Bare with me, I'm sick and this will most likely be long & rambling.
When I first started soaping a little over 2 years ago, I read about wonderful castile. Of course I made a batch but being impatient, I found a 1 year + cured bar on etsy and bought it.
I immediately disliked it, it was drying and left me feeling very tight and uncomfortable. Shortly after, I was gifted a aged bar made with buttermilk, I was excited about this one but it was worse then the first bar I tried (I since found out I can't use buttermilk).
Both got tossed out then my castile batch got DOS. I was utterly disgusted with castile, it was a poor lathering dry soap IMO.
During the last two years, I occasionally pulled out and used a bar I saved from my DOS batch, still didn't like it. I tried making new castile with different SF, adding castor, even the lye heavy recipe that went around awhile back. I just didn't like any of them.
For what ever reason I decided to make more last thanksgiving. I made two small batches, one with regular OO, one with EVOO. I wanted to see if there was a color difference after a year cure. I never planned on actually using the soap. I also made a soleseife castile a few months back.
Decided to do a test lather of my thanksgiving castile and the
soleseife today. I was curious if the salt would help with the slime and how much reduced the lather might be. Surprisingly, the soleseife didn't have reduced lather at all, it may even be a bit better lathering then plain castile. The slime factor is about the same, maybe a bit reduced.
While I was doing my lather testing, I went ahead and washed my face with the regular castile. Felt really nice, left my skin soft but it was tight. This confuses me, I could feel that my skin still has some oil on it, so why is it making me tight? Maybe something else is going on besides dryness?
I decided to be brave and used the castile in the shower. Guess what? ts not drying and the only place it left me tight is my face. So is this from my hard water? Is there a film left behind? This makes me think I'm been giving castile a bad review for the last two years.
More tests are underway, must see if I can find something that will help with what ever makes my face tight but not dry. Any thoughts?
Test results:
EVOO and OO bars are virtually same color after long cure. EVOO slighty greenish ivory, while the OO is yellowish ivory. 8%SF
Soleseife castile lathers as well as regular castile, slightly reduced slime. Still young, only aged 5 months. 1/2oz salt in 8oz batch.
New Tests, poured today. Made with pomace OO, 15% SF. Same everything except the liquid used. Used room temp oil, hot lye solution.
Water- this is the control batch. Behaved as expected. Cream color
Dark beer concentrate- fastest trace time, lots of bubbles in batter. dark brown from beer.
Aloe juice- slowest trace time, smooth pour. colored green with oxide.
Powdered coconut milk, curdled and lumpy when mixed with lye, traced quickly. colored blue with oxide
Water batch #2. Used sodium citrate at 1%. Traced quicker then water with no additive. colored yellow with mica.
When I first started soaping a little over 2 years ago, I read about wonderful castile. Of course I made a batch but being impatient, I found a 1 year + cured bar on etsy and bought it.
I immediately disliked it, it was drying and left me feeling very tight and uncomfortable. Shortly after, I was gifted a aged bar made with buttermilk, I was excited about this one but it was worse then the first bar I tried (I since found out I can't use buttermilk).
Both got tossed out then my castile batch got DOS. I was utterly disgusted with castile, it was a poor lathering dry soap IMO.
During the last two years, I occasionally pulled out and used a bar I saved from my DOS batch, still didn't like it. I tried making new castile with different SF, adding castor, even the lye heavy recipe that went around awhile back. I just didn't like any of them.
For what ever reason I decided to make more last thanksgiving. I made two small batches, one with regular OO, one with EVOO. I wanted to see if there was a color difference after a year cure. I never planned on actually using the soap. I also made a soleseife castile a few months back.
Decided to do a test lather of my thanksgiving castile and the
soleseife today. I was curious if the salt would help with the slime and how much reduced the lather might be. Surprisingly, the soleseife didn't have reduced lather at all, it may even be a bit better lathering then plain castile. The slime factor is about the same, maybe a bit reduced.
While I was doing my lather testing, I went ahead and washed my face with the regular castile. Felt really nice, left my skin soft but it was tight. This confuses me, I could feel that my skin still has some oil on it, so why is it making me tight? Maybe something else is going on besides dryness?
I decided to be brave and used the castile in the shower. Guess what? ts not drying and the only place it left me tight is my face. So is this from my hard water? Is there a film left behind? This makes me think I'm been giving castile a bad review for the last two years.
More tests are underway, must see if I can find something that will help with what ever makes my face tight but not dry. Any thoughts?
Test results:
EVOO and OO bars are virtually same color after long cure. EVOO slighty greenish ivory, while the OO is yellowish ivory. 8%SF
Soleseife castile lathers as well as regular castile, slightly reduced slime. Still young, only aged 5 months. 1/2oz salt in 8oz batch.
New Tests, poured today. Made with pomace OO, 15% SF. Same everything except the liquid used. Used room temp oil, hot lye solution.
Water- this is the control batch. Behaved as expected. Cream color
Dark beer concentrate- fastest trace time, lots of bubbles in batter. dark brown from beer.
Aloe juice- slowest trace time, smooth pour. colored green with oxide.
Powdered coconut milk, curdled and lumpy when mixed with lye, traced quickly. colored blue with oxide
Water batch #2. Used sodium citrate at 1%. Traced quicker then water with no additive. colored yellow with mica.
I doubt I will ever make castile again, while I've found I can at least use what I have, my regular bars are so very much better.
