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Voyages of Curiosity
Joined
Mar 13, 2017
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Location
Los Angeles, CA
I've been thinking about trying to do a shea butter recipe, and have read that some people love lots of shea while others like it in smaller quantities. I'd been eyeing a 50% shea recipe here, but I still have some palm from an earlier experiment. Plus a friend just gave me a bucket of cocoa butter she'd purchased a couple of years ago but never did anything with (does cocoa butter go bad?).

I brought down the shea and added the cocoa butter, and I'm thinking about trying the following at a 2% superfat. The coconut I have been keeping low because I don't want something highly drying and with the shea I thought this might be a nice face bar.

Avocado Oil 10% - 50g
Cocoa Butter 27% - 135g
Coconut Oil 3% - 15g
Palm Oil 25% - 125g
Shea Butter 35% - 175g

I'd love any thoughts/feedback before I jump in.

Thank you for your time and help!
Kaye
 
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I would drop the shea butter and cocoa butters to 15% each and up the coconut to 22%, add 8% Castor oil and do 25% palm and 15% avocado. This will give you a low cleansing number with lots of creamy lather and a reasonable amount of bubbles. As Susie said, sugar helps with bubbly lather. Make sure to dissolve the sugar completely in water before adding lye.
 
I've been thinking about trying to do a shea butter recipe, and have read that some people love lots of shea while others like it in smaller quantities. I'd been eyeing a 50% shea recipe here, but I still have some palm from an earlier experiment. Plus a friend just gave me a bucket of cocoa butter she'd purchased a couple of years ago but never did anything with (does cocoa butter go bad?).

I brought down the shea and added the cocoa butter, and I'm thinking about trying the following at a 2% superfat. The coconut I have been keeping low because I don't want something highly drying and with the shea I thought this might be a nice face bar.

Avocado Oil 10% - 50g
Cocoa Butter 27% - 135g
Coconut Oil 3% - 15g
Palm Oil 25% - 125g
Shea Butter 35% - 175g

I'd love any thoughts/feedback before I jump in.

Thank you for your time and help!
Kaye

Personally, I'd try that just to sate curiosity but I think subtracting 7% from the cocoa butter and adding it to the coconut might be a better way to go. Following the other's suggestions would probably be better.

Better yet, if you're not opposed and if you're not like me:

Avocado Oil 10% - 50g
Cocoa Butter 15% - 135g
Coconut Oil 10% - 15g
Lard 50% - 125g
Shea Butter 15% - 175g

Not much in big bubbles but the creaminess will be there and it would not be over cleansing
 
Thank you, everyone! @Arimara, I have found a love for lard in my first bar of soap.. I think this time I'll stick with the vegetable and nut oils purely to see what other blends create. Otherwise I have a feeling I'll make nothing but lard soap for evermore!! :lol:

I'll up the coconut and lower the butters some. I like the idea of adding sugar to see what happens, since that is a chance to experiment with additives other than the charcoal. I might try some honey, I've seen that recommended at 1 tsp PPO. Do I dissolve it in the water before adding lye, like with sugar?

Thank you again!
 
There's nothing wrong with making only lard soap...if you don't have crunchy friends, that is.

Bless them, but I do have quite a few crunchy friends. Even some of the less crunchy friends were unsure how to feel about lard as a soap ingredient. It was an interesting conversation that included the phrase "I don't think I could do it, I just imagine slime all over my body!"

While I'd never, to my knowledge, used lard soap before now I didn't see it as anything that didn't make sense. I remembered learning about pilgrims or homesteading with animal fat and ash. But it made me wonder if lard soap was something that people in Southern California just had no idea about.

I did a 100% olive oil last week, and I'd seen a high shea in another thread. But with the cocoa butter windfall thought I'd do something with both.
 
I am wondering if you are wasting the butters using shea and cocoa in the same batch?

Do others do that?

I have used shea and cocoa butters. Just the other day we started daily testing on 4 palm free vegan batches, which that recipe is one of. I have also used both of the butters alone. My favorite of the 4 so far is the 2 butters.
 
I have used shea and cocoa butters. Just the other day we started daily testing on 4 palm free vegan batches, which that recipe is one of. I have also used both of the butters alone. My favorite of the 4 so far is the 2 butters.

Out of curiosity, what is the percentage of butters you are using? If you don't mind my asking..
 
Thank you, everyone! @Arimara, I have found a love for lard in my first bar of soap.. I think this time I'll stick with the vegetable and nut oils purely to see what other blends create. Otherwise I have a feeling I'll make nothing but lard soap for evermore!! :lol:

I'll up the coconut and lower the butters some. I like the idea of adding sugar to see what happens, since that is a chance to experiment with additives other than the charcoal. I might try some honey, I've seen that recommended at 1 tsp PPO. Do I dissolve it in the water before adding lye, like with sugar?

Thank you again!


I used honey for the first time recently and truth be told, I just heated up a little water to dissolve the honey before adding it to the lye. No volcano but the lye did turn a pretty shade of peach.

Also, thanks for telling me about my suggestion. I came up with something else if you'd like

1. Avocado Oil %15
2. Cocoa Butter %20
3. Coconut Oil %20
4. Palm Oil %30
5. Shea Butter %15

I am wondering if you are wasting the butters using shea and cocoa in the same batch?

Do others do that?

It's not a waste. I was given a soap with shea and cocoa butter in it and I loved it. Try it some time.
 
Bless them, but I do have quite a few crunchy friends. Even some of the less crunchy friends were unsure how to feel about lard as a soap ingredient. It was an interesting conversation that included the phrase "I don't think I could do it, I just imagine slime all over my body!"

While I'd never, to my knowledge, used lard soap before now I didn't see it as anything that didn't make sense. I remembered learning about pilgrims or homesteading with animal fat and ash. But it made me wonder if lard soap was something that people in Southern California just had no idea about.

I did a 100% olive oil last week, and I'd seen a high shea in another thread. But with the cocoa butter windfall thought I'd do something with both.

If they're open to it, you can let them know that they've probably already used animal fat soap - many commercial soaps contain tallow. And as for environmental concerns - animal fat sitting in landfills creates a lot of greenhouse gases. Turning it into soap is better!

I live in San Diego county and am surprised to find that most people I know don't have any issue with lard.
 
Also, thanks for telling me about my suggestion. I came up with something else if you'd like

1. Avocado Oil %15
2. Cocoa Butter %20
3. Coconut Oil %20
4. Palm Oil %30
5. Shea Butter %15



It's not a waste. I was given a soap with shea and cocoa butter in it and I loved it. Try it some time.

I do not use a lot of butters in my soap but I think today Ill make a batch and see. What SF are you using? I usually stay around 5-6 mostly.
 
I do not use a lot of butters in my soap but I think today Ill make a batch and see. What SF are you using? I usually stay around 5-6 mostly.

I did 5% SF

Its got a few more weeks of cure on it, otherwise I'd tell you my thoughts! So far, I'm thinking I can't wait to try it :lol:
 
I'm using this thread as a teaching moment for Newbies learning how to use a soap calculator when designing their own formulas. NOTE: Values are based on SoapCalc.Net. Please click on the link at the top of the page that says “Soap Bar Qualities” for a better understand of Range (noted between parentheses below).

Kaye’s Recipe
10% Avocado Oil
27% Cocoa Butter
3% Coconut Oil
25% Palm Oil
35% Shea Butter

Sat:Unsat Ratio >>> 50:50 <<<Good

RANGE
Hardness.......(29 - 54)....49 <<<<OK
Cleansing......(12 - 22)......2 <<<<NG (Not Good)
Conditioning..(44 - 69).....49 <<<<OK
Bubbly..........(14 - 46)......2 <<<<NG
Creamy.........(16 - 48).....47 <<<<Good
Iodine...........(41 - 70)....53 <<<<Good
INS.............(136-165)...137<<<<Longer Cure

Reformulate Recipe:
20% Avocado Oil
20% Cocoa Butter
20% Coconut Oil
20% Palm Oil
20% Shea Butter

Sat:Unsat Ratio >>> 53:47 <<<Good

RANGE
Hardness.......(29 - 54).....51 <<< OK
Cleansing......(12 - 22).....14 <<<< Better
Conditioning..(44 - 69).....44 <<< could be better
Bubbly...........(14 - 46).....14 <<<< Better
Creamy..........(16 - 48).....38 <<< Good
Iodine............(41 - 70).....49 <<< Good
INS...............(136-165)..155 << 4 weeks cure

COMMENTS: Before everyone jumps all over me for using 20% for each ingredient :mrgreen: -- it allows the formulator to adjust each ingredient up or down to see what a tweak here or there does to the end result.

Also, the previously suggested percentages are better than this one. It's only a matter of time and experience before you can look at % suggestions and know whether that's something you want to do or not.

Also, refined shea butter soaps better than raw shea butter.

HTH :bunny:

ETA: I don't know why, but I can't delete the emoticon in the Creamy Value.
 
does cocoa butter go bad?
Cocoa butter has a long shelf life, maybe 2-3 years, but it's best to use up all oils, fats, etc. within a year. To help with this, mark the date of purchase on the containers so you won't be like me and forget.
The coconut I have been keeping low because I don't want something highly drying
Keep in mind that coconut oil is not necessarily drying to all people or in all cases. It's one of the few oils we count on for sufficient lather and cleansing. The trick is to find a balance between coconut oil and the other oils, fats, etc. and formulate to find the best combo for your personal taste.

I might try some honey, I've seen that recommended at 1 tsp PPO. Do I dissolve it in the water before adding lye, like with sugar?
This is just me, but I don't use sugar to bump lather because I don't need it. If the coconut oil doesn't deliver the amount of lather I want then I'll use a little castor to bump it -- and add more conditioning as well.

For honey, I mix with water 50:50, and add it (warmed) to the (warmed) oils before adding the lye solution (CP) OR at the end of the cook (HP). Use rate: I use 1 tablespoon PPO (Per Pound Oils) Keep in mind that honey is a "heater" and will quicken trace. This is true of sugar and anything with sugar in it, like milks, alcoholic beverages, etc.
 
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