soap feels drying

[Nite Hawk]

about EOs...
I was going to say, that some EOs in their straight form ( not sure how it would be in soap) when applied to the skin can cause temporary sun sensitivities, and bleaching. I have heard stories of I think it was some citrus oils can cause the skin to bleach out if applied directly to skin and then someone going out in the sun. I hear it is supposed to be okay if say one waits over night or something before going in the sun..
Don't know a lot about it, but I have heard some people discuss that problem before..

 

[artemis]

Quote----Oh, try it! Just do a small batch. What could go wrong?
ummmmmm possibly lots!!!LOL LOL

That's why I experiment with small batches. That way, the mistake is only about 4 bars.

 

[Obsidian]

about EOs...
I was going to say, that some EOs in their straight form ( not sure how it would be in soap) when applied to the skin can cause temporary sun sensitivities, and bleaching. I have heard stories of I think it was some citrus oils can cause the skin to bleach out if applied directly to skin and then someone going out in the sun. I hear it is supposed to be okay if say one waits over night or something before going in the sun..
Don't know a lot about it, but I have heard some people discuss that problem before..

citrus oils can cause blistering if applied before going in the sun. This is why I won't citrus EO's in lotion. They are fine in soap though.

 

[iwannasoap]

I had a thought so I looked it up to see if it was correct. This is what I found it sounds reasonable to me.

Quote: "I'd say it was probable, the higher concentration of salt outside the cells of the skin that the solution's applied to will cause water to move out of the skin cells by osmosis, leading to its loss via evaporation. Hence dry, rough skin.
I hope i helped ".
It was mainly talking about salt being applied outside the skin in a solution but salt is in your bar and it is outside of the skin hence, maybe you have too much salt. I would think it should only take less then a gram when you put it in your oils. I just recently put 1/2 gram walnut shells in my loaf. It was plenty in fact I could have gone a little less.

 

[Nite Hawk]

So you are saying you think there is too much salt in the recipe??

 

[lenarenee]

So you are saying you think there is too much salt in the recipe??

The top most part of your skin is the stratum corneum = dead keratinized cells.
The salt won't affect their function - because they aren't functioning.

 

[Nite Hawk]

I am thinking I am going to drop the cleansing even further.. When I started out-- no one told me, I had a soap that was 22 in cleansing, ( no salt) and yes it was waaay to strong.. Took along time to sit and cure and then it was better, but not great. I dropped the cleansing to 17 and that helped even more. I have now started adding salt so as to have a decent hardness. I am thinking of dropping back the salt a bit, and trying Obsidian's recipe, with a cleansing of around 14, as soon as I get a new scale.
That is in the works, but when you live in a remote location, local stores don't always have what you want and you have to order things in.. And no, Purolator courier don't do door to door deliveries anymore in our remote location , so fast deliveries usually don't happen too often here..

 

[penelopejane]

If you wash in only sea water for 2 weeks you skin will be silky smooth. It takes that long to get past the scratchy salt-left-on-your-skin feel but it works.

Using a properly cured salt bar (50% plus) leaves your skin soft and silky smooth.

You don't have too much salt in your recipe.

The soap calculator numbers for 'cleansing" are irrelevant.
Adjust the type and % of oils in your recipe and test it then adjust again.
It's really simple. Remove all coconut and PKO and add back at 5% or not at all. Some people find palm oil drying too.

 

[Nite Hawk]

I find sea salt water very irritating to my skin..
burns like fierce, and my skin isn't that sensitive..

 

[penelopejane]

I find sea salt water very irritating to my skin..
burns like fierce, and my skin isn't that sensitive..

Yes a lot of people do. If you wash in salt water only for 2 weeks you will not get any irritation. Ask a sailor.

 

[neonstudy]

You should make a small batch with much lower cleansing. You could go for 0, just for reference. I have multiple bars this way, with no coconut or PKO. You'll never know until you try. I definitely prefer an under range cleansing number for myself, like 5, but I feel weird selling soap like that, so for selling I do cleansing 12 for my milk soaps, and maybe 15 for vegan soaps.

 

[Nite Hawk]

Do you notice much difference in the "stripping" action between a "12" and a "15"?

 

[Dahila]

I have all my soaps not more than 14, but some are higher superfat when I add fruit puree (ie Avocado) I am extra sensitive and also age is not helping at all
With cleansing of 14 I like my skin after washing not very often I use lotion after bath

 

[Nite Hawk]

The other day we had an accident in the barn and had to take care of an injured animal. ( no idea whatsoever what happened, she has been taken care of properly and is on the mend. )
By the time the animal was properly taken care of, I had plenty of mud, blood and "other stuff" all over the place. will a cleansing of 14 remove all that mess as well as a stronger soap??

 

[penelopejane]

The other day we had an accident in the barn and had to take care of an injured animal. ( no idea whatsoever what happened, she has been taken care of properly and is on the mend. )
By the time the animal was properly taken care of, I had plenty of mud, blood and "other stuff" all over the place. will a cleansing of 14 remove all that mess as well as a stronger soap??

I don't think the cleansing numbers on the soap calcs mean anything DeeAnna has a much better system-check her links. I'm sick or I'd try and find it for her.

30/30/30/10 palm/olive/coconut/castor will get you squeaky clean and I know farmers who love it!

I find CO drying but that's just my skin.
Except for my salt bar which is 20-30% CO and it leaves my skin ultra soft and conditioned.

 

[DeeAnna]

The stories that I have been told is that when one gets their cleansing numbers waaaaay down the soap becomes a "grease glob".

You're talking about soap made with too much superfat. This issue has nothing to do with the "cleansing" number of the recipe.

...So you figure that if I get the PKO and coconut in the 9--12 % range instead of the 17 % range it should mild the soap down??....

It is the overall blend of fats that is important to making a mild soap. But reducing the PKO and coconut oil may do a lot to help this problem, especially if your skin is sensitive to soap made from these fats.

...will a cleansing of 14 remove all that mess as well as a stronger soap??

In a word, yes. The "cleansing" number is utterly mis-named -- it is NOT a definitive sign of how well the soap actually cleans the skin. This number is simply the total % of lauric and myristic fatty acids in the soap.

Soap made with these fatty acids, myristic especially, has the property of being able to dissolve the proteins and fats IN the stratum corneum (the non-living surface layer of your skin). Essentially a high "cleansing" soap can cause increasing dryness, tightness, redness, and even irritation with ongoing use. This ability to "strip" the skin will be especially obvious if one's skin is already dry, sensitive, or damaged.

IMO, the combined lauric + myristic percentage (the cleansing number, if you will) has very little to do about the soap's ability to effectively remove dirt and grease on the surface of the skin. It is more about the soap's ability to remove the skin's normal protective defenses, especially if your skin is sensitive.

Personal preferences, skin condition, and local water quality all vary, so the soap that feels best and works best for you may not be the soap that I will like. No other person can give you all the answers that will "save" you from having to discover for yourself what you do like and what you don't.

 

[cmzaha]

The stories that I have been told is that when one gets their cleansing numbers waaaaay
down the soap becomes a "grease glob".

I keep my cleansing in the 5-10% with no resulting grease globs, using a very low superfat. Zero superfat for the 5% cleansing, keeping in mind without knowing exact SAP values you cannot know 100% what your superfat actually is. All calculators to my knowledge use averages, and I have never had a zappy soap using a 0 superfat using Soapee or Soapcalc

 

[bathgeek]

Even 100% OO soap can be really cleansing if you use young soap. XD. A tester who tried some barely-1-month soap commented that it cleaned magic marker off her kid.

 

[Nite Hawk]

I did finally get a new scale, have to try to decipher the directions, sounds like it was written by a non-English speaker, and is quite confusing. Also had some family emergencies, so haven't had time to try soap making again... hopefully will have time in the next few days..
Am going to try reducing the PKO/Coco, and was wondering if I should very slightly increase the superfat from 5% to say6-7% to increase the soap's "softening" effect, or would that be too high?
thanks....