Looking for certain properties in soap

[seven]

@AF_SOAP, how much water did you use?

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

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.

How long are you letting your soap cure? Soap gets better with age. You should be letting it cure for 4-6 weeks if you want a good bar. I do try my soap out before it's fully aged, but I don't judge the finished good bar by what I see at that time. I personally keep my CO down around 15% to keep from the soap drying us out, don't use palm, but do use lard or beef tallow and OO as my go to oils. My bars are plenty hard and do not dry out my DH and BFF's very very dry skin.

 

[Nevada]

Hi Susie, DeAnna gives a good explanation click here
Roy

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!

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

Actually, as much as I love that post of DeeAnna's she doesn't call out INS or iodine. From SoapCalc, under Soap Bar Qualities, I found this:

Iodine - As a general rule, the lower the number, the harder the bar and the less the conditioning qualities and vice versa. A recipe with iodine values higher than 70 will tend to produce a somewhat soft bar of soap. Definition: number of grams of iodine that will react with the double bonds in 100 grams of fats or oils.
INS - A measure of the physical qualities of the soap based on the SAP and iodine value. This value was introduced by Dr. Robert S. McDaniel in his wonderful book "Essentially Soap". The exact origin of the value is unclear but INS is derived from Iodine value and the SAP value; hence INS - "Iodine ’n SAP" If the value is not in "Essentially Soap", it is estimated by subtracting the Iodine Value from the KOH SAP. It is used to predict the physical characteristics of the soap bar - the ideal being 160. Experience has proven a range of about 136 - 170 will gennerally be acceptable.
Summary of values: Hardness29 to 54 Cleansing12 to 22 Condition44 to 69 Bubbly lather14 to 46 Creamy lather16 to 48 Iodine41 to 70 (lower = harder bar) INS136 to 170 (higher = harder bar) http://www.soapcalc.net/info/SoapQualities.asp

 

[AF_SOAP]

I used 9.5 ounces of water.

I used the attached recipe. Hopefully it hardens soon. I made it 5 days ago.

 

[eyeroll]

That's a lot of water for me. I would expect it to still be pretty soft and to get harder as it cures.

Caveat: I don't soap with PO so don't know how it behaves at that percentage.

 

[AF_SOAP]

I'm still learning and that is the water percentage I have always done. This is the only recipe that has given me an issue. What would you recommend for the water percentage?

Also would changing water to milk make the bar more moisturizing? I have always wondered that.

 

[BabyPickles106]

I made a batch almost the same today but had 2 oz of cocoa butter and added both salt and sugar. Mine was almost to hard to pour in few minutes. I din not scent this batch.