Soap dough troubles

[LozSoaper]

Hi everyone,

New soaper here! I'm trying to make vegan, palm free bars with soap dough figures on the top. I'm currently having some problems with the soap dough, as it seems to be a very soft, sticky consistency (it's kind of like working with marshmallow fluff!) I've read a bunch of stuff, some of which says that you can just use your regular soap recipe and let it dry out, which is what I've done. I left it covered over night and then wrapped it in plastic wrap. When I took it out today it is still not workable. I've left my soap out uncovered for nearly 3 hours now hoping it will dry a little, but it still has the same consistency. I'm trying to work out where I've gone wrong!!

My recipe is:

Water : 450g
Lye: 165g
Oils: 1190g
- Coconut: 357g
- Shea: 179g
- Olive: 476g
- Rice bran: 60g
- Castor: 119g

I worked out the recipe using a lye calculator, though if you think it may be fundamentally flawed I would love to know. I really want to perfect my soap making and any advice from people more experienced than me would be very much appreciated

 

[glendam]

In my experience, not all soap recipes work well for soap dough. I started with the recipes from sorcery soap (the free one is not vegan though, but she has others that are, in her books). I always cover my soap dough after making it and start using it after 3 days. The recipe, colorants, water amount and humidity affect the consistency. I started using my own recipe for soap dough which works if I decrease the amount of water (not vegan though). I would suggest checking her blog, website, books or fb group for a vegan starting recipe and tips.

 

[sarahmarah]

I went with the free recipe from Lovin Soap.
Worked pretty well for me.
https://www.lovinsoap.com/2017/08/a-vegan-and-palm-free-soap-dough-recipe-soap-clay/

 

[Relle]

LozSoaper, please go to the Introduction Forum and tell us about yourself and your soaping journey as you are new to the forum.

 

[GemstonePony]

If I understand correctly, your recipe is:
31.2% Coconut
12.2% Shea
41.6% Olive
5.2% Rice Bran
9.7% Castor

Which is extremely high in unsaturated fat. Coconut readily turns to liquid in water, as does I believe every other ingredient in there except Shea butter. I would up the Shea butter and possibly add cocoa butter, and lower the Olive and Coconut oils.
I took a screenshot of your recipe in the Soap Calculator, and right above the graph it gives the percentage of each common fatty acid. You'll want to get your combined percentages of stearic and palmitic fatty acids in the 25 - 30 range, right now they total 17.

 

[LozSoaper]

Wow thanks so much for your help everyone! I used a soap calculator when I initially made the recipe but really appreciate the help. I thought I'd gone wrong somewhere!!!! I remade the soap dough again using a recipe today after your advice so fingers crossed. And gemstone really appreciate you looking at my recipe, I'll get back on the calculator!!

Many thanks