review this recipe please

[Amal Sudhakaran]

 

[AliOop]

Thanks for posting the entire recipe - that is very helpful for giving feedback. Also, good job on starting with a nice small batch of only 1000g. You could even go down to 500g for testing; that makes 4-5 bars.

Here are my thoughts about everything else:

1. Change your lye setting from water as percent of oils to lye concentration. That will make it easier to adjust water higher or lower as needed, and to keep a consistent viscosity between batches of different sizes. Setting the lye concentration at 33% is a good starting place for beginners.

2. Reduce your superfat to 5% to lower the amount of soap scum and potential for rancidity.

3. Soap made with this much palm oil is going to feel like a piece of plastic your hand. With that much coconut oil, it's also very high on the cleansing value, which could make the skin feel tight and dry (and might be why you set the superfat so high). Honestly, I don't think people would like this much.

Can you add any kind of liquid oil, or do you have access to any butters or animal fats? Here is a suggestion:

40% liquid oil (olive, sunflower, avocado, sweet almond safflower, rice bran, sunflower)
35% palm oil (you could also use lard or tallow)
20% coconut oil (you could also use babassu, or palm kernel oil - not the same as palm oil)

33% lye concentration, 5% SF. Dissolve 1 T of plain white sugar in your distilled water before you add the NaOH. This will help the soap to lather more easily (but will not show that in the soap calculator).

 

[artemis]

40% liquid oil (olive, sunflower, avocado, sweet almond safflower, rice bran, sunflower)
35% palm oil (you could also use lard or tallow)
20% coconut oil (you could also use babassu, or palm kernel oil - not the same as palm oil)

33% lye concentration, 5% SF. Dissolve 1 T of plain white sugar in your distilled water before you add the NaOH. This will help the soap to lather more easily (but will not show that in the soap calculator).

And the remaining 5% can be castor oil, or could be more liquid oil or palm oil.

 

[AliOop]

And the remaining 5% can be castor oil, or could be more liquid oil or palm oil.

Haha, good catch!

 

[artemis]

Haha, good catch!

I redid the math about 5 times before I was sure there was a mistake...

 

[AliOop]

I redid the math about 5 times before I was sure there was a mistake...

Me + Math = Many Mistakes

 

[Geetika]

which is a better parameter ? 33% lye concentration or water:lye ratio 2:1?

 

[AliOop]

which is a better parameter ? 33% lye concentration or water:lye ratio 2:1?

They are the same thing, expressed two different ways. While lye concentration seems to be used more frequently, you should use the one that makes the most sense to you.

 

[KimLynn]

which is a better parameter ? 33% lye concentration or water:lye ratio 2:1?

Elly’s Everyday Soapmaking on YouTube has a good video which explains the differences in how lye is expressed in Soapcalc.