I figured out my favorite recipe after I find this forum. Before I "came" here I was cooking only small amounts of soaps (well... really small amounts) and with lye prepared in my faculty lab by technicians.
After I red your posts I figured out why I never couldn‘t achieve to make the same soap twice. My batches were just too small and I couldn‘t play with ingredients.
I made a lot of soaps last month and I finally achieved the quality of soap I was searching for.
So here is the recipe:
10% lard
40% olive oil
20% palm oil
25% coconut oil
5% unrefined beeswax
Lye discount 5% at start, it reaches the 7 - 10% discount, depending on what ingredients I put after the soap is cooked.
I add extra amount of water at the start so the soap is easy to work with.
I also add a tablespoon of sea salt in the lye water before adding the lye. It makes soap to be very consistent.
Despite I am using the HP process I find that it is VERY important to wait for oils and lye to cold on 40 - 50 degrees Celsius before mixing it together. I first mix them well with spoon and than I am using a blender.
After achieving only the light trace I put the pot in the oven at about 100 degrees Celsius. After 15 minutes I lower the heat at 70 degrees Celsius.
The soap is cooked usually after one or two hours, depending of it amounts.
After the soaps is cooked I leave it for half an hour to calm and to get colder, steering it occasionally. After it is cold enough for me to handle it on my hand without getting burned, I add the yoghurt (about 10% of whole water amount ) and Aloe Vera gell (the same amount as youghurt).
After few minutes of steering I add oils for supperfatting. My favorite oil to add is castor oil but I like the grape seeds oil as well though it has short life and these soaps should be used within 3 months.
At the and I am adding my EOs and FOs. My favorite combination is Patchouli-Orange-Lemon-Vanilla, but this is not the part of recipe but rather matter of your individual preferences.
If I want to make swirls I separate an amounts of soap after adding all common ingredients, and than add to it natural color, cacao powder or whatever.
After cutting this soap has to cure for few days since it has extra liquid and needs some time to get ride of it.
The vegetable version of this soap you can make by replacing lard with same amount of hard vegetable oil. But I prefer to replace it partly coconut oil (50% of lard amount) and partly with lower grade olive oil.
The soap is creamy and silky, yet hard enough not to dissolve quick... and it makes great lather.
That‘s it. I would probably never make it without great help from people here. So, thank you all
