why is this soap not bubby?

[welsh black]

ive been making some small batches of soap to see which one i like best. i like a soap which has lots of bubbles and have been making soap out of 5 oils, cocoa, cocunut, palm, olive and castor oilall at 20% each which has been giving me a bubbly rato of 32 as per soap calc and is lovely and bubbly.

i increased my last batch of castor to 30% and cocoa down to 10% which soap calc said i would have bubbly at 41. Problem is that the bar is now 4 weeks old and not as bubbly as i thought it would have been - less bubbly than the first recipie in fact. Whats gone wrong? i put anatto infused olive oil into the soap to colour and it also had essetial oils would this have had an effect?

 

[kazmi]

I may be wrong since I've only been soaping for several months but I read that you need to keep castor to 10% or less.

 

[pamielynn]

Too much castor can actually reverse your bubblage - no matter what soapcalc says

 

[CaliChan]

What pami said. Maybe if you leave it alone for another month it might help. But I always try to stay under 10% when it comes to castor. It can also make the bar really soft and sticky
.

 

[welsh black]

so if i change my castor to 10% any suggestions of what oil to use to make bubbly soap? or which oil to increase % thanks ..

 

[cursivearts]

Coconut is supposed to make nice bubbles. I think palm kernal oil does too. I am also told coconut milk makes a really good bubbly lather, so you could try that as an additive or replace some of your water with it.

 

[Candybee]

I'd take my castor down to 5%. I had the same problem with my soaps at 10%. Once I dropped my castor down to 5% the lather came back. Coconut oil gives great lather so you could increase that but I won't go over 25% coconut oil as it can be drying. Palm oil does not increase lather but adds creaminess.

 

[welsh black]

sounds good. ill try all your suggestions and let you know how the new batch turned out. thanks

 

[Lotus]

I really liked reading this little thread. Good info. Sometimes I wish I could find a whole thread with just people's percentages of different oils to see what some have found useful, and otherwise, and also just for new combination ideas. I finally have some palm coming in the mail soon. I can't wait to see what all the hype is about. For some reason, every time I go to order some, something goes wrong, and I can't get it. So, I have yet to use it. If it adds creaminess, that's awesome. To me, there's nothing like a creamy bar of soap.

 

[pamielynn]

Try this again, (I posted the wrong link) http://www.naturesgardencandles.com/mas_assets/pdf/soapoils.pdf

 

[Ruthie]

I keep castor at 5% and use coconut at 15%. A little sugar helps, too, whether the granulated kind, or from goat's milk or beer.