Shea enthusiasts?

[LadyM]

My basic recipe is Sandy Maine's olive, coconut, crisco
(I'm moving to hydrogenated soy only soon!)
but I really want to try incorporating shea butter into this recipe.

I'll do my own experimentation of course, but I'm wondering if any of you shea enthusiasts might have any wonderful wisdom to share about using this butter?

Thanks soo much!! Happy Friday!

PS I did a search but it was hard to find specific stuff!

 

[AmyW]

I'm not an expert But I keep reading to add shea and/or cocoa butter to an existing recipe, to replace 5-10% of other hard oils, some even up to 25%. Run it through a soap calculator to figure which one is best replaced.

 

[judymoody]

I'd keep it at no more than 10% to start. I gel my soaps but I have heard that if you don't gel soap with high shea that you can get a lot of ash. But that's just what I've read somewhere, not my personal experience. It's nice stuff. Enjoy!

 

[tomara]

I use shea butter in a recipe of mine at 10 percent. I have not tried any higher.

 

[reallyrita]

I love using shea butter in soaps. I have noticed that it can accelerate trace somewhat so be careful with those faster moving FOs.

 

[Bama]

I put shea butter in all my soap at trace. I melt in the microwave and then add two Tspb of powdered milk stir into soap mix.
We love it

 

[LadyM]

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[NewSoapGuy]

I'm a big fan of shea butter and use it in some of my soaps from 10% all the way up to 30%. It does seem to accelerate trace just a wee bit, and it can contribute to ash even if you do gel unless you take appropriate precautions (covers and beeswax). If you are using shea and beeswax though, be prepared to work really fast!

While it's not the cheapest base oil/butter, I believe that the "skin-feel" it gives the soap as a base oil/butter is well worth the cost.

 

[LadyM]

I'm a big fan of shea butter and use it in some of my soaps from 10% all the way up to 30%.

While it's not the cheapest base oil/butter, I believe that the "skin-feel" it gives the soap as a base oil/butter is well worth the cost.

Can shea be used as part of the base oil part? I thought it was unsaponifiable so just for superfatting .. not true?

 

[NewSoapGuy]

Can shea be used as part of the base oil part? I thought it was unsaponifiable so just for superfatting .. not true?

While it is true that a higher percentage of shea butter is unsaponifiable than many base oils, it does contain plenty of fatty acids that are saponifiale, mostly stearic and oleic.

 

[FloridaSoaper]

I have added shea in my recipe recently at 4%...I'm finding that the soap feels much stickier when I unmold it, where if I only use cocoa, it may be a little sticky because it's freshly-unmolded cp...but there is a difference... The stuff I have now is refined, but over the summer I soaped with Anne L. Watson's shea recipe from her book...it has a TON of shea in it, but I used unrefined, and the soap seemed to be less sticky. Anyone else notice this difference? Maybe it's just me...

 

[ministeph]

I love my shea butter, and i LOVE adding it to my soap! it made such a huge difference at even 4%. It adds to the hardness of the soap and makes it less drying .

ONE word of advice though, I started using shea butter as a moisturizer as well.. just naturally as it is. Its great on your lips and legs etc.. even though its a bit oily.. but seriously.. DO NOT RUB SHEA BUTTER ON ANY ACNE PRONE AREAS.

I do not have troublesome skin, but since it is winter i started rubbing in some shea butter on my face/back/chest area before I went to sleep. I guess the 'extra oil' sitting on my skin was a bad idea.. I have never EVER had such a break out in my life and it took over 3 weeks to get it under control!!! I'm not sure if this is everyone experience, but it clogged up my pores horribly, maybe TMI, but I could actually see the never ending amount of blackheads/clogged pores.

 

[dubnica]

I love shae butter but I do not use it in my soap. I use it on my lips and legs and feet and in my lip balms.

 

[SudsyKat]

Wow! Thanks for the tip about shea breakouts! I'll keep that in mind. I've typically used shea at anywhere from 6 - 10% in CP soap, and I do gel. I love most of the soaps I've made so far, and I have rarely made any without shea, so I can't really compare. I do think it helps to create a luxurious feeling bar.

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

We don't use actual shea butter but fractionated shea oil. If the shea butter gets to hot it can get grainy and we wanted to avoid that. The soap is much softer than any others we have made but so luxurious. The shea oil is higher in conditioning properties than the butter.

 

[LadyM]

I love my shea butter, and i LOVE adding it to my soap! it made such a huge difference at even 4%. It adds to the hardness of the soap and makes it less drying

This is great, thanks everyone!
Ministeph, do you use refined or unrefined? How about you all?

Has anyone else tried shea oil?

 

[Simplyangelic]

We don't use actual shea butter but fractionated shea oil. If the shea butter gets to hot it can get grainy and we wanted to avoid that. The soap is much softer than any others we have made but so luxurious. The shea oil is higher in conditioning properties than the butter.

Not strictly true.

Grainy shea butter usually occurs when you melt it, then allow to cool. Crystals form, hence the grainy feel.
This wouldn't happen in soap though

 

[opalgirl]

My shea bar has 30% shea and it's wonderful! I get compliments on it all time. No problems at all.

 

[judymoody]

Unrefined has a distinct odor. I use the refined kind.

And while you're at it, if you're going to put some shea in the mix, you might want to try a different base recipe. I was not really impressed with Sandy Maine's single recipe. There are tons to choose from on Kathy Miller's soap page (www.millersoap.com) They are fairly large recipes but you can scale them down. As always, run through a lye calculator before proceeding.

Good luck!

 

[SudsyKat]

I've used shea butter in almost all of my soaps, at about 5-10% (I even made one with a higher shea content) and I've never seen any graininess. And in fact, I start with shea that's already grainy (it came that way from the supplier), but it melts beautifully with the other oils and makes a creamy smooth soap. I love shea