Recipe Help

[Raven Moonstar]

Hello everyone

Would anyone mind taking a look at my recipe, please and letting me know what you think ? I made the recipe (without the shea butter) a few weeks ago. It's still leaving my face dry/tight but way less than when I first tried it. Will the addition of shea butter help?

Thank you in advance

 

[dibbles]

Posting your recipe would be helpful. i am also wondering how long your soap has cured.

 

[Marsi]

Hi Raven Moonstar

I went looking for your post with your recipe in it, and couldn't find anything (I gave up after a couple of pages)
I'm sure if you post your recipe here you will get some terrific feedback.
(remember to include percentages for all things, including the lye concentration, which gives the lye and water amounts, or your exact recipe by weight if you have already made it )

 

[Raven Moonstar]

Posting your recipe would be helpful. i am also wondering how long your soap has cured.

Here it is . It's been three weeks now, I will wait one to three more weeks to have more of a final opinion, just wondering if the shea butter will help with that in the finished result..

 

[Marsi]

50% Coconut
30% Olive Oil
15% Canola Oil
5% Shea Butter
33% lye concentration
10% SF

At a glance, the 10% superfat is not going to compensate much for the 50% coconut oil in the recipe.
Coconut oil soap is excellent at removing fats and oils from your skin, including your bodies own oils, which can leave skin dry and itchy.
It can get a little way under the top bit of skin (for most people, not everyone from anedotal evidence) which can add to the feeling of irritation.

I would suggest lowering the coconut (to under 20%) and the superfat (to under 5%, to reduce the chance of rancidity developing in the free oils in the soap)
Adding a hard oil (like lard, tallow, palm, soy wax, additional shea butter or cocoa butter) or increasing the olive oil and curing for longer, will balance out the bar a little.
A couple of extra notes: The coconut portion will wash away faster than most other types of soaps, olive has it's own issues with slime if it's left exposed to water, but will cure out to a hard bar that lasts well enough - most people can tolerate olive, but again there is a small minority who are irritated by it, especially in the colder months. 30% is a good number for an ordinary bar with olive in it, IMHO.

The shea butter should help a little, more would be better (I would take it out of the Canola, but I don't use Canola, so that is just a personal opinion)

 

[lsg]

50 percent coconut oil is very high with only a 10 percent superfat. Try reducing the coconut oil and adding either palm or tallow to make up the difference. You can then lower the superfat to 5-8 percent. You will still have a hard bar with bubbly and creamy lather.

 

[Raven Moonstar]

50% Coconut
30% Olive Oil
15% Canola Oil
5% Shea Butter
33% lye concentration
10% SF

At a glance, the 10% superfat is not going to compensate much for the 50% coconut oil in the recipe.
Coconut oil soap is excellent at removing fats and oils from your skin, including your bodies own oils, which can leave skin dry and itchy.
It can get a little way under the top bit of skin (for most people, not everyone from anedotal evidence) which can add to the feeling of irritation.

I would suggest lowering the coconut (to under 20%) and the superfat (to under 5%, to reduce the chance of rancidity developing in the free oils in the soap)
Adding a hard oil (like lard, tallow, palm, soy wax, additional shea butter or cocoa butter) or increasing the olive oil and curing for longer, will balance out the bar a little.
A couple of extra notes: The coconut portion will wash away faster than most other types of soaps, olive has it's own issues with slime if it's left exposed to water, but will cure out to a hard bar that lasts well enough - most people can tolerate olive, but again there is a small minority who are irritated by it, especially in the colder months. 30% is a good number for an ordinary bar with olive in it, IMHO.

The shea butter should help a little, more would be better (I would take it out of the Canola, but I don't use Canola, so that is just a personal opinion)

Thank you, Marsi !

Can you tell me what you think of the following recipe, please ? I tried this soap some time back and absolutely loved it, I guess I'm trying to create something similar.

Thanks again

Thank you, Marsi !

Can you tell me what you think of the following recipe, please ? I tried this soap some time back and absolutely loved it, I guess I'm trying to create something similar.

Thanks again

With that I mean it looks like they use mostly coconut oil in there..

 

[Marsi]

On the surface of things, it would apprear that your 50% coconut is a logical choice. This makes the assumption that the maker has put the ingredients in order from highest use to lowest, and I see no reason why they would not have done this, so we'll work on the assumption that this is what they have done (and, like all assumptions, it is not guaranteed to be correct ).

Breaking down the ingredients list:

Main oils:
Coconut oil
(water)
Olive oil
Rapeseed oil

Additives:
Glycerin
Kaolin clay
Shea butter
Hemp seed oil

Fragrances and additives:
Limonene
Litsea cubeba EO
Avocado oil (probably a carrier oil for another fragrance)
Citrus aurantifolia EO
Citrus aurantium bergamia EO
Citrus nobilis EO
Spirulina maxima powder (additive in low quantity, natural colourant, temporary)
Linalool
Citral
Graniol

An interesting thing to observe is that the soap is a hot-process soap.
There are some soapmakers who work on the idea that, once the soap is fully "cooked", specialty oils can be added after the cook, and that these oils are not rapidly convert to soap (the soap WILL change over a long time, but this idea has merit in the short term IMHO).

The conclusions that I would make is that the coconut oil is actually higher than 50%, and that the soaper may have added a portion of coconut oil after the cook, along with some of the specialty oils, giving the soap a very different feel to a CP coconut soap with a superfat (where the free oils are chosen chemically during saponification).

If you want to try and replicate this in a CP soap, perhaps go the other way and increase the coconut, increase the superfat (to about 20%) and decrease the oils that will potentially go rancid (like the olive and rapeseed oils).

 

[Raven Moonstar]

On the surface of things, it would apprear that your 50% coconut is a logical choice. This makes the assumption that the maker has put the ingredients in order from highest use to lowest, and I see no reason why they would not have done this, so we'll work on the assumption that this is what they have done (and, like all assumptions, it is not guaranteed to be correct ).

Breaking down the ingredients list:

Main oils:
Coconut oil
(water)
Olive oil
Rapeseed oil

Additives:
Glycerin
Kaolin clay
Shea butter
Hemp seed oil

Fragrances and additives:
Limonene
Litsea cubeba EO
Avocado oil (probably a carrier oil for another fragrance)
Citrus aurantifolia EO
Citrus aurantium bergamia EO
Citrus nobilis EO
Spirulina maxima powder (additive in low quantity, natural colourant, temporary)
Linalool
Citral
Graniol

An interesting thing to observe is that the soap is a hot-process soap.
There are some soapmakers who work on the idea that, once the soap is fully "cooked", specialty oils can be added after the cook, and that these oils are not rapidly convert to soap (the soap WILL change over a long time, but this idea has merit in the short term IMHO).

The conclusions that I would make is that the coconut oil is actually higher than 50%, and that the soaper may have added a portion of coconut oil after the cook, along with some of the specialty oils, giving the soap a very different feel to a CP coconut soap with a superfat (where the free oils are chosen chemically during saponification).

If you want to try and replicate this in a CP soap, perhaps go the other way and increase the coconut, increase the superfat (to about 20%) and decrease the oils that will potentially go rancid (like the olive and rapeseed oils).

Thank you ever so much for such a detailed and helpful reply, Marsi. I want to reach through the screen and hug you !

 

[Marsi]

Thank you ever so much for such a detailed and helpful reply, Marsi. I want to reach through the screen and hug you !

You are most welcome!

If you want to take a deep dive into soaping, check out Deanna's "Soapy Stuff"
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapyStuff.asp

 

[dibbles]

I see Marsi has given you good advice, so start with that. Good luck finding your perfect soap recipe.