Has soap ever burned you in the nether regions?

[Soul_Healthy]

Ok. TMI...but I think the thread name provides enough info. My soap recipe is at 7% superfat with 35 coconut, 35 palm, 25 olive, and 5 shea butter. Is this the cause? What am I doing wrong? Have any of you experienced this? (Hp soap)

 

[DWinMadison]

Any peppermint in your fragrance?

 

[IrishLass]

I've personally never experienced that happening, but I've heard from a few other soapers that having too much cleansing power from coconut oil in their recipe will cause a bit of irritation down in the nether regions. Does it burn any other part of your body? If so, it's possible your soap could be lye-heavy. Have you checked for zap?

I took a look at your recipe on SoapCalc and it has a pretty high % of cleansing action going for it, with a fairly low amount of conditioning in comparison. Everyone's skin is different and some might be perfectly happy with that much cleansing power, but it looks to be too cleansing for my own likes.

This is just me, but if I were to make such a soap, I think I would want to superfat it by at least 10%.

Also- Daryl brings up a good point about peppermint. That'll do it, too. My hubby tried one of my peppermint soaps once, and once was enough. He calls it my 'evil soap'. Nuff said.



IrishLass

 

[Obsidian]

Peppermint soap is the only one I've experience that with but I'm sure other EO's could also cause it, things like cinnamon or clove.

 

[Soul_Healthy]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I have used peppermint before and I have no issues with it. This particular soap has clove essential oil in it and orange with real cinnamon. Do you think it's the clov or the superfat? My peppermint soap doesn't bother me, and it's probably a 6% or 7% sf.

 

[IrishLass]

Real cinnamon is a well-known skin irritant, so that could be it.


IrishLass

 

[DWinMadison]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I have used peppermint before and I have no issues with it. This particular soap has clove essential oil in it and orange with real cinnamon. Do you think it's the clov or the superfat? My peppermint soap doesn't bother me, and it's probably a 6% or 7% sf.

Peppermint will "put a tingle in your dingle," but cinnamon certainly can too. It would not be due to the superfat.

 

[JustBeachy]

Yeah, I'm thinking you might have been a little heavy on the cinnamon. Cinnamon goes great on toast, not so much on the privates.

 

[Soul_Healthy]

Could it be the clove? I used cinnamon in another recipe, but it didn't bother me. It was used along with nutmeg, clove, allspice and ginger. It was a pumpkin spice blend from the grocery store. This has straight up cinnamon, but not even a whole half a teaspoon probably. I used a good two tablespoons of the pumpkin spice blend in the other soap. What gives? Is it the clove EO?

 

[Obsidian]

It could be a combo of all the above. I made a orange Cinnamon and it burned my face.

 

[Susie]

To even be able to guess, we are, at the very least, going to need the total amount of oils and the amount of clove EO.

 

[new12soap]

Sounds like you have a lot of factors working against you, there. Kirk's Castile is 100% coconut oil soap and I can't use it, it is way too harsh for me. It could be your recipe, could be the cinnamon. I used a soap with too much Fragrance oil that had cinnamon as one component and it burned my hands, thank heaven I didn't use it in the shower! Could be the clove, could be a combination of everything.

 

[DeeAnna]

Clove bud EO it is not recommended for skin use above 0.5%. Not only that, but the eugenol in clove will accelerate trace when making soap.

 

[jules92207]

Yup, high coconut, cinnamon and clove - could be a bit much depending on your percentages.

 

[Soul_Healthy]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Soul_Healthy]

I gave the amount of oils on my first post. I did 1/2 ounce clove and 1/2 ounce orange. This was for a two pound batch.

 

[new12soap]

Yikes!

If my math is correct (and it may not be, haven't had my coffee yet), it looks like you used something like three times the maximum safe amount of clove! Uh, yeah, I think that may be the problem!

To be honest, I would leave things like clove and cinnamon in the kitchen. They are so very potent you can only safely use a very small amount, and even then someone with sensitive skin might still have a problem.

 

[cmzaha]

I cannot use even my mildest soap in some areas, even the soap with no fo, eo with 0 cleansing. I have one daughter that cannot use handmade soap anywhere, she has to use surfactant based bars. Unfortunetly handmade soap is not an answer for everyone.

 

[grumpy_owl]

Sounds as if our very smart forumites spotted the problem--high amounts of irritant EOs like cinnamon and clove. But in general, check the properties of the FO or EO you're buying and caveat emptor, or caveat soaptor. For me, I've had eye-opening results with my peppermint soap on the bathing-suit areas. Not my finest hour.

 

[cmzaha]

Sounds as if our very smart forumites spotted the problem--high amounts of irritant EOs like cinnamon and clove. But in general, check the properties of the FO or EO you're buying and caveat emptor, or caveat soaptor. For me, I've had eye-opening results with my peppermint soap on the bathing-suit areas. Not my finest hour.

Ouchie...I pout warning labels on my peppermint soaps