Carrot recipe for a newbie?

[crunchy_cruncher]

Hi, everyone!
I am new to the soapmaking world. My husband and I have made 2 batches so far - peppermint for him and jasmine for me. Both CP. Peppermint has been curing for 4 weeks, and he is going to try it tonight! We are so excited lol. My next batch - I would LOVE to make carrot soap. But, I have yet to find a CP recipe that would make soap smell like carrot and have orange color, and not have animal fats or palm oil in it. If anyone has a recipe, do you mind sharing with me?
And if not, then here's one I came up with

Coconut oil - 22%
Olive oil - 50%
Walnut oil - 8%
Canola oil - 15%
Castor oil - 5%

CP. Small batch with just 1 lb of oils. I am going to put 1 tbsp of salt for hardness and 1 tbsp of sugar for bubbles in the water before adding lye. Stir until dissolved, add lye. Add water/lye solution into oils at about 90-100 degrees. At light trace, I want to add 1 tbsp of honey, 2 tbsp of carrot purée (baby food) and 1 tbsp of pumpkin seed oil. No FO or EO.

Soapcalc gives these characteristics to my soap recipe:
Hardness (29-54) 28
Cleansing (12-22) 15
Conditioning (44-69) 68
Bubbly (14-46) 19
Creamy (16-48 ) 17
Iodine (41-70) 77
INS (136-165) 126

So, it's far from being perfect. I am hoping that salt will up the hardness and sugar - bubbles. I am fine with cleansing and conditioning numbers. I also have RBO, avocado oil, almond oil and jojoba oil on hand. My questions are
1. How do you like the recipe?
2. Considering I'm putting PSO at trace, should I still put 5% SF into soapcalc for calculations?
3. Since I'm adding carrot purée at trace, do I use less water for water/lye solution because of it? Of course, everything will be carefully measured out. And do I still discount water at 38% in soapcalc?
4. Should I use carrot juice instead of carrot purée?
5. What do I do about iodine being so high, and INS being so low?
Basically, any comments are appreciated... Thanks guys! Happy soaping

 

[AustinStraight]

I don't know about pumpkin seed oil, but as for the carrot puree, most sites recommend using half as much water as you're supposed to when you make the lye solution, and then add back that same amount of water but as carrot puree at trace. So, if your recipe needed 10 ounces of water, you would use 5 ounces of water with your lye, mix it with your oils, bring it to a light trace, and add 5 ounces of carrot puree. Carrot juice might be more desirable, especially if you're using it to replace your water.

 

[Obsidian]

Carrot puree/juice will make your soap orange but it won't make it smell like carrot, you need a fragrance oil to scent soap. Thesage.com has a nice carrot FO.
I would do away with the walnut oil and increase the olive oil, maybe replace the canola with avocado.
Keep in mind that carrot and sugar will increase the temp during saponification. You might consider putting this soap in the freezer overnight so it won't overheat.
Adding oil at trace does nothing for your soap, you might as well add all the oils in at the beginning. Its a myth that oil added at trace will be the superfat oil. At trace the lye is still active and will take whatever oil it wants.
You can either replace half you water with juice/puree or you can just add a couple Tbsp at trace, depends on how much carrot you want in the soap.

 

[crunchy_cruncher]

Do you guys think carrot, sugar AND honey is too much sugar? I will def put it in the freezer either way, thank you for pointing that out!

 

[AustinStraight]

If you're looking to get the benefits of unsaponified pumpkin seed oil, you'd have to do hot process and add it after the cook. A naturally-colored orange soap would be lovely with 5-fold orange essential oil & a tiny bit of ylang-ylang or lemongrass, if you're open to suggestions :grin: Sugar and honey is overkill. I would do just sugar or just honey - to be honest, using honey instead of sugar isn't really worth it, especially in cold process. I would just stick with a tablespoon of sugar. Sugar + carrot shouldn't be too much but you should absolutely put it in the freezer.

 

[crunchy_cruncher]

I would do away with the walnut oil and increase the olive oil, maybe replace the canola with avocado.

Soapcalc numbers are much better this way, thank you!

 

[crunchy_cruncher]

If you're looking to get the benefits of unsaponified pumpkin seed oil, you'd have to do hot process and add it after the cook.

I just might HP this one, it will be my first try if I do :shock:

 

[AustinStraight]

I just might HP this one, it will be my first try if I do :shock:

In that case, it would be wise to err on the side of caution and put your sugar or honey into the soap after it's done cooking, along with your pumpkin seed oil & any fragrances you choose (if any). If honey soap left room-temperature can bubble out of the mold, I'd hate to see what would happen if you put raw soap with honey into the crockpot...

 

[crunchy_cruncher]

On second thought, I'll just stick to CP for now I will substitute carrot juice with half of the water in lye/water solution, will let you know how it turns out!

 

[grayceworks]

Carrot, sugar, and honey --- will probably overheat. Especially with half liquid being carrots. Depends on how much of each, but... I make a carrot soap, but I HP it, and add the honey after the cook so it doesn't scorch. Mine uses half carrot puree and half water. And even with HP, it separates during the cook right about when it gets to the gel stage, and I have to stir it back in until the gel stage is finished.

I know there's a lot of people here who have done carrot soaps CP with using less, I think. And a few threads on "what went wrong" that I would read up on before making it... Try searching the forum for carrot soap and see what comes up.

 

[cmzaha]

I regularly cp carrot soapm using carrot infused sunflower oil and a jar of pureed carrots. My lye is mixed 50/50 with distilled water, then the remainder liquid is gm mixed with the jar of carrot puree. I use a full jar in a 5 lb batch of soap. I also happen to love canola oil in soap, and have never had dos using canola which I have used up to 40%. The trick is using a low superfat of 2-3%.

 

[Sinful7]

I use carrot puree in my cp at trace and you can smell carrot in the soap when used. Its not a strong scent, but definitely there. Good luck to you on whatever you choose to do.

 

[crunchy_cruncher]

I use carrot puree in my cp at trace and you can smell carrot in the soap when used.

Great, thanks, that's what I've been wondering! Does it give a nice orange color, too?

 

[Sinful7]

Yes its a light yellowish orange. I posted a picture in the soap gallery somewhere lol its carrot and activated charcoal bar.

 

[Sinful7]

Here it is!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

And also bear in mind that PSO is rather good at colouring things - I had a very red-brown soap that I made HP, then added in more PSO after the cook and it is a really nice green colour. If you are aiming for a natural orange, I'd skip the pumpkin seed oil.