Sticky feeling after washing hands

[Candle Guy]

Hello everybody,

Ok I know that my soap needs to sit for a month or so but after about 10 days I decided to sample a piece. I kind of just wanted to experiment a bit. So I washed my hands with a piece of the soap I made and it lathered up really well and felt very moisturizing while rinsing. Right after I dried my hands off with a towel, my skin started to feel almost sticky. Then about a minute later the stickiness feeling disappeared and my hands went back to normal. No burn or sting in fact they feel great. So what could be causing this stickiness? Is this normal? Any ideas? Thanks everyone

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Hello everybody,

Ok I know that my soap needs to sit for a month or so but after about 10 days I decided to sample a piece. I kind of just wanted to experiment a bit. So I washed my hands with a piece of the soap I made and it lathered up really well and felt very moisturizing while rinsing. Right after I dried my hands off with a towel, my skin started to feel almost sticky. Then about a minute later the stickiness feeling disappeared and my hands went back to normal. No burn or sting in fact they feel great. So what could be causing this stickiness? Is this normal? Any ideas? Thanks everyone

It would help if we knew what your recipe is. Because without it we would just be guessing without any data to work with.

 

[Candle Guy]

Ok 75% olive oil
20% coconut oil
5% Castor oil
5% superfat
Water 4.89
Lye 2.20
Fragrance .50%

 

[Candle Guy]

Here is the recipe on paper. Probably easier this way

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I would say that the amount of olive oil that you have in it is what is causing, plus with only 10 days curing there is still a lot of water in the oil. With 100% OO (castile) it can take 6-12 months for the soap to fully cure and since you have 75% OO you can expect at least 3 months before all that goes away.

 

[Candle Guy]

Yikes that is a long time lol. So are there any quicker curing recipes for a beginner that you know of or suggest? Thanks for the info also

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Here is one that I use, you can alter the way you want it

You can use after about 30 days but the longer you curve it the better.

 

[moodymama]

Here is the recipe on paper. Probably easier this way

I made this recipe for my soap color pucks but I used 40% lye concentration and don't get any sticky feel. I did wash my hands with one next day just to see what it was like.

 

[Candle Guy]

Thank you Todd I appreciate it.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Thank you Todd I appreciate it.

No problem and if you want to use olive oil just use it instead of the safflower oil. I wouldn't go above 30% olive oil or you will need a longer cure time. You can also lower your super fat to 2 or 3% and that will help.

 

[Candle Guy]

Awesome I will try that. Not sure where to find palm kernel flakes. I am lost when.it comes to what ingredients to add and what does what? Lol

Also what kind of lard to use? When I hear lard I hear crisco lmao

 

[atiz]

Awesome I will try that. Not sure where to find palm kernel flakes. I am lost when.it comes to what ingredients to add and what does what? Lol

You don't absolutely need palm kernel flakes (I have never used it). You can replace it with coconut oil, but I would not go higher than 20% total with that.
Lard you can find in the grocery store usually, or local butcher shop (here they even sell it at the farmers' market). It makes a very nice soap.
So, you could have CO 20%, lard 40%, some liquid oil or two 35%, castor oil 5%. That would be a pretty decent soap; of course you would need to run it through a soap calc.

 

[IrishLass]

Re: the stickiness......you may very well be experiencing the feel of the naturally occurring glycerin present within your soap that's created through the saponification process (which is normally somewhere between 10% and 15%), especially if you are used to washing with commercial soaps and this is your first time using handmade lye-based soap (commercial soaps usually remove the glycerin).

For what it's worth, what you described is exactly how my hands feel when I wash with my handmade liquid soap made with glycerin as part of the water amount. The excess glycerin causes my hands to feel a little sticky/tacky for about 10 to 15 seconds or so before disappearing.


IrishLass

 

[Candle Guy]

Thanks Lass so it kind of sounds normal I suppose?

 

[DeeAnna]

Glycerin is certainly a possibility -- I know what IL is talking about. Another thing it might be is hard water scum.

Soap + hard water minerals = soap scum which can also feel sticky on the skin.

I'm not sure if I could tell whether the sticky feel is glycerin or scum just by just washing my hands. I'd have to use it in the shower to get more skin involved in the experiment.

 

[Candle Guy]

I will attempt a shower next and see where that goes lol. I will also have to do some research I suppose and see what each oil and ingredient to add for what and how they perform. I want my soap making to remain simplistic for now yet I do not want 6 month cure times either. I have to find some lard now. I was just grocery shopping and asked if they had lard but they said no. I think Target might sell lard? I saw online that there is lard in a bottle.

 

[moodymama]

I will attempt a shower next and see where that goes lol. I will also have to do some research I suppose and see what each oil and ingredient to add for what and how they perform. I want my soap making to remain simplistic for now yet I do not want 6 month cure times either. I have to find some lard now. I was just grocery shopping and asked if they had lard but they said no. I think Target might sell lard? I saw online that there is lard in a bottle.

Walmart sells 4lb tub of lard for $7.

 

[Candle Guy]

Thank you Moody. Thank you to everyone for the help and I do appreciate it.

 

[Arimara]

I would say that the amount of olive oil that you have in it is what is causing, plus with only 10 days curing there is still a lot of water in the oil. With 100% OO (castile) it can take 6-12 months for the soap to fully cure and since you have 75% OO you can expect at least 3 months before all that goes away.

The recipe was made with a 31% lye solution. It's not bad but he could have upped the concentration to at least 35% to knock out some of the liquid. I agree with Irish on the glycerin and definitely agree about the soap being only 10days old. That soap would need 24 more weeks or so before it starts to shine some.

 

[Candle Guy]

Arimara should I keep the water around 30 and just up the lye solution as you posted?