Teach Soap

Hi Irena,
Few questions about coconut oil, PH and amounts of FO & EO.

1. I am planning to make following recipe. I read that it is recommended to have coconut oil between 20-30%. Do you find high percentage of coconut oil drying the skin even at 7% superfat and which oil should I increase and by how much if coconut will be decreased? I would like to make a good bar of soap from this recipe.

superfat at 7%
apricot kernel oil - 6.06%
coconut oil - 30.30%
jojoba oil - 6.06%
kukui nut - 6.06%
olive oil - 24.24%
palm oil - 18.18%
shea butter - 3.03%
sweet almond oil - 6.06%

2. From previous conversations you mentioned that you do not test PH of soap as long as you measure everything correctly and you do not recommend PH strips. Did you ever tested the soap and how? The reason I am asking is because several recipes that I made were tested with PH strips and it indicated that the soap is ok, but when I tested with phenol is indicated opposite. Also the soap from those recipes is drying the skin ( I used 5% supefat) and coconut oil was at 25% and 30.3%.
Because of this I do not know what should be corrected.

3. I just recently found out that when EO & FO are added to the recipe and there is a mixture of them, the maximum amount that should be used is the highest amount of EO or FO among all of them. Example:

lemon grass anise
light - 1.10 light - .20
med - 1.70 med - .30
strong - 2.00 strong - .40

So in this case max amount of EO that can be added to recipe is 2.00oz
Did I understand this correctly?
Can you recommend good EO & FO that do not irritate skin, because when I used lemongrass EO it did just that. Also a good blend of EO & FO would be nice as well.

Thank you in advance.

I always superfat at 7-8% as anything below my skin finds drying.
I don't go above 20% coconut as the bar becomes too cleansing.
There are a lot of oils in there which you don't really need. I would go simpler.
pH strips will only give you a range NOT the actual pH. They are not accurate enough.
If you tested with phenophtalein and it turns pink, then somewhere your calculations were off.
If you are using a recipe from a book or from online, ALWAYS run it through a lye calc.
Mistake in books and online do happen.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Let's assume that my calculations and measurements were correct, then what else might have gone wrong? May be not stick blending properly?
Is my understanding about amounts for EO & FO correct?
What would be a percentage of oils ( olive, coconut, castor) that would give be a good bar of soap?

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Next time I will try what you have suggested. Would you suggest any other base oils that I should use besides olive, coconut, and castor or these once good enough?
Also not too long ago you gave me directions on how to make liquid soap and also suggested 7% superfat. Initially the recipe called for 3%. When you superfat liquid soap at 7%, did you find the soap to be on oily side or it washed off fine ? Is superfat for CP and Liquid soap has same properties because in CP we are not diluting anything with water as we do liquid soap.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

No problem. Just Doublechecking. Thank you again, Irena!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Hi Irena. You were right about navigating IFRA site. I was trying to find quidelines on using FO and EO and couldn't. Is there a specific table for this on IFRA site. Would you be able to suggest a best way to find this information?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Great. I will definitely get Intouch with the vendor regarding this. Thank you so much !

Irena, I requested IFRA amendments from the vendor for my oils and these amendments indicated the maximum % of FO & EO to be used in soap and vendor suggested to use fragrance calculator but since your are saying that these calculators are not always accurate then how to determine the preferable usage rate? Previously you suggested to use 0.4 oz of lemon grass oil. How did you come up with this amount? Was it trial and error or you used some kind of a calculation?

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I see. That's too bad that they do not offer this info. anymore. It would be very useful for me to have because my skin is sensitive as well and I am not at the stage yet where trial and error could be done.