100% Coconut Oil Cleaning Soap

[thinkativeone]

I know I haven't posted in ages, sorry, guys. Won't go into it deeply but it's a good thing I've stayed away from making soap for awhile, an illness and loss in our family and a ridiculous amount of work done on our only vehicle in just over 1 month...

But fall is here! And that means the perfect time for me to make soap. I have a full gallon of organic coconut oil I was able to get cheaper than anywhere else from a local outfit near me, thanks to a tip from another soapmaker.

I want to make 100% Coconut Oil Cleaning (Laundry & Dish) Soap this weekend. So I have been entering it into Soap Calc - any tips for as I formulate the recipe? Figuring I will do 0% superfat since this is a cleaning bar and needs to be tough on grease.

Also thinking I might like to try gelling it but my oven's lowest setting other than "warm" is 200 degrees F. Opinions? Thanks!

 

[Robyn08]

No suggestions, as I haven't made an all coconut bar yet, but I'd love a dish soap recipe is someone has one they'd like to share. I already have one for laundry powder using my scraps.

Sent from my VS870 4G using Soap Making mobile app

 

[thinkativeone]

Sorry - I've given up on liquid natural dish soaps out there and recipes for liquid dish soap since it is so watery without good lather IME, I just switched to using bar soap and baking soda for dishes which not only works great but lasts pretty well for me, anyway. Hopefully someone will chime in with a recipe you might like.

 

[Robyn08]

Do you mix the bar soap with the baking soda for the dish soap? I'd be fine with doing that too...

Sent from my VS870 4G using Soap Making mobile app

 

[thinkativeone]

I just take my sponge, scrub on some bar soap, and sometimes add a little baking soda to the sponge, or alternatively to the wet item to be washed. Baking soda is only really necessary if you notice a film or if it's something that stains like tea cups, or greasy like pots and pans. Works great for me! I never have the issues with residue people have complained about when washing by hand using natural soaps, probably because of the baking soda. If you use rinse water a little bit of vinegar would also be something you could try in it.

 

[Robyn08]

Thanks, I'll try that!

Sent from my VS870 4G using Soap Making mobile app

 

[thinkativeone]

Went ahead and made my 100% coconut oil soap tonight anyway! Guess I couldn't wait. I'm trying to gel it now. I also finally took the recommendations this forum gave before and tried soaping without thermometers. Waited till things felt cool enough and then mixed it all up. Hope it goes well, will let you guys know how it turns out in a few hours!

 

[thinkativeone]

It worked! First successful batch of soap without therms! HURRAH! I was very careful to make sure I did not have false trace and really had a pudding-like mixture before molding.

There was a little bit of a disappointment though. When I cut the soap it was very warm, and had a clearish center. After 2-5 minutes sitting on the counter, and then several hours, that transformed into faint streaks. So not as bad as the streaks I had making 100% olive oil soap, but I'm guessing not a full gel either. It did crack a little on top but I didn't mind too much as I had tried to swirl some designs anyway, but if I didn't want to, how would you fix this using CPOP? The top looks kind of crystallized which gives it a pretty, icy look, since it is a white bar.

When I made 100% olive oil soap I did not even try to gel, but I still got clear swirly lines inside the bars.

Here is what I did: preheated my molds and my oven to "warm" (lowest setting above that is 200 F). They were quite warm when I took them out and made sure my soap was really at trace before adding it to the molds. Shortly before this I turned the oven off since it seemed quite warm and I read 100% CO soap seems to gel easily for plenty of people without even doing the CPOP method. Swirled soap, placed it back in the oven. In about 2 or so hours I checked it and took it out, it felt firm enough to cut and it was, but one loaf was a bit softer than the other. Still cut fine, but gel would "ooze" out a tiny bit as I cut at times. And they had those molten centers in the loaves, that looked a little like oozy streaks, slightly, from the outside of the loaves.

Any tips/tricks to help me know how to do it better the next time? It's still perfectly usable, but I want to get my soaps up to perfectionist standards, aesthetically.

 

[thinkativeone]

Success!

Did the zap test today and it was all clear! Score one for a successful go with Soap Calc! Only fault is the clearish streaks in the soap, which I assume means I need to soap hotter. Will try again next time and maybe get that infrared therm. Will try to get pics up when I can but my phone took them, but won't let me upload them for some reason.