Whats the best?.

What percentage of what kind of oils would some of you consider to make the best "overall" ,general purpose, day to day soap for the shower? Fragrance not included. thanks

I think a decent all rounder is something with the holy trinity+1 - so 50% lard/palm/tallow, 30% olive, 15% co and 5% castor.

My base recipe is pretty close to what Effy (tee hee) posted. Some sources give a 33/33/33 rule, but I think 33% is way too much coconut oil for most people.

I like 40% OO, 35% Palm/Lard/Tallow, 20% CO and 5% Castor

shunt2011 said:

I like 40% OO, 35% Palm/Lard/Tallow, 20% CO and 5% Castor

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I have not used castor oil yet.....what does it do to the soap?

hozhed said:

I have not used castor oil yet.....what does it do to the soap?

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It helps stabilize the bubbly lather. But I don't use it over 7% in general purpose soap. You can get Castor in the pharmacy section of most drug stores.

shunt2011 said:

It helps stabilize the bubbly lather. But I don't use it over 7% in general purpose soap. You can get Castor in the pharmacy section of most drug stores.

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Excellent..............thank you all for the advice. Its appreciated.:razz:

Don't be surprised if you get a ton of different responses to your question. What one person considers to be their 'best' may turn out to be another person's 'poison'. lol

So with that caveat in mind, I have 2 everyday shower formulas (one all-veggie, the other a tallow/lard/veggie combo) and I like my total bubbly oil quotient in them be 28% and 31% respectively. By bubbly oils I mean coconut, PKO and babassu. This level would be considered too high for some of our members here, I know, but it works out great in my formula, my family and I love it.

Castor brings such a wonderful quality to the table. It doesn't 'make' bubbly lather per se, but it enhances the bubbly lather already present from either coconut/PKO/babassu. I find it gives the bubbly lather in my formulas such a lovely depth/body. My castor amount is 10% in my all-veggie formula and 11.5% in my tallow/lard/veggie combo. I know some would consider these amounts high, too, but again- it works out great in my formula and my family and I love the finished soap. Castor oil can also be found in health-food type stores. My local health-food store carries a 32 oz. bottle of it for much less that I can buy a little bottle of it at my local pharmacy.

My advice is to start with a basic recipe such as the one the good Gent posted, and then tweak things to your personal liking from there.


IrishLass

I am feeling the need of giving you my opinion on this thread, although I am very new at soaping with limited experience and after gaining so much great advice from the more experienced here.

TEG's and shunt's recipes are what I have written down as good bases and I start tweaking in purpose each time.

But there are many parameters that will stabilise your tweakings each time to your preferences. The major ones for me are:

1) What type of skin/hair do you have (dry, oily, sensitive ect. )
2) What will you use for liquid and what additives will be added (milk, beer, aloe vera, silk, clays, oatmeal ect.)
3) What percentage of Superfat will your recipe have.
4) How warm or cold will be the season when you will bathing.

edit to add
5) Your type of taped water [soft-hard-very hard] will have an impact in soap's overall behaviour/performance.


Last but not least you can substitute Palm kernel oil for coconut or use it 50/50 and somehow ease the dry feeling of CO instead of using lower %.

You will start to learn your skin's needs and after learning the properties of each oil you can make a great soap for you.

Welcome to the great world of soapmaking.

Nikos

shunt2011 said:

I like 40% OO, 35% Palm/Lard/Tallow, 20% CO and 5% Castor

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I'm pretty clsoe to Shunt here, at around:

40% Olive
40% Palm/Tallow
15% CO
5% Castor

If using lard, olive drops and the lard goes to 50% or more; I like a lot of lard in my bars when I use it.

MorpheusPA said:

I'm pretty clsoe to Shunt here, at around:

40% Olive
40% Palm/Tallow
15% CO
5% Castor

If using lard, olive drops and the lard goes to 50% or more; I like a lot of lard in my bars when I use it.

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will any type/brand of lard work, or are some better than others??

I use Armour lard, but only because it is the only kind available at Walmart. I don't think the brand really matters.

My old favorite recipe used to be this:

55% Lard/Tallow/Palm(I used lard)
20% CO
20% OO
5% Castor Oil

This is still what I recommend for newbies as most of us have made this recipe enough to troubleshoot any issues they have.

My new favorite recipe is this:

80% Lard
15% Coconut Oil
5% Castor Oil

But I have tallow soaps curing with both of those recipes, as well as a lard/tallow blend, so I will let you know.

I'm another one who uses 10% castor in my recipes. When I first started soaping I figured more was better. I started second guessing myself once I realized that the usual range is 3-7%. But I just can't bring myself to lower it. I love what it does for my lather and conditioning.

Here is the recipe I make for my husband...he really likes this one.
40% Lard/Tallow mix
20% Coconut
30% Olive
10% Castor

My son has sensitive skin and eczema and I have dry skin so I make a separate more conditioning recipe for us with lower coconut.

LittleCrazyWolf said:

I'm another one who uses 10% castor in my recipes. When I first started soaping I figured more was better. I started second guessing myself once I realized that the usual range is 3-7%. But I just can't bring myself to lower it. I love what it does for my lather and conditioning.

Here is the recipe I make for my husband...he really likes this one.
40% Lard/Tallow mix
20% Coconut
30% Olive
10% Castor

My son has sensitive skin and eczema and I have dry skin so I make a separate more conditioning recipe for us with lower coconut.

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Excellent!:razz:

hozhed said:

will any type/brand of lard work, or are some better than others??

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It doesn't matter. I use the lard from Soaper's Choice, which is inexpensive and very, very good.