Soap is drying my skin

[Traumabrew]

As I have experimented in CP soap making, I have used a variety of oils, but have a base group including OO, CO, PO and shea butter and castor oil then add in 1 or 2 "exotic/luxury oils". Despite running a SF of 5%, I often time find my soaps leaving my skin feel dry. I know CO at high amounts can cause this and have decreased the amount through successive batches. My current base formula is: OO 25%, PO 20%, CO 20%, shea 10%, castor oil 5%. the extra 20% is the other oils at between 5-10% each, depending on what I am making. I also use 1-2 tbsp of sweet almond oil to disperse my colorants, which adds about 1-2 extra oz oil that is not calculated into the lye load. In essence, it is a bit of extra super fatting. I always use sodium lactate at 1 tsp per lb of oil.

I also use a couple different lye calculators and some show the "expected properties" of the soap and usually aim for > 55 in the conditioning column.

If anyone can give me some tips or advice I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[DeeAnna]

Many of us don't use nearly that much coconut oil. I prefer a "cleansing" number (the % of lauric and myristic acids, to be more accurate) between 10% to 15% for typical bath soap, and I usually aim closer to 10% rather than higher. You may need to further reduce or even eliminate the coconut oil.

Why are you using more than one soap calculator? Pick one and stick with it. Soapee.com is one that a lot of people seem to really like.

 

[Susie]

Also, how long are you letting it cure?

 

[penelopejane]

I don't use any coconut oil in the soaps I use personally. I find it too drying at any %.

If you don't take the oil you mix your colourants in out of the batch oil you might end up with coloured sections of soft soap in the middle of non coloured sections of hard soap. Might be an idea to use glycerine if you don't want to take the oil out of the recipe.

 

[Obsidian]

When I first started soaping I always tried to get the conditioning properties high, 60 or above and it wasn't a very good soap. Since then, I found it much more important to keep the cleansing number between 10 and 15.

I suggest you try a simple recipe, no butters or luxury oils until you find a formula that agrees with your skin. This is a good recipe I recommend you try.

55% lard or palm oil, personally, I prefer lard
25% olive or avocado. I like avocado, OO dries my skin
15% coconut
5% castor

 

[reinbeau]

Palm oil can also be drying for some people, I'm one of them - I prefer lard for that reason.

 

[DeeAnna]

I also think Obsidian has a point -- a recipe with 6-7 fats is pretty complicated and it's going to be hard to find the root of this problem. I'd definitely look at the coconut oil %, but as others have point that it could be the shea or the palm or who knows. My favorite recipes use just 3 or sometimes 4 fats -- and I've made pretty nice soap with just 2. Maybe it's time to go simple and build from there.

And I too pretty much ignore the "conditioning" number -- basically that's the % of oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and ricinoleic fatty acids. I don't want a lot of linoleic and linolenic acids in my soap so I don't use fats high in these fatty acids. The ricinoleic comes only from castor, so it's either there or it isn't depending on whether I use castor or not.

Instead I focus on the cleansing number (the combined % of lauric + myristic acids), the % of oleic acid, and the combined % of stearic + palmitic acids (the difference between the hardness and the cleansing numbers).

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Can you describe the feeling? It might be a reaction with hard water leaving a "squeaky clean" feeling

 

[Traumabrew]

It is squeaky clean, almost sticky feeling like there is no oil in the skin.

The additional oils I choose, are low in lauric acid and I thought the SF would combat the drying effect.

 

[DeeAnna]

"... The additional oils I choose, are low in lauric acid and I thought the SF would combat the drying effect. ..."

But if the total lauric and myristic content of the recipe is too high for your skin, then it's too high, regardless of what other fats you use. Soap made from lauric acid and shorter chain fatty acids are irritants to the skin. Fats high in these fatty acids include coconut, palm kernel, babassu, etc.

If your skin is extra sensitive, then any amount of these fats in the recipe may be too much. Not everyone is that sensitive to the point of having to eliminate these fats from their soap. But many are somewhat sensitive, requiring them to minimize the amount of these fats in their recipe.

The Gent has a point -- squeaky clean, sticky may also be a sign of using soap with hard water. That's what soap scum can do.