Soft Soap

[Gaisy59]

Hellooo to all soap makers out there! This is such a coincidence because I was going to send out a soap SOS, and lo and behold I received an email asking where I have been on the forum lol. So life has been very crazy lately and I have not had time to get on board, and now I need some help please.

This is my recipe:
Almond oil 20%
Babassu oil 5%
Canola oil 10%
Coconut oil 15%
Lard 50%

I love this combo and it isnt drying/or as drying on my skin but my soap doesn't stay hard. It almost melts in the shower/bath, and it does not last long. What am I doing wrong?

 

[DeeAnna]

Please give your recipe in weights and include ALL ingredients you used. For example -- how much water or other liquid? How much NaOH or other alkali? Any additives?

How do you make your soap?

Also, how long are you letting the soap cure before using it for bathing?

 

[Gaisy59]

Ok sorry:

Almond oil. 100 gms
Babassu oil. 25 gms
Canola oil. 50 gms
Coconut oil. 75 gms
Lard. 250 gms

Water. 190 gms
Lye. 70.2 gms

 

[Gaisy59]

Also added 15 gms of vanilla essential oil. I hot process my soap and it has cured for over two months now.

 

[DeeAnna]

I hate to tell you this, but there is no such thing as vanilla essential oil. You can have a vanilla absolute, you can have vanilla extract, you can have vanilla fragrance oil, but not vanilla EO. More: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...tricks/the-truth-about-vanilla-essential-oil/

"...my soap doesn't stay hard. It almost melts in the shower/bath, and it does not last long...."

Thank you for sharing your recipe and method -- it really helps!

Your recipe looks fine to me -- superfat is modest, the fat blend is okay -- nothing in the recipe jumps out at me as being a huge problem as far as longevity. You could tweak the recipe so it had more stearic and palmitic acid and a little less oleic acid. That would move the recipe toward being longer lived, but the recipe is quite acceptable as it is right now.

You've cured it for plenty of time, and that's good too.

So a few more questions --

What do you do with the soap bar between uses? Do you lay it on the side of the sink or tub? Do you use a soap drainer? Or ???

When you (and others, if any) use the soap, how do you use it? Some people lather up on a wash cloth or bath pouf. Others lather up with bare hands. Others rub the soap directly against the skin and any body hair.

If you could instantly create an ideal soap, how long would you want that bar of soap to last?

 

[toxikon]

I personally find that my high-lard bars can get sloppy in the shower, especially with a hot humid shower being used twice a day every day. It seems like I can press a finger through it after a hot shower.

I've found that adding some tallow (25%) to my usual recipe helped a lot. You can also add a bit of salt to your recipe for a harder bar, although that won't make it last longer. Palm or tallow seems to help with longevity and hardness.

 

[Ivanstein]

I am guessing here, but...

My most popular recipe is 49% CO, 49% lard and 2% castor oil. 5% superfat in soap calc. Not reserving any oils, just heat them, mix lye in and cook. My lye concentration is 30%.

These bars are very hard and stay quite nice in the shower.

So..it might be your auxiliary oils. Or maybe you are using too low lye concentration and the water already present makes them soft?

 

[Gaisy59]

I hate to tell you this, but there is no such thing as vanilla essential oil. You can have a vanilla absolute, you can have vanilla extract, you can have vanilla fragrance oil, but not vanilla EO. More: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...tricks/the-truth-about-vanilla-essential-oil/

"...my soap doesn't stay hard. It almost melts in the shower/bath, and it does not last long...."

Thank you for sharing your recipe and method -- it really helps!

Your recipe looks fine to me -- superfat is modest, the fat blend is okay -- nothing in the recipe jumps out at me as being a huge problem as far as longevity. You could tweak the recipe so it had more stearic and palmitic acid and a little less oleic acid. That would move the recipe toward being longer lived, but the recipe is quite acceptable as it is right now.

You've cured it for plenty of time, and that's good too.

So a few more questions --

What do you do with the soap bar between uses? Do you lay it on the side of the sink or tub? Do you use a soap drainer? Or ???

When you (and others, if any) use the soap, how do you use it? Some people lather up on a wash cloth or bath pouf. Others lather up with bare hands. Others rub the soap directly against the skin and any body hair.

If you could instantly create an ideal soap, how long would you want that bar of soap to last?

Aha! You are correct. It appears that i used vanilla oleoresin. Also, the bar is used against skin and i have a dish with raised pegs to allow bar to dry between uses. How long do i want it to last? What do you consider reasonable? I would like more than a couple of weeks for sure.

Should i maybe discontinue one of the liquid oils such as the canola? I do like this soap it just seems soft which i can live with i will just have to make more often.

 

[Gaisy59]

I personally find that my high-lard bars can get sloppy in the shower, especially with a hot humid shower being used twice a day every day. It seems like I can press a finger through it after a hot shower.

I've found that adding some tallow (25%) to my usual recipe helped a lot. You can also add a bit of salt to your recipe for a harder bar, although that won't make it last longer. Palm or tallow seems to help with longevity and hardness.

OK i can tweak recipe like Deeana suggested and cut back on lard. Hard to find tallow here. Thanks for input.

 

[penelopejane]

With such small amounts you would have to be very accurate with your measurements. This might not be so important in a HP soap.
I'd also try a different EO.

Sorry I mistook Canola for Castor Oil. Canola won't make it soft but may encourage DOS. Castor above 5% could make soap soft.

 

[SudsanSoaps]

Any chance your bathroom stays very humid? I have a similar recipe and problem. Also my shave soap basically turns to a liquid.

 

[Gaisy59]

Bathroom could be humid for first couple of hours of day as we are all taking showers for work. But rest of the day remains dry.

 

[Gaisy59]

I am going to try tweaking the recipe as suggested:

Almond oil 100 gm
babassu 75 gm
coconut 75
lard 250 gm

water 190 gm
lye 72.2 gm

Sodium citrate

A little less conditioning and a little harder. Also one less ingredient so let's see if keeping it simpler helps a little.

 

[SaltedFig]

The other tweak you might want to look at trying is increasing your lye concentration to around 30%.

By using the default water as a percentage of oils, you are starting out with a lot of water for your recipe, which might make a difference at 8-9 weeks cure.

Using lye concentration, at whatever percentage you find you like to work with (a lot of people like 33.3% for it's easy 2:1 math and workability), will also give you more control when formulating recipes.

 

[BattleGnome]

How long do i want it to last? What do you consider reasonable? I would like more than a couple of weeks for sure.

Could you define “a couple of weeks?” My bars tend to last around 3 weeks at a 3.5/4oz size - that’s perfect for me. I’m not sure enjoyable/useable handmade soap could last too much longer (maybe a month tops) without getting too waxy and cutting down lather.

(I just want to make sure everyone is using the same longevity expectations, we’ve had communication errors in other threads)

 

[DeeAnna]

Taking the canola out and putting it into the coconut or babassu is not going to give you any longer lasting bar.

If you want to tweak to increase longevity, you need to increase the stearic and palmitic acids in the recipe. That means increasing the lard or including another fat high in these fatty acids, such as palm, tallow, and/or butters -- cocoa, shea, etc.

"How long do i want it to last? What do you consider reasonable? I would like more than a couple of weeks for sure."

Well, it doesn't really matter what I think is reasonable. It's what you think is reasonable, which is why I wanted to know your expectations and wanted to know how you use the bar when bathing.

If you use your soap like I do to take a single daily shower of 3-5 minutes using a soft washcloth, a bar will probably last three-four weeks assuming the bar is well cured, weighs around 4 ounces (120 grams) or so, and can stay dry between uses. If you bathe by rubbing the bar directly against abundant body hair or let it sit in a puddle of water or make smaller sized bars or bathe longer or more often, you probably won't get that life span.

I think Battle Gnome has a good point in that one needs to balance the other qualities of a bar against longevity. I like a soap that lasts a reasonable amount of time, but I'm as or more interested in a soap that lathers nicely. Those two qualities work against each other to some degree, so I try to find a compromise that gives me the best of both worlds.