Making new soap recipe

[Pegmedi]

I’m trying to come up with a recipe using rice bran oil, mango butter and palm kernel oil, using soap calc but can’t seem to get good numbers, I’m trying to make a soap with lower cleansing numbers because I feel like my homemade soap is drying my skin. Not sure if it’s the coconut oil so I wanted to try palm. Any ideas?

 

[Steve85569]

I personally find RBO and Olive to be drying. That's my old hide so your mileage may vary.

If you have no aversion to animal fats I would go with a high lard recipe myself.

 

[Pegmedi]

I personally find RBO and Olive to be drying. That's my old hide so your mileage may vary.

If you have no aversion to animal fats I would go with a high lard recipe myself.

Ok would you use a different oil other than RBO or Olive, or just less oil more lard?

 

[Steve85569]

If you really want to use just those oils -
65% RBO
20% PKO
15% Mango

And make a small batch to try.

One of my "go to" mild soaps is:
55% Lard
30% RBO ( or other "soft" oil)
10% Coconut ( or PKO) for lather
5% Castor.

If you don't have castor you can boost lather with a small amount of sugar dissolved in your water ( before adding the sodium hydroxide).

 

[Pegmedi]

If you really want to use just those oils -
65% RBO
20% PKO
15% Mango

And make a small batch to try.

One of my "go to" mild soaps is:
55% Lard
30% RBO ( or other "soft" oil)
10% Coconut ( or PKO) for lather
5% Castor.

If you don't have castor you can boost lather with a small amount of sugar dissolved in your water ( before adding the sodium hydroxide).

Thank you so much I’m going to try both

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Bear in mind that many find pko to be more 'drying' than coconut, excluding any allergies or such.

 

[Steve85569]

Bear in mind that many find pko to be more 'drying' than coconut, excluding any allergies or such.

The fatty acid profiles are in fact very similar.
Small batches of soap ( 1 pound or 500 grams) are a good size IMHO for the test batches.
I also use sodium citrate and sodium acetate in my soaps which help with mineral build up ( the citrate) and hardening the soap ( the acetate). Both of these are salts and can produce results that will change how each person likes or dislikes a given recipe so I did not include those in the suggestions.

 

[DeeAnna]

Coconut, PKO, and their sibling babassu oil are similar in that they are high in lauric and myristic fatty acids. But they have distinct differences if you look at the other fatty acids, especially the ones not included in the Soapcalc (and other online soap calculators I've looked at).

Coconut is higher in the very short fatty acids -- capric and caprylic -- that along with lauric acid can be irritating and drying to even normal skin when made into soap. Soapcalc doesn't include these fatty acids. Here are typical fatty acid profiles for the 3 fats --

"...Not sure if it’s the coconut oil so I wanted to try palm...."

It doesn't work well to just use "palm" for short when you really mean "palm kernel." Better to shorthand the name palm kernel to "PKO" to avoid major confusion.

 

[cmzaha]

Thankyou for the chart DeeAnna, I see why I like PKO. Actually I go 50/50 PKO/CO

 

[bumbleklutz]

Thankyou for the chart DeeAnna, I see why I like PKO. Actually I go 50/50 PKO/CO

I do the same. It seems to me that the combination of PKO and CO ends up creating something greater than the sum of its parts. I love the lather that I get from a combo of the two, bubbly and fluffy; yet not irritating or overly drying.

 

[shunt2011]

I too really like a combination of CO and PKO. I use a bit more PKO than CO.

 

[zolveria]

I did too... this week completely went with a 41:59 sat unsat and my bars remain rock hard after hardening in 12 hours. 48 hours later solid brick.. i changed my pure palm oil to ADMIRATION BRAND doughnut fry.. cottonseed oil /palm oil.. and it still came out rock hard...

yes im happy trying to cut on cost..

i also found a supplier for caustic beads. 56 dollar 50lb bag the only caveat i have to drive 2:45 minutes to binghamton ny from dutchess county. but at that price i can buy 2 bags and dump it in a 5 gallon pails

 

[Lin19687]

I use PKO twice as much as CO in my recipe. Seems to be a good outcome for me.