First Scratch Recipe - Thoughts?

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SgtSluggo

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Lard: 20%
Shea Butter:20%
Olive Oil: 10%
Coconut Oil: 30%
Castor oil: 10%
Cocoa Butter: 10%
5% superfat
(Lye and water coming from Soapee calculator)

Planning on making this as a mocha soap so I had two ideas.
First, I am going to try using a little powdered buttermilk in the soap (going to pull a little water out of the lye solution to dissolve it and then put it into the oils.

Second I am going to split the batter (may 70%, 30%), add coffee grounds to the larger portion, then color the smaller portion with cocoa powder. Then use that to try a swirl.

I know it several techniques at once, but I don't get many chances to soap. Goal for this soap is to be a good hand cleansing soap that won't completely dry out my skin. Any thoughts on my recipe or idea? I do want to try to keep this one using things that I already have or can easily get (grocery/drug store). That also means that I probably won't try to use any fragrance in this.

Thanks!
 
IMO the recipe has too much butter in it. I would just go with 15% shea butter and forget the cocoa butter. You can make up the percentage with olive oil. If are worried about the soap drying your skin reduce the coconut oil to 20% and use 30% lard. 10% Castor oil seems a little high. The highest I would go with Castor is 8%.

Here is an idea of what I mean:

Castor 8%
Coconut Oil 20%
Lard 30%
Olive 27%
Shea 15%

This should give you a hard bar with a low cleansing number and some bubbles and creamy lather.
 
It seems a little light on the lard if you're going to use that fat. At least 50% lard is a good way to go but that's another recipe (50% Lard, 20% CO, 15% OO, 10% cocoa, 5% castor). Personally, I's actually ditch the lard out of fear that you may shortchange yourself with its awesomeness. I'd rearrange that like this: 35% OO, 20% CO, 20% shea, 20% cocoa, 5% castor, 3-5% superfat.
 
I agree with the above - you have a heck of a lot of hard oils compared to soft oils so you'll most likely have a hard time swirling because it may thicken up quickly on you. I'd bump the OO to 30%.
 
Everybody will have an opinion on any recipe.
My advice is make it.
Record everything including the "numbers" like cleansing etc.
If you LOVE IT. Stay with it. If you like it feel free to make changes. The advice others have given will make a gentler bar for cleansing.

My favorite recipes now have a cleansing value below the recommendations and tend to show as being soft. I do add hardeners. But then again that all comes later.

MOST IMPORTANT is to enjoy the soap making adventure!!!

Steve
 
What do you mean by "hand cleansing"? if you want something really heavy duty, it might not be up to it.
I'm not really planning on using it for my heavy duty needs (still have a hard time giving up my Lava soap for that), but mostly I meant that it I wasn't planning on using it in the shower. I would like it to be as good of a hand cleaning bar (again, kitchen not workshop) as possible without needing to find some lotion afterwards
 

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