Feed back on first recipe

[kniquy]

I'll be attempting my first recipe this weekend. I wanted to use what i have on hand. I did order some cocoa butter to add in because really the only oils i have on hand are Olive and Coconut oil. I tired to stick to the recommendations I found in the Pure Soapmaking book. Is there any grocery store oils that i should add to improve upon this recipe?

This is really intended to get my feet wet with the process, so if the final product isn't an amazing bar of soap i won't be heart broken.

Coconut 25%
Cocoa Butter 15%
Olive Oil 60%

It appears to fall withing the ranges listed on the Soapcalc. I might add a fragrance but i'm not positive. I did buy a few from Bulk Apothecary to try out. I ordered coconut lime verbena, Caribbean escape, Gardenia and oatmeal milk and honey -- I don't believe that any of these should have a significant effect on increasing trace from what i read. Would adding a fragrance be a huge negative?

 

[amd]

I would add castor oil at 5% you can find it in the pharmacy aisle by the digestive aids. I would pull the 5% from the cocoa butter. In my opinion, cocoa butter doesn't add much to soap other than hardness (note: hardness does not equal long lasting). I use cocoa butter in my soaps at 5%. I would also bring down the olive oil to under 50%, my experience has been that the higher oleic a soap is, the longer it needs to cure to be a nice soap. If you have lard and aren't opposed to using animal products, I would use that as well. Many of us find coconut oil at more than 20% to be drying, but I think at 25% is a good place to start for a beginning recipe. Do a small batch (500g), let it cure, and then try it out. You'll be able to determine if it needs tweaking from there.

A few oils you can find at the grocery store:
avocado oil
sweet almond oil
canola oil
vegetable shortening or lard
you might be able to find safflower or sunflower oil, but I haven't found high-oleic at my stores, and had bad results using what my stores had.

 

[lsg]

I always include at least 5% Castor oil in my soap recipes. You can pick some up at your local drugstore or Walmart pharmacy dept. I also like palm in my soap. You can subtitute lard or beef tallow for the palm. I have started using deodorized beef tallow in my latest recipes and I find I like it. The beef tallow I purchased from Essential Depot does not have an off odor that sometimes occurs with home rendered beef tallow.