Deanna, I have a question...

Wow! I am so amazed by this thread... it took me an entire thread to complete reading it... may be I will give it a try in the near future.. So, after reading the thread, I came to a conclusion that not everyone felt the same regarding the soap that is better than the regular Castile. So, if we need to cure superlye soap for 1 year for it to be mild, what is the purpose of doing it at all as the normal ones doesn't show slime after 1 yr of curing? This is what I noticed:
Normal Castile : slimy till one year, mild since the soap hardens
Superlye Castile : drying till 1 yr, not slimy since the beginning?
Am I missing something or may be my brain is overloaded with information that I am not able to think straight.

Soapprentice said:

So, if we need to cure superlye soap for 1 year for it to be mild, what is the purpose of doing it at all as the normal ones doesn't show slime after 1 yr of curing? This is what I noticed:
Normal Castile : slimy till one year, mild since the soap hardens

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My 100% Castiles are still super slimy even after a 5 year cure (soap below is over 5 years old- still slimy after all these years):




IrishLass

I just can't stand Castile soap. I can't get past the slime and no, it doesn't get any better really with age. Once slimy always slimy as far as I'm concerned!

reinbeau said:

I just can't stand Castile soap. I can't get past the slime and no, it doesn't get any better really with age. Once slimy always slimy as far as I'm concerned!

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To those of you give away or sell Castile, or just for personal use. Do you find using a sponge or soap puff help with the darn slime goo snotty?

My limited experience in 50-72%olive oil the soap puff helps, at least better than just using hands to make suds, but I wonder if it's 100% olive oil, will it even make a difference?

cherrycoke216 said:

To those of you give away or sell Castile, or just for personal use. Do you find using a sponge or soap puff help with the darn slime goo snotty?

My limited experience in 50-72%olive oil the soap puff helps, at least better than just using hands to make suds, but I wonder if it's 100% olive oil, will it even make a difference?

Click to expand...

I have been wanting to do some felting, would felting help or would that make the slim worse?

"...Normal Castile : slimy till one year, mild since the soap hardens. Superlye Castile : drying till 1 yr, not slimy since the beginning?..."

Nope. Superlye castile behaves the same as normal castile. High oleic soap is high oleic soap no matter how it is made nor how old it is. What DOES happen is a well cured soap is somewhat less soluble, so you maybe can have more chance of aerating and diluting the oleic gel to form a decent lather before it makes an obvious slime. As Irish Lass shows (above) you can still get the slime in an older castile. I can do the same with my 3 year old superlye castile.

A puff or sponge helps to break up the oleic gel, add extra water, and aerate the lather -- yes, this is helpful. I have no idea about felting around this kind of soap -- not tried it.

This thread about dual lye (KOH + NaOH) soap also contains some discussion about oleic gel starting about Post 25: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=59747

I have felted Castile, but since I don't seem to really notice the slime factor as a drawback, I can't really address if it helps. I think it's a matter of taste, perhaps. Or a function of the soap reacting with the hardness or softness of ones water. Or just one's perception of the specific soap.

cherrycoke216 said:

To those of you give away or sell Castile, or just for personal use. Do you find using a sponge or soap puff help with the darn slime goo snotty?

My limited experience in 50-72%olive oil the soap puff helps, at least better than just using hands to make suds, but I wonder if it's 100% olive oil, will it even make a difference?

Click to expand...

I use a nylon pouf/soap puff when showering with my 100% Castiles. The friction from one of those things turns the snotty slime into quite a glorious lather to write home about. I've tried them with my normal cotton facial-cloths, too, but compared to a pouf/puff, I might as well be using just my hands, which can only produce a very thin, slimy foam such as what you see in my pic above. So.... I'm stuck with nylon poufs/puffs if I want to get any kind of respectable lather out of them. The only problem is that I hate using nylon poufs/soap puffs. They are too scratchy on my skin- even the poufs/puffs that are graded as being gentle. The only body parts I am able to use them on without any discomfort are the bottoms of my feet. So, I've quit making 100% Castiles, and instead I use Genny's Shampoo bar as my go-to gentle soap formula. It lathers up gloriously with just my hands and does not produce slime.

I've never used felted soap, so I can't comment on those.


IrishLass

DeeAnna said:

"...Normal Castile : slimy till one year, mild since the soap hardens. Superlye Castile : drying till 1 yr, not slimy since the beginning?..."

Nope. Superlye castile behaves the same as normal castile. High oleic soap is high oleic soap no matter how it is made nor how old it is. What DOES happen is a well cured soap is somewhat less soluble, so you maybe can have more chance of aerating and diluting the oleic gel to form a decent lather before it makes an obvious slime. As Irish Lass shows (above) you can still get the slime in an older castile. I can do the same with my 3 year old superlye castile.

A puff or sponge helps to break up the oleic gel, add extra water, and aerate the lather -- yes, this is helpful. I have no idea about felting around this kind of soap -- not tried it.

This thread about dual lye (KOH + NaOH) soap also contains some discussion about oleic gel starting about Post 25: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=59747

Click to expand...

Which is why a 100% rice bran oil soap act a LOT like a castile. It's the level of oleic in the soap.
Watch the fatty acid profiles!

Hello everyone! Found this thread occasionally and read for about 3 days with increasing curiosity On the page 6-7 I definitely knew I have to try it! Weird sense of being a witness of a past is great I have to admit. Well, I stumbled upon this right on time to give it a try. I wanted to make pure OO soap with big part of it infused with laurel leaf and Black sea lye used as a liquid (if you want to be informed it's a great thing to use https://www.luga.bg/en/shop/category_stabilized_lye_en/solution-for-body-stabilized-black-sea-lye/#description)
Made a small batch with 500 ml oil, 100 g lye and 600 ml water, 200 ml of it with Black sea salt water (it has Ph of 7,5, so it is like a water). First the lye solution turned a bit weird - white speckles formed from salted liquid, but soon it was just opal and homogeneous. Did not clear though. Put all the liquid at once to the oil and stirred for about 2 hours with spatula. It had a light trace, but I wanted more. So, pissed of, I SB pulsing very shortly a few times, just to help the trace thicken a bit. Worked. Put in a slab carton mold, hoping for better.
After 18 h the batch seemed like ivory with some greenish tint (I guess from laurel infusion). The feeling cutting it was great! It has some oilish lubricant cover and the pieces were like butter. I took pictures, if anyone is interested.
Now I'll wait. They are the creamiest and lovely soap pieces I've seen so far.
Maybe it is a good idea to make standard 100% OO recipe, 2:1 liquid:lye, 5%SF with the same ingredients to compare afterwards. I have some Black sea lye and laurel infused oil left for experiments.
Forgot to mention there are no additives - color or aroma. I want it simple.
And thank you all for such a interesting thread and efforts!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UCFE9mZ17aQS2iyx8

Trying to show my result. The soap feels like butter from fridge. Feel chilly of the evaporating liquid.

Your soap looks great. I recently read through this thread and agree that it is like stepping back into history. The complicated chemistry of soap making is fascinating, but sometimes also frustrating. I don’t think I have the patience to try this one, but look forward to reading any updates you provide on how your soap changes over time, especially given your additives.

Mobjack Bay said:

Your soap looks great. I recently read through this thread and agree that it is like stepping back into history. The complicated chemistry of soap making is fascinating, but sometimes also frustrating. I don’t think I have the patience to try this one, but look forward to reading any updates you provide on how your soap changes over time, especially given your additives.

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I'm glad to revive this thread So far the soap smells like olives and is silky pleasant. I'll update for sure!

I hate to be the one to say it but generally speaking the admin team here prefer you to create new threads and link to old ones, rather than reviving or "necroposting" ancient threads like this.

Best of luck with your soap, and it might be best if you start a new thread for updates, you can include a link to this one for background info

Thank you for pointing Primrose! I'll do this right away, no problems As you can see I'm new to this forum, so not familiar with all the rules.
So the new thread is https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/castile-superlye-method-experiment.76385/