What is a good melt and pour base for making cocoa butter soap?

[Marie_Davis]

My goal is to make extremely moisturizing soap from a melt and pour base. I have been told that I need to be careful to use the right base because if I do it wrong then the bars might not harden. I know there are bases that already have 5% cocoa butter mixed in but I don't care about that because my goal is to use high quality unrefined cocoa butter.

Als I am wondering what % of cocoa butter I can use for each bar. Would 10% or %15% be too much?

So like I said I want the most moisturizing bar of soap I can possibly make using cocoa butter so if anyone has any suggestions as far as other oils I can add in and what melt and pour base is best that would be great. I do not want any foaming agents or other chemicals. It does not have to be organic just all natural. Thank you!

 

[shunt2011]

Unfortunately soap isn't really moisturizing but can be less stripping than detergents. Adding too much butter to MP base will really deplete your lather. You would be much better to try CP or HP where you have control of your ingredients and cleansing.

I wouldn't add more than a tsp or so to a base.

 

[IrishLass]

Wecome Marie!

I agree with Shari- adding too much extra oils/fats to M&P can really deplete your lather, as well as reduce the soap's ability to cleanse adequately. If it were me, I would save your cocoa butter for making something like a lotion bar instead, where it will better utilized.

For what it's worth, most people I know who make M&P use absolutely no more than 1 tbsp. of extra oil/fat per pound of M&P base for best results.

One tbsp. of cocoa butter weighs about .48 oz., which translates to a 3% usage rate per pound of base. If you were to instead add 10% or 15% cocoa butter per pound of base, that means you'd be adding between 3 to 5 tablespoons cocoa butter per pound, which is way too much.

Re: What are the best M&P bases to use? Well, that all depends on who you ask. lol For what it's worth, many really like the SFIC bases, which you can find at Brambleberry.


IrishLass