Recipe review

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Lauren27

Active Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2015
Messages
34
Reaction score
4
Can you lovely soap makers review this recipe before I begin please. Vegan and palm free here!

Olive oil 57% (9.12 oz)
Coconut Oil- 25% (4.00 oz)
Cocoa Butter 12% (1.92oz)
Castor Oil 6% (.96oz)
1-3% Sodium Lactate

8% superfat

also included the lye calculation image, does everything look GOOD to go?
ViewRecipe.asp
URL might not work
ViewRecipe.asp
 
Well, the truth is always in the telling. If you like this recipe particularly, it would not hurt to make a one pound batch and use it to test against.

Some people feel the coconut oil at 25% might be too drying (a number of people stay at or below 20%), and there are many people who find that cocoa butter over about 10% can be draggy and suppress lather. Those are two aspects to look at and consider. Do you have any other oils? Castor from 5-7 % is pretty common and sometimes over 10% will give some stick. So I wouldn't necessarily swap out some of the coconut or cocoa butter for that. You could certainly increase your OO and drop the percentages of the other two down a touch, but there is a reason you settled on this. What did you like about this recipe to start?
 
What Newbie said. Personally? I'd drop the coconut to 20% and raise the olive to 65%; the remainder on the OO comes from dropping the cocoa butter to 10 and the castor to 5.

But that's actually not terribly far off your recipe and yours is worth a shot just as-is.
 
I personally think your recipe looks fine. I'd make a 1 lb. batch of it 'as-is' and then tweak it from there according to your personal likes/dislikes.


IrishLass :)
 
What Newbie said. Personally? I'd drop the coconut to 20% and raise the olive to 65%; the remainder on the OO comes from dropping the cocoa butter to 10 and the castor to 5.

But that's actually not terribly far off your recipe and yours is worth a shot just as-is.

Thank you for the advice! 65 % olive oil, wouldn't it make it too oily, or too soft? Just curious.
 
Thank you for the advice! 65 % olive oil, wouldn't it make it too oily, or too soft? Just curious.

Hard as a rock; olive is technically a soft-hard oil. It starts out soft, but goes rock hard during a long cure.

My winter soap is 70% olive (15% coconut, 10% hydrogenated soybean wax, 5% castor). Lather's a bit spare, and not very bubbly, but it conditions like nobody's business. It's not oily at 5% super fat.

The hydrogenated soy wax is a filler oil that adds a great deal of hardness with very little used. Overuse can make the bar waxy and kill lather, but I like small amounts in some recipes.
 
Thank you for the advice! 65 % olive oil, wouldn't it make it too oily, or too soft? Just curious.

Ditto what Morpheus said. I've made all kinds of high % olive oil soaps and none have been too oily or soft. One of my favorites of the bunch was a mock version of Savon de Marseilles soap that used 72% olive oil, 24% coconut oil, and 4% mango butter. Made a nice hard, bubbly bar.


IrishLass :)
 
Ditto what Morpheus said. I've made all kinds of high % olive oil soaps and none have been too oily or soft. One of my favorites of the bunch was a mock version of Savon de Marseilles soap that used 72% olive oil, 24% coconut oil, and 4% mango butter. Made a nice hard, bubbly bar.


IrishLass :)

Is that the exact recipe? I would like to try that eventually, do you add anything else?
 
Lauren, after seeing your posts in both threads, I am thinking you are after a recipe for soap that lasts. But the usage rates are different from person to person. My husband uses up one bar every week no matter how long it was cured, i use them up in 2 and one of my friend complains they are lasting over a month. So your soap might actually last longer for others.
 
Yep- that's the exact recipe....well, actually, I should clarify to say that that's my exact recipe for my mock version. I have no idea what the exact recipe is for the real Savon de Marseilles. :) I added a pinch of tussah silk and 1 tbsp ppo of sugar to mine.


IrishLass :)
 
Lauren, after seeing your posts in both threads, I am thinking you are after a recipe for soap that lasts. But the usage rates are different from person to person. My husband uses up one bar every week no matter how long it was cured, i use them up in 2 and one of my friend complains they are lasting over a month. So your soap might actually last longer for others.


Yes! I made 3 batches in January, 1 caused me to itch (too much CO) and the other left a slimy texture on my skin ( too oily?), the one that came out good only lasts a few washes, so I am trying to determine what is a great recipe other have tried and works, I have learned that there is so much to learn and read up on. I never knew that rice bran oil can make a waxy bar, so much to learn!
 
Lauren, after seeing your posts in both threads, I am thinking you are after a recipe for soap that lasts. But the usage rates are different from person to person. My husband uses up one bar every week no matter how long it was cured, i use them up in 2 and one of my friend complains they are lasting over a month. So your soap might actually last longer for others.

That's very true. It takes me much longer to use up a bar of soap than it takes my hubby or son. I usually go through one in a month, but for my hubby and son, it's more like 1 to 2 weeks, depending. To explain- they are always doing yard or car work that gets them grungy, and so they take more showers than me. Plus they are both much taller and hairier than me, which is a another factor that comes into play.


IrishLass :)
 
That's very true. It takes me much longer to use up a bar of soap than it takes my hubby or son. I usually go through one in a month, but for my hubby and son, it's more like 1 to 2 weeks, depending. To explain- they are always doing yard or car work that gets them grungy, and so they take more showers than me. Plus they are both much taller and hairier than me, which is a another factor that comes into play.


IrishLass :)

See, you have an explanation for the high usage rate. My only explanation is that DH is hairier. May be one other thing is that he showers in a stall and the soap is in the water all the time, I think that's the biggest factor. But I'm glad they don't last longer, more usage means more chances to keep making/ experimenting.
 
I am playing with a lye calculator, how does this recipe look? I really appretiate the responses everyone!!! I need to pick one and stick to it. I have been asked to make soap for a bridal shower, I have only one shot and I am looking for recipe advice!!

Olive Oil 40.00%

Coconut Oil, 76 deg 20%

Rice Bran Oil, refined 17%

Shea Butter 9%

Cocoa Butter 8%

Castor Oil 6%
 
Last edited:
It's not recipe advice, but I would say DO NOT MAKE THE SOAP FOR A BRIDAL SHOWER if you are asking these sorts of questions. That is one heck of a responsibility to take on and it is abundantly clear that it is one that beyond you at this stage.

As for this recipe, I don't care for butters in a soap - palm or lard or tallow can do the job even better than butters. RBO and olive have similar properties in soap - a different fatty acid profile, but they aren't miles apart in terms of final soap so I am wondering why both are included?
 
I'm with TEG, you might want to hold off on plans to give that many people a soap - especially as you've no idea how that recipe will behave.

If you need to make something for a bridal shower... B&B is the way to go: bath salts, lotion bars, whipped body butters. How about an emulsified scrub? They are inexpensive, smell nice, require no cure time, and easy to experiment with in small amounts until you get your perfect recipe.

A couple of recipes for those are discussed here: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=51752&referrerid=16619
 
I think bath bombs would be awesome for a bridal shower. I made bath bombs and lotion bars for my friends wedding and they were a huge hit.
 
It's not recipe advice, but I would say DO NOT MAKE THE SOAP FOR A BRIDAL SHOWER if you are asking these sorts of questions. That is one heck of a responsibility to take on and it is abundantly clear that it is one that beyond you at this stage.

As for this recipe, I don't care for butters in a soap - palm or lard or tallow can do the job even better than butters. RBO and olive have similar properties in soap - a different fatty acid profile, but they aren't miles apart in terms of final soap so I am wondering why both are included?


I have already made soap that worked great, I just want to improve my recipe and looking for advice from people who have made great vegan recipes. My friends are vegan, so I am keeping my recipe vegan.
 
Lauren, your combination of oils looks fine. The two butters I think would add up to better hardness number if nothing else. But you don't really have to pay much attention to that number. Any oil combination would end up hard after a good cure.But do make sure your lye calculation is right, double triple check it. You don't want to give away a lye heavy soap.May be you could post the actual amounts of oils , lye and water and wether you r going to CP or HP we could suggest more on the technique. I'm thinking this is going to be a one time endeavor. If you were to keep with it and experiment a while, you r going to agree with most here that you shouldn't start giving soap away so soon. So please let us walk you through and together we could make sure that you are going to give away a good soap. A good soap starts with good fresh oils and pure lye. Make sure that is covered and come back to us with your full recipe.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top