What percent of castor oil should I use? Help!

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artdiva05

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I’m trying to make my own first recipe. I had castor at 17% but then I read to much castor can make a sticky slimy bar. So I changed it to 5% is that okay or can I add more? I’m using coconut oil 92*, palm oil, castor oil, canola oil and rice bran oil. I’m working on the % of each. I’ve changed it about 25 times now. I’m superfatting at 5% Any help or input is greatly appreciated!
 
5%-8% in my book. However I have read of people going as high as 10%. Perhaps one of them will chime in.
 
In general, I'd say keep it under 10%. My limited experience with higher percentages is that it worked fine when I had a relatively high percentage of hard oils as opposed to soft oils (maybe 75:25, but I can't say for sure). It seems like with more soft oils, too much castor made the soap sticky.

Perhaps a better question than "how much castor can I use" is "why do I want to use a lot of castor"? If you can answer that, then it's easier to evaluate your results. Castor is fairly expensive in the US so a reason is warranted, for me anyway.
 
I use it at different levels in different formulas. In my shave formula, which contains a high amount of stearic, I use castor at 20%; in a 65% tallow formula of mine, I use castor at 23%. In my tallow/lard formula that also contains olive oil, hydrogenated PKO, coconut oil and mango butter, I use it at 10.5%. Basically, the more hard fats in my formula, the more castor I find I can use without it making my soap feel sticky.


IrishLass :)
 
5% castor works great for me.

Any kind of sugar will work fine - granulated or powdered. Add it to your water and let it fully dissolve BEFORE adding your lye.
 
Okay what do you all think of my recipe? I changed it.

Castor 6%
Cocoa butter 15%
Coconut oil 92* 33%
Olive oil 33%
Rice bran oil 13%

5% super fat

Adding sugar to water

Adding coconut milk I will do a water discount so I can add this.

I’m working on another one with palm oil.
 
If you are using coconut milk as a replacement for all or half of the water, I don't think you need to add sugar - plenty of it in the coconut milk.

Last time I made a bar with 33% coconut oil I found it too drying unless I bumped up the superfat to about 6-7% BUT again - the coconut milk will also add some additional SF so you may be ok with a 5% superfat. Try it and see.
 
I'm confused my coconut milk says 0 sugar? I’m also only using about 2oz of the milk for hp.
 
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