Wrong about castile, tests + results (long)

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Bare with me, I'm sick and this will most likely be long & rambling.

When I first started soaping a little over 2 years ago, I read about wonderful castile. Of course I made a batch but being impatient, I found a 1 year + cured bar on etsy and bought it.
I immediately disliked it, it was drying and left me feeling very tight and uncomfortable. Shortly after, I was gifted a aged bar made with buttermilk, I was excited about this one but it was worse then the first bar I tried (I since found out I can't use buttermilk).
Both got tossed out then my castile batch got DOS. I was utterly disgusted with castile, it was a poor lathering dry soap IMO.

During the last two years, I occasionally pulled out and used a bar I saved from my DOS batch, still didn't like it. I tried making new castile with different SF, adding castor, even the lye heavy recipe that went around awhile back. I just didn't like any of them.

For what ever reason I decided to make more last thanksgiving. I made two small batches, one with regular OO, one with EVOO. I wanted to see if there was a color difference after a year cure. I never planned on actually using the soap. I also made a soleseife castile a few months back.

Decided to do a test lather of my thanksgiving castile and the
soleseife today. I was curious if the salt would help with the slime and how much reduced the lather might be. Surprisingly, the soleseife didn't have reduced lather at all, it may even be a bit better lathering then plain castile. The slime factor is about the same, maybe a bit reduced.

While I was doing my lather testing, I went ahead and washed my face with the regular castile. Felt really nice, left my skin soft but it was tight. This confuses me, I could feel that my skin still has some oil on it, so why is it making me tight? Maybe something else is going on besides dryness?
I decided to be brave and used the castile in the shower. Guess what? ts not drying and the only place it left me tight is my face. So is this from my hard water? Is there a film left behind? This makes me think I'm been giving castile a bad review for the last two years.

More tests are underway, must see if I can find something that will help with what ever makes my face tight but not dry. Any thoughts?

Test results:
EVOO and OO bars are virtually same color after long cure. EVOO slighty greenish ivory, while the OO is yellowish ivory. 8%SF

Soleseife castile lathers as well as regular castile, slightly reduced slime. Still young, only aged 5 months. 1/2oz salt in 8oz batch.

New Tests, poured today. Made with pomace OO, 15% SF. Same everything except the liquid used. Used room temp oil, hot lye solution.
Water- this is the control batch. Behaved as expected. Cream color
Dark beer concentrate- fastest trace time, lots of bubbles in batter. dark brown from beer.
Aloe juice- slowest trace time, smooth pour. colored green with oxide.
Powdered coconut milk, curdled and lumpy when mixed with lye, traced quickly. colored blue with oxide

Water batch #2. Used sodium citrate at 1%. Traced quicker then water with no additive. colored yellow with mica.

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I bloody hate Castile, but it's the most-often requested soap if the person knows a little something about soap.

After they get it (I keep some heavily aged on-hand for just that reason), they stop asking for it if they tried any of my other soaps.

Except for my mother, who likes using it on her face and reports a clean, soft feeling with absolutely no tightness. I did use a 7% SF on that, though.
 
I've never had anyone request castile but I do have a couple people I would like to have try it. Thing is, I'm almost embarrassed to gift it since its so slimy/bad lather.
 
Interesting. I don't really care for castile, and with the long cure time haven't been tempted to try making it. A question that comes to mind, though, if the tight feeling you have after using it on your face is due to hard water, wouldn't that be the case for other things you use as well?
 
The only person who asks for Castile is my sis in law who uses it on her baby. The baby was allergic to every soap.. Even Johnsons baby wash so my sis asked me if I had something she could use. I had some 1 year+ Castile and I warned her it wouldn't lather and would clean the baby with slime... Well lo and behold, no allergic reaction! I hate it, so I'm glad she took the bars off my hands!
 
Im another one on the cant stand castile bandwagon. a) I can't get past the slime factor. b) Im a bubble freak, and c) Im impatient :lol:
 
Baby slime, this is a great visual, thanks:) I doubt I will ever make castile again, while I've found I can at least use what I have, my regular bars are so very much better.
I am really curious to see what the alternative liquids might add to it though, guess I'll know in about 6 months. The batch I made with sodium citrate failed, not sure if I measured something wrong or what but they were weepy and greasy so I tossed them.
 
No, SF doesn't seem to really affect the slime, at least not in my experience. I haven't ever used more then 8% in the past though, who knows how the 15%SF castile I made yesterday will turn out. I actually kinda like the slime, I always end up playing with it and if you use a bath poof, you will gets lots of soft, slick lather.

I think every soap maker should try castile at least once, you might end up loving it and it helps teach patience.
 
I love using my 3% SF castile on my face.. in fact, my castile and my coffee soap are all I use on my face. I do prefer my other, bubblier soaps for body though.
 

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