First Time Adjusting a Recipe

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Sagebrush

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So, I should probably be slapped, but I've been making soap for over three years and have never adjusted the oils for a recipe via soap calculator. When I first started making soap, I just found a few recipes that I liked and that were dependable and have been using them ever since. So, I've decided to branch out and adjust my recipes to see if I can get a harder bar that lathers a little better. Here is my adjusted recipe...I just want to see if anyone sees anything that's glaringly wrong or that I could do differently to get more lather and hardness in the batch. Thanks in advance! :)

Coconut Oil 76 degree 25% (17oz)
Castor Oil 8% (5.44oz)
Cocoa Butter 10% (6.8oz)
Palm Oil 17% (11.56oz)
Olive Oil pomace 18% (12.24oz)
Shea Butter 15% (10.2oz)
Sunflower Oil 7% (4.76oz)

Qualities:
Hardness 45
Cleansing 17
Conditioning 52
Bubbly 24
Creamy 35
Iodine 55
INS 153
 
Your recipe looks good, I would probably cut the coconut oil to 20% and put the 5% into the Palm Oil, that was your soap will be more gentle on the skin, and have a lower cleansing value. I don't know how much Shea Butter you put into your recipes in the past, but 15% is really adding to your cost, but I bet it makes a nice bar of soap. You could play around with SoapCalc and see what the numbers look like with a little less. I know it is always a balancing act, you take away one thing and then have to figure out how to keep the bubbles where you want them, or the hardness.
 
You will find that you can take out the shea completely and up the palm instead - in a soap, I think you'll struggle to notice the difference...............

Try it out in the calc and see that the numbers don't change too much at all
 
You will find that you can take out the shea completely and up the palm instead - in a soap, I think you'll struggle to notice the difference...............

Try it out in the calc and see that the numbers don't change too much at all

I have a very similar recipe I have been playing with on soapcalc for the very reason of I want to make it more cost effective. I was curious if by using cheaper alternatives that yield similar numbers if I would notice the difference - now I can't wait to try it! Thanks!
 
Thanks, guys! I appreciate the input. I messed around with it some more on the soap calc and found that bringing the Shea down to 5% and adding extra palm (or olive) will keep hardness and lather at my higher levels. The recipe didn't call for Shea originally, but I just really like the recipes I've made with Shea in the past, so I kind of wanted to keep that in there :)
Hopefully, I stop procrastinating now and actually make some soap :)
 

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