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hana212

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Feb 15, 2014
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Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hello all!

I am super sorry if this question has been asked before but here it is.
I am very new to soap making and I LOVE my recipe for Cold Process Goats Milk Soap. Now that I am attempting to sell it though, I have had the feedback that it does not lather enough. Now I personally am fine with no lather, but the general public have been taught that lather=clean.
I've searched for ways to increase the lather and they come back with "Add salt" or "Add coconut oil".
My issue - I have both salt and coconut oil in my soap. :shock: now what!

Help! Is it as simple as decreasing the amount of other oils or tallow and increasing the coconut oil?

(if it helps here is some more info, my recipe includes these ingredients as well: Olive oil, vitamin e oil, argan oil, castor oil, tallow, goats milk, salt, borax, powdered lye, essential oils.)
 
I can't give specific advice, but...

What are the amounts of each ingredient that you use? What method do you use to make it? Is it a solid bar soap, or a liquid soap?
 
You want sugar not salt!
Salt gives hardness and reduces bubbles.

I do 1tbs ppo sugar. :)
That there could be part of the low bubbles depending on how much you're using.
 
Ok so the amounts are as follows:

- 16 oz frozen goats milk
- 4 6/8oz powdered lye (140g)
- 1/2 tsp borax
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp glycerin
- 3 drops vitamin e oil
- 3 drops argan oil
- 18 oz lard (510g)
- 1 oz olive oil (28.3g)
- 1 oz coconut oil (28.3g)
- 1/8 oz castor oil (3.5g)
- essential oils (after trace) if I'm scenting the soap

It is a solid bar soap and I let it cure for 4 weeks prior to use.


THANK YOU!!
 
Hun.. You don't want to be selling without knowing if your soap is safe. I'm sure it is but basic background work on soap should have shown you to use a calculator.
Luckily you have just started and can plug this recipe in. :) always always check with a soap calculator!!
I can check it for you in just a min.
But check out soapcal.com and get prepared to use it in the future.
 
Ok so the amounts are as follows:

- 16 oz frozen goats milk
- 4 6/8oz powdered lye (140g)
- 1/2 tsp borax
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp glycerin
- 3 drops vitamin e oil
- 3 drops argan oil
- 18 oz lard (510g)
- 1 oz olive oil (28.3g)
- 1 oz coconut oil (28.3g)
- 1/8 oz castor oil (3.5g)
- essential oils (after trace) if I'm scenting the soap

It is a solid bar soap and I let it cure for 4 weeks prior to use.


THANK YOU!!

OK, I'm not surprised it doesn't lather much. It's mostly lard (nearly 90%) which is a nice soaping oil but it will give you more of a creamy lather, almost like lotion.

I don't see any purpose for the borax, salt, or glycerin - I'd omit them.

The argan oil is such a small quantity that it's all but meaningless. In my experience, you won't see a difference unless you use at least 5% of a given soaping oil. So either up the % or get rid of it.

It is also dangerously lye heavy! I ran it through soapcalc.net and at 5% lye discount/superfat (safe margin for error) you'd need only 2.7 ounces (77 grams) of lye. Your recipe came in at -65%. That is, you're using 65-70% more lye than you need!

Your liquid amount is also way in excess of what's required. 8 ounces would be better.

Where did you get this recipe? Assuming your ingredient list is accurate and not missing something (you mentioned tallow in your first post and lard in your recipe), this is dangerously caustic. You should not be using it, much less selling it.
 
Oh wow.. Yeah it is a lot of lard without much else. I'd def have more coconut oil in there.

Calculator calculator.. Where art thou calculator!
 
Agreed. I know there's some fat in the milk, but not nearly enough to compensate for nearly twice as much caustic lye as you have in your recipe. Unless you've mistyped a number somewhere.

Definitely go here:
http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

Add your oils and amounts, and leave water and superfat settings at their default for now, and see what you come up with. This will be a starting point for getting your recipe on the right track. :)
 
Well, 16oz Goats Milk has .66oz (18.8g)fat. So not much. I LOVE lard soaps. But for general use, they do need a bit extra. :)

Here's a recipe idea to think about using your existing oils:

18oz Lard (510.3g)
6.5oz Coconut oil (184.3g)
5oz Olive oil (141.7g)
2oz Castor oil (56.6g)
.5oz Argan oil (14.2g)

(round UP on the oil, round down on the lye)

4.40oz lye (124.8g) (superfatted at 7%)
8.8 oz liquid (249.6g)

1tsp salt
.5T Vit E

I would personally leave out the borax and glycerin.

:)
 
Borax can neutralize excess lye and make the soap milder, but that amount of borax is not enough in this recipe to accomplish this in the OP's recipe.

The recipe actually sounds somewhat similar to this one:

Sudsy Ammonia in Soap

and DeeAnna has an awesome explanation of how the ingredients interact.

But the "sudsy ammonia soap" recipe is not lye-heavy, so the borax there gives the recipe some superfat...
 
Last edited:
Thank you all so much for your replies.
I'll definitely spend most of this week playing with the soap calculator and adjusting my recipe.
To answer the question about where I got this recipe, I was interning on a goat dairy farm in the USA last year. They make their own soaps and have been selling them for over 15yrs. (so that's why I didn't question the recipe)
Part of my internship was to help with making soap, I loved using their soap and it was so much fun to make that she said I could use her recipe back home in Australia no problem. And I did... good thing I found this forum though! :)
Thanks again!
 
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