Castor Oil at 15%

[maloga3]

Okay, so I haven't been soaping for a few months, Christmas soaps/shows wore me out!!!, but I'm back to soaping, which means in turn, I'm back to learning from all of you again
I am tweaking my recipe and am up to 15% castor and the soap is okay except its rather sticky/wet in the mold even after a week after pouring into the mold. I'm wondering if the percentage is too high, I just want a moisturizing bar, hate that I have to use lotion after I wash my hands, and am probably going to switch to 10% castor and 5% shea. considering I use castor as well to mix my pigments/oxides, this soap is really high castor! heres the rest of the recipe:
coconut oil 25%, oo 30%, palm 30%
-also something I just learned, adding corn starch (not to the above batches) gives a nice silky feel to soaps and helps to anchor scents- tbsp./ppo
thanks guys!!

 

[newbie]

Yes, castor that high gives a sticky bar and doesn't necessarily add to the lather and in fact, can detract from the lather. 5-8% seems to be the sweet spot. No soap will moisturize your skin; it's simply not in its nature to moisturize. You could cut back a bit on the coconut oil to about 20% and increase the OO and it will be less cleansing.

Maybe try:
Castor 5%
Coconut 20%
OO 45%
Palm 30%

with a 5-8% SF?

Try a small batch and see how you like it. I think it will be less stripping and be much easier to unmold.

 

[lpstephy85]

Hi! Yes, unfortunately that high of a castor oil % is going to lead to a sticky bar. Most soapers try to stay under 10%. If your soaps seem to me too drying, I would recommend dropping the % of CO down to 20% or less. See if this recipe ran through SoapCalc will work for you:

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

I keep my CO below 15% to keep my skin from drying out after washing. I was given a really nice bar, well aged, that I was using for a while. I had to smear lots of lotion on and still itched. My hands were dry and almost cracked. I checked with the person who made the soap and found that it had 23% CO, at 5% SF. I switched to a bar of my bars with no CO to get over the dryness and immediately got relief. I am back to my 12-14% bars now. So I would recommend you drop the CO. You will still get clean.

 

[maloga3]

Thanks guys!!!! I figured as much...so I'll keep tweaking the recipe and definitely drop the castor to 10%...probably superfat at 8%--its all a learning game...unfortunately we have to wait so long to use the bars that my lack of patience gets the better of me when trying to find my perfect recipe. Back to the drawing board, so to speak.

 

[Tienne]

I agree with the comments above about lowering the CO. I would bring it down to 15-20%. You could also replace a little bit of the OO with almond, avocado, sunflower or canola oil. Sunflower and canola are highly underrated in my opinion and they are very mild and light (and cheap!) oils that are easily absorbed by the skin. Keep them low though as they are high in linoleic and linolenic oil, so don't go over 10%, but I love a little of those oils in my soaps to keep them gentle.

 

[jules92207]

Yes, castor that high gives a sticky bar and doesn't necessarily add to the lather and in fact, can detract from the lather. 5-8% seems to be the sweet spot. No soap will moisturize your skin; it's simply not in its nature to moisturize. You could cut back a bit on the coconut oil to about 20% and increase the OO and it will be less cleansing.

Maybe try:
Castor 5%
Coconut 20%
OO 45%
Palm 30%

with a 5-8% SF?

Try a small batch and see how you like it. I think it will be less stripping and be much easier to unmold.

Newbie I swear I just ran this exact recipe through soapcalc tonight to make this weekend - you must be reading my mind!