Recipe Help Please

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Aspiringdakini

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Hello again everyone. I have had to delete this post because I received a message from the person that I got the recipe from online. That person has their recipe online for all to see but I received an unkind message today from them saying that I had "copied" the recipe when I posted it here. I did not realize that was illegal and I am sorry. I thought that since the recipe was online for all to see, that it was okay to share it?!?!? The person said it was okay for others to use for personal use but did not want me copying the actual words of the recipe and posting it here. I am not sure why someone would post their recipe online if they did not want others to share it?!? Anyway, so that is why this thread is no longer what it was before. <3
 
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I put it in a lye calculator, but I have a feeling the recipe isn't quite right..

I tried the Lye calculator: http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

--"information deleted per request from author of blog"--

I never made soap from scratch before, but they have told me to run every recipe you find on the internet through the lye calculator before using it... cause not all recipes are right.

The finished product would yield 1463.57g, if you think this is too much, you can put the recipe into the lye calculator, and then when calculated you can resize the batch keeping the same percentages as in your original recipe.

Hope this helps, and I hope others can maybe clarify the amount of liquid used in the recipe.
 
First, fragrance oils for soap do not have alcohol in them. As for how to add them, find a fragrance oil that has good reviews in CP soap and add it at trace. But if this is your first soap experience, I'd do an unscented batch first so you can get an idea of what trace looks like. Some fragrance oils can accelerate trace, but it's not due to alcohol.

Mips is right, for your first batch, your recipe should have more liquid (water/milk). When I plugged your oils into http://www.soapcalc.net, I got 380 grams of liquid.
Your recipe is going to be very mild and conditioning, but not much for bubbles or lather. It will most likely be soft at first, but after curing it will be nice and hard.

Also, like Mips said, always run every recipe through a lye calculator. I prefer Soap Calc http://www.soapcalc.net

Do you have any other oils on hand, maybe some castor oil?
 
First, fragrance oils for soap do not have alcohol in them. As for how to add them, find a fragrance oil that has good reviews in CP soap and add it at trace. But if this is your first soap experience, I'd do an unscented batch first so you can get an idea of what trace looks like. Some fragrance oils can accelerate trace, but it's not due to alcohol.

Mips is right, for your first batch, your recipe should have more liquid (water/milk). When I plugged your oils into http://www.soapcalc.net, I got 380 grams of liquid.
Your recipe is going to be very mild and conditioning, but not much for bubbles or lather. It will most likely be soft at first, but after curing it will be nice and hard.

Also, like Mips said, always run every recipe through a lye calculator. I prefer Soap Calc http://www.soapcalc.net

Do you have any other oils on hand, maybe some castor oil?


Yes I do have other oils on hand. This is not my first CP attempt but I am just trying to find a nice basic cp recipe that has a good lather, not too hard, not too soft, white (or nearly white) and is moisturizing. I get confused using the soap calc. because the numbers at the end result always come out like 194893002.399382 and I am like, "Huh?" lol!!!
I have some castor oil, rapeseed oil, grapeseed oil, palm oil, sweet almond oil, coconut oil, olive oil (light and mild and medium), fractionated coconut oil and cocoa butter. Can you run something through the lye calculator for me including some of these ingredients to help achieve the "Dove" sort of soap I am wanting to make? I still want to use coconut milk because I like it a lot. I am just not sure about the recipe's and what each ingredient will do and the lye calculator just confuses me! lol If you could help me I would really appreciate it!!! Thanks again for your replies! :)
 
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Argh! Dove. :evil: (Dove is a kind of a 4-letter word here).

This is what's in it (and by the way, Dove is not exactly soap, it is a mixture of detergent and soap mixed together).
Ingredients:

Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Tallowate or Sodium Palmitate, Lauric Acid, Sodium Isethionate, Water, Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoate or Sodium Palm Kernelate, Fragrance, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891).

Base on the oils you have, and your request for a whitish bar, I played with Soap Calc and came up with the following. It is on the hard side because the oils that contribute to whiteness (coconut, cocoa butter, palm) are all hard. There is no olive oil in Dove, but possibly tallow, which makes a good white, hard bar. (And I like tallow and had used it when I could get it from a local rancher).

Also, not sure what you did, but for as long as I have used Soap Calc, I always only get 2 or 3 sig figs after the decimal point ...

You can also up the superfatting from 5% to 7 or 8% to make soap more "moisturizing".

test recipe.png
 
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Yikes! Sorry, I didn't know that dove was such a bad thing. I really like it myself and me and my family have used it for years. Thank you for the calculation. I will look into adding tallow to your recipe as well as possibly adding some titanium dioxide for more whiteness. Thanks again.
 
You are welcome! You can swap out the palm, some of the olive/coconut (but keep coconut between 20 to 25% for lather) with tallow. Just remember you have to keep the oil slightly warmer because tallow has a higher melting point. And run everything through soap calc again.

If you have been using Dove for a long time, it may take a little while for your skin to get adjusted to real soap. While real soap is not as stripping as Dove and other detergent-type "soaps", it is by nature higher in pH (more alkaline). When I first made the switch from commercial triple-milled soap, it took a few weeks for my skin to adjust. After that, however, it feels so much softer and I have since reduced my body lotion/cream use from twice a day to once a day or once every other day.

Some people's skin-type may not ever get used to the alkalinity of real soap. Even though they are the minority, they do exist, just so that you are aware of it.
 
Yikes! Sorry, I didn't know that dove was such a bad thing. I really like it myself and me and my family have used it for years.

I didn't know Dove was a bad thing, either. IMO, use what works for you and there's nothing wrong with commercially made soap/cleansing bars. Many commercially made bars are milder, have a lower pH and are less irritating than some handmade soap. I occasionally use them myself although I primarily use my own soap. You might find this discussion interesting and educational. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/f11/soap-vs-syndet-please-dont-shoot-messenger-26665/

You'd want to research syndets if you want to attempt to duplicate Dove since the ingredients are intended to be less alkaline.
 
If you are wanting a white soap then light olive oil, coconut oil, & castor oil is going to give you your best shot for whiteness.

Try:

  • Olive Oil 70%
  • Coconut Oil 25%
  • Castor Oil 5%
I'm not going to give you the exact amounts as I would like you to learn how to use one of the calculators and you can choose the size of the batch you want. Keep your fragrance oils beath 5% and essential oils (total amount) at less than 3%.


The above is going to give you a very conditioning bar with thick later and some bubbles. It was one of my first recipes and I used it for years with great response from my customers.....
 
I second light oilve oil. That's what I have been using and it makes my soaps white, at least the pure castile that I made is white. Also, Dove is known for it's moisturizing properties. How baout throwing a good hunk of shea butter in there for extra-loving goodness?

@Hazel - what's a syndet?
 
Syndet is an abbreviation of synthetic detergent. BTW, detergents aren't evil and although it is a harsh sounding word and for many has a negative connotation, many detergents are created from vegetable oils, are very mild and allow products to be created which are closer to the skin's pH level. Synthetic detergents are gentler for people (like me) who have dry, sensitive skin and atopic dermatitis. I have a facial cleanser which is created from synthetic detergents. I love, love this cleanser but it's extremely expensive. It's actually gentler then the facial soap I make and leaves my skin feeling hydrated. I keep saying some day I'd like to try syndets and attempt to make my own version of this cleanser. I would prefer to use my own soap but I have to admit my facial soap isn't as good as this cleanser.

I can understand some of the negativity towards mass produced products but don't throw the baby out with the bath water. (Yes, I deliberately chose to use this idiom since we're discussing cleansing products.) I don't think syndets or Dove (which is a syndet cleansing bar) are 4 letter words around here. If someone has a prejudice against specific products, that's fine and dandy for this person. But that's all it is, an opinion and I personally resent the implication that one person speaks for all the members on this forum. Everyone needs to do their own research preferably from unbiased sources and make their own decisions on what ingredients they want to use in their products. I also think people shouldn't believe the concept of "natural" is good and "synthetic" is bad. For example, I have a BIL who can't use my soap. He has severe psoriasis and the soap is too alkaline for him. He has to use a syndet bar. I also have a nephew who has cystic acne. I made a facial soap for him which he likes but it's not as good as some commercially made cleansers for acne. People need to determine what is best for their skin. For some, what is best may be handmade soap. Other people may find syndets are better for their skin and some people (again - like me) may find handmade soap and the occasional use of a syndet more beneficial.

I'm not an expert on syndets. I've just recently started to research them but I know there are some other members who have used them. I suggest browsing on Swift's blog if you're interested in learning more about them. Here's a link to her surfactant comparison chart.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1020026/surfactantchart.pdf

@ Aspiringdakini

I apologize for hijacking your thread. But I'm just tired of reading prejudicial comments which appear to be based on nothing more than opinion, propaganda and the regurgitated "science" of a certain Eco group. Of course, this is only my opinion. :wink:
 
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