Teach Soap

Ok so due to my secluded location and having to import pretty much everything I would need for soap making I have decided to try my first batch of CP soap out of Crisco. I was poking around on the Soap Calc and then my brain got confused.

Hardness (I assume physical hardness of the bar, making it long lasting?)
Cleansing (Obvious)
Condition (Also obvious)
Bubbly (Yup, obvious)
Creamy (Obvious)
Iodine (Lower = harder bar...then why is there a "Hardness" at the top?)
INS (Looks like an overall average, again mainly hardness??)

Guess I'm just wondering why 2 of the numbers are both hardness indicators, and one is "primarily hardness" Seems redundant.


Anyways time for the real question. Has anyone tried a 100% crisco soap? I'm tempted to do 95/5 crisco/castor just to get some more bubbles. I figure I should do a test batch with what I have available before I order such "exotic" oils (to my location at least ) like Coconut and palm oil.

I haven't made one with 100% Crisco, but have made a batch with 50% Crisco, 25% Coconut oil, 20% Olive oil and 5% Castor oil that came out really nice.

Alicia Grosso's "Everything Soapmaking Book" has directions for a very small 6 ounce batch where you use 3.75 ounces of solid vegetable shortening, 1.5 oz. water and .5 oz of lye. Maybe something like that would be good to start?

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

With a batch that small, you would want to go to soap calc and convert to grams for the measurement. It would be more accurate.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Is there a Walmart in your area, if so they sell small containers of Luann coconut oil. I recommend using coconut oil for at least 25 % of your ingredients.

I have use 50 % also but never 100 % can't hurt to try, I get my coconut oil at Walmart but never use more than 20% but that's just me.

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Four Seasons Fine Handcrafted Soaps
& Specialties, Inc.
Laugh, Love, Live!

Island in The Bahamas, no Publix/Kroger/Piggly Wiggly/Wal-Mart nothing. Which is why I want to try something I have access to and if it turns out ok I can order the better oils like coconut. I just want to get a feel for it really.

Here's what I get from Soap Calc:

Crisco, new w/palm 680.388 grams (1.5 pounds, 100% of the oils in case you want to plug it into the calc. also 7% superfat)
FO 1.5 Oz. (1oz per pounds)

Water: 258.547 grams
Lye 87.075 grams


End result:

Hardness 25
Cleansing 0
Conditioning 74
Bubbly 0
Creamy 25
Iodine 111
INS 82


Thoughts on the results?

Soapcalc isn't always the best on determining the hardness of a bar, but otherwise it's pretty good.
Can you find castor oil anywhere - a pharmacy maybe? If so, you can do 5-10% castor to get some bubbles in your lather.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I was thinking about 5% Castor actually. Need to see if it's available.

The INS, hardness and iodine all combine to look to make this an extremely soft batch. As in very, very soft. While I have seen many bars come out fine that are low in one or the other, I have not seen any that are low in all three. So if I were experimenting, I would make this a salt bar I think. Just a thought, good luck with it though!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Lucky you living in paradise! Why is there no coconut oil around in the bahamas? Do you have a cooking store? Where do the resturants get there supplies from? Maybe one uses coconut oil to cook with and would sell you some? If you have no resturants then you really are secluded. Where do you buy your food stuffs... any chance they may have something that just has a different lable? Does anyone raise cattle or pigs? You could try rendering the fat yourself. Just a few ideas.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

You can prevent DOS by adding several drops of Vit E in with your oils before adding the lye. I make a lot of soaps with Crisco or Store brand Veg. shortening as part of my ingredients and have never had trouble with DOS. I always add Vit E to all of my soaps. If you are not a vegetarian, lard makes a good soap also.