Stearic acid

[ScrubbyHubby]

In the past I have used stearic acid to harden the bars of soap. It has been a while since I used it and alas I didn't write down how much I used. I used canola oil and it made a fairly soft soap and I never got the hard soap I wanted. I will be making more soap soon but have change the ingredients. No canola oil. The main oil is olive oil with palm oil, castor oil and shea butter. Will the soap be hard if I don't use the stearic acid or should I use some stearic acid? If so how much for a 69oz. batch?

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Jim, I use it sometimes to harden up my more conditioning "Luxury Line" soap recipes at 3 to 4 % of the total. It does need to be ran and figured in a lye calculator. The "Rose on Rose" soap I made this weekend had great high conditioning numbers and was a new revised recipe of mine, and I used 3% SA in it melted with my hard oils which were Shea, Kapangan, Coconut and Babassu.

Paul... :wink:

 

[ScrubbyHubby]

Thanks a lot Paul. As soon as I get my fragrance oils I'll cook up some soap. I just make the soap for myself and I ran out and have been using store bought for the last three months. Arrrrrg.