High percentage of coconut oil

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Black soap n candle lady

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I have always been told not too use too much coconut oil because it is very drying. I do love to work with it. I have very dry skin. Can I use a high percentage and add nutrients to soften my skin ? Is this formula only for people with normal skin? Let me know. Thanks!
 
Well I was thinking of trying a 30% CO bar with a 10% superfat. I also find it drying, but I can get it right here at a decent price, about 25 kg pail.
No shipping charges are great.

HTH
Laurie
 
What i do is 25%. I love to superfat. If you can get a great deal on oil with no shipping go for it! Thanks for the response.
 
there has been an on going debate as to why coconut oil gives a drying effect in soap while it is wonderful in lotion. the common consencious is that the sap value on the most lye calculators is too high.

in the u s they range from .178 to .191 while the aussie lye calculator has it listed at .136

i have been using the lower one for awhile now and like my soaps much better, even have been using it straight up rather then half coconut and half pk.

when you think about it that is why everyone seems to luv the salt bars so much, not drying and ubber lather . the higher superfat used for these is essentially the same thing as lowering the sap value.
 
Hey Barb! How are ya? So you have mentioned the salt bars. They are not drying? my skin gets so dry that I can write my name in it! Lol! I am thinking of making a salt n cocobanana bar. I'm gonna do that after I get off of the Forum. Then I'll make another different kind. I'm very excited about all the new ideas im getting!
 
i was doing a little thinking about what you said barb about the difference in the sap values.

So, would my reasoning stand, that if i wanted to use the aussie sap value of .136 when i am formulating a recipe on soapcalc.com (which is what i am used to) I could use an oil in place of coconut with that sap value just for figuring out lye amounts. which is big difference in amount of lye between the higher and lower values!
 
the common consencious is that the sap value on the most lye calculators is too high.

I'm actually one of those that doesn't buy into the low coconut sap. When I first stared soaping 2 years ago there were quite a few discussions about this topic on a couple of the soaping forums that I frequent, and being a new soaper at the time, I was quite confused about the whole 'coconut sap controversy', and so I started my own thread on one of the forums and asked about it because I wanted to get to the bottom of it . In the end of those discussions on that forum, the majority consensus was just the opposite- that the 'low sap' theory was a wash (no pun intended :wink: ).

What decided the issue for me was a chemist on that particular board who gave her input. According to her chemistry reference books, .136 sap for coconut is awfully low especially when compared to the Merk Index she had on hand (a standard lab reference book), which gives the sap range for coconut oil to be between .180 - .188. From what I understand, there is not a singular sap number that's the sap number for a particular oil. In the chemical books, SAP numbers are always listed as a range because of the different methods the oil was extracted and the quality of the oil, etc.... , but .136 is drastically below the accepted range. I personally use the SoapCalc's .183, which is on the low end the the Merk Index's range. It's a good, approximate, 'within the range' SAP.

I figured out that if I used a .136 sap for coconut instead of .183 for my 20% superfatted coconut bars, they would in reality be superfatted at 40%. I've always wondered if that is why some of the people making the 20% superfatted coconut oil bars kept complaining of getting oil slicks on top of their soaps. At .183 I've never had an oil slick with my 20% superfatted coconut oil soap.

A lot of people get confused about the whole 'coconut sap' thing because coconut oil in lotions is quite moisturizing, yet drying in soap, so they conclude that the SAP must somehow be wrong. But what I've gleaned in my soaping journey is that the very cleansing, high lauric acid content saponified coconut oil is a much different animal than the very moisturizing, unsaponified kind.

Things totally change when saponified with lye. Coconut oil really does need a lot of lye to completely saponify it because of it's particular fatty acid profile. When one lowers the sap, all one is really doing is superfatting it. That's why it feels better on one's skin. It's not that the sap is too high, it's just that the normally moisturizing quality of unsaponified lauric acid chemically transforms into a very efficient cleansing machine when mixed with lye and not many skins can handle their body oils being stripped away.

when you think about it that is why everyone seems to luv the salt bars so much, not drying and ubber lather . the higher superfat used for these is essentially the same thing as lowering the sap value.

Exatcly! :)
 
very good points....i've been searching for this australian sap value and the calculator it came from. haven't been able to find it. it sounded too good to be true! a magic fix for coconut!
 

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