Trying to recreate Purpose Brand Soap

[lmaster20]

I'm trying to recreate this brand of soap so I can make it myself but I'm not sure where to begin. It's the only soap that my wife can use without issue but I think they're phasing it out because it's becoming increasingly difficult to find in stores.

The ingredients are, in order:

• sodium tallowate
• sodium cocoate
• water
• glycerin
• sodium stearate
• sorbitol
• disodium dilinoleate
• stearic acid
• propylene glycol
• potassium tallowate
• sodium chloride
• fragrance
• potassium cocoate
• pentasodium pentetate
• tetrasodium etidronate
• potassium stearate
• D&C yellow no. 6
• D&C yellow no. 10

I've recently started experimenting with cold process soaps in general and it got me thinking to try and reverse engineer this recipe. Assuming this is even possible I have no hopes on recreating the exact fragrance, but if I could get 80% or 90% of the way to having a similar base bar then it would mean a lot.

Are there any resources I can use to start research on this or advice you can offer?

 

[Jersey Girl]

This soap is mainly tallow (beef fat) and coconut oil. Obviously more tallow than coconut but impossible to know the exact percentages. The other ingredients are chelators and hardening agents, sorbitol ( helps make bubbly lather), fragrance and color. High percentages of coconut oil can be very drying. You could start with a 75% tallow 25% coconut oil or 80% tallow 20% coconut oil. Then add sugar to help with bubbles. If your wife found the soap drying you could decrease the coconut oil a bit. I would also add 5% castor oil, taken away from the tallow. Tallow isn’t as easy to source as lard, So you might want to try lard in place of tallow.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you've got sorbitol or are willing to get it, this is a much better additive to increase lather than plain sugar is. But if you're not wanting to use sorbitol, table sugar would be a tolerable substitute.

The formulation also indicates the fats (tallow and coconut oil) have been saponified with a mixture of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. The use of about 5% KOH also enhances lather in an otherwise normal bar soap recipe. Most of us call this a "dual lye" recipe. There are discussions here on SMF about "dual lye" and I've got more here -- Dual lye recipe | Soapy Stuff

The superfat is actually stearic acid, not a fat. The use of a fatty acid (stearic acid) increases mildness compared with superfatting with a fat.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

This site will get you started
How to Decode Ingredient Lists Like a Pro

However, when I recently duplicated a product for my DIL's father because it was no longer available, I simply eliminated all the ingredients I don't need to make an all natural soap and kept the ones I easily recognized as "soap". Her father actually liked the soap better than the one he had been buying on line for years!

• sodium tallowate <<< Soap made with tallow & NaOH
• sodium cocoate <<< Soap made with coconut oil 76° & NaOH
• water <<< water used to make the lye (NaOH) solution
• glycerin << natural byproduct of saponification; remains in soap.
• sodium stearate
• sorbitol <<< i.e. "sugar"; add to lye solution
• disodium dilinoleate
• stearic acid
• propylene glycol
• potassium tallowate <<<Soap made with tallow & KOH
• sodium chloride <<< i.e. "salt"; add to lye solution
• fragrance <<< Good luck finding a dupe!!!
• potassium cocoate <<< Soap made with coconut & KOH
• pentasodium pentetate
• tetrasodium etidronate
• potassium stearate
• D&C yellow no. 6
• D&C yellow no. 1

@DeeAnna is correct that the ingredients indicate this is a "dual lye" soap but I would ignore using KOH just to keep it simple.

So there you have it. I assume you know how to use SoapCalc.
If not, just ask.

Tallow soap has a good quality profile as a single oil soap so I would keep the coconut oil to 10% or so.

HTH and HAPPY SOAPING!

You might want to download this digital guide to review the process.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/free-26-page-guide-to-making-cold-processed-soap.88253/

 

[lmaster20]

Thanks this is all really helpful! I'll go take a crack at it and report back with results

 

[Zany_in_CO]

UPDATE

It kept bugging me that this soap contained Sorbitol (bubbles), Propylene Glycol (alcohol, moisture) Stearic Acid (hardener) and salt (hardener) — all typical of MP soap but not in all natural soaps.

SFIC Melt & Pour Soap Base Ingredients

This soap is mainly tallow (beef fat) and coconut oil. Obviously more tallow than coconut but impossible to know the exact percentages. The other ingredients are chelators and hardening agents, sorbitol ( helps make bubbly lather), fragrance and color

…along with the other ingredients that @Jerseygirl mentioned.

When I woke up this morning, it hit me! Purpose is NOT soap! If it was soap, it would be stated as such on the label. It’s a “Gentle Cleansing Bar” Here’s a short video that explains

The Difference Between Soap and Commercial Bars

Also, the inexpensive $4 price tag for a 6 oz. bar suggests Purpose was most likely made from “noodles” maufactured in China, India and other areas of Southeast Asia and sold to companies in the USA to be used as a base for processing and packaging in the USA -- at $1,800 per metric ton, for example, by a company in China.

It’s a common practice here for manufacturing synthetic/ detergent “cleansing bars” but I didn't find a YouTube video that shows it.

Jedwards International, Inc., a highly respected company, is a wholesale bulk supplier of RSPO MB Soap Noodles that could be used to reproduce a product similar to Purpose.

The fragrance is still a mystery I was unable to unravel. There was a time when the components of the fragrance were detailed in the list of ingredients but since then, manufacturers are allowed to keep that information as “proprietary” i.e. secret.

Bottom Line: In order to reengineer this product we would have to call upon @AliOop and other members of the Syndet makers who would be best for analyzing the purpose of each ingredient and the recommended use rate.

I rest my case.

 

[lenarenee]

Can you share what issues your wife has with other soaps (and what those soaps are?).

Usually it's not what is IN the soap, but what ISN'T, in the soap that helps people with sensitive skin (including me). Although, there are some people who can't use 100% authentic lye based soap, and do better with a syndet (combination of true soap with added detergents that lower the pH).
Maybe consider making other recipes to try after you've done the Purpose imitation.

 

[Zing]

Welcome to the forum! For what it's worth, I had no idea what a difference making soap would have on the health of my skin! I had chronic rashes and tried every OTC and prescription and obeyed my dermatologist to use only Dove Sensitive. I would apply a prescription several times per day -- now I apply it several times per year. So without knowing your wife, I am fairly confident that any kind of cold process soap you make will make a positive difference. Now even Dove Sensitive feels harsh to me.

Just my opinion but if you are just starting, I'd use solid lye crystals, NaOH before attempting dual-lye recipes.
Let us know if you need anything.

 

[earlene]

A couple of suggestions and some background.

Before attempting to make this soap, I suggest you buy up as much of it as you can find while it is still available. It may take you some time to duplicate a formula like this one. The company Valeant Pharmaceuticals is now called Bausch Health Companies Inc, a Canadian company. Purpose soap used to be made by Johnson & Johnson, but it went to Valeant in 2013.

Ebay & Amazon still have some of this soap in stock, but I see it is out of stock for a few other vendors. So that's what I would do is stock up first, then start working on trying to formulate to duplicate.

But I think the next thing I'd try to do is contact Bausch and ask if there is another product that is replacing this one and find out if you can source it for your wife. Here is a link to the Baush Contact Us page. You can call them at the NJ office so as not to pay international rates. Contact Us | Bausch Health

FYI, here is a link to Bausch's SDS for Purpose Gentle Cleansing bar:
https://www.bauschhealth.com/Portal...e Cleansing Bar.pdf?ver=2021-05-21-022838-273

 

[AliOop]

@earlene you amaze me with your research abilities to find this stuff out! Great idea to buy up the soap that is available, and check into whether a replacement may be forthcoming.

When the OP is ready to attempt duplication, I'd suggest the following as a place to start for duplicating this bar, keeping in mind that the percentages are rough guesses, based on the order of ingredients and typical usage rates for some of those ingredients:

78% tallow
19% coconut oil OR palm kernel oil (it was listed in the ingredients as an alternative)
3% stearic acid

Dual lye: 98% NaOH, 2% KOH
3% SF
Sorbitol at 2% of oil weight
Propylene glycol at 2% of oil weight
Dilinoleic Acid at 2% of oil weight
Salt at 1.5 % of oil weight
Fragrance at 1.5% of oil weight
Pentasodium Pentetate at 1.5% of oil weight
EDTA at 1.5% of oil weight
D&C Yellow 6 and D&C Yellow 10, q.s. to approximate color, within safe usage rates

I've never used Dilinoleic Acid, but will guess that it will speed up trace like stearic acid and other FFAs will tend to do.

I've also never added propylene glycol to CP or HP, but it is used to make M&P bases, so clearly it can be done. Maybe someone else will have some tips about how best to incorporate that ingredient.

 

[Dan9250]

I did a search for dilinoleic acid as I do not know why it might be included, and found this: "Linoleic Acid is a straight chain unsaturated fatty acid. It is a colorless oil that is prepared from edible fats and oils. Dilinoleic Acid and Trilinoleic Acid consist of two and three units of Linoleic Acid linked together, respectively. In cosmetics and personal care products, these ingredients are used in the formulation of many types of products including bath products, body and hand preparations, cleansing products, eye makeup, makeup, nail care products, skin care preparations and hair care products."

Efficacy of an emollient containing diethylene glycol/dilinoleic acid copolymer for the treatment of dry skin and pruritus in patients with senile xerosis​

Efficacy of an emollient containing diethylene glycol/dilinoleic acid copolymer for the treatment of dry skin and pruritus in patients with senile xerosis - PubMed​

May be this info will help.

 

[gleapman]

I'm trying to recreate this brand of soap so I can make it myself but I'm not sure where to begin. It's the only soap that my wife can use without issue but I think they're phasing it out because it's becoming increasingly difficult to find in stores.

The ingredients are, in order:

• sodium tallowate
• sodium cocoate
• water
• glycerin
• sodium stearate
• sorbitol
• disodium dilinoleate
• stearic acid
• propylene glycol
• potassium tallowate
• sodium chloride
• fragrance
• potassium cocoate
• pentasodium pentetate
• tetrasodium etidronate
• potassium stearate
• D&C yellow no. 6
• D&C yellow no. 10

I've recently started experimenting with cold process soaps in general and it got me thinking to try and reverse engineer this recipe. Assuming this is even possible I have no hopes on recreating the exact fragrance, but if I could get 80% or 90% of the way to having a similar base bar then it would mean a lot.

Are there any resources I can use to start research on this or advice you can offer?

Until you succeed, there is a pretty good and inexpensive substitute from The Soap Company. It's called Pure Glycerin Soap. Top ingredients match up well (including sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, glycerin). The main difference I found is it suds up slightly less. Pure Glycerine Soap

 

[melinda48]

If you've got sorbitol or are willing to get it, this is a much better additive to increase lather than plain sugar is. But if you're not wanting to use sorbitol, table sugar would be a tolerable substitute.

The formulation also indicates the fats (tallow and coconut oil) have been saponified with a mixture of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. The use of about 5% KOH also enhances lather in an otherwise normal bar soap recipe. Most of us call this a "dual lye" recipe. There are discussions here on SMF about "dual lye" and I've got more here -- Dual lye recipe | Soapy Stuff

The superfat is actually stearic acid, not a fat. The use of a fatty acid (stearic acid) increases mildness compared with superfatting with a fat.

I have found powdered sugar (1 tsp. PPO) works wonderfully well for “making bubbles.”