Recipe question (soleseife)

[atiz]

I'm fairly (well, very) new to all this, so maybe it's not the best idea, but I got quite intrigued by reading some things about soleseife soap and would like to try it. I came up with a recipe that I ran through soap calc, but don't quite have the experience to see whether it's going to be a disaster.
I realize different people prefer different soaps and I don't even know yet what I happen to really like. I do try to make things at least somewhat bubbly, and not too stripping. (But seem to have a hard time reconciling those two.) What do people think?

Here it is:
Lard 30%
Coconut oil 28%
Olive Oil 22%
Castor Oil 10% [is this too much??]
Avocado Oil 5%
Cocoa Butter 5%.

Superfat 7%; salt added before lye (or maybe split the water?). Maybe use aloe juice for part of water.

These are pretty much all the oils I have at hand and would rather not get anything very fancy at this point. (I guess I also have some sweet almond and some canola. And sunflower, the regular cooking kind.)

Would be very very grateful for any suggestions!

 

[amd]

I'm not sure what you mean by "bubbly" - everyone seems to have slightly different ideas of what that means. For me, Bubbly is close together with medium to large bubbles that "sticks" fairly well when lathering with hands. By that definition, my soleseife bars are not bubbly. I do get large bubbles, but they are loosely spaced and don't stick when hand lathering. I do find the soleseife soaps to be a bit more stripping than regular soaps, but not as stripping as salt bars. They aren't "too" stripping though that it irritates my skin to use them.

If you want to try your recipe, I would stick with 500g and let it cure at least 8 weeks before trying it. The only tweak I would make is dropping the castor oil to 5% and put 5% in your OO or avocado oil. I would also do your first batch with just water, and leave the aloe juice for later experiments. Start with one factor at a time - in this case start with a basic soleseife recipe - so you get a feel for what each additional change affects the soap.

 

[atiz]

I'm not sure what you mean by "bubbly" - everyone seems to have slightly different ideas of what that means. For me, Bubbly is close together with medium to large bubbles that "sticks" fairly well when lathering with hands. By that definition, my soleseife bars are not bubbly. I do get large bubbles, but they are loosely spaced and don't stick when hand lathering. I do find the soleseife soaps to be a bit more stripping than regular soaps, but not as stripping as salt bars. They aren't "too" stripping though that it irritates my skin to use them.

If you want to try your recipe, I would stick with 500g and let it cure at least 8 weeks before trying it. The only tweak I would make is dropping the castor oil to 5% and put 5% in your OO or avocado oil. I would also do your first batch with just water, and leave the aloe juice for later experiments. Start with one factor at a time - in this case start with a basic soleseife recipe - so you get a feel for what each additional change affects the soap.

Thank you! Yes, I was going to make a small batch, and will keep the castor lower then. Hopefully will get to it tomorrow. (8 weeks! Well, I'll try. To be patient.)
Well, I haven't compared really the various types of bubbles you get with soap. It was just a vague idea of not having to work it too much to lather a bit. But maybe soleseife is just not very lathery in general.

 

[Iluminameluna]

Even if I don't have lots of experience with soap making, I've made about 10lbs total soap with seawater, so maybe this counts?
So here's my 2 cents' worth:

As amd said, keep your castor oil down around 5%.
Lower your coconut to between 10 and 15%. Even with a 7% SF, it can be stripping without adding bubbles or large sudsing.
I also agree that a 500g batch is good for trying out a new recipe.
Use warm water to dissolve the salt, but let it cool completely before adding the lye. And strain it as you add it to the oils! You'd be surprised at what you might find in the salt.
Lastly, if you do try different juices or purees with your saline solution, first add the salt, then strain, then freeze it. I did both cucumber, with the peels!, and fresh aloe gel, strained them, then added the salt and strained again, and used them frozen. The resulting soap which has been curing for just about a month, is a pretty light shade of green!
As long as you keep the SF at somewhere around 6%, your soaps shouldn't be too stripping. I use the first ones I made, back in May 2018, for washing my lady parts several times a day and, though the suds are generally creamy, the soaps I got were NOT drying. And the SF for them were at 5%.
Happy soaping!

 

[atiz]

Even if I don't have lots of experience with soap making, I've made about 10lbs total soap with seawater, so maybe this counts?
So here's my 2 cents' worth:

As amd said, keep your castor oil down around 5%.
Lower your coconut to between 10 and 15%. Even with a 7% SF, it can be stripping without adding bubbles or large sudsing.
I also agree that a 500g batch is good for trying out a new recipe.
Use warm water to dissolve the salt, but let it cool completely before adding the lye. And strain it as you add it to the oils! You'd be surprised at what you might find in the salt.
Lastly, if you do try different juices or purees with your saline solution, first add the salt, then strain, then freeze it. I did both cucumber, with the peels!, and fresh aloe gel, strained them, then added the salt and strained again, and used them frozen. The resulting soap which has been curing for just about a month, is a pretty light shade of green!
As long as you keep the SF at somewhere around 6%, your soaps shouldn't be too stripping. I use the first ones I made, back in May 2018, for washing my lady parts several times a day and, though the suds are generally creamy, the soaps I got were NOT drying. And the SF for them were at 5%.
Happy soaping!

Thank you! Tomorrow will be experiment day Looking forward to it. Yeah, I was thinking of aloe (have a bunch of plants) but amd is probably right that one new element at a time is a good strategy. Will see and report back. Thanks again!

 

[amd]

Lower your coconut to between 10 and 15%. Even with a 7% SF, it can be stripping without adding bubbles or large sudsing.

You need a higher CO % to counteract the salt water. Using a lower CO % will make the soap harder to lather - most oils in soaps won't lather in salt water, CO is one of the few (I think Babassu is the other) that will lather in salt water. Lowering the CO would give the OP the opposite result of what they want: a soap that lathers easily.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree with amd. It requires a higher CO % not lower. I wouldn't go less than 25% and keep the SF at 6-7%. Especially with cocoa butter in it which can affect lather as well. Castor at 5%.

 

[atiz]

I agree with amd. It requires a higher CO % not lower. I wouldn't go less than 25% and keep the SF at 6-7%. Especially with cocoa butter in it which can affect lather as well. Castor at 5%.

Thank you! Will have to just experiment. Will keep CO at 28 for now and will see if it's too drying.

 

[penelopejane]

You haven’t said how much salt you are going to add. That will make a difference.

 

[smengot0]

You need a higher CO % to counteract the salt water. Using a lower CO % will make the soap harder to lather - most oils in soaps won't lather in salt water, CO is one of the few (I think Babassu is the other) that will lather in salt water. Lowering the CO would give the OP the opposite result of what they want: a soap that lathers easily.

I do believe Coconut Oil (CO), Palm Kernel Oil and Babassu have similar properties? So they should all lather equally? Please correct me if am wrong

 

[atiz]

Well, I did make it last night, unmolded this morning. So far so good. Used about 2.2 oz salt (dissolved in the lye water) for 24 oz oils total. I don't want to use Palm Kernel and don't have Babassu oil.... they might have worked well. Will see in a few weeks how this turned out.

 

[Obsidian]

I do believe Coconut Oil (CO), Palm Kernel Oil and Babassu have similar properties? So they should all lather equally? Please correct me if am wrong

I made a 100% palm kernel salt bar once, it had zero lather. I would stick with coconut or babassu for salt or brine soap.

 

[smengot0]

I made a 100% palm kernel salt bar once, it had zero lather. I would stick with coconut or babassu for salt or brine soap.

That’s interesting info. I have never tried 100% PKO for a salt bar. I have tried a salt bar with PKO at 60%, 20% Avocado Oil, 5% Castor Oil, Canola 15% (available Oils at the time). At 5 days old, I tested a piece of the salt bar and lather was good.

I have learnt from this forum that lather of a salt bar gets better with age. Fingers crossed....

 

[Iluminameluna]

Just an aside:

I've not used a percentage higher than 15% CO in my soaps, not even the ones where I used seawater and I get excellent suds AND bubbles. However, I must add that I have very soft water here. Almost like pure rain water. I don't have municipal water, instead, I belong to a co-op that provides our water from local wells. They add just enough chlorine to make the water potable, but that's it. I just take the water from my above-ground cement cistern and use it straight to make my soaps.
The bars made with salt water are long-lasting even when I use them multiple times throughout the day!
Just an observation, I don't mean to contradict anyone.