"Tacky" feeling Soap

[SoapyGoats]

All my Goat Milk Soaps leaves a tacky, squeaky clean feel on my hands after I rinse of the lather, just before drying my hands...
What causes that?
Or is that normal? (For hard water)

 

[Marya]

You'll have to forgive me for not being an experienced soaper, which is to say I've only made a few batches and it was years ago! But the two most common reasons for soap feeling that way are that it's either not cured long enough, or the amounts may not have been weighed carefully enough (e.g. the saponification numbers didn't add up which might mean there was too much lye in the soap?). So how fresh was your soap, and did you weigh everything out carefully and use one of the online soap calculators (or are you very good at math and understand the formula if you didn't use a soap calc)? Just trying to help - not sure but these seem to be the main reasons from what I've read.

Now if you know for certain that you've done everything right, the next 2 possibilities are that you followed someone else's recipe who didn't get it down perfectly OR you - like me - just prefer a much more conditioning soap. If that's the case you would want to superfat your soap (use a lye discount).

I haven't looked you up to see if you've shared info about yourself/your experience so I don't know if I'm stating the obvious here, but in case you don't know or remember the following details (I forget so much when it's been a while!), to superfat your soap, you want to add a little extra oil or butter to your pot that won't be given the opportunity to saponify as the other oils/fats do, with the lye - in other words it won't actually become soap, but will still be part of the soap...so you'll get extra conditioning built into your soap.

I'm probably over-thinking things at this point, but what's NOT clear to me - what I don't remember - is whether this is actually extra oil/butter in addition to the main recipe, or if it's part of it (if that makes sense). I also don't know if the following matters:

- if there's a certain type of oil or butter this should be (can you use any oil or butter to be your super-fatting agent, as long as it's mild?)
- whether you put that super-fatting oil/butter in at the same time as the rest of them, or whether it's necessary to put in this oil/butter a bit later, like at light trace. I've read you can add it at light trace, just after the lye water's already had time to react with the oils and saponification has already happened thus the newly-added oil/butter can't turn into soap... but I don't know if that's necessary or not, to have to wait so long.

I'll probably start another thread asking about that if googling or searching doesn't give me a clear answer, cause I'd like to have all my ducks in a row before I make my first batch in years!

I hope that was helpful and i'm sorry if you already knew all that!!

 

[SoapyGoats]

Thanks, I didn't know that-my soap is from 2 weeks old to 2/3 months old. All feels like that. I try to weigh things out to a .0oz, but sometimes it .1 or .2 off. I send my recipes through Bramble Berry's calculator, but I think I'll start using Soap Calc. I superfat my recipes at 5%.

 

[Skatergirl46]

Thanks, I didn't know that-my soap is from 2 weeks old to 2/3 months old. All feels like that. I try to weigh things out to a .0oz, but sometimes it .1 or .2 off. I send my recipes through Bramble Berry's calculator, but I think I'll start using Soap Calc. I superfat my recipes at 5%.

If you can post your recipe it would be helpful. Also, measuring in grams is a lot more accurate.

 

[Marya]

I'm so embarrassed! I guess I thought I mentioned this but the other reason would simply be using too much of a harsh oil, even if super fatting. i.e. if it's not a balanced enough recipe (if 'balanced' is even the right term)! That could be a possibility if everything else seems right.

I agree with what Skategirl46 is saying too. I've heard that over the years about the grams and also yeah if you share your recipe you may get answers about anything that should be tweaked.

I had the exact same problem as you did. My solution was to go over the top, adding a zillion oils and butters which I've been scolded for more times than I can count by the people who know better! I don't regret it cause it did wonders for my soap, but the real reason for the improvement wasn't because of that, they say. What I did right, exactly, I think I'll never know. I spent a lot of time pouring over the numbers and qualities of the oils so I may at the time have figured it out only now it's been so long, I no longer remember! Not very helpful, am I?!!!

 

[judymoody]

Marya, Adding SF oil at trace makes no difference unless you're doing HP and you add it after saponification is complete. In CP, the lye is still active at light trace and will interact with whatever it encounters.

This is something documented by Kevin Dunn, probably since you last were soaping actively.

 

[PinkCupcake]

At 2 weeks, all of my soaps are harsh. After 4-6 weeks (preferably 6 weeks), they are mild and gentle. Try waiting just a little longer.

 

[lizflowers42]

Too much coconut oil?

 

[SoapyGoats]

Here's my base recipe:

Coconut Oil: 5oz 22.73%
Olive Oil: 10oz 45.45%
Palm Oil: 7oz 31.82%

Lye: 3oz 5%
Goat Milk:7.2oz

I then add 1 or more specialty oils, taking away from the above oils. Like: (And every batch is different)

Castor Oil: 1oz 4.2%
Cocoa Butter: 3oz 12.5%
Coconut Oil: 3oz 12.5%
Olive Oil: 10oz 41.7%
Palm Oil: 4oz 16.7%
Shea Butter: 3oz 12.5%

Lye: 3.2oz 5%
Goat Milk: 7.9oz 21.8%

Oh, we have hard water...does that change anything with the feel?

 

[DeeAnna]

I was just going to mention that hard water will also affect the skin feel. The calcium and magnesium ions in the water react with the sodium soap to make an insoluble, sticky soap scum. That can greatly affect how a soap feels on the skin.

 

[Marya]

Ahhh that makes sense cause I didn't seem to recall having put mine in at light trace either (I thought I just put it in with the other oils) and that was cp soap. I recently either read that or saw a video (have been all over the place recently so I can't remember where) which is why I thought that, so maybe that was about HP soap only and I didn't realize it. Thanks!

Marya, Adding SF oil at trace makes no difference unless you're doing HP and you add it after saponification is complete. In CP, the lye is still active at light trace and will interact with whatever it encounters.

This is something documented by Kevin Dunn, probably since you last were soaping actively.