Zany's no slime castile

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
It woke up happily thinking about the simple goodness of Castile soap. :) Zany’s no slime Castile is next on my list, but first I need more olive oil. I’m planning to use commercial sea salt. I still wonder about the sodium bicarbonate, but I’m going to go for it because Zany likes it and that’s enough for me :rolleyes:.

It woke up happily thinking about the simple goodness of Castile soap. :) Zany’s no slime Castile is next on my list, but first I need more olive oil. I’m planning to use commercial sea salt. I still wonder about the sodium bicarbonate, but I’m going to go for it because Zany likes it and that’s enough for me :rolleyes:.

Recommendations on olive oil grade to use given the 0% SF? My most recent OO is a blend I picked up at a local supermarket (and wishing COSTCO was closer...) The ingredients are listed as “refined” and virgin OO.
 
Whew, I just read most of the posts in this thread. My olive oil should be fine. The info on gelling is super sketchy above. Recently I’ve been sticking my individual bars into a warm oven to make them gel, but that might not be necessary for a white bar.

@KiwiMoose Soap Sista, did your nice white bars gel? And those wild morphing ones, are they finally 100% purple?
 
When I tried the recipe in January I tried to gel but I'm pretty sure it didn't. There's a big difference between the soaps that I put in the oven and the soaps that just sat on the counter though. The oven soaps have developed quite a bit of ash, but it developed a very nice lather at around 3 months (it was decent before that, but I really started to like the soaps at 3 months). The counter soaps developed even more ash (a thick crust of several mm), don't really have a great lather and are still slimy. I hand stirred the soap to emulsion and I think most others who tried stick blended to trace. Maybe that's why I've had less success with this recipe..
 
Pure prettiness! Thank you @Zany_in_CO for sharing the recipe and the detailed methods!

6DE4E058-D83B-4414-A151-9B4854C89885.jpeg 732828E5-BDDF-4148-9E08-0E5CEF7D7EB2.jpeg

The soaps spent the night covered in a warmed oven and were unmolded after approximately 12 hours. There are no signs of ash at this point. As others have observed, I also had cloudy, slightly viscous lye water and some precipitates, which looked carbonate-ish. I strained them out. It’s possible that reducing the amount of sodium bicarbonate would help with this issue, but it’s easy enough to strain the lye. It seems likely to me that the addition of the [sodium] bicarbonate, which is involved in the Ocean’s carbonate buffering system, results in some of the lye being neutralized. If that is what’s happening, the result would be a soap with some superfat even though it is formulated to be 0%. I am looking forward to trying the soap!
 
Pure prettiness! Thank you @Zany_in_CO for sharing the recipe and the detailed methods!

View attachment 40080 View attachment 40081

The soaps spent the night covered in a warmed oven and were unmolded after approximately 12 hours. There are no signs of ash at this point. As others have observed, I also had cloudy, slightly viscous lye water and some precipitates, which looked carbonate-ish. I strained them out. It’s possible that reducing the amount of sodium bicarbonate would help with this issue, but it’s easy enough to strain the lye. It seems likely to me that the addition of the [sodium] bicarbonate, which is involved in the Ocean’s carbonate buffering system, results in some of the lye being neutralized. If that is what’s happening, the result would be a soap with some superfat even though it is formulated to be 0%. I am looking forward to trying the soap!
Oh so white! Me likey! Did you use TD? Love those intricate lacey moulds in the middle there - where did you get those?
 
Oh so white! Me likey! Did you use TD?

Thanks! I followed the 100% OO recipe exactly. ETA: no TD added

Love those intricate lacey moulds in the middle there - where did you get those?

I bought them a couple of months ago, but haven’t used them because they’re so shallow (1.8 cm). Seemed perfect for white soap though. The batter behaved so well that I had plenty of time to make sure I pushed it into the impressions so I wouldn’t end up with bubbles. There are a few, but they’re tiny.

YGEOMER 2PCS Round & Square 6-Cavity Silicone Soap Mold Cake Mold Chocolate Mold https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y1TYBRS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_NK9gDbWHV2MW6

When I tried the recipe in January I tried to gel but I'm pretty sure it didn't. There's a big difference between the soaps that I put in the oven and the soaps that just sat on the counter though. The oven soaps have developed quite a bit of ash, but it developed a very nice lather at around 3 months (it was decent before that, but I really started to like the soaps at 3 months). The counter soaps developed even more ash (a thick crust of several mm), don't really have a great lather and are still slimy. I hand stirred the soap to emulsion and I think most others who tried stick blended to trace. Maybe that's why I've had less success with this recipe..

Wow szaza, I can’t imagine stirring this soap to emulsion. I used my SB a lot more for this recipe than any other soap I’ve made. I haven’t checked back. Which recipe did you make? I’m not seeing any ash, but I still have the soaps covered with plastic wrap. I’m not sure how long I can get away with that, but it can’t be worse than being in a silicone mold and, plus, I don’t see any signs of moisture.
 
Last edited:
When I tried the recipe in January I tried to gel but I'm pretty sure it didn't.
Hmmm. I'm wondering if you soaped too cool? This is just my experience, but I want my oil & lye around 110°F when making castiles.
The counter soaps developed even more ash (a thick crust of several mm), don't really have a great lather and are still slimy.
Oh my. This is a totally new result to me. Something is going on there I don't understand.
I hand stirred the soap to emulsion and I think most others who tried stick blended to trace. Maybe that's why I've had less success with this recipe..
I think you're correct. Thanks for sharing. All input is valuable. I see a stick blender in your future. ;)

Pure prettiness! Thank you @Zany_in_CO for sharing the recipe and the detailed methods!
You're so very welcome. Well done! I adore pure white soapies and those make me drool. (imagine "drool" emoji here. haha)


It seems likely to me that the addition of the [sodium] bicarbonate, which is involved in the Ocean’s carbonate buffering system, results in some of the lye being neutralized. If that is what’s happening, the result would be a soap with some superfat even though it is formulated to be 0%.
Interesting. Thanks for that input.
I am looking forward to trying the soap!
You don't have to wait all that long. I'm currently using a scrap that I started at 2 weeks. My face likes this soap. Just remember to keep it "high & dry" between uses. ;)
 
Wow szaza, I can’t imagine stirring this soap to emulsion. I used my SB a lot more for this recipe than any other soap I’ve made. I haven’t checked back. Which recipe did you make? I’m not seeing any ash, but I still have the soaps covered with plastic wrap. I’m not sure how long I can get away with that, but it can’t be worse than being in a silicone mold and, plus, I don’t see any signs of moisture.

You can get away with the plastic wrap pretty much as long as you like. Of course, it will take longer to harden completely, depending on the air-tightness of the wrap, but it will eventually harden. Soap dough is kept soft by preventing air getting to it to dry it out.
 
I currently have a sliver of this I use when I get tired of what's currently in the shower now lol

Mine was made in January, so it's almost 6mos into cure now. It might be my skin vs. olive oil in general, because my father loves the same soap, but I find it drying compared to some other newer soap of mine.

The reason I'm saying it's the olive oil is, the Castiles I made without the bicarb feel similar, although those are younger soap. It either means my skin just doesn't like olive oil, or it means it will like it but only after a longer cure.

That being said, my notes say that while none of the pure olive oil soaps I've made have slime, the one using Zany's recipe trumped the other two on lather, and it was harder faster but the others are catching up.

Incidentally.... I have another experiment on this faux seawater that needs mentioning. I have to dig up that other thread...
 
@Mobjack Bay I did 100% olive oil [emoji6]
@Zany_in_CO I think the reason I hand stirred was because I was too lazy to wait for my lye to cool down completely and didn't want it to speed up beyond trace (weren't there some people who had the recipe accelerate on them? But maybe that was the CO+castor version).
I think the saponification took too long in the countertop soaps and the extra sodium from the baking soda stimulated soda ash formation. I also think the countertop soaps might have a higher superfat (and therefore slimyness) because some of the lye reacted with air to become ash.
@Dawni my skin also seems to find olive oil a tad drying. If I try this recipe again I want to try it with almond or rice bran oil to compare.
 
View attachment 40096 View attachment 40096 View attachment 40096 I soaped very cool - about 75, hardly stick blended and had no ash at all. I did stick in the oven.

Pretty! What did you use to color the soap? Is it scented? And, one last question :), did you use the 100% OO recipe or the one with Castor oil? I’m asking because my 100% OO soap, with no additives except the faux seawater, took a long time to trace. I was soaping at 110 - 105 F.
 
Pretty! What did you use to color the soap? Is it scented? And, one last question :), did you use the 100% OO recipe or the one with Castor oil? I’m asking because my 100% OO soap, with no additives except the faux seawater, took a long time to trace. I was soaping at 110 - 105 F.
I used the exact recipe from Zany. I made the faux salt water ahead of time. I used nettle and turmeric for color. Scented in Frankincense & Myrrh.
 
This is a tried and true recipe that I've made several times. Others have tried it with excellent results. Be sure to keep the bar high and dry between uses by using a soap-saver-type soap dish. Tweak to your heart's delight! (Like, do I even need to say that?! :D)

ZANY’S NO SLIME OLIVE OIL CASTILE
Ingredients: Olive oil, water, sea salt, sodium bicarbonate.

1) MAKE FAUX SEAWATER - Use for water portion of the lye solution.
1 quart warm water
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)


I make up a quart at a time and store it in the fridge until I need it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2) MAKE LYE SOLUTION - Mix and allow to cool to 35°C - 40°C (100°F - 110°F).
1.7:1 Water to Lye Ratio (Note decimal and colon)
0% Super Fat/Lye Discount

Notes: I’ve tried 2:1 and 1.5:1. 1.5:1 gets almost too hard and 1:2 is okay but a bit slimey, so, for me, 1.7:1 is the ideal. Olive oil is high in unsaponifiables; so 0% SF works best to reduce slippery slime.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prepare lye solution and set it in the sink to cool. Weigh olive oil into soap pot. Warm to 35°C - 40°C (100°F - 110°F). Combine when lye and oils are within -12°C (10°F) of each other. SB on and off to emulsion stage (5 - 25 minutes, depending on grade of olive oil.) Slowly pour into mold. Tap to remove bubbles. Spritz lightly with alcohol. Cover with plastic wrap. Insulate. Leave soap undisturbed for 12-24 hours.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UNMOLD in 12-24 hours
CUT Day 2
CURE Ready to ship in 2 weeks. 6 weeks is best. The longer the cure the better the soap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unscented, this soap is suitable for babies, sensitive skin, and for cancer patients undergoing radiation. Add 5% castor oil and 10% coconut oil for bubbles and an even milder soap.

If adding fragrance, add 0.85 oz. FO or 0.5% EO /PPO (Per 500 grams) to the castor oil an hour or so ahead of time (or overnight) and a teaspoon PPO of dry ingredient of choice -- corn starch, oat flour, arrowroot powder, White Kaolin Clay, etc. -- to help “stick” the fragrance.

VARIATIONS: Infuse Calendula Petals (yellow) or Bay Leaves (green) in oil ahead of time. Strain. Use up to 40% in the batch to add mildness and color.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe, I'm really excited to give it a try
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top