Soap makers that use coconut oil/Olive| Castor

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Question to improve recipe ? Best Recipe ever ??lol
Ok so I generally used a recipe that is 90 percent coconut oil, 5 percent castor, 5 percent Olive oil. with 20 percent superfat. It is a good recipe but I bought some other soaps using my same basic ingredients and notice that my soaps look a little more crumbly. like my edges flake and tops sometimes crack a little. When I put in the logo on my soap I notice the crack lines. So I decided to lower my coconut oil to 75 percent and keep 20 percent superfat and I noticed a little improvement not much but my soap freshly made looked def more oily. Any recipe recommendations to help improve my soaps appearance. Btw I do hot process and love coconut oil bc it gives soaps an almost translucent look. Thank you for the advice!
 
It is a good recipe but I bought some other soaps using my same basic ingredients and notice that my soaps look a little more crumbly. like my edges flake and tops sometimes crack a little...

Btw I do hot process and love coconut oil bc it gives soaps an almost translucent look. Thank you for the advice!

Is it possible that the soaps you bought were CP? That might explain the difference in appearance.

I do not HP, but maybe it's something as simple as cooking your soap longer than it needs to.
 
I wonder if you can HP ZNSC? It's the same ingredients but flipped round in quantity, @Zany_in_CO ?
@KiwiMoose Happy to respond! Zany's No Slime Castile can be hot processed.
@Dawni s HP ZNSC

Unfortunately, flipping 90% Coconut Oil to 90% Olive Oil as I believe you are suggesting doesn't respond to the OP's query. :(

90 percent coconut oil, 5 percent castor, 5 percent Olive oil. with 20 percent superfat
Any recipe recommendations to help improve my soaps appearance. Btw I do hot process and love coconut oil bc it gives soaps an almost translucent look. Thank you for the advice!
Your original recipe takes a long cure time -- up to a year, if I recall correctly. I know of one well-known soapmaker who made it regularly for teenage acne and said it was a family favorite.

Other than that, I have no other advice except that 90% coconut oil will be harder at first than it will after a long cure. It becomes more gentle over time.

You may have to wait and test stamping the logo over time to see when you can accomplish that without cracking. That would also define the "full cure" moment. Should be interesting. Make up a Cure Card and take good notes.

Please report back here for results. :)

HTH
 
Is it possible that the soaps you bought were CP? That might explain the difference in appearance.

I do not HP, but maybe it's something as simple as cooking your soap longer than it needs to.
No 100 percent they are hot process because the guy cooks his soaps from when they are ordered. I normally cook mine like 45 ish minutes. its something with my recipe lol but his soaps dont flake at all like mine.😅 Maybe somebody is a master with these indredients here.

@KiwiMoose Happy to respond! Zany's No Slime Castile can be hot processed.
@Dawni s HP ZNSC

Unfortunately, flipping 90% Coconut Oil to 90% Olive Oil as I believe you are suggesting doesn't respond to the OP's query. :(



Your original recipe takes a long cure time -- up to a year, if I recall correctly. I know of one well-known soapmaker who made it regularly for teenage acne and said it was a family favorite.

Other than that, I have no other advice except that 90% coconut oil will be harder at first than it will after a long cure. It becomes more gentle over time.

You may have to wait and test stamping the logo over time to see when you can accomplish that without cracking. That would also define the "full cure" moment. Should be interesting. Make up a Cure Card and take good notes.

Please report back here for results. :)

HTH
What I notice is if you wait too long stamping the logo becomes impossible or the saop is too hard when it cools. But if under 2 hrs the soap is still slightly tacky. Normally I wait when the soap is cooling like 3 hrs. Or a little less. Just with high coconut oil I always get the crack lines. Always even if I put the stamp when the soap is still more hot. Ive tried all kinds of stamping techniques its my recipe itself im pretty sure.
 
I have a fair amount of experience with HP recipes that are high in coconut. From what you are describing, you are cooking it too long, not using enough water, or both. Here is what I recommend:

75% CO
20% OO
5% Castor
10% SF
25% lye concentration

Cook the soap on low only until the vaseline (gel) stage. For me, that's typically 20-25 minutes, max.
Don't stir the dried stuff on the sides back into the batter. It will always be crumbly.
When it reaches that gel/vaseline stage, mold it quickly.
It will probably be ready to cut in no more than 6-7 hours.
It should not be crumbly.
 
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I agree with AliOop. But also, what you describe sounds like what happens with cold process soap sits too long before cutting. Just something else to keep in mind.

I know what you mean about a nearly 100 percent coconut soap - they are lovely. Whitest soap I ever made without using colorants was 100% coconut and Nutiva coconut oil (one of the whitest coconut oils I've found) and it was just snowy white! Need to make that again. Even though it was cold process, the co oil makes it heat up fast...and I was cutting it in just a couple of hours.
 
I have a fair amount of experience with HP recipes that are high in coconut. From what you are describing, you are cooking it too long, not using enough water, or both. Here is what I recommend:

75% CO
20% OO
5% Castor
10% SF
25% lye concentration

Cook the soap on low only until the vaseline (gel) stage. For me, that's typically 20-25 minutes, max.
Don't stir the dried stuff on the sides back into the batter. It will always be crumbly.
When it reaches that stage, mold it quickly.
It will probably be ready to cut in no more than 6-7 hours.
It should not be crumbly.
Lye concentration at 25 percent? just to be sure. Appreciate this post. my soaps are great but Im as a soap maker always wanting to improve the quality.

I normally do 32 lye concentration this might solve the issue. whoo!
 

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Yes, lye concentration is the setting I use. I typically use a little higher lye concentration than 25% for my HP soaps, but since you are having trouble with crumbling, starting with more water can help. Not only is there more liquid to keep the batter smoother, the soap will also gel at a lower temp (thus, usually sooner) with more water. That can help you end up cooking it for less time.

As you get the hang of cooking it less - and not scraping in the dried stuff in the sides!! - you can experiment with less water, which does help the bars firm up faster and shrink less.

They should be nicely cured in about 4 weeks, although high-CO bars can benefit from a few more weeks to become milder, in my opinion. Of course, you can use them right away if you want, but they won’t last long, especially with that lower lye concentration and shorter cook. Those few weeks of drying out will add a lot of mildness and longevity - if that’s important to you.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

PS: I just read @lenarenee’s comment and agree with her point that you may be waiting too long to cut. I can usually cut my HP high coconut bars within a few hours, before it is even fully cooled. You could also try cavity molds to see, but your batter does need to be fairly fluid for that.
 
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Lye concentration at 25 percent? just to be sure.
I do Cold Process, but my understanding of Hot Process is that it takes more water because of the amount that is lost during the 'cooking' process. Changing your Lye Concentration does not change the amount of Lye you use, only the amount of water.
 
Ok so I made a batch and the soap did mold the logo better and the soap came out great. It actually look a longer time to cook than my older recipe but maybe because my oils were more cool. BUT I feel like the soap looks and im not sure if my eyes are playing games but I feel it looks a slight cream color. Where as my older soaps which had actually 90 percent coconut oil looked almost transparent/rustic looking. So im thinking of making another batch with higher coconut oil but trying the 25 percent lye concentration. Also the soap was more softer for longer which makes sense of course lol with more water but it did solve my issue and the logo didnt crack the soap like before. I feel like very high coconut oil gives soaps a certain look esp when hot processed.
 
Thanks for the good report! I agree with you, there is nothing as pretty as a 100% CO bar. The additions of OO and castor will definitely change the color and eliminate some of the translucent look, too.

If the 100% CO white translucent look is what you are going for, then do that! I'd bump the SF back up to 20% where you had it before. If you hot process them, you will probably need to cut the bars in about 4 hours, because 100% CO does harden fast. The thing to check for is whether the soap is firm with just slight give if you press it: like a firm cheese just out of the fridge, although the soap will still be warm to the touch at that point. This is quite different from most other recipes where the soap isn't ready to cut until it is pretty cool. But if you wait for 100% CO to cool completely, your bars will crumble or shatter when you cut them. Ask me how I know. ;)
 
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