shea butter soap

[awi]

I am wanting to try and make a bar of soap with shea butter in it. I have a bar of shea soap that I love and the ingredient list is palm oil, palm kernal oil, water, vegetable glycerin and essential oils. My question is could I substitute the water with goats milk and could I use coconut oil in place of the palm kernal oil? I have no idea how much vegetable glycerine or shea butter to use. Any suggestions???
:?

 

[opalgirl]

I have a shea recipe that my friends love! I don't use more than 30% shea.

Superfat 10%

Shea Butter 30%
Olive 25%
Coconut 20%
Crisco 10%
Palm 10%
Avocado 10%

 

[ausckirk]

Hello opaigirl,

This is an interesting recipe. For some reason, I was under the impression that it was best to keep the Shea Butter content low (5%-10%) range. I do not know where I got this impression but it looks wrong.

I have been very happy with my soap using Shea at the 5% level but am now curious about trying higher levels. Any guidance on soap characteristics with shea at mid levels (10%, 20%)? How did you get to the 30% shea number?

//ausckirk

 

[honor435]

i love shea in my soap, I only use it at 10-15%, I find if I use more I lose some of the bubbles,
go on soap calc and play around with some numbers and see what you like?

 

[rubyslippers]

I thought that was a high percentage of shea also especially with such a high superfat but I am very intrigued by the recipe and am going to try it. Haven't run it through soap calc yet but am curious to see the numbers. Thanks opalgirl for sharing the recipe.

 

[opalgirl]

I honestly don't think I ran it through soap calc. lol It was one of my 'messing around' recipes. I think when making it I meant to use 20% but mistakenly used 30% in recipe. All I know is that I personally love it! I have a friend with very dry skin who used it. One day she came in to work and without even saying hello said "I HAVEN'T ITCHED IN 3 DAYS!" LOL (You can imagine the eyebrows that were raised lol) I have other friends who really like it as well. I use a bath pouf with all my soaps so i'm not sure what the lather is like without one. I guess the coconut, crisco and palm help with the lather. :wink:

 

[opalgirl]

One more thing, I let it cure for 6 weeks before using it.

 

[soapsmurf]

I've read that the upper limit for shea content in soaps is ~28%, but it sounds like opalgirl's soap is a hit, so I'd give it a go.

 

[opalgirl]

Now you've all got me worried :? lol I've made 5 batches using this recipe starting in January and so far no problems.

 

[TessC]

I just went and pulled out my 75/25 co/shea QC bar (I save one bar of each batch to see how it ages) and it's fine, was made 6/15/09.

 

[opalgirl]

whoops that doesn't add up to 100% LOL. It's 5% Palm.

Hardness 41
Cleansing 13
Condition 56
Bubbly 13
Creamy 27
Iodine 63
INS 138



Summary of values:
Hardness 29 to 54
Cleansing 12 to 22
Condition 44 to 69
Bubbly lather 14 to 46
Creamy lather 16 to 48
Iodine 41 to 70 (lower = harder bar)
INS 136 to 170 (higher = harder bar)

Other than the cleansing the numbers are decent. But I do tell people it is a super conditioning bar.

 

[NancyRogers]

I may have to try your recipe. I also have super dry skin. Thanks for sharing!