Increasing superfat

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kirvil

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I am thinking of increasing the superfat I use in both HP (crockpot) and CP process soap from 5% to about 7% or maybe even 8%. Does this make for a milder bar? Does it decrease the amount of bubbles?

Kirvil
 
It doesn't really make a milder bar but it can help counter act a soap that might be too cleansing for you. I'm a bit sensitive to lye soap so I use 8% SF on most all my recipes. They still lather great but I do like to add extra stuff to boost lather, aloe juice in place of water is a big help.

Is your soap too drying? If you post your recipe, we can help you tweak it so its a bit milder.
 
Most of my soaps are superfatted at 6% - 7% - not accounting for the goat milk which adds some. I could do the math, but it's the weekend so no more calculations today (yay). I'm going to hazard a guess that mine are 8ish% when done. My bars still lather up well. Like Obsidian I like to use extra stuff to help...

high lard
combo of pko and co (they work better together, I get the same effect of 20% CO using just 15% combination)
castor
full water replacement using GM, CM and/or aloe
sodium lactate
occasionally additional sugar
edta

I try to limit my lather killers to clay OR butters OR exfoliants. Sometimes I get carried away and just up my pko/co combo to 20% to compensate.
 
I superfat in the range of 3% and actually make very nice mild soaps. A while back I made a nice Soleseif soap with a higher superfat, and my hubby hates it. He told me he feels like he is washing with oil. My drains also hate all the extra fat so back to low superfat. I admit I trade off high lather since cutting way back on coconut oil, but my customers like it better. Since returning to my original market after a histus of about 4 months I have had my return customers comment that they are so glad I am back. They were not liking what they were buying from other sellers in the market, two commented it felt like they could not rinse off the soap well and it felt oily. So I figure it is not just me, but it does take awhile and quite a few batches of soap to get the exact balance that feels well. I would recommend taking your recipe and upping the superfat, then take the same recipe but cut down the coconut oil, adding the balance to your other oils, cut the superfat down and see how the soap feels after curing for 4-8 weeks. Soaping takes a lot of time, patience, practice and testing. What works for one may not work for someone else
 
Thanks for all the comments/suggestions.

Here is my recipe:
Coconut oil 11%
Babassu 8%
Palm 12%
PKO 8 %
Mango butter 9%
Shea Butter 11%
RBO 9%
Olive 21%
Castor 7%
almond 4%
 
Thanks for all the comments/suggestions.

Here is my recipe:
Coconut oil 11%
Babassu 8%
Palm 12%
PKO 8 %
Mango butter 9%
Shea Butter 11%
RBO 9%
Olive 21%
Castor 7%
almond 4%

There's a lot going on here. You'd probably be better off taking a few of those oils out and decreasing the cleansing oils amount. I've used most of those oils save almond and the butters so my suggestion is this:

Olive-33%
Palm-30%
Rice Bran-13%
Babassu-10%
Coconut-9%
Castor-5%

You're still going to have a solid soap, it's still gong to have a good cleansing factor but it will be a bit milder than what your current recipe is. If you want a really mild soap, I suggest:

My recipe (I used coconut milk and kaolin clay with this)
Beef Tallow- 50%
Olive- 30%
Coconut- 10%
Cocoa Butter-5%
Castor-5%

Just run both of these through a soap calculator.
 
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