First go around (Tallow) and oatmeal add in

Hiya! Could some of the vets please look my recipe over?

I'll be getting the rest of my ingredients by the end of the week and should be making this soap but the weekend. I do have a question about add ins like colloidal oatmeal. When you add them in do you need yo factor in more water/liquid into the recipe to account for the liquid absorbed by the oatmeal or is it fine when you mix it with water before for you add it to the batter? Thanks!

Wow, that's going to be a hard bar! Might be hard enough that you have trouble getting to dissolve enough to use easily.

I don't have any experience with add ins like oatmeal, sorry.

I agree with Kittish. Way too many hard oils/butters. Your soap is going to be like a brick. I would use the tallow and CO and then add some liquid oils (Olive, HO Safflower or Sunflower) to the mix. If you want to use a butter I would keep it at 10% at the most. I would also add some Castor oil at 5% to stabilize the bubbles a bit. 1 tsp-1T PPO of colloidal oatmeal.

I agree, too much butters. I would do something like this

tallow 40%
olive oil 30%
coconut oil 15%
shea 5%
cocoa 5%
castor 5%

As far as the oatmeal goes, you don't need to increase your water. I use 1-2 teaspoons PPO and mix it dry right into the oils before adding lye. This way to can get it thoroughly blended without having to worry about over mixing the batter.

Thank you for the input, it make me feel that my first thought on the recipe was the right direction, but I was thinking KISS (30/30/30/10), so I chucked out a lot of stuff. I kept the old recipe and I pluged it into soapee. so, I guess looking at your sugesstions I can tweek this?

Thanks again for your help!

Is it a general purpose soap? What kind of environment must it perform in, e.g. shower, bath, sink, etc. Your original cleansing value was 17, but now it's 12, did you need the soap to be mild or would you prefer more cleansing action? Your answers can help us with your recipe design.

Ok let me back track a bit and give the back story (^_^
My mom loves this "Amish Farms" soap she got from Ollies , reminds her of home, and I'm like "heck I could learn to make it it would give me something to do", that was over a year ago and 5 bags of Amish Farms soap later. My mom loves the soap and my 4 year old niece loves the soap, my sister does not.
I made many observations of what I did and did not like about the soap, it dissolved too fast if left in the shower or tub, it has "wood chips" in the soap, I like creaminess of the bar but I wish it would moisturize African American skin better, it rinses cleanly , and it gets my deodorant off XD

I looked up what is reported to be in the soap( CO,PO,PKO,Tallow,powdered oatmeal and natural glycerin) and went from there, I also looked at what I wanted to be in the soap (coco butter and Shea) and tried to keep it simple at the same time. But then I read something about not going over 30% with tallow, and to counter the cleansing issue you need CO, and so I ended up with this second recipe first. Then I said no, KISS! and went with my OP recipe. So yeah (^_^ HELP

I have a tendency to get a little winded at times so I was trying to be short and quick but I guess that back fired (^_^

Since you're trying to replicate the Amish Farms soap with some of your own improvements, I would recommend some small batch tests using your latest recipe. Tallow can be drying, but the other ingredients can be used to offset it. 30% is a good value for the tallow to start off with. I tend to use either all CO or PKO for my cleansing salt, but it's always fun to experiment and see what you like best. I also like to add up to 5% castor oil, to assist ease of lathering (it makes the soap more soluble), but it's optional.

Britannic said:

Since you're trying to replicate the Amish Farms soap with some of your own improvements, I would recommend some small batch tests using your latest recipe. Tallow can be drying, but the other ingredients can be used to offset it. 30% is a good value for the tallow to start off with. I tend to use either all CO or PKO for my cleansing salt, but it's always fun to experiment and see what you like best. I also like to add up to 5% castor oil, to assist ease of lathering (it makes the soap more soluble), but it's optional.

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Thank you for your input! I plan on doing a small batch tests. I might nix the PKO just to have less ingredients and see if it makes any difference, because do I really need PO AND PKO? XD

oh do you have a basic tallow recipe I could try? I'm waiting for some ingredients still ,thanks to Irma ,and I want to at least get my stick blender dirty, if you know what I mean I have tallow, olive oil, canola oil, and Shea. I think I can wiggle and get coconut oil if Walmart is open yet.

Here's a recipe you can experiment with, note that I use a stronger lye concentration, so it will trace more quickly. I prefer to mould when the batter emulsion is stable, but getting the batter to trace is recommended when you're starting out, to prevent separation of oils and lye in the mould.

Also, note that PO is a good vegetable replacement for tallow and has similar properties. PKO can be substituted for CO and provides good bubbles.

I prefer using lard vs. tallow, as its cheaper and gives the lather more oomph IMHO, but YMMV and personal preference/experience will be the best guide.

Thank you so much I will give it a go round as well. I'll post pictures in a separate post after I'm done. As for this long journy, I will come back once my stuff comes in and my soapy space is set

Personally I like high lard and tallow soaps. Nice very hard bars. last a long time, decent lather, get me clean, which is the point. I have fairly oily skin, though, so someone who finds commercial soaps very drying may want a different mix of oils.

Don't waste large amounts of cocoa butter in cold process soap, though -- it's much better as superfat in hot process (added after the cook), and it's very expensive to turn it into soap pretty much indistinguishable from tallow soap. I use it along with shea butter as superfat in my shaving soaps, works great and leaves my skin feeling very nice after shaving.

Experiment, you will find something you like sooner or later.

After some more wiggling around I realized I like a nice hard bar of soap. So I don't think I will mind having a hard bar, and since I'm pretty pleased with my first batch I can't wait to try some more tallow recipes.

psfred said:

...Don't waste large amounts of cocoa butter in cold process soap, though -- it's much better as superfat in hot process (added after the cook), and it's very expensive to turn it into soap pretty much indistinguishable from tallow soap. I use it along with shea butter as superfat in my shaving soaps, works great and leaves my skin feeling very nice after shaving.

Experiment, you will find something you like sooner or later.

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Ahhh, if I was selling these I would seriously consider a different route but this is more of a personal bar for my family, and I want it to moisturize my family's skin which is African American, and since tallow soaps can be drying well ^_^; but if I do go selling 1 or 2 years down the road it could be a niche product who knows. African American skin is so finicky it's not even funny XD