How to prevent partial gel/gel discoloration in high coconut oil soap?

[aab1]

I came up with a new coconut oil based recipe but I like my uncolored/unscented coconut oil based soaps to be bright white like paper, however this batch had a partial gel in my larger silicone molds where they have a darker area where it gelled. I was wondering if replacing some of the darker oils I used with whiter ones would prevent this.

The recipe I came up with is (20% superfat):

70% coconut, 15% palm kernel, 5% palm, 5% castor, 5% shea butter

Do you think eliminating the palm and shea butter would result in a white bar even if it gels? If so, what could I replace them with that is white and would still make a good soap?

I'm tempted to do 100% coconut oil soaps but would those also get darker where they gel? They probably wouldn't be as good as the recipe I came up with though.

Thanks

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Have you considered a mix of OO and CO? The OO should help calm things down a little, but you might well want to cool it still (freezer) to actually prevent gel.

I mentioned 100% CO soaps in the other thread, but I want to point out that that was for laundry soap, not for use on people.

 

[DeeAnna]

Reduce the amount of water you use in your recipe if you are using "full water". This will make the soap less likely to gel.

 

[AustinStraight]

You could soap with everything cold and make a whipped soap as per soaping101's directions, that makes a very opaque soap and it's actually best to do it with a recipe that has lots of hard oils. I've made 100% coconut soaps, and they are always very white. I also made a soap with 5% castor and 95% coconut and that turned out okay but I'm actually not sure if the castor made much of a difference.

 

[seven]

my 100% coconut batch came up white and bright, while the other batch with 80% co and 20% rice bran was slightly darker.

also, i had better luck with full gel using a wood mold. the 80-20 batch was done in an individual silicone and it has a lovely partial

 

[shunt2011]

I like 100% CO soap with 20-25% Superfat. It makes a lovely white bar of soap that's not drying to most skin types that I had it tested with (friends, family & co-workers).

 

[aab1]

Have you considered a mix of OO and CO? The OO should help calm things down a little, but you might well want to cool it still (freezer) to actually prevent gel.

I mentioned 100% CO soaps in the other thread, but I want to point out that that was for laundry soap, not for use on people.

I'm worried the oo will cause the soap to not be a perfect white like I'm looking for.

Do you think using refined shea instead of unrefined shea would help make it whiter? Could the palm or castor oil be why the gelled part is a bit darker? I don't have room in my freezer to put my soaps in.

I was mostly wondering, rather than trying to prevent it from gelling, aren't there oils that would remain white even if they gel? I might try a 100% coconut oil soap with 20% superfat in that same mold to see if it gels and if so if it still discolors in the areas that gelled.

Thanks