Wanna help design my new test recipes?

[lenarenee]

Hi all, I will be celebrating the last two weeks of this renovation by making new recipes to try out. (We now have 1 completely finished room downstairs....with furniture and everything!) I’m still interested in selling some day, and want to reduce or eliminate my high lard recipe to create a longer shelf life.

I have too many oil choices here, so help me out! Palm, tallow, lard, oo, rbo, ho sunflower, avocado, mango, Shea, cocoa butter. See what I mean...too many good choices here!! Some help make decisions here, please! if I make a pound of every possible combo that’s about 100 possibilities.

 

[steffamarie]

I tested a bar that I made in July or August with high lard and I was just blown away by how creamy, rich, and ABUNDANT the lather was! I couldn't keep it all in my hands after about 10 seconds! I used:
55% lard
10% coconut oil
10% sweet almond oil (can sub avocado probably)
10% rice bran oil
10% crisco with palm (could sub for shea or cocoa butter)
5% castor oil

Used aloe juice as my full liquid amount and a 5% SF. These were for a batch of party favors I made for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary and I found one of them sitting around - blew me away!! Once I use up the palm I have, I'm for sure going back to lard as my main hard oil - maybe I'll play with some tallow too. There's just no comparison with my current palm-heavy recipe (and it traced a lot slower!).

 

[SoapAddict415]

I like castor and avocado oil at 5%, Shea, Cocoa and Mango butters at 10%, rbo at 10%, coconut at 23% and Olive at 27%.

 

[Dawni]

This second batch is slightly different, but uses the same recipe that they liked. Instead of just the water from boiling, I cooked some extra and pureed the rice along with the water and added this to my emulsion. The rice powder this time was added with my coconut milk powder in hot water, that went in after the cook for fluidity.

I'm sharing the recipe, and if you feel like trying it with different additives I'd like to hear how it went for you.

Lard 30%, 15% each cocoa butter, coconut, rice bran and sweet almond oils, 10% shea. It has a very low cleansing factor as it was meant as a face soap, superfat at 5% (mine was turmeric infused olive oil).

Me and my family quite liked this one

Congratulations on the renovation!

 

[Meena]

I like HO sunflower, tallow, palm, olive, avocado, a very low % of coconut, and always castor oil.

I'm thinking of saving my mango butter for a whipped body butter, but it soaps well.

I just used shea for the first time, but haven't tested the soap yet.

Cocoa butter seems to make my skin sqeak, not a squeaky clean type but something to do with the sort of slip it gives, if that's the right word? I also find it difficult to work with and dislike prying and chopping it out of the jar.

 

[shunt2011]

I'm still a lardite, but also like to add Avocado, HO Sunflower or Rice Bran, shea and do use palm in my none lard recipe. Always castor at 5% sometimes a bit more. My lard recipes last a good long time (use at 40-45%). Palm I use at no more than 40%. I'm not fond of Cocoa butter in soap. Can't put my finger on why but I prefer shea. I've hear a combo of lard/tallow makes a nice soap though I've not tried that one yet.

 

[Dean]

Hi all, I will be celebrating the last two weeks of this renovation by making new recipes to try out. (We now have 1 completely finished room downstairs....with furniture and everything!) I’m still interested in selling some day, and want to reduce or eliminate my high lard recipe to create a longer shelf life.

I have too many oil choices here, so help me out! Palm, tallow, lard, oo, rbo, ho sunflower, avocado, mango, Shea, cocoa butter. See what I mean...too many good choices here!! Some help make decisions here, please! if I make a pound of every possible combo that’s about 100 possibilities.

Is this a contest?! What is the winning prize?

I found that @Zany_in_CO zeawater to be superior to salt alone or SL for hardening. How bout a veg facial/conditioning bar hardened with zeawater?

 

[lenarenee]

Winner gets free samples!

Someone requested soaps for a craft exchange coming for Mother's day that I'd like to participate in, so my experimental phase will have to wait.

It's been years since I've made a soap with palm oil. I'm not happy I caved back to being a palm user and will work on finding a lower lard recipe without palm. For now this is what I've come up with. Somehow I have it stuck in my head not to use more than 20% ho sunflower - am I dreaming? So added the avocado oil. (cringing at a 7 oil recipe instead of 4!)

Wondering how quickly this will trace, and if I need to soap warmer than room temp?

 

[Meena]

Winner gets free samples!

Someone requested soaps for a craft exchange coming for Mother's day that I'd like to participate in, so my experimental phase will have to wait.

It's been years since I've made a soap with palm oil. I'm not happy I caved back to being a palm user and will work on finding a lower lard recipe without palm. For now this is what I've come up with. Somehow I have it stuck in my head not to use more than 20% ho sunflower - am I dreaming? So added the avocado oil. (cringing at a 7 oil recipe instead of 4!)

Wondering how quickly this will trace, and if I need to soap warmer than room temp?

View attachment 37491

I ran out of Organic Sustainable Palm (all I will buy) from mid-Jan to mid-Feb, so tried some
substitutes in my last 2 batches in that period. I said above #5, that cocoa butter was unpleasant
to work with, basically, and gives some kind of slip to the skin that makes it squeak... or I
think I've narrowed it down to cocoa butter. I keep getting distracted from any real
analysis, sadly, but I Will get to it. Once I have this round nailed, I will go back through
the recipes for the 1st seven soaps, and see what I learned & which oils I liked.
Spoiler Alert:
I found out that I really like soap with avocado oil in it. Pretty sure mine is organic (it's in
another room and I should be sleeping right now). ETA: NOW brand non-GMO Avocado.

I badly digressed, so sorry. I've soaped with a mixture very much like that (minus lard),
a bit different but nonetheless -- it will not seize (but I don't use FOs), will SB trace to light
(well past emulsion is where I've been going (for the pleasure of it, honestly)) in 1.5 to 2 or even
3 minutes when on the warm side, 100 - 120 F maybe. Don't take it this far if you are going to
need time for swirls, as they say here in shorthand.

Note: So sorry for all the hard returns. In the last 24 hours, my computer has decided
it doesn't like this site anymore and just runs off the screen (e.g. page) unless I press enter.