Teach Soap

Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking for a while and I'm a total newbie when it comes to Cold Process soap. I attended a course before on the process so I know the general steps to CP soap, I just don't know how to evaluate recipes. I know it's an extremely complicated process that I've been reading up on and slowly learning it up at millersoap.com

Anyway my best friend birthday is coming up and I would love to make some coconut vanilla soap for her but I don't know of any tried and tested recipes. Since it's her birthday I really want to make this CP soap for her. My bestie is also very sensitive to Fragrance Oils so I wanna avoid any coconut fragrance oils. She however is not allergic to the vanilla fragrance oil I use in my MP soaps so vanilla fragrance oil is ok in her book. I'm thinking given these restrictions, Coconut Milk with Vanilla FO is the best bet.

I found this recipe from the internet but I honestly don't know how to evaluate if it's a recipe that will turn out right? Given that her birthday is in end May, I don't really have time to try another recipe if this thing turns out wrong after 30 days of curing! Eek..... :S Hence I figured it would be better to be safe than sorry and ask the kind folks on this forum.

"Two pound batch:

19 oz. olive oil
10 oz. Cricso
3 oz. castor oil
4 oz. lye (7% discount)
2 tsp. sea salt dissolved in water before adding lye (a must for this recipe)
2 tablespoons of your FO or EO at trace

7 oz. water with lye, 5 oz. coconut milk at trace

This will trace quickly because of the smaller amount of water with the lye. Add coconut milk and eo or fo at trace. This makes a cream color bar, not tan at all. Makes a nice hard bar with the salt, but wow what a creamy, lathery soap. Enjoy…"

Taken from here: http://www.northcountrymercantile.com/s ... ap-recipe/

How long do you also think the soap needs before I can unmold? 24-48 hours? Also is 30 days long enough to cure it?
Another question, if I wanna make 1 pound of soap can I just half the recipe or do I need to recalculate everything with that lye
calculator thingy?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm a total noob in CP soap! And thank you for reading all this and helping me out.

Hi masurin!
I ran the recipe through soapcalc.net and it looks like it will be a fairly soft bar without much lather - that's why they are using salt in it.

As a rule, the higher the olive oil content the longer the bars take to set up before you can unmold. 2-3 days should be ok. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think high olive oil bars also take longer to cure (at least mine do!)

A 100% olive oil bar made with coconut milk would probably be wonderful for her, but they take 4-6 months before they reach their best. You can use them in 4 weeks, but they are no where near as nice as if you wait.

Any time you make changes to a recipe, you need to run it through soapcalc or other lye calculator. Also you need to run it through based on which Crisco you are using - the new formulation with palm oil or the old one without it. It makes a difference to your recipe.

If you want to PM me, I have a really nice olive & coconut oil recipe that I've used with coconut milk and it feels wonderful!

Linda

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

I would change the 7 ozs. of water to 8ozs. This will make sure that all your lye will dissolve. Than add 4 ozs. of coconut milk. Make sure that the coconut milk has no guar gum in it, as this can make your soap seize. As far as the fragrance, I would go with 0.5 oz. for the whole batch. This equates out to 0.25 per lb. of soap. Tablespoons are not very accurate.

If you want to make a 1 lb. batch, recalcuate your recipe and convert it to grams. It will be more accurate this way.

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

Thanks for the advice Soapbuddy! I def want the lye to mix properly so am gonna increase the water.

Awww thx ljm for all your help! And I'm def gonna PM you. 4-6 months is way too long a wait! I don't really care if it's olive oil or castor oil or whatever oil as long as it ends up as a decently nice soap with a coconut flavour.

Normal cure time for soap is 4-6 weeks. If you are expecting for the coconut milk to give you a fragranced bar, it won't. I have yet to find a good coconut fragrance that doesn't morph in CP soap. Don't use flavor oil as that's not made for soap.

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

I would add that if you have never made any cp soap before, I would suggest making a few batches before I used milk in one, as milk can be a tad tricky. But that is just me. Good luck whatever you do and when ever you do it!

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

Tammy

I would like a good recipe for coconut milk cp too. I tried one and ended up with a hard,crumbly ,lye heavy soap that I can't even figure what all went wrong to make it sooo bad!! I subtracted from the water and added the balance of liquid( coconut milk) at trace.. any help as to what happened would be greatly appreciated..MY FIRST BOTCHED BATCH EVER !!

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