Impatient or soft recipe

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Splendisimo

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Hi people, this is my first post so go easy on me, you all seem like super experienced kind people!
I've been experimenting for a few weeks now and landed on the recipe below. I'm wanting a body soap that's obviously a good cleanser but also quite soft because I get some pretty dry skin. Everything went through soapcalc and I made three small batches with three different fragrances (all IFRA correct) and my soap is 7 days un-moulded and I could still make indents in all of them if I tried. I love love love hemp but did I add too much? Is the percent too high in your experience? Really grateful for some guidance, thanks so much.
Coc oil 35%
Oli Oil 20%
Hemp 20%
Coc butter 15%
Shea 5%
Castor 5%
 
Welcome to the Forum! I'm experienced now but we all were beginners at some point.

I shoot for 60% hard butters (solid at room temperature) to 40% soft oils (liquid at room temperature. You have 10% butters. I don't know how to classify olive oil -- it's a unique oil.

Olive oil soaps benefit from longer cures, like 6 months or more, to get real hard.

You mentioned that you have dry skin. High amounts of coconut oil in soap can be too drying. I can tolerate in the high 20s but am pretty alone here on the Forum with most here recommending 25% or lower. Coconut oil by itself feels great on the skin but saponification changes it.

I would decrease your coconut oil and increase shea and cocoa butters. Keep castor at 5%.

I ran your recipe through a calculator. Your cleansing number is above what is recommended. This particular cleansing number is a bit confusing because ALL soap is cleansing. Many here recommend an extremely low cleansing number.

Here's a good article that recommends hemp seed oil at 15% https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...s-guide-to-soapmaking-common-soapmaking-oils/ .

I use sodium lactate which can help with hardness. I'm impatient too and it allows me to unmold at 24 hours.

You use 6 ingredients. I often do too but it means more muss and fuss. Recipes with 5 or less mean less dishes.

Keep us posted!
 

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Welcome to the Forum! I'm experienced now but we all were beginners at some point.

I shoot for 60% hard butters (solid at room temperature) to 40% soft oils (liquid at room temperature. You have 10% butters. I don't know how to classify olive oil -- it's a unique oil.

Olive oil soaps benefit from longer cures, like 6 months or more, to get real hard.

You mentioned that you have dry skin. High amounts of coconut oil in soap can be too drying. I can tolerate in the high 20s but am pretty alone here on the Forum with most here recommending 25% or lower. Coconut oil by itself feels great on the skin but saponification changes it.

I would decrease your coconut oil and increase shea and cocoa butters. Keep castor at 5%.

I ran your recipe through a calculator. Your cleansing number is above what is recommended. This particular cleansing number is a bit confusing because ALL soap is cleansing. Many here recommend an extremely low cleansing number.

Here's a good article that recommends hemp seed oil at 15% https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...s-guide-to-soapmaking-common-soapmaking-oils/ .

I use sodium lactate which can help with hardness. I'm impatient too and it allows me to unmold at 24 hours.

You use 6 ingredients. I often do too but it means more muss and fuss. Recipes with 5 or less mean less dishes.

Keep us posted!
Thankyou so much for your reply and advice, it's a bit of a minefield out there and I appreciate it's about finding something that works for you.
I'd read about sodium lactate helping with hardness, I'm going to give that a shot now, thankyou and I'll definitely have another play with my ratios on your advice 🙏🏻
 
I too think you need to lower the CO, and increase the butters. Also. I think you do have too much hemp in there and it could be contributing to the softness - and it can go rancid easily. You also don't talk about how much lye/water you are using - too much water can take a long time to cure out.
I would try:
20% CO
30% OO
20% Shea Butter
15% Cocoa Butter
10% Hemp
5% Castor
33%Lye concentration

Would you be averse to trying soy wax? I use it instead of palm and animal fats to make a hard bar. You need to ensure the soy wax you get is 100% soy and not a blend with palm or other ingredients: https://www.livemoor.co.uk/collecti...er.v.price.gte=0.00&filter.v.price.lte=178.49
 

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