soap recipe resources and advice?

[celticjanis]

Hi Guys! I deleted the recipes because I posted 2 which were different. One was from the book. The other was my adaptation.
Believe me. I do take the advice and look forward to getting it. No, I took the recipe in the book as it was because everyone I made/sold the soap for/to loves the soap and always asks for more.
Just wait til they get a load of my new, revised, improved recipe with palm, tallow, coconut, olive and castor!!
Ironically, I left the soap in the cavity molds for 48 hours instead of 24 and I think the lack of exposure to air while it was still saponifying helped cut down on the ash and white spots!
And, yes, I do want and appreciate suggestions and input.......
Here's the recipe:
20 oz. olive
7 oz. rapeseed
8 oz. sunflower
25 oz. palm
25 oz. tallow
.5 oz. glycerin
.5 oz. sugar
1 oz. borax
fragrance oil
48 oz. goat milk
12 oz. lye

Lye/milk mixture = 80 degrees
Oils = 90 degrees (I'm wondering if I should increase this to 100 degreea?)

Very thin trace. No gel. Small cavity molds from Milky Way. (now) 48 hours before unmolding. Cure for 5-6 weeks.

BUT, thanks to Shunt 2011, I'm changing my oils.

So, any other advice is always appreciated.

Thanks/

P.S. I didn't question the recipe in the book since it was okay. So I didn't have any cause to question it, really. Just wanted to know why and how to eliminate white spots, ash, blotches.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Don't forget that you'll need a new safety assessment for the new recipe

 

[celticjanis]

DeeAnna: I'd love to hear your advice
Efficacious Gentleman: There's nothing wrong with making and selling soap from a book recipe. Many people make and sell food from a cookbook recipe!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

DeeAnna: I'd love to hear your advice
Efficacious Gentleman: There's nothing wrong with making and selling soap from a book recipe. Many people make and sell food from a cookbook recipe!

"and if many people jumped off of a bridge, would you do it, too?" is what my mum would say!

Regardless, that is a terrible analogy, because people generally cook and/or eat home cooked food now and then - making and/or using hand made soap is not as common. So if a book says "do x" and x would be dangerous, it is more common for people to recognise it as such. But it's like the difference between a chef and someone who can cook - I can cook, but I generally think inside the box with cooking. I think that people who sell something should know it inside and out, be able to answer pretty much any reasonable question on their products.

I don't think that anyone who sells a recipe which they took from a book falls in to that category, be it food or soap. As a consumer, I would expect the person making the product to know why things work the way they do, why the alternatives are not as good for me and so on.

For example, you say on your facebook page that goats milk has a similar to pH as our skin and so your soaps are good - but what about goats milk combined with lye?

I also don't see any of the required packaging information in your pictures online - who is your safety assessor and have they not pointed out the regulations on packaging information?

 

[shunt2011]

Have you run this recipe through a lye calculator? Also, you really should be measuring in grams. I also agree with TEG on the fact that it's a recipe in a book that's really quite antiquated. Why are you adding glycerin and why borax? What do you think they bring to the quality of the soap?

 

[celticjanis]

Thanks,Shunt2011. Will do. I'll also eliminate the borax and glycerin, as you suggested.

 

[earlene]

Well, I use Borax in some soaps, and like it very much. Besides softening the water a bit, as Borax tends to do, it also really helps to add some extra cleansing properties to soap.

My brother, who is a blacksmith requested some soap to clean his hands, which after blacksmithing can take a full week of handwashing with regular soap before the stains come off. Then he blacksmiths again, of course. So I did a little research and found that some blacksmiths use straight Borax to get those stains off. So I added it to soap for him. Both he and my husband raved about the soap with Borax in it. I have done Borax soap, a combo of Borax & Pumice, and plain Pumice soaps. My husband has only used the Borax soap, which after working on the cars cleaned his hands better than any mechanics soap he has used before, he told me. My brother said his hands had never gotten clean after only one use of bar soap before he used the Borax & Pumice combo soap.

I find Borax to be gentle and not harsh to my skin when in bar soap, so I don't think there is a problem using it. And if you have customers who like your soap that already contains Borax, you may try some test batches with and without to get an idea of what the difference might feel like. Personally I wouldn't make such a change without doing some side-by-side testing.

It has been pointed out that it can somewhat alter your superfat, but to what extent, I have no idea.

 

[celticjanis]

Thanks for that, Earlene

 

[Relle]

Hi Guys! I deleted the recipes because I posted 2 which were different. One was from the book. The other was my adaptation.

Reinstated, so others can read the whole thread.