Reformulating MP recipe to CP recipe-Beginner Soaper!!

[Servant4Christ]

While I agree, we will have a hard time convincing our HP peers that this is true. Believe me, I've tried to no avail. Sigh.

Scientific Soapmaking by Kevin Dunn is what convinced me before I even began making soap.

 

[Shelley D]

Hello everyone!

This is my first time posting on any type of soap thread, so I just want to say I am happy to have found a community to reach out to for help! I am open to all suggestions, thanks in advance!

So, I am reformulating a best selling Turmeric & Vitamin C Beauty Bar (previously a MP recipe). I would like to make a CP soap bar recipe. I have used SoapCalc and my research skills to manually formulate what I will list below. With the additives, I would create a paste then stick blend with GM MP soap base. I would love to be able to use them all however, I understand lye works differently. So, I am very interested in what you have to say about this recipe and where I might consider adopting changes! (Side notes: I am a beginner and lye. This bar is crafted to target hyper pigmentation and dark spots, great for combination skin, provide a overall glow and can be used daily or twice a day on generally normal skin to non-problematic skin.)

Question 1: Must I have Lauric, Myrisitic, Ricinoleic acids in my recipe to create a creamy lather, pretty hard bar that lasts about 1 month to 6 weeks being used twice daily (4-4.5 oz bars)? (FYI: I have 0% of all three of these acids)

Question 2: Some of my "Soap Bar Quality" numbers are not in the range they should be, how important are these numbers for a recipe? How can I possibly adjust these numbers based on the information provided?

Question 3: I would like to only use raw GM instead of water, I've seen on some forums that people simply freeze then add in same amount of GM as would be water? I've also seen others dilute the GM with water (50/50). Will using only GM affect the recipe?

Question 4: I've seen to add 1/2 tbsp to every lb of soap, is this correct? Have you worked with any of these additives, will it affect trace or quality of soap? All additives used at about 5% or lower

64 oz of oils
Hemp (30%)
Sunflower (willing to consider high oleic-30%)
Rice Bran Oil, refined (30%)
Shea Butter (10%-added for hardness [my logic lol])
**After further research I noticed that possibly adding castor oil will add to the 0% lauric acid of my soap)

Water (GM)
16.25 oz

Superfat
7%

Lye Concentration
33%

Additives
Turmeric powder
Kaolin Clay
Vitamin C powder (citric acid)
Niacinamide
Tea Tree E/O
Herb Blend (infused in oils)

As a somewhat newbie to soap making myself, I totally feel your struggle! Honestly, personally, I would scour the internet for a homemade soap bar with qualities I was looking for and I would buy it and see if that would work for me. Then I would study the various ingredient lists to see which oil combinations were being used and go from there. For example, as wonderful as coconut oil is for skin, my skin just isn't a fan so I have to skip it or use it minimally (like less than 20%). My skin loves butters and the rich oils like olive oil, hemp or avocado oil, etc, so I use those to make up most of my recipes, I just research a LOT of other recipes to get a solid idea of what works well together at what percentages. Try googling soap recipes with hemp or Sunflower oil to see how they are being used and and what percentages.
Also, because while I love to learn new things, I hate to learn in baby steps because I feel like I end up having to re-learn or un-learn stuff to get to the end result so I jumped straight in with cold process goat's milk soap. Yes, you can use goat's milk as your total liquid amount. If a recipe calls for 8 oz of water, you can substitute 8 oz of goat's milk. ALSO, it's best to freeze it solid and add your lye to the frozen goat's milk ~ no fumes, minimal heat, no scorching milk ~ win/win/win! It takes some forethought because you should measure your liquid amount and pour it into ice cube trays, freeze, then pop them out and get to work! Just make sure that when you combine your lye solution to your oils that the temperature of each is within 10° of each other I usually melt my butters first, remove the bowl from the double boiler set up and add my liquid oils to the melted butters, stir for a minute to fully incorporate, and set aside; then start my working on my lye solution so the oils have time to cool. I like to soap at around 100° (combine my lye solution and oils), sometimes it's a little lower.
There are lots of videos on YouTube for making goat's milk soap and I think I watched them all!

 

[AliOop]

@Shelley D I'm like you, and my skin doesn't love coconut oil very much, either! One thing you can do instead of researching other people's recipes, is to learn about the various fatty acids, and the qualities that each of them brings to your soap. Then you can design your own recipes from scratch. Good places to learn about fatty acids in soap include this article and this one.

Just make sure that when you combine your lye solution to your oils that the temperature of each is within 10° of each other

While this can help prevent false trace, it isn't truly necessary. In fact, some folks use their fresh, steaming hot lye to melt their room temperature hard oils, before adding their liquid oils to the batter. It's called the Heat Transfer Method.

 

[Shelley D]

@Shelley D I'm like you, and my skin doesn't love coconut oil very much, either! One thing you can do instead of researching other people's recipes, is to learn about the various fatty acids, and the qualities that each of them brings to your soap. Then you can design your own recipes from scratch. Good places to learn about fatty acids in soap include this article and this one.

While this can help prevent false trace, it isn't truly necessary. In fact, some folks use their fresh, steaming hot lye to melt their room temperature hard oils, before adding their liquid oils to the batter. It's called the Heat Transfer Method.

I have been try to understand the different qualities of the oils, but sometimes it just gets all jumbled up in my head
I finally got a copy of Scientific Soapmaking and have just gotten started reading that, but I will check out the other articles for sure! Thank you!
I haven't tried the heat transfer method yet, but I totally love using frozen liquids for the lye solution because it doesn't get all hot and fume-y, and living in an old apartment complex with windows that no longer open, I don't have very good ventilation which is why I put off making my own soap for as long as I did. But when I learned about freezing the liquids, I jumped straight in and it's been an interesting adventure for sure!
Again, thank you for pointing me towards more information!