Gardener's bar crumbling ?

[Malleebird]

Thanks so much for talking the time to have a good look at my recipe Zany...I really appreciate that I've been a bit distracted lately so haven't yet got around to giving this gardener's soap another go, but when I do I'll certainly take on board everything you've said.

I always used to be very conscious of keeping the INS as close to the perfect 160, but recently I'd read not to be too fixated on this so I thought 169 wasn't too bad....back to the drawing board
Must admit too that I hadn't been taking too much notice of the saturated/unsaturated fats....as I've been experimenting a bit. SO....back to the drawing board on that one too !
Really think now that I'm too inexperienced to be experimenting too much without understanding the chemistry a bit more. Soap can be so easy to make....and SO easy to get wrong

 

[Malleebird]

I actually think gelling might solve this problem for ya.

Yes.... don't know where I went wrong there. Thought I'd followed all the rules....but maybe when I do Take 3 it will work.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I always used to be very conscious of keeping the INS as close to the perfect 160, but recently I'd read not to be too fixated on this

That's true. Knowing what all the values represent helps me to troubleshoot and figure out the direction I want to go. For example, ZNSC (80% olive, 15% coconut, 5% castor) comes in at an INS value of 127, way off the mark, yet it is one of the best soaps ever, both cleansing and conditioning, as well as somewhat hard and long lasting. So there are definitely exceptions to the "recommendations".

 

[Malleebird]

I prefer cornmeal in gardeners soap; pumice in mechanic's soap, but the addition of dried orange peel sounds nice. Can't comment on annatto... never tried it.

Thanks Zany....will try the cornmeal. I use annatto just for the orange colour because I'm using the orange peel and orange eo. A friend just dropped in a heap of limes...so next batch will probably have lime rind....so I'll be resarching a natural lemon or lime colour !

 

[Malleebird]

For example, ZNSC (80% olive, 15% coconut, 5% castor) comes in at an INS value of 127, way off the mark, yet it is one of the best soaps ever, both cleansing and conditioning, as well as somewhat hard and long lasting.

Yes !! I made this one about 10 days ago....looking good, can't wait to try it !
We've been picking olives all weekend (400+ kilos = 50 litres of oil)... helping a friend.... and she's just drop in a sample bottle. Normally I'd be excited for culinary reasons.... now I can't wait to make more of your soap !