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The bar I just finished using in the shower was no liquid. 70 lard/17 CO/8 shea/ 5 castor. It was lovely. It was a very hard, long lasting bar that didn't leave my skin too dry, but lathered gorgeously. Your recipe with the higher butter sounds like it would be just as lovely!
 
I like it. I'm still a little bit scared of lard. I'm mostly afraid it might make me break out like most pork meat products do (trader joe's is fine for me). But I'd love to try your second recipe. :)
 
Lard is cheap and you could always give it away if you really don't like. I'll never soap without it, beef tallow is nice too.

I went ahead and made batch #2, hopefully it will be close to what I'm imagining. It traced pretty quick even though I soaped cool as I could, I did use a new floral that might have accelerated it some too.
I poured 5 bars at thin trace, by bar 5 it was at medium trace.
 
Lard is cheap and you could always give it away if you really don't like. I'll never soap without it, beef tallow is nice too.

I went ahead and made batch #2, hopefully it will be close to what I'm imagining. It traced pretty quick even though I soaped cool as I could, I did use a new floral that might have accelerated it some too.
I poured 5 bars at thin trace, by bar 5 it was at medium trace.

I tried your second recipe and it's gelling as we speak. I accidentally brought it to thick trace though and I used a chai blend I made courtesy of adagio.com.
 
I'm with the 1st version, I would keep the 20% CO. Overall it looks just fine.

My remark is on the 8% lye discount that seems to me very much. I kinda like the way DeeAnna works on 3% where I am me and soap in the bath, without any sign/feeling of oils on the bar.

I also thought you were using so far lye concentration instead of water based on oil's weight on your recipes. You are using too much water for a solid bar...

I would use a 33% lye concentration (2 parts water - 1 part lye) and that would be 123gr of water instead of 172gr. Lard is known to be an oil that doesn't accelerate as it has many oleic/linoleic acids. If you use a FO that accelerates or you will do some swirls, then I would add a little more water up to 144gr (30% lye concentration), not more.

Nikos
 
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My bars are very hard with extremely creamy lather. I gelled them and they weren't sticky at all, hard as a rock right out of the mold. Not much for big fluffy lather but I expected that.

I used full water due to a accelerating FO combined with a high amount of coco butter, not too much water at all for this recipe. I use 8% SF for all my recipes, just because you like a lower one doesn't make my soap wrong. I really don't appreciate you telling me that I'm soaping wrong.
 
Hello obsidian,
I just wrote my opinion, I didn't say you did something wrong. :)

It is all about gathering opinions (brainstorming), and you can keep whichever you prefer.

I'm sorry for making you feel awkward.

Friendly Nikos
 
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I also thought you were using so far lye concentration instead of water based on oil's weight on your recipes. You are using too much water for a solid bar...

Nikos

Nikos, I understand you are from a different culture, but here in the US, when someone says something like the above, it is taken as a direct statement of fact. You could avoid this by saying, "In my opinion, that would be too much water for a solid bar, but if it works for you, then it works for you."
 
Thank you for your remark Susie, I can see that I was absolut with my opinion.

I must be more gentle when expressing an opinion, although if someone said that to me then I would not take it as an offence, but it would be a good reason for me to ask more questions...

Sorry once again obsidian.
 
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