Looking for certain properties in soap

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AF_SOAP

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So I have made some batches of soap. Around 20 or so now. I wanted to make an easy recipe that could be a go to soap.

I want a bar that is hard, cleansing, and moisturizing.

I have been playing around with palm, coconut, and castor oil but have got a drying bar. Palm I picked out for its hardness factor, coconut for its cleansizing factor, and then castor for its moisturizing factor. I can not seem to get it right.

Can anyone recommend some ratios for 3 lbs?

When I made ~one pound I used 6, 6, and 3 of palm, coconut, and castor respectively. I also added bergamot oil because I like the smell of it. It did change it to nice sweet lemon smell but it worked good.
 
I have played around with a %5 to 7% but I am afraid to go much higher and get a softer bar. I don't know if that will happen but I just always thought it would.
 
Wow, with a 2:2:1 ratio, that ends up being 40% coconut. No wonder it's drying! 30% tends to be the max for most people, with many requiring it down to 20%, unless you're doing a large superfat/lye discount. And does it get sticky with 20% castor oil? Most max it out at 10%.

If you're okay with adding in a fourth oil, olive oil would be good to replace some of the coconut and castor. It's much more moisturizing and a standard soap oil for a reason.
 
Yeah, you really need some olive oil in there. Try 50% OO, 25% Palm, 20% coconut, 5% castor with a 7% SF. You can add 1 tsp salt PPO to help harden the bar. Dissolve it in your water before adding the lye.
 
Woops. Wrote down the wrong recipe. I did 60% palm, 25% coconut, 15% castor discounted at 5%.
 
I agree with the others' advice, even with your revised recipe. For a conditioning bar, you have too much CO (drying), too much castor (sticky, soft), not enough oleic acid (conditioning, mildness).

Lower your CO so your cleansing is more in the range of 10-14% combined lauric and myristic acid.

Lower your castor to 5-10% of your oils. It's my opinion you don't get any more bubbles if you go higher than 10%.

Add more fat with a high oleic acid content. Olive is the classic, but other options include avocado, high oleic safflower, high oleic sunflower, and possibly rice bran oil.

Keep your polyunsaturated fats reasonably low -- shoot for under 15% combined linoleic + linolenic acids -- so have a light hand with the soybean, corn, canola, etc.

Your current recipe, according to my soap recipe spreadsheet, has these properties:

Hardness (Lau-Myr-Palm-Ste) 50
Cleansing, solubility (Lau-Myr) 17 (too high for a conditioning type of soap)
Long lasting (Palm-Ste) 32 (mid 20s to low 30s is fine)
Conditioning (Oleic-Lino-Ric) 47 (shoot for mid 50s, give or take)
Bubbly (Lau-Myr-Ric) 31
Creamy (Palm-Ste-Ric) 46

Saponification (INS) 166
Iodine 47

Lauric 12
Myristic 5
Palmitic 29
Stearic 4
Oleic 27
Ricinoleic 13
Linoleic 6
Linolenic 0
 
Also, if you are looking for a hard bar for feel, even a number like 39 is pretty hard. That doesn't necessarily mean it will last forever, but I take it you are concerned about how hard it feels in your hand. Soap calc numbers are not the end all be all, but they can be a good place to start.

I personally don't mind a cleansing number of 17 but everyone's skin is different and you have to find out what you like for yours.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I am going to try and add olive oil to the mix and see if I can get the desired bar I want.
 
Aye, lard and palm are pretty swappable, but it does seem that lard makes a harder bar.

15% CO, 40% palm/lard, 40% OO and 5% castor would be pretty simple but good. Up the OO or the palm/lard taking the % from the other to have a play and see what you prefer.
 
I too would recommend you add olive to your recipe. I would do 45% OO, 20% CO, 30% Palm and 5% Castor. This is very similar to one of my recipes and It makes a reallly nice soap. I do superfat at 7-9% as well.
 
Oh I am open to anything. I hunt so the whole no animal property thing I never understand, but respect people's personal choices.

I might put some lard in there along with palm, olive and castor. I might play around a little bit.

From what I have been reading, palm, olive, coconut and then Shea butter seems to be a very easy and good recipe to go with. If only Shea butter was not so expensive!
 
I might put some lard in there along with palm, olive and castor. I might play around a little bit.

From what I have been reading, palm, olive, coconut and then Shea butter seems to be a very easy and good recipe to go with. If only Shea butter was not so expensive!

Palm and lard are almost the same, and Shea butter in a soap is also very similar to both palm and lard, once it is saponified. If you're doing HP and adding the butter after the cook, it'll be fine - but in CP it doesn't seem to do too much other than add label appeal and cost per bar
 
In the above recipe, I assume that the castor oil is the superfatted oil (added after the HP cook ?). Is that right ?

Thanks

Castor Oil is added with the rest of the oils. Nowhere does it say that they HP.

DeeAnna- I have tried to find this out, but can't seem to locate the info on my own. Could you possibly explain what effect the Iodine and INS has on the soap? I am trying to get the "whys" embedded into my brain on how certain oils affect the soap. And I am getting better at understanding the other things, but can't locate info on those two. TIA!
 
Yes I am doing a CP. I only do HP when I am making my melt and pour base with glycerin and PG. Now that you mention it my HP with castor oil does bubble up a lot more than my CP with it. I guess I know why now.
 
Well I made it with one of the recipes replied in this thread and it came out..sticky..but it is starting to harden up. Its still soft, very soft. But I did put it under water and wash with it and it left my hands soft so it seems to be a good soap. Just need it to get hard ha ha. Is this expected?

I used the 45% OO recipe that someone recommended. Seems like a pretty good recipe. The only thing I can think of that made it soft was my essential oils are blended in fractionated coconut oil. Maybe 2 oz of FCO mixed with essential oils caused it.
 

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