Reverse Engineering Bar Soap

[Michelle La]

Hello All. I’m probably venturing beyond my skill set but my colleague mentioned having sensitive skin and how only a couple of soaps work for him. I thought I might try to make him something he can use but would appreciate advice on a couple of things.

I think I understand what most of the ingredients are in this honey soap that he uses, but one is challenging me.

Linalool: My searches lead me to believe that this is a mild fragrance but is also “an anti-inflammatory and an anti anxiety compound”. I’m thinking I should just leave that out?

Ingredients listed on commercial soap:

What I think they are, and the percentages I ran through soapcalc:
Sodium Olivate - olive oil 55%
Sodium Cocoate - coconut oil 20%
Sodium Shea Butterate - shea butter 10%
Sodium Cocoa Butterate - cocoa butter 10%
Sodium Castorate - castor oil 5%
Aqua - water
Glycerin - glycerin
Mel - honey
Lavandula Angustifolia Oil - lavender EO
Linalool - ???

I’m not looking to duplicate what he already has, just looking for a starting point. Thank you for reading

 

[Firefly24]

Hello All. I’m probably venturing beyond my skill set but my colleague mentioned having sensitive skin and how only a couple of soaps work for him. I thought I might try to make him something he can use but would appreciate advice on a couple of things.

I think I understand what most of the ingredients are in this honey soap that he uses, but one is challenging me.

Linalool: My searches lead me to believe that this is a mild fragrance but is also “an anti-inflammatory and an anti anxiety compound”. I’m thinking I should just leave that out?

Ingredients listed on commercial soap:
View attachment 77425

What I think they are, and the percentages I ran through soapcalc:
Sodium Olivate - olive oil 55%
Sodium Cocoate - coconut oil 20%
Sodium Shea Butterate - shea butter 10%
Sodium Cocoa Butterate - cocoa butter 10%
Sodium Castorate - castor oil 5%
Aqua - water
Glycerin - glycerin
Mel - honey
Lavandula Angustifolia Oil - lavender EO
Linalool - ???

I’m not looking to duplicate what he already has, just looking for a starting point. Thank you for reading

I looked up Linalool and you are correct that it is a fragrance. Looks as it has been developed by many different manufacturers with various components. ie; Basil, thyme, lavender, etc. Ask your colleague if he likes the smell of the soap he is using. Or perhaps he may prefer a new fragrance. It appears that many companies offer it if you decide to add it. Sounds pretty cool. I like to experiment with different items in soap so I say either way it would be awesome. Let us know what you end up doing.

 

[AliOop]

Your ingredients sound fine to me. However, I wouldn't add any glycerin; that is a natural byproduct of saponification.

Linalool is a scent component in lavender. It's possible that additional linalool was added as a separate component. It's also possible this ingredient was listed separately so consumers with sensitivities or contraindications are aware that it is present in the soap due to the use of the lavender EO.

 

[Michelle La]

Your ingredients sound fine to me. However, I wouldn't add any glycerin; that is a natural byproduct of saponification.

Linalool is a scent component in lavender. It's possible that additional linalool was added as a separate component. It's also possible this ingredient was listed separately so consumers with sensitivities or contraindications are aware that it is present in the soap due to the use of the lavender EO.

Aaah, that makes sense. I did see some snippets that mentioned people being sensitive to it. Thanks for the pointer about not adding glycerin, I was about to raid my baking supplies, even though I’m not 100% convinced that glycerin and glycerine are exactly the same thing.

 

[AliOop]

Aaah, that makes sense. I did see some snippets that mentioned people being sensitive to it. Thanks for the pointer about not adding glycerin, I was about to raid my baking supplies, even though I’m not 100% convinced that glycerin and glycerine are exactly the same thing.

Glycerin and glycerine are the same, and both spellings are correct, like favor v favour, etc.

 

[Michelle La]

I looked up Linalool and you are correct that it is a fragrance. Looks as it has been developed by many different manufacturers with various components. ie; Basil, thyme, lavender, etc. Ask your colleague if he likes the smell of the soap he is using. Or perhaps he may prefer a new fragrance. It appears that many companies offer it if you decide to add it. Sounds pretty cool. I like to experiment with different items in soap so I say either way it would be awesome. Let us know what you end up doing.

I decided to leave well enough alone and have just thrown together a sample batch minus glycerin. I did 50/50 lye, then made up the water with dissolved honey and prayed nothing bad would happen. So far nothing bad has happened. And now we wait

 

[Michelle La]

Well this is new. My soap is weeping, a LOT. I’ve read quite a few posts about ‘weeping’ this morning and think this is due to overheating. I’m going to have another go but going to try working on the lye concentration instead of soapcalc’s default 38% water.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Yes - don't use the default. Change it to Lye concentration - 33% That's a good starting point. When you said you made 50/50 lye and then made up the difference wiht honey, it also sounds like you may have used an awful lot of honey? I've never used it myself but from what I've read here, you shouldn't use too much as it will overheat due to the high amount of sugar.
Incidentally just leave this soap for a day or two and it should re-absorb. Don't cover it or it might overheat even more.

 

[Michelle La]

Yes - don't use the default. Change it to Lye concentration - 33% That's a good starting point. When you said you made 50/50 lye and then made up the difference wiht honey, it also sounds like you may have used an awful lot of honey? I've never used it myself but from what I've read here, you shouldn't use too much as it will overheat due to the high amount of sugar.

Thank you! I will try the 33% concentration as you suggest. For the lye soapcalc said I needed 190g water and 70g NaOH. I mixed 70g ice and 70g NaOH, then mixed 20g honey with 120g water, then slowly added that to the lye. I had visions of blowing the roof off my house but thankfully that part was uneventful.

 

[AliOop]

That high amount of water will also contribute to gelling at a lower temperature. I agree with @KiwiMoose's suggestion to use the 33% lye concentration instead.

 

[Michelle La]

That high amount of water will also contribute to gelling at a lower temperature. I agree with @KiwiMoose's suggestion to use the 33% lye concentration instead.

This is try number two, and looking much better. I used the 33% lye concentration as recommend by @KiwiMoose

And yes, I keep uncovering it to peek, which I probably shouldn’t do, but I absolutely can’t help myself, soda ash or no.

 

[AliOop]

Plastic wrap is see-though

 

[Michelle La]

Plastic wrap is see-though

I’m as dumb as a post. That never occurred to me. I also have a couple sheets of acrylic/perspex in my craft supplies. Thank you!

 

[Jorah]

I did a series of honey batches last summer, finally getting to 12% honey to weight of oils (if I recall correctly), meaning to do a series of tests to see if that much honey affected bubbles, etc. but I'm not cut out to be a scientist. I never did the tests and lost interest in the series! It did tell me that you can use a lot more honey than most people think is sensible, but I didn't think much of the soap after all that work. Maybe I'll dig it out later this week and see what it looks like after a year's curing.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I mixed 70g ice and 70g NaOH..."

Late to the party, but here's something to keep in mind for next time:

If you're making 50% NaOH solution using ice as the source of water, be careful about the temperature. The mixture might heat up enough to allow the NaOH to fully dissolve, but it might not.

An NaOH solution at 50% concentration needs to be roughly at room temperature (65F or 22C) or warmer for the NaOH to dissolve fully and stay in solution.

 

[Susie]

Also, let me add that honey was probably used to boost bubbles, and I would love to use it for that. However, every single time I use honey my soap overheats and tried to volcano out of the mold. So, I have to only use silicon molds so that when it starts overheating, I plunge it into a sink of ice water. Yes, that means I have to stand over it for the entire time. Then, once it cools down enough, it starts weeping. I just use sugar now for extra bubbles.

 

[artemis]

Have you tried adding the honey to your oils instead of to the lye water? You can loosen it up by warming it a little in the microwave if necessary and then blend it directly into your oils. I haven't used honey in a while, but that's how I did it and I don't remember having any trouble with overheating.