time for another round. Thoughts?

[Jackofhearts]

Hello all! I'm a new soaper working on a formula for a 3rd soap. The first 2 are curing nicely but they were very simple.
The first one was olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil.
The second was olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil and castor oil.
Neither had any FO.

I've been reading a lot and wanted to come up with a more moisturizing body bar. Using the oils I have on hand this is what I came up with (with soapcalc's help of course).

20% Coconut oil
20% Avocado oil
20% Olive oil
35% Palm oil
5% Jojoba oil

Looking at Soapcalc's numbers I'm a little worried that this bar won't be cleansing enough. Cleansing is only at 14%

Any and all thoughts are welcome, Thanks

P.s. I'll be be using bay rum FO although I don't think that's relevant.

 

[snappyllama]

Cleansing is a bit of a misnomer on SoapCalc. All your soaps will clean you (even with 0 under cleansing). 14% is fine. If you go too high, the soap will strip natural oils from your skin and feel very drying.

Here's a good forum post that goes into detail: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=44464

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, 14 is a good number for cleaning. I never go over 15 unless its a specialty soap.

 

[jules92207]

^^Agree. 14% is on the high side for me, but still good cleansing without being too drying. I tend to stick around 10% and I still end up squeaky clean.

 

[xraygrl]

Yep, that is plenty cleansing. Especially with the addition of castor oil, you will have plenty of fluffy bubbles.

I also can't go that high in cleansing. My skin is sensitive so I have to keep my coconut and or palm kernel low. Over 10% total, and my skin itches. :-(

 

[Jackofhearts]

So after a too busy week I finally have time to soap! Here's the recipes I'm thinking of trying today.
1st:
10% Castor
10% Coconut
50% Lard
30% Olive oil
*7% superfat

and 2nd:

25% Avocado
15% Coconut
40% Olive oil pomace
10% Palm
5% Jojoba
5% Castor
*5% superfat

Thoughts? Comments? Am I off my rocker and need to spend more time in Soapcalc?

Thanks!

 

[Cindy2428]

Purely speaking from my own limited experience, I probably have over 100 recipes I created in soapcalc. I finally realized it was time (for me) to put up or shut up and start making soap. I have a much better understanding of soap properties and why I'm choosing an oil for a specific project, but the numbers don't take into account other variables like water substitutions. Just make it and you decide what you like and don't like. BTW - why did you choose such a high amount of castor in the first soap? - more bubbles? You can dissolve sugar into your water to assist with that, to reduce risk of compromising your soap texture. 2nd recipe - jojoba is pretty expensive; do you plan to use as SF in HP?

 

[Jackofhearts]

The castor oil in the first recipe was basically because I wanted to have enough for lather and I've heard lard is a low lathering oil. I could up the coconut but I have very dry skin. As for the jojoba oil, I get it where I work (trader joes) and I get a discount.

 

[Sonya-m]

One of my last batches was

55% lard
20% coconut
20% olive oil
5% castor

I didn't find the lard produced less lather at all. Very creamy with plenty of bubbles too

 

[JustBeachy]

I think the first recipe is a little high in lard..I'd cut it down to 0% ...jk..and ducks as the comments come whirling at my head. I just don't use lard anymore. Not a big fan, but it's just a personal thing with me. Make it so you can see how you like it.

I think number 2 is a good recipe to try. Should be hard enough, will produce a stable and creamy suds, and should feel pretty good on your skin after a 6 week cure.

As long as you're looking at the oils you put in the recipe under the pretense of , "whats this going to do for my finished product", then I don't think you can go wrong trying new stuff. I would just advise not getting trapped into the suppliers providing recipes with 5 to 7 oils in it. All that you can conveniently buy from them in 16 oz containers, when the recipe calls for 3 oz. If you try recipes with four oils, then switch out one of the oils at a time, you will get a good comparison going of how you like the change or if you even notice a change.

 

[Susie]

You might want to stick to 5% castor oil until you have a grip on exactly what you are looking for in a soap. If you want more bubbles, add a tablespoon of sugar PPO.

 

[Jackofhearts]

Susie, I'll have to try the sugar thing. How much? To the lye water?

My main reason for those recipes was that my first batches (CO &OO w/ 10% sf) I found too drying and I heard that I should lower the cleansing number. The cleansing number was 30 on that one. The reason for those particular ingredients was that I had them. I ordered a few oils and stuff when I didn't know what I was doing (not that I do now for that matter). I also picked up some oils from work like coconut, olive, avocado, jojoba as well as a vitamin E oil in soybean oil... Not sure what to do with that last one but my wife is about to take it anyway. She also already took my jojoba as her new favorite make-up remover.
I like the idea of adding an oil specifically as a superfat but I have no idea how to do it. Would I HP it and add it late in the game or could I CP and add it at trace?

BTW, I made the lard based one then as I was mixing my lye, my lye container started dripping. Turns out there was a teeny tiny crack on the bottom. I gave up for the night and went out the next day and got a 5pp pitcher for the lye but I haven't had time to soap since. Unfortunately, my next day off is Christmas day and I'm pretty sure I'll be busy.
My ultimate goal is to find a bar soap that doesn't leave my skin dry and itchy. I have extremely dry skin. Once I do that then I'll begin playing around with mixing scents and colors which, to me, sounds like fun but I just can't justify doing if the soap is unusable to me.

Thanks for everyone's help!

P.s. If someone doesn't mind sharing some thoughts on which oils won't dry me out I would be very grateful!

 

[jules92207]

I think everyone is different when it comes to oils and numbers. What works for one person doesn't work for another. I find too much olive oil drying so I stay around 40%, but I am in the minority here. I like lard and canola in my soaps, some people don't. Eventually you will find what works for you.

My basic recipe is as follows:

40% olive oil
30% lard
15% coconut oil
10% almond, avocado, or sunflower
5% castor oil

This seems to suit my skin best.

Good luck!