Hi from Holland and a Q

Hello,

I am Zwal, from Holland and working as a consultant. After reading blogs and forums for over 3 months I am confident enough to start with making my first batch of soap. I have bought all the basic equipment I need and a nice wooden mold with a silicon liner.

Since I will not be using any palmoil and go all organic. I am after a soap that I will be using in the shower and washing my hands etc. I have no intention in trying different carrier oils all the time and prefer one standard, balanced formula I can add different essential oils to for different experiences. Like one batch with peppermint and cintronella, one with geranium and rose, and another one with ylang ylang.
Regarding this, I did some research and came up with 3 possible recipes, but could use some advice on which one is more balanced, also regarding shelf life.. I heard for example that sunflower is not the best and could go rancid..

Please feel free to suggest carrier oils that are not listed here. Like stated, I will be using it for showering and washing my hands etc, so really expensive carrier oils will hurt my wallet

The recipes:
1. 40% olive, 30% coconut, 15% shea and 15% cacao
2. 30% olive, 30% coconut, 15% shea, 15% cacao and 10% jojoba
3. 30% olive, 30% coconut, 15% shea, 15% cacao and 10% sunflower

Thanks a lot!
Zwal

Hi Zwal I have my own basic recipe here it is

30% olive oil pomace
25 coconut oil
20% Palm oil
10% castor oil
10% sweet almond
5% sweet almond butter

Your recipes all have 30% butters. That is a pretty high percent and you may find that it will inhibit your lather. If however you don't mind a thin lather it will be fine.

Realize of course that you have no hard oils or fats in your recipe besides coconut which at 30% can be rather drying.(edited with the butters it should be fine as far as hardness is concerned sorry,it has been a long day. If you reduce the butters for better lather then you will need harder oils and more curing ) So the next thing I would think about is either countering that by adding a lard or tallow ( you can buy the organic grain fed if you like) or if you are opposed to animal fats perhaps adding a bit more of liquid oil , reducing your coconut to 20% and consider adding up to 5% caster oil to help with lather.

Understand that using more liquid oils will require you to wait longer to unmold and may take a few extra weeks to cure.

Good luck

I agree with lowering the coconut oil down to 20% so it won't be so drying. Adding a bit of lard will really improve the qualities of your soap. I like 40% lard, 30% olive, 20% coconut and 10% some kind of butter.
jojoba really is wasted in soap, save if for lotions or body butters. Sunflower is ok in lower amounts but I don't care for it much in soap either. My main liquid oils are olive & avocado.

If organic is the aim, I would also really look for organic lard or palm - they can make a huge difference.

To ask the direct question - why organic? What is it about organic that makes you want to make organic soap? I ask simply in case you think it will give a result that is then actually much more trouble than it is worth

Of the three you posted, I like the looks of recipe #3 the best. As far as DOS is concerned, I think you should be fine with only 10% sunflower in there since it only bumps up the total linoleic to 13% (many soap makers like to go no higher than 15% on the total linoleic in order to keep DOS at bay).

If you can find some castor oil, I think that reducing the coconut oil to 25% and introducing 5% castor to recipe #3 will make an even more excellent soap......well, at least for the likes of me anyway.

IrishLass

First of all, thanks for the replies. I understand I have to make some adjustments to my formula.

To answer the q's:
1. I indeed dont want to add any animal fats to my soap.
2. I want organic to add some value to my soap and the world, making it a better place, my 2 cents that is.
3. Regarding palm oil, even the organic ones are mostly build on old rain forests..

I know it does not add any flexibility to my formula, but it does make me feel better

New recipes
You guys advice me to reduce the coconut and add castor or avocado. And the jojoba is also not really advised. That brings us to... pls comment

1. 25% olive, 20% coconut, 20% cacao, 15% shea, 10% castor and 10% babassu.

2. 30% olive, 20% coconut, 20% cacao, 15% shea, 15% castor.

3. 35% olive, 25% coconut, 25% cacao, 15% castor.

The first one has 6 different oils now, a luxury one, but very complex with 6 different oils. I added babassu for the lauric and myristic acids, the fluffy lather I was missing before.

Number 2 is without babassu, and an increased castor to compensate it.

Number 3 is the most practical one for me , maybe too practical?

Thanks in advance for the comments

I also like number 3 best on your new list too (there must be something about the number 3). Speaking only for myself, I would have no qualms making or using the soap from that recipe. The numbers look very similar on paper to the numbers of some of my own recipes.


IrishLass

I personally feel that organic in soap is a little bit wasteful and over-egging it somewhat. The benefits are more about the eating of the food - I don't see that using organic oils in a wash-off product that uses so much lye (factory made lye, by the way) is anything more than just a mental exercise rather than one with any real benefit.

Hi IrishLass, thanks a lot for your comment. When I play with the figures it seems like my soap gets better, for example:

Basic ingredients %
Olive Oil 25%
Cocoa Butter 27%
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 28%
Castor Oil 20%

Property Range Value
Hardness 29‐54 43
Cleansing 12‐22 19
Conditioning 44‐69 53
Lather 14‐46 37
Creamy 16‐48 42
Iodine 41‐70 51
INS 136‐165 160

Instead of:

Basic ingredients %
Olive Oil 35%
Cocoa Butter 25%
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 25%
Castor Oil 15%

Property Range Value
Hardness 29-54 41
Cleansing 12-22 17
Conditioning44-69 55
Lather 14-46 30
Creamy 16-48 38
Iodine 41-70 54
INS 136-165 155


Does these changes really matter as the figures show, or is the difference in real life not as significant as the calculator states?

@The Efficacious Gentleman

Its not about making the product better, I do believe that using organic oil does not have a major impact on the quality of soap. What I do achieve is helping farmers and companies that grow and produce organic food/oils, most likely on a fair(trade) way. This will make the world a better place. It may not be a lot, but it is what I can contribute, that's what counts for me.