What percent of castor oil should I use? Help!

[artdiva05]

I’m trying to make my own first recipe. I had castor at 17% but then I read to much castor can make a sticky slimy bar. So I changed it to 5% is that okay or can I add more? I’m using coconut oil 92*, palm oil, castor oil, canola oil and rice bran oil. I’m working on the % of each. I’ve changed it about 25 times now. I’m superfatting at 5% Any help or input is greatly appreciated!

 

[Kittish]

5% is a good amount for castor oil in soap. Castor helps stabilize lather, but doesn't actually make bubbles itself.

 

[Kamahido]

5%-8% in my book. However I have read of people going as high as 10%. Perhaps one of them will chime in.

 

[lionprincess00]

I use 5 to 7% Castor. It doesn't seem to add anything to the mix for me, except to stabilize the lather that I have from the other ingredients.

 

[Arimara]

I personally hated the soap I made with 10% castor oil. 5% is plenty for me and sugar helps with the bubbles all the more.

 

[Britannic]

Saponified castor oil in soap is very soluble and helps kickstart the lather from the other saponified oils.

 

[CaraBou]

In general, I'd say keep it under 10%. My limited experience with higher percentages is that it worked fine when I had a relatively high percentage of hard oils as opposed to soft oils (maybe 75:25, but I can't say for sure). It seems like with more soft oils, too much castor made the soap sticky.

Perhaps a better question than "how much castor can I use" is "why do I want to use a lot of castor"? If you can answer that, then it's easier to evaluate your results. Castor is fairly expensive in the US so a reason is warranted, for me anyway.

 

[IrishLass]

I use it at different levels in different formulas. In my shave formula, which contains a high amount of stearic, I use castor at 20%; in a 65% tallow formula of mine, I use castor at 23%. In my tallow/lard formula that also contains olive oil, hydrogenated PKO, coconut oil and mango butter, I use it at 10.5%. Basically, the more hard fats in my formula, the more castor I find I can use without it making my soap feel sticky.


IrishLass

 

[Susie]

I use 5% with 1 tablespoon of sugar per lb of soap.

 

[artdiva05]

What kind of sugar and if I’m doing hp when do I add it?

 

[toxikon]

5% castor works great for me.

Any kind of sugar will work fine - granulated or powdered. Add it to your water and let it fully dissolve BEFORE adding your lye.

 

[Kamahido]

Just plain table sugar.

 

[artdiva05]

Okay what do you all think of my recipe? I changed it.

Castor 6%
Cocoa butter 15%
Coconut oil 92* 33%
Olive oil 33%
Rice bran oil 13%

5% super fat

Adding sugar to water

Adding coconut milk I will do a water discount so I can add this.

I’m working on another one with palm oil.

 

[Seawolfe]

If you are using coconut milk as a replacement for all or half of the water, I don't think you need to add sugar - plenty of it in the coconut milk.

Last time I made a bar with 33% coconut oil I found it too drying unless I bumped up the superfat to about 6-7% BUT again - the coconut milk will also add some additional SF so you may be ok with a 5% superfat. Try it and see.

 

[artdiva05]

I'm confused my coconut milk says 0 sugar? I’m also only using about 2oz of the milk for hp.

 

[Susie]

Coconut milk does not have any ADDED sugar. There are natural carbohydrates in the coconut milk. Look at the "total carbohydrates" amount.

 

[Donna Hicks]

5% is a good amount for castor oil in soap. Castor helps stabilize lather, but doesn't actually make bubbles itself.

What oils actually make bubbles?

 

[AliOop]

What oils actually make bubbles?

Tallow adds some bubbles but in a far lesser amount then the big three, which are:

coconut
babassu
palm kernel oil - this is not regular palm oil/palm fruit oil