

and the product description says:

Inside the jar, the product is provided as a solid, brown cleansing bar that lathers with the use of water.

Bar Base​

As stated, the product is a solid bar. Its base comprises a plant oil mixture; coconut, hydrogenated palm kernel, safflower seed and castor seed oils. Sodium hydroxide lye is an alkali used to saponify the fatty acids of the plant oil triglycerides, resulting in the soap bar format.

This is what I get for looking at the picture. The description says bar but when I saw the picture, I thought it had to be a cream. This is a bar in a jar. But what I’m confused about is all those extra ingredients. Wouldn’t saponification negate them?
And if the soap is made for troubled skin, perhaps the high coconut oil, contact would be helpful?

 

[Soaped]

It is in fact the product mentioned above and is a hard bar that is in a jar which I use by rubbing a face pad to get lather. Looking at the ingredients list and seeing oils and lye in the ingredients I thought it might be a soap. A melt and pour soap base that they added the additional ingredients. Thought I would ask in this forum as you all have so much knowledge.

As coconut oil tends to be rather drying I was surprised to see this as the first ingredient so that made me really want to ask to see if it was something else I hadn't thought of.

 

[paradisi]

The claims ingredients are all additives that are either inactivated or destroyed in soap. So it would seem that if the formula is something one has used and liked, it's not that the additives were doing much of anything.

Extra glycerin and sorbitan oleate will be humectant and emollient, respectively. The propylene glycol could be a diluent... and this bar may have some combination base added that contains it and the sorbitan oleate and glycerin.

As to the main ingredient: coconut oil in soap doesn't have to be stripping, depends on how it's formulated.

 

[AliOop]

But what I’m confused about is all those extra ingredients. Wouldn’t saponification negate them?
And if the soap is made for troubled skin, perhaps the high coconut oil, contact would be helpful?

It's possible the additional ingredients were added at the end of the soapmaking process, after all the lye had reacted with the oils. This is especially true for the commercial soapmaking process, which isn't the same as our handcrafted soap. In any event, given all the claims they are making, this had to have passed some sort of testing to show that the ingredients do remain active.

 

[paradisi]

The seller sets up the testing, to get good sounding results. There's no central adjudicator of cosmetics ingredients' results in use, so the ingredient seller won't do studies that show the ingredient doesn't do much.

And in the US, if a product really had strong results it most often would be classed as a drug (and then tightly regulated).

There was a good discussion of that on Chemist's Corner recently, I'll look for the link. It was surprising.

Here we go. Pay attention to Perry's posts, he's the moderator, is a teacher, and worked at Alberto Culver doing shampoo etc.

https://chemistscorner.com/cosmetic...-with-bakuchiol-alpha-arbutin-and-kojic-acid/