Recent content by soap newb

Really appreciate your feedback. I whipped up a new batch today at: 30% CO 24% PO 5% CB 36% OO 5% Castor I list them that way in my procedures spreadsheet because that's the oil order I work in, hard to liquid. Soapcalc gives this recipe a 45 hardness, 20 Cleansing and 51 conditioning with 163...

Many thanks, ScentimentallyYours! Lots of info for me to go through here and I'm going to reformulate a batch under 20 in cleansing. I'll pass them around and see what folks think. Your comment on not knowing where the soap is going convinced me. I appreciate your feedback.

Forgot about citric, another 2% for 17% total additives

I really appreciate the feedback here. The high shea butter soap is just a way to get some nice smell into it without fragrance, but you have to use undeodorized of course. I get the hard bubbly vs creamy moisturizing dilema we're all facing, it's a bit of a zero sum game, you can never have all...

I appreciate the feedback. All we can do is what our experience tells us. My recipe is 37% CO and I get zero feedback on drying, but taking into account your 10k+ contributions here maybe it's time for me to come up with a more gentle, lower CO formulation that's labeled as such. I appreciate...

Soapcalc will show a very moisturizing bar with that recipe. My experience at 35% is lots of gentle lather that doesn't dry if I don't use the soap more that a couple of times a day, which is where most folks are anyway. Like with everything, it's all about the dose. Thinking more about it, if I...

You can make great soap without castor oil, especially with the 3 oils you're using, but adjusting for 5% castor will make it better.

If I were making a baby soap I'd skip all the additives except clay, salt and sugar. No added fragrances or colorants (except what you can get from different colored clays, but you can still get a lovely natural scent with an oil formulation of 25% shea butter. Something like 35% Coconut, 25%...

I make a big liquid goodie mix and add a measured amount to every batch. It has water, kaolin. lactate, salt and sugar. I add it (and also premixed oxide colorants) to my blended oils before lye because none of it reacts with lye or fats. (Well, the water does but my recipes accommodate for it.)...