My first CP soap recipe

[pcs]

Hello All!

I tried making cold process soap for the first time. Below is my recipe:

water as % of oils 38%
superfat 8%

Lye 95g
Rose water 251 gm

coconut oil 43%
Olive oil 43%
Almond oil 14%

Fragrance Lavender essential oil nearly 15 drops
Color Turmeric powder 2 tspoon (mixed with Olive oil for couple of hours and then strained the oil out. Resulted in almost no color.)

I plan to keep it for 6 weeks to cure. Does this look alright?

Thanks!!

 

[BattleGnome]

That will certainly be a very bubbly bar but you may find it too cleansing. Your recipe looks fine to me but I just want to remind you that there will be a learning curve as you figure out what works for you.

Many people feel that coconut oil should be kept under 20% (myself included) because of that high cleansing number. Your skin is different from mine and you'll find what works for you.

15 drops of lavender is not enough for the fragarance to last. I would have used 1 ounce of lavender to have a lasting scent. One guideline is to use 1 ounce of fragarance per pound of oils. Another thought is to follow the manufacturer's instructions for useage (one fragarance might recommend 1% useage and another may reccomnd 5%, it depends on the particular fragarance).

I've never infused oils for color, so I can't give you any advice. My guess is that 2 hours wasn't long enough to get much color.

 

[Susie]

^What BattleGnome said!

I would also add either palm, tallow, lard, or one of the butters to give it some lasting ability. And don't forget castor oil to support those bubbles!

Here is my favorite recipe (I use this about 95% of the time):

Lard (or you can use palm or tallow) 65%
Olive Oil 15%
Coconut Oil 15%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5-8%, depending on the weather.

 

[pcs]

Thanks for the replies!

So not a major flop I think

I ll keep this for a couple of months and then use it and see how good it is. Also will explore the usage of lard/tallow.

Need to look further into usage of colors may be. Fragrance can be taken care of in the next attempt.

Thanks people for your comments! Its great to have such good support!
Cheers!

 

[BeesKnees]

I don't have anything constructive to add to the discussion other than my thanks, pcs, for sharing your recipe--putting yourself out there and asking for feedback--and for the feedback you received with the reasons why. As a newbie I am trying to understand the hows and whys and the responses here are very educational. So thank you all for sharing!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It is worthwhile investing the time to read back through at least 10 pages of this section for those very reasons - it's a veritable trove

 

[BeesKnees]

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm slowly but surely making my way through it, thread by thread. Last night I spent a few hours on soapcalc.net with LunaSkye's 2014 tutorial here on how to use it and learned a good bit in the process. There is indeed some treasure in these threads.

 

[dixiedragon]

PCS - post a pic! First soap pics are my favorites!

You may find this soap too harsh. If so, use it as a kitchen soap.

Turmeric - here's a blog about using turmeric in CP.
http://blog.thesage.com/2010/09/02/turmeric-in-cold-process-soap/

 

[pcs]

This is my first soap

 

[lsg]

I use from 20 -30% coconut oil in my recipes along with palm and a soft oil or two. Congrats on your first recipe. Let us know how it works for you. As the others said, I would use more EO or FO. I usually use from .5 oz to 1 oz per pound of oils, depending on the FO or EO I am using.

 

[pcs]

err.. sorry but what is EO and FO?

 

[artemis]

err.. sorry but what is EO and FO?

Essential Oil and Fragrance Oil. There is a thread somewhere that lists all the various abbreviations that are often used here. Very useful in the beginning of a soapy life.

 

[Susie]

It is here. There are a bunch of stickies at the beginning of this forum that are awesomely helpful.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=51841

 

[pcs]

It is here. There are a bunch of stickies at the beginning of this forum that are awesomely helpful.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=51841

That was immensely helpful! Thank u susie!