Shea butter

[Vicki Carr]

2 ?? When adding oils at end ( super fat) love it now that I’m measure and adding right amount I was just pouring little bit (not enough) inalso should just keep it at 5%superfat and I don’t use Shea butter and would like try it as superfat in my c/p soap any suggestions on all this and ty for always helping

 

[Anstarx]

My understanding is that you are asking for suggestion for using shea butter as a superfat (as in you add it last) when mixing?

When doing CP adding a superfat at last doesn't really make sure it will stay there when saponification finished, since the soap will take at least 24-48 hours to finish the chemical reaction.

That being said, shea butter is quite lovely in soaps. I love using it at 10-20%, especially in my facial bars. More than 20% I found it to be a bit brittle or need to maintain a higher temp during soaping.

 

[lsg]

You can try adding the superfat oils in HP after the cook.

 

[Carly B]

It is my understanding that when you are making CP soap, the lye will saponify all the fats, and your superfat will be the percentage of unsaponifiables, you can't just add shea at the end and assume you are superfatting with shea.

I've never done HP, I've heard that's a way to add additional oils. But when I want to add some additional, skin loving oils, I rebatch. I can grate the soap and add some aloe or oat milk and some additional oil (my favs to add are usually kukui nut and/or emu), melt it all together (it gets like oatmeal), then put it in a mold. The bars are lovely and luxurious.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

The fat (triglyceride) part of shea butter is just like any other fat: it'll saponify and give soap. But shea butter also brings quite some unsaponifiables, that are, well, unsaponifiable. That means it doesn't matter if you add them as HP post-cook superfat, as late as possible (at trace, risking serious false trace issues and incomplete mixing), or at the very beginning with the regular batch oils – the unsaponifiables do their magic in any case.