First time soap maker, trying to make a beard bar! (hot process) would love feedback

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manwolf

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Hey all!

I have a beard oil company, and I've been trying to formulate a bar for a beard wash/ conditioner, and I want to keep it vegan and all natural. My current formula (haven't tried it yet, going to be scented with lavender and rosemary) is:

HEMP OIL 4% 1.32oz
CASTOR OIL 6% 1.97oz
AVOCADO OIL 10% 3.28oz
SHEA BUTTER 20% 6.56oz
COCONUT OIL 23% 7.54oz
OLIVE OIL 37% 12.14oz

Water as percent of oil weight 38.00 %
Super Fat/Discount 5 %
Lye Concentration 26.506 %
Water : Lye Ratio 2.7727:1

According to the soap calculator, I need to harden the bar up and drop the iodine level... any suggestions how to do this? Is my recipe any good in the first place, or should I completely change it? I'm worried that the level of coconut may dry out the hair/ skin. These were the soap calculator specs:

HARDNESS: 36
CLEANSING: 15
CONDITIONING: 60
BUBBLY: 21
CREAMY: 26
IODINE: 66
INS: 139
 
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His​, welcome! Overall the recipe looks good. You could bump the coconut oil down to 15-20% if you're concerned about harshness. Maybe avocado up to 15%.

For bar hardness, I'd up the lye concentration to 35%
You can also add a bit of salt (dissolve it) to your lye water for bar hardness. Palm/lard/tallow produce a nice hard bar, any reason why you're not using any of them?
 
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I'm trying to keep the bar vegetarian/ vegan friendly, and the company does its best to make sure all the ingredients used are ethically sourced, so after reading a bit about palm i didn't want to use it.
 
manwolf said:
I'm trying to keep the bar vegetarian/ vegan friendly, and the company does its best to make sure all the ingredients used are ethically sourced, so after reading a bit about palm i didn't want to use it.
Click to expand...

Then you want to use more shea butter. I would also cut out the hemp oil. It can lead to early rancidity if used in too high of a percentage. At 4% it really is nothing more than filler or label appeal.
 
ok thanks! and just so i am sure i am understanding soapcalc correctly in regard to superfat... it figures less lye in so i don't need to add an additional 5% of oil, correct?
 
manwolf said:
ok thanks! and just so i am sure i am understanding soapcalc correctly in regard to superfat... it figures less lye in so i don't need to add an additional 5% of oil, correct?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct. If you are hot processing it, tho you might want to hold out 5% of one of one of the oils and add it after the cook. It will help loosen up the soap so you can stir in the fragrance.
 
This is just me, but I think your formula looks fine. You've got all those lovely conditioning oils in there to offset any dryness from the coconut oil. It may need a longer cure, but it should be wonderful in the long run. I'd like to see the iodine value a little lower, but some say it's good as long as it's under 70, so I wouldn't mess with it. I didn't know hemp went rancid after soaping??? I learned something. Give it a go with a small trial batch to see how you like it and then tweak it from there.

HAPPY SOAPING!
 
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You know that traditional soap is not generally recommended for hair, right? The high pH causes the hair scales to open and leads to rough texture and breakage unless it's followed by an acidified rinse. I use my normal face soap to wash my beard while washing my face, but my beard is quite short. For somebody with a long beard, soap might not be the best choice.
 
kchaystack said:
Moving the explanation to your new thread about Hemp oil
Click to expand...
Thank you. And thanks for that post. I really appreciated it. Now that I know how to search messages here, I want to read more, then I may have a question or two. I like learning new things -- they say it's good for senior brains. :mrgreen:
 

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