Soap hardening

[kooldad]

Ok, now having made a bunch of batches of soap, I'm ready to start tweaking this recipe a bit. So far, I really like how my goats milk soap turns out. The first batch I made is just about cured for 4 weeks.

One thing I would like to improve is the hardness of the soap. The recipe has about 1/4 coconut oil which is supposed to be good for hardness and produce a good lather. I've read not to go any beyond 1/3 coconut oil because it can be drying to the skin.

The recipe is also about 1/4 vegetable shortening which is also supposed to help with hardness. Should I consider replacing the vegetable shortening with something like palm oil or palm kernel oil?

The recipe also contains olive oil. One site I researched said olive oil produces a hard bar and another said it didn't.

Is there anything else I can add to the soap to help increase its hardness without losing the luxurious feel of nice lather?

 

[CPSoaper]

Vegetable oil won't produce a bar as hard as palm oil or palm kernel oil will. Palm is good sub for lard if you want a vegetable bar. Vegetable oil gives you more of a conditioning bar with more stable lather. that it does a hard bar

You can also add babassu oil, lard, lanolin or bees wax to help make for a harder bar. Bees wax can decrease the lathers as I'm sure any other wax you might use might do. Sodium lactate and a bit of sugar in your lye water are another way to get a harder bar.