Dove type soap for sensitive skin

[Milla]

I'm trying to think of a recipe for a soap to make my mother in law. She's sensitive to lots of stuff, but uses Dove sensitive skin soap. I will make a 100% OO soap with GM, but I know she won't like the slime factor. I don't want to use coconut oil either. Has anyone done an olive oil and palm soap or something with a butter? Olive, palm, butter?

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Bastile is a nice soap for sensitive skin 75% OO and 25% CO add 1 TBSP PPO of sugar to your lye water before the lye .The soapmaker qualities are 5.8 hardness, 4.7 fluffy lather (hence the sugar) 6.2 stable lather and 7.0 for moisturizing. I would just play with soapcalc and see what you can come up with , with the oils you have . Lard tallow and shortening make great soap too.

HTH

Kitn

 

[ChrissyB]

Dove is made from tallow, so you shouldn't have any trouble using that if you want to.
I know that a wonderful mild soap can be made with OO, Palm, coconut. You could sub the coconut for palm kernel, you'll still get lots of bubbles but it's a bit milder.
Why not try say 75% OO, 20% Palm, 5% Castor, add some sugar to the lye water (before the lye) for some extra bubbles. You could add some gm or coconut milk at trace if you reserve some of the original liquid, or use silk in the lye water that would be lovely.
In a soap that I made especially to be soothing on red inflamed skin I used aloe vera juice as part of the liquid, it's lovely soap.

 

[Guest]

All-natural-gals close your eyes.....
I've used only about 1% superfat and added 1 teaspoon ppo mineral oil (baby oil) to my soap. I like it. It's great for dry skin. Lye doesn't affect mineral oil and it stays in it's natural state in soap.

 

[Milla]

Thanks so much for all of your replies! Great ideas! I went and looked up the MSDS for Dove sensitive skin soap and it has tallow, coconut oil, and palm kernal, stearic acid, titanium dioxide, and a natural scent mask. She doesn't know her soap has tallow in it! Lots of ideas now.

 

[dagmar88]

And they market that as sensitive!

 

[Milla]

And they market that as sensitive!

I know! I'm laughing right now.

 

[MsBien]

I've made a "Castile type" as I call it that is 80% OO, 15% Palm Kernal, and 5% Castor and I absolutely love it and highly recommend it. It's the only soap that I can shave my legs with and not even use lotion afterward!

Stacie

 

[dagmar88]

Good to know though, what's actually in the most used commercial bars of soap.
How many people say 'oh, no, I can only use "Brand A", cause my skin is so sensitive', and won't give handmade a chance.
Whenever I'll be going into business I'm gonna print out some inci's of different brands, laminate them and keep them behind the counter

 

[MikeInPdx]

All-natural-gals close your eyes.....
I've used only about 1% superfat and added 1 teaspoon ppo mineral oil (baby oil) to my soap. I like it. It's great for dry skin. Lye doesn't affect mineral oil and it stays in it's natural state in soap.

All natural folks, keep those eyes closed!

I've done the same thing and used it at up to 1 oz ppo. Since it's a petroleum product, I think you could use it at up to 10% of the total weight of the oils e.g. 1.6 oz. I do that with my kerosene stain sticks, and they still lather nicely.

Now, I'm going to have to try it with petroleum jelly. Keep seeing Vaseline soap on the market and I'm intrigued.

 

[Dixie]

I like this one:
Silk to lye solution
OO
Palm Kernal oil
Hemp oil
Cocoa butter
grapeseed oil
Castor
Aloe butter (or leave this out and use Aloe juice as liquid, you could then replace with shea butter)
Add sugar at trace

32 hardness
54 conditioning
22 bubbly

 

[Milla]

Good to know though, what's actually in the most used commercial bars of soap.
How many people say 'oh, no, I can only use "Brand A", cause my skin is so sensitive', and won't give handmade a chance.
Whenever I'll be going into business I'm gonna print out some inci's of different brands, laminate them and keep them behind the counter

Thanks again for all of the great ideas!

 

[carebear]

based on that ingredient list Dove is a blend of soap and detergent. Plus it has additives to combat soap scum which can cause irritation to sensitive folk.

While you CAN make lovely soap, reproducing this is clearly beyond just soaping.

I will say that many people with sensitive skin do better with pure soap than detergent or soap/detergent blend products due to a sensitivity to detergents, but also some are the opposite and cannot handle true soap with its high pH and propensity to create soap scum in hard water.

 

[Guest]

Now, I'm going to have to try it with petroleum jelly. Keep seeing Vaseline soap on the market and I'm intrigued.

It will work -- Vaseline is nothing but wax and mineral oil.
Do I remember correctly that paraffin is also a petroleum product and isn't affected by the lye?

Petroleum jelly is 1 ounce wax to 1/2 cup mineral oil.

Thanks for the tip of mineral oil percentage -- I'll make a batch upping the mineral oil and see what shakes. I was afraid to use too much, thinking it would interfere with lather.
Gonna try 1 tablespoon mineral oil ppo first....today, in fact.

 

[LJA]

I see a lot of you use palm kernal. What do you find it adds?

 

[SimplyE]

I see a lot of you use palm kernal. What do you find it adds?

Bubbles and hard. I used to use it, but got way too frustrated with the stearic spots from it and quit using it.

 

[bombus]

I do that with my kerosene stain sticks, and they still lather nicely.

Huh? kerosene stain sticks? What does kerosene do- and do you add
it to a regular 0%SF, lard recipe?

 

[Milla]

based on that ingredient list Dove is a blend of soap and detergent. Plus it has additives to combat soap scum which can cause irritation to sensitive folk.

While you CAN make lovely soap, reproducing this is clearly beyond just soaping.

I will say that many people with sensitive skin do better with pure soap than detergent or soap/detergent blend products due to a sensitivity to detergents, but also some are the opposite and cannot handle true soap with its high pH and propensity to create soap scum in hard water.

She's allergic to most laundry detergents and has to stick with All free and clear w/o fragrance and dyes. She uses CP soap on her hands in the kitchen so I'm hoping she could use a basic soap of mine. I think she'd be nervous though.

 

[ChrissyB]

LJA, palm kernel (PKO) is very similar to coconut. It is high lathering and offers hardness to a bar, but it is a little milder than coconut. People that are sensitive to coconut are usually ok with PKO.
Generally I would use one or the other, not both.

 

[SimplyE]

LJA, palm kernel (PKO) is very similar to coconut. It is high lathering and offers hardness to a bar, but it is a little milder than coconut. People that are sensitive to coconut are usually ok with PKO.
Generally I would use one or the other, not both.

Thanks for the clarification, Chrissy! I did not make that very clear earlier

For me, it seemed like with comparing to CO, PKO made a harder bar, but with less bubbles than CO. Also, agree with using either CO or PKO, not both. I found that I had to heat it up much hotter to get the stearic in it all of the way melted to avoid the stearic spots.

I used to use PKO because I felt like CO was too harsh on my skin, and then, I upped the SF such that the CO is not nearly as harsh as it used to be for me.