Recipes needed for hard bars of soap

[stationdragon]

Hi,
I'm fairly new to soapmaking and have only been practising for about 3 months. I made the first recipe from the everything soapmaking book which I believe was about 40/60 coconut oil to olive oil (or somewhere close). After plenty of curing I have a lovely bar of soap that produces very large fluffy bubbles and I'm very pleased with, it feels lovely and velvety on the skin and is barely drying at all. My problem is that it just collapses in the soap dish and turns to mush after a few days. What recipes do you experienced soapies recommend for a hard bar of soap which is also moisturising and pleasant to use that people will come back for time and time again? Because even though this soap is a delight on the skin, no-ones going to want to keep buying more if it just turns to mush so quickly. I need a soap with a higher integrity

 

[judymoody]

Hi Travis, CP soap will tend to dissolve more quickly than the commercial stuff. However, if it's turning to mush, that's not good. Are you using a well draining soap dish and keeping it dry between uses?

High % olive oil soaps can be vulnerable to dampness or what many call "the slime factor." I had a 6 month old bar of pure Castille that I tried out and the surface got all mushy just sitting in the soap dish - kind of like snot. I dried it out and it was fine. With 40% coconut oil in your recipe, however, this shouldn't be the case. If you soaped with full water (looking back at some earlier posts of yours, I suspect you did), it may just need to cure some more.

For a more long lasting bar, I would try using palm or lard - maybe at 30% of your recipe, 30% coconut, and 40% olive oil and see how that fares. Cocoa butter at 5-10% of your recipe can also make a difference.

Also, not to be discouraging, but given where you are in your soap making journey, you shouldn't be considering who might buy your soap. You should probably have at least a year of intensive soaping under your belt before considering a soap business. Developing a reliable basic soap recipe is a good start towards that goal but it's just the beginning.

 

[stationdragon]

Thank you for your reply. Actually we have no soap dish here, just the one built into the sink which tends to get a bit waterlogged so I'm sure this is the issue here.I can pass on this advice I can pass on to customers, perhaps offering the sale of soap dishes to those who don't own them. Still it doesn't hurt to try to make a harder bar, providing it doesn't end up drying.
I shall give your advice a go using palm oil, I shan't be using lard as I plan to use no animal products in my cosmetics (thanks to my vegan friend) and I'll look more into butters. I plan to have plenty of these on hand for making body butters so I'm sure I can experiment.
About your advice concerning "business" I do appreciate what you said but do not worry yourself, I don't plan on having a cosmetics business for quite some time (at least 18 months), I just plan to start as I mean to go on. I'm a perfectionist through and through and I will not have an inferior product so I'm currently in the process of creating my product list and perfecting each recipe long before assessments, insurance and registration. I don't even have a business name yet I'm that much of a perfectionist (after 5 months not 3, of planning and preparing this business).
Aside from that, I'll put your advice to good use and see how it fares.
Thanks again,

Travis x

 

[new12soap]

I have started putting all my handmade soaps on a sponge. I just put a pretty sponge on the soap dish by my sink or in the shower and that drains the water away and keep the bar nice and dry and hard.

Using harder oils and butters will definitely help a great deal. I sometimes use stearic acid, too, at 1/8 to 1/4 tsp ppo. Melt the stearic acid separately and add after trace, it will accelerate FAST. HTH

eta be sure to add the stearic acid to your lye calculator, too.