Have a good shower soap recipe?

[LynnCaroline]

I have only made one batch of soap which turned out okay. What are your favorite shower soap recipes? Mine didn't lather that well, so I still need to do some more research!

 

[Hazel]

What was your recipe? Perhaps just tweaking it would improve the lather.

 

[soapbuddy]

Did you use any coconut or castor? What is your recipe?

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I'd like to see your recipe too. :wink:

 

[dcornett]

I have only made one batch of soap which turned out okay. What are your favorite shower soap recipes? Mine didn't lather that well, so I still need to do some more research!

Soap Calc is a great resource (if your not using it already) http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp it lets you tweak your recipes in order to improve certain qualities (such as lather) before actually making the soap and waiting to try it out.

 

[LynnCaroline]

[Soap Calc is a great resource (if your not using it already) http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp it lets you tweak your recipes in order to improve certain qualities (such as lather) before actually making the soap and waiting to try it out.]

Thanks for this tip! I will definatly play around with this next time. Here is the recipe I used: (from MMS)

15 oz water
6.5 wt oz lye

32 wt oz tallow
2 wt oz sweet almond oil
3 wt oz olive oil
6 wt oz coconut oil
7 wt oz cocoa butter

Caress type FO at trace

Your opinions? Are there other oils that I could be using to make a good shower soap? Any advice is appreciated![/quote]

 

[SudsyKat]

I add about 6% castor to my soaps and I love the lather. I've also used sugar (1 Tbsp PPO, dissolved in boiling distilled water and added at trace). That helped as well. I don't use tallow, so I can't comment on that, but coconut oil helps with lather as well (though if you use more than 20% or so, it can make your soap a bit drying on the skin). I'm fairly new, but that's my 2 cents!

 

[LynnCaroline]

Thanks, dcornett for the SoapCalc tip. I just entered my recipe and found that it passes the test for cleansing, hardness and creamy, but it's not good for bubbly or conditioning... two things I really want in a bath soap. Glad I found this website, now I can tweak my recipe to hopefully make a better batch next time!

 

[carebear]

dig around in soapcalc more and you will see that coconut oil is great for big bubbles. so consider increasing your percentage of that (or of palm kernel or babassu)

 

[dcornett]

Thanks LynnCaroline, glad I could help. As the others have said coconut and castor are 2 oils that can really boost the bubbles. I love castor oil, and like to use at least 6% also. If you want more conditioning you'll probaby need a higher % of Olive oil.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

If you play around in Soap Calc, perhaps consider reducing the tallow and up the olive and coconut.

What about something like this?

Tallow 25%
Olive 40%
Coconut 25%
Cocoa Butter 5%
Almond 5%

 

[see]

are their any spread sheets/sites that are free like soapcalc that take discount into consideration?