What soap has surprised you the most?

[Carly B]

I've been doing CP about 2 years, and I'm STILL in the experimental mode, finding out what works and doesn't in a most unscientific way --picking random ingredients, running things through a lye calculator, then making soap. I'm still trying to come up with a couple of "go to" regular recipes---family and friends ask for my brine bar, so that's a keeper, but at some point I'd like to just have a few basic recipes so I'm not overrun with a bazillion oils and additives. But for now, I'm still happily playing with different combinations and making notes.

I have been surprised how much I really like two of the recipes. One had only two oils, olive and PKO flakes, and the other was 50% butters (shea, mango, cocoa) and I added some rhassoul clay. VERY different formulations, but both bars rank as my favorite in terms of lather and how nice my skin feels afterwards.

So I was wondering, in your soaping voyage of discovery, have you made a soap that really surprised you, in a good or not so good way, and what was surprising?

 

[AliOop]

One of my most recent soaps really surprised me. For years now, I've made a high-lard-colloidal-oat-neem bar for my husband. This time I upped the neem to 20% and used DB at 6% in hopes that it would cover the neem smell. I ended up with a soap that looks and smells like caramel!

At first I thought, "This must be my imagination."

So I asked a friend to smell the bar and guess the scent. Her reply: "Caramel."

I never in my wildest dreams thought that neem + DB = caramel. If I can replicate this in the next soap, it's going to be a regular for sure.

 

[Carly B]

I'm having a senior moment. What's DB?

 

[Mobjack Bay]

DB = Dragons Blood, I think.

The soap that surprised me the most was one I made with 80% lard and 20% CO for a fellow soaper’s lard replacement comparison test. It was darn nice and made me wonder why I had spent months and months trying to formulate a lard recipe.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

" Recipes dont need tons of Fancy Butters & Oils. "keep it simple & balanced" Less is more.

 

[jcandleattic]

So I was wondering, in your soaping voyage of discovery, have you made a soap that really surprised you, in a good or not so good way, and what was surprising?

I was surprised by how sensitive I am to Olive oil. In high amounts it is more drying to my skin than coconut at a high percentage.
Also what surprised me years ago was how much I dislike a lard bar. With any amount of lard. For some reason my face breaks out in adult acne when I use a bar with lard in it with anything over 5%.

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

I'm astonished at how much I like salt bars. Everyone who has tried them loves them. Also I adore some tallow in my soap. I wish I liked rendering tallow as much as I like it in the soap.

 

[KimW]

I'm surprised that a -1% SF Liquid Soap doesn't irritate my hands. Thrilled.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

No matter how hard I try, my recipes most often end up as minor variations of the Basic Trinity (at least from the fatty acid profile), unless I really swing out (and usually get instantly punished for that, lol). I wrote up some of my thoughts about how my formulations can't help but end at INS 137±5 and IV 68±3 in the Linoleics Anonymous thread.
Funny enough, I did my first real, intentional Basic Trinity soap (palm + PKO + HO safflower) just a few weeks ago.

One thing that gets more and more mysterious, the more I attempt to narrow it down, is the relationship between lauric soap and my facial skin. Not thinking much, I used soap with the quasi-standard 20% CO for years, and blamed everything but the soap (stress, sun, air humidity, pollen, diet…) for the different, not always comfortable conditions. Switched to a palm+sesame bar (CO free) a few weeks ago, felt like my skin was reborn after a few days! Time for the control experiment with a 20% PKO bar that recently came out of cure … and my skin loves it too! What's wrong there?

 

[The_Phoenix]

My first batch of soap I ever made surprised me the most because it actually became soap.

 

[Quanta]

I would say, probably the 100% coconut oil soap with a 20% superfat. Only because on paper it doesn't work at all, but once I tried it I decided it was a really nice soap. It traces in a reasonable amount of time, and the bars last long enough for me. Micas turn out true to shade without the discoloration that happens when the soap turns yellow. It's the most simple recipe it's possible to make, and you don't even have to melt anything (usually, it is warm enough in my house that CO stays liquid). It is resistant to rancidity, and doesn't have a natural odor that has to be covered up like some other oils.

It's just a perfect soap.

 

[amd]

Also what surprised me years ago was how much I dislike a lard bar. With any amount of lard. For some reason my face breaks out in adult acne when I use a bar with lard in it with anything over 5%.

My face is the opposite, I break out with vegan soaps. I have to have the animal fat. Skin is so amazing how what works for one doesn't work for another!

I think that's what surprises me the most: what works for one person doesn't work for another.

 

[Carly B]

I would say, probably the 100% coconut oil soap with a 20% superfat. Only because on paper it doesn't work at all, but once I tried it I decided it was a really nice soap. It traces in a reasonable amount of time, and the bars last long enough for me. Micas turn out true to shade without the discoloration that happens when the soap turns yellow. It's the most simple recipe it's possible to make, and you don't even have to melt anything (usually, it is warm enough in my house that CO stays liquid). It is resistant to rancidity, and doesn't have a natural odor that has to be covered up like some other oils.

It's just a perfect soap.

I made a batch of that once. It was fine, but I sent assorted soaps up to some family, and my BIL was telling me that one of my soaps made him itch and get a rash. I described the coconut soap to him and said "Was that the soap?" BINGO! It doesn't give hubby or me a problem, but given that my BIL is someone who would give me his honest opinion, I don't think I'll be including it in gift baskets.

 

[Quanta]

I made a batch of that once. It was fine, but I sent assorted soaps up to some family, and my BIL was telling me that one of my soaps made him itch and get a rash. I described the coconut soap to him and said "Was that the soap?" BINGO! It doesn't give hubby or me a problem, but given that my BIL is someone who would give me his honest opinion, I don't think I'll be including it in gift baskets.

Yeah, see @amd's post right before yours. Everyone is different. Coconut oil soap is one that people either love it or hate it. It is not for everyone. I guess in that sense it's not a perfect soap, but a soap that is loved by everyone does not exist. Every soap has its fans and its haters.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

(slightly OT)

Every soap has its fans and its haters.

Sounds like a challenge!
My submission: 20% neem, 10% laurel, 40% MCT or fractionated coconut/PKO, 10% dairy butter, 20% salvaged HL sunflower oil (used just a bit too long for deep-frying sea fish). Scented with a ton of chili pepper and cinnamon EO.
I wonder who would love such a bar of soap? On the other hand, it would quite certainly “surprise” any unprepared user, so it's not entirely wrong in this thread.

 

[TheGecko]

It was probably discovering that my Regular Soap, mixed with a bit of pumice powder, makes a great "mechanic's soap". I had given my nephew a bunch of 'me soap'...leftover soap put into little individual molds. Anyhoo...he was doing some work at a powder coating shop and they ran out of soap and he remembered that I had given him a bunch of soap the night before, so he tossed a few of them to the guys and except for the color (they were pink), they loved it. It got most of the crap off their hands and didn't try out their skin.

 

[Cat&Oak]

I made a batch of soap years ago and I was going for lots of lather. It was olive oil 35% coconut oil 20% palm kernel flakes 20% mango butter 20% and castor oil 5% (yes too cleansing but I was just messing around)

When I tried it at 6 weeks it would initially lather a little and then feel slimey so I thought okay no problem because of the high mango butter it will just take longer to cure.

6 months later I tried it again. Same thing! It never came around. It was always small lather then slimey.

That recipe surprised and stumped me.

 

[amd]

Every soap has its fans and its haters.

So true! Zany's no slime castile is one that I can't get to work for me, but yet many members have added it into their "must have" soap rotation.

 

[Mscookie]

A soap I made with Kombo butter often referred to as African Nutmeg, rich nutty aroma, maybe unpleasant to some discriminating olfactory(s) but it was hard to find a recipe for it as it's not listed in soapcalc so I just figured the properties and used about 15% in my recipe as I would PKO (palm) this CP batch went through all 3 stages in a matter of minutes!!! lol I have never experienced such a highly tracing butter

 

[Ladka]

After trying some and reading of more special oils I found out how nice is soap made of beef/sheep tallow, lard, HO sunflower/olive oil and coconut oil - how nice it feels and looks. Finding out that less/simpler is more.