Recipe Feedback please
- Thread starter Zadielee
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Dawni
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Hallo @Zadielee! I'm no expert but I can give you some opinions if you want em hehehe
Is your goal a high olive oil soap? If it is then your recipe is fine, but I'd lower my water amount if it was me. You don't need much water for soaps with a lot of olive oil or other high oleic soft oils. My personal preference would be between 1.8 and 2:1 water:lye ratio. Here's why.
Also, there are very few who notice any ingredient at only 5% except for castor oil. Most use what they have at a minimum 10% unless you're deliberately keeping that particular thing low. It's not a rule though, just something we've noticed.
Palm oil makes a hard bar of soap, although olive oil on its own gets very hard too but for me it took about 4 days just to unmold my 100% olive oil soap.
Incidentally, olive oil also makes impressive bubbles, even if there's no coconut, but only after a longish cure. Most suggest curing this type of soap, with olive oil higher than maybe 30-40% longer, because it won't lather as good as it would at maybe 6mos of curing.
If you wanna try your soap sooner than that, maybe increase your other oils a little bit. Coconut at 20% makes lovely bubbles, superfat at least 5%. Sweet almond is also lovely, I've used up to 25% (mainly coz it's expensive where I am lol). I've seen palm used even at 40% but I'm sure less than that gives you a pretty hard bar.
Lastly, most recommend a small batch for testing because many things can go wrong, even for experienced soapers when it's a new recipe. If your container and stick blender can handle it, try half your current amount. You can always make more soap, but you can't always save soap that didn't go as planned.
Hope some of this helps
Is your goal a high olive oil soap? If it is then your recipe is fine, but I'd lower my water amount if it was me. You don't need much water for soaps with a lot of olive oil or other high oleic soft oils. My personal preference would be between 1.8 and 2:1 water:lye ratio. Here's why.
Also, there are very few who notice any ingredient at only 5% except for castor oil. Most use what they have at a minimum 10% unless you're deliberately keeping that particular thing low. It's not a rule though, just something we've noticed.
Palm oil makes a hard bar of soap, although olive oil on its own gets very hard too but for me it took about 4 days just to unmold my 100% olive oil soap.
Incidentally, olive oil also makes impressive bubbles, even if there's no coconut, but only after a longish cure. Most suggest curing this type of soap, with olive oil higher than maybe 30-40% longer, because it won't lather as good as it would at maybe 6mos of curing.
If you wanna try your soap sooner than that, maybe increase your other oils a little bit. Coconut at 20% makes lovely bubbles, superfat at least 5%. Sweet almond is also lovely, I've used up to 25% (mainly coz it's expensive where I am lol). I've seen palm used even at 40% but I'm sure less than that gives you a pretty hard bar.
Lastly, most recommend a small batch for testing because many things can go wrong, even for experienced soapers when it's a new recipe. If your container and stick blender can handle it, try half your current amount. You can always make more soap, but you can't always save soap that didn't go as planned.
Hope some of this helps
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This recipe will take a long time to cure as it is high in olive oil. You will not get a lather with big bubbles, but more of a creamy lather, after a long cure. For more bubbles, you can up the coconut oil to 20%. You might want to raise the sweet almond oil to 10%. You can also add 7% Castor oil for more bubbles, lower the olive oil to 35% and raise the palm to 28% and set the superfat to 7%. You will have a bar that produces more bubbly lather, is not so drying, (with the 7% superfat), and doesn't take so long to cure.
I agree that you could cut the olive oil down in order to have a soap that gets nice faster. I made a recipe in early June, using palm, olive and coconut as the main base oils. It’s making a creamy and bubbly lather a little over two months later:
50% palm oil
30% Olive oil
15% Coconut oil
5% castor oil
If I were to make it again, I would add a different oil at 10%, such as sweet almond oil (which I don’t use much of due to the price), avocado oil, or another soft oil, to get closer to what I like (a hard but gentle bar that makes a somewhat creamy lather with some bubbles that also does not leave my hands feeling dry). I would make that addition at the expense of some of the palm or olive oil. If you don’t have castor, you can add 5% to any of the oils, knowing that more palm will make the soap harder, more olive will mean a longer cure and a more gentle soap (but some find it drying), avocado contributes to hardness and is less stripping/more gentle and coconut makes big bubbles but many find it drying. Many here add some sugar to increase bubbles without having to add castor (which supports bubbles rather than being a big bubbler itself).
50% palm oil
30% Olive oil
15% Coconut oil
5% castor oil
If I were to make it again, I would add a different oil at 10%, such as sweet almond oil (which I don’t use much of due to the price), avocado oil, or another soft oil, to get closer to what I like (a hard but gentle bar that makes a somewhat creamy lather with some bubbles that also does not leave my hands feeling dry). I would make that addition at the expense of some of the palm or olive oil. If you don’t have castor, you can add 5% to any of the oils, knowing that more palm will make the soap harder, more olive will mean a longer cure and a more gentle soap (but some find it drying), avocado contributes to hardness and is less stripping/more gentle and coconut makes big bubbles but many find it drying. Many here add some sugar to increase bubbles without having to add castor (which supports bubbles rather than being a big bubbler itself).
High Oleic Canola or Sunflower are nice additions for another oil. I use Canola HO in most of my soaps. I would cut down the Palm to around 40% and add in another liquid oil. Even with Palm at 40% it will be a fairly fast moving recipe. I admit I did not read all the postings, but if lard can be used I would use 40/25 palm lard, since lard will slow trace.
