Soap turning soft when used.

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I’m new at this but find Babassu oil a good addition. It adds to hardness and cleansing, and you can lower the amount of coconut oil. Another combo I like is 10,10,10 coconut, babassu, murumuru or Tuchman oils. Very cleansing but not drying.

Tucuma oil
 
If your lye is 38% of oils, which is standard in most calculators, that will be quite a high amount of water, and it can make your soap soggy if you don't cure it enough. If you use 38% lye concentration (not 38% of oils), your water amount is not at all too high. But soap needs to cure anyway. The saponification process may not be complete immediately after cutting, and then the soap will be caustic and very drying for the skin. Can be dangerous too if you get it into your eyes.

Olive oil makes soap hard, but still very water soluble. If you want to use palm oil and if you have it available, that would be a very good oil to make your soap last longer (the palmitic acid in palm oil does that). Soy wax is another good alternative, it is full of stearic acid, and it will also make your soap harder and last longer. Oils high in palmitic and/or stearic acids, less water (if you use 38% of oils) and a good cure for 4 weeks or more, that could do the trick and make your soap less soggy. Plus that it must be stored between uses on something that makes your soap really dry up. I use the brush for an old school dishwashing thing (picture at at the bottom), and just turn it upside down, so that the soap rest on the brushes. That works really well, and is easy to clean. I wash the sink with it when it is dirty, rinse it, and then it is clean afterwards.

But yes, homemade soap don't behave exactly like store bought soap. Such soaps are usually made differently (extruded and pressed), plus that the glycerin is removed and some added back again, meaning less glycerin than homemade soap. Glycerin are nice for the skin, but it makes soap less tolerant to water and moisture before it gets soggy. And they are often made of 100% or near 100% palm oil (or at least a high amount of palm), which gives long lasting soaps. So it is a very different process and gives different soaps than our handmade ones. I bought one a few days ago, since I was almost out of handmade and have not made any soap for almost a year. It is called Sterilan, and I think it is a Norwegian brand. It is really good, and I like it. I love the scent of it! It smells vintage, and the color is baby blue. It is an old brand and I guess the scent have been unchanged over the years. But the soap is unfortunately slightly more drying to the skin, and it does not rinse off as easily for some reason. But otherwise a good soap, and it does not contain any detergents or anything strange, just saponified oils and the usual as colors and scents. But, homemade is more fun. Store bought is store bough and can never be as fun. But a good soap, yes, it for sure is.

Anyway, the first thing I think you should do is to cure your soaps for 4 weeks or more, as others have said. If they still gets soggy very easily, then try to include oils with a high amount of palmitic and/or stearic acids in your recipe. For example palm oil or soy wax.
 

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I disagree. I use 15%shea with 5% cocoa butter in my regular recipe, and have a vegan recipe that is right around 32% (I think, I'll have to look) and they're both lovely soaps. To me anything less than 5% is why bother. I think the op needs to allow the soap to cure properly and then decide if the recipe needs tweaking. I think the lack of cure is more a concern than the recipe itself. I would use the recipe, personally.
I'm still new to soaping but so far my favorite recipe is 30% shea and it's the favorite of my friends who have been trying my soaps. Shea, coconut and olive. I've only tried 6 different recipes so far though 🤣
That's the hardest bar I've made so far and no slimyness or anything. It was at it's best after 8 weeks tho.
 
Thank you for all the great advice, I will let the soap cure for a lot longer!🙈
I'm still new to soaping but so far my favorite recipe is 30% shea and it's the favorite of my friends who have been trying my soaps. Shea, coconut and olive. I've only tried 6 different recipes so far though 🤣
That's the hardest bar I've made so far and no slimyness or anything. It was at it's best after 8 weeks tho.
What amount of olive oil and coconut oil (%) do you use? And it doesn’t feel drying to the skin after the 8 weeks?

Thank you all for your advise! I will let it cure longer.
I tried to cut through one of my soaps and it actually was kind of soft/dark/more wet in the middle. I guess that also is a sign that it hasn’t cured long enough? And will the softness in the middle harden if I let it cure for a longer periode of time?
🙏🏼
 
What amount of olive oil and coconut oil (%) do you use? And it doesn’t feel drying to the skin after the 8 weeks?
30% shea, 35% olive oil, 35% coconut oil

I thought it was a tad dry at about 6 weeks but by 8 weeks and beyond it's been my best bar so far. I got the recipe from the book "Smart Soapmaking" by Anne Watson. It's a good book especially for beginners. I recommend it! I'm working to reduce the coconut oil a bit since I find coconut oil to be drying.

it actually was kind of soft/dark/more wet in the middle.
Depending on what you mean by "dark" that may be normal from partial gelling. But it shouldn't be very soft or wet in the middle. Others with more experience can speak to what that may mean.
 
Thank you all for your advise! I will let it cure longer.
I tried to cut through one of my soaps and it actually was kind of soft/dark/more wet in the middle. I guess that also is a sign that it hasn’t cured long enough? And will the softness in the middle harden if I let it cure for a longer periode of time?
🙏🏼
I agree with Lilian - sounds like partial gel. A photo would help to identify it properly.
 
30% shea, 35% olive oil, 35% coconut oil

I thought it was a tad dry at about 6 weeks but by 8 weeks and beyond it's been my best bar so far. I got the recipe from the book "Smart Soapmaking" by Anne Watson. It's a good book especially for beginners. I recommend it! I'm working to reduce the coconut oil a bit since I find coconut oil to be drying.


Depending on what you mean by "dark" that may be normal from partial gelling. But it shouldn't be very soft or wet in the middle. Others with more experience can speak to what that may mean.

Thank you for inspiration! I will try to watt for 8 weeks☺️
Is this recipe with a 5% Superfat?
Your friends don’t find the soap drying at all with the high amount of coconut Oil?
 
Thank you for inspiration! I will try to watt for 8 weeks☺
Is this recipe with a 5% Superfat?
Your friends don’t find the soap drying at all with the high amount of coconut Oil?
Yup, 5% super fat.
I thought the initial recipe was good, but maybe slightly drying, but no one else that tried it reported that. I am finding my skin is sensitive to co. Since then I made a batch reducing coconut oil by 10% and replacing with 10% castor oil and that was absolutely fantastic. So right now I'm looking to use 30% shea, 35% olive, 25% coconut, 10% castor(or rice bran or sweet almond) as a regular formula.

It's been about 7-8 weeks since your post. How is it now?
 
Yup, 5% super fat.
I thought the initial recipe was good, but maybe slightly drying, but no one else that tried it reported that. I am finding my skin is sensitive to co. Since then I made a batch reducing coconut oil by 10% and replacing with 10% castor oil and that was absolutely fantastic. So right now I'm looking to use 30% shea, 35% olive, 25% coconut, 10% castor(or rice bran or sweet almond) as a regular formula.

It's been about 7-8 weeks since your post. How is it now?
You might think about dropping your castor oil to 5%. Above that it can lead to sticky soap. I use a really low SF below 5% so you might think about experimenting with that too.
 
You'll get a lot of different advice, so you'll just have to experiment...
I, for one, have been using castor oil at 8% and never got a sticky soap, pace penelopejane.

I do use beeswax usually around 1-2%, which I think helps. You could also experiment with soleseife (brine soap) or salt bar; those are the hardest and least sticky soaps I make, I really like them for that.

And agree -- let it cure! It will become easier as you make more soap; there will be a cured one to use.
 
You might think about dropping your castor oil to 5%. Above that it can lead to sticky soap. I use a really low SF below 5% so you might think about experimenting with that too.
I don't know about the original poster, but the soap with the 10% castor isn't sticky at all. That formula is one of my favorites.
 

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