Teach Soap

I am attempting a project for a friend who is a die hard vegetarian, shes asked me to make a 100% all vegetable bar for her, but she wants a pretty scent in it. I have a recipe I came up with but what I am concerned with is this, I am worried it will be too soft and never harden up. It is LOADED with veggy oils. Olive, Soy, Castor, Sesame. I am not using coconut as she is highly allergic to it. The lye calc on Soapcalc gave me the following for a recipe and I have a question.
olive oil 12 oz
soy 16 oz
castor 2 oz
sesame 4 oz
water 12.92 oz
lye 4.368

my question is this, can I hold back 2 oz of water from the H2o and slip in 2 tsp of salt, add at trace and harden this bar up, or should I do the full 12 oz of water and do an additional 2 oz of water for the salt?
Does anyone have an alternate to salt? Sugar? I am still learning all this but I like being challenged. This one is stumping me.
Thank you all in advance for all the trouble this is going to cause and I love all the answers I get. I learn so much.

I can't help you with your question....and I'm new to this, so take my advice with a grain of salt (PUN!)....But...I'd up your castor and down your sesame (and maybe soy?). Sesame seed oil has a very strong nutty/foody/oil smell...unless of course you have a *reason* for adding it. Good luck! Yay for veggie friends

Could you use palm kernel oil and/or babassu instead of coconut?

(I've never used salt to harden my bars, so I won't be any help there.)

Anita

Anita, if I had it I would but limited with what I have right now. I just started my business up and I am still ordering things. I have a large lye shipment coming in soon thank goodness. Palm oil etc is next on the list for the credit card. I know I saw a video somewhere on youtube about using salt to harden a bar up. I am holding off on making this till I have enough information to do it correctly. As well as it is my one year anniversary with my BF and don't want to get into soaping and forget our dinner plans. I get so wrapped up in crafting I forget everything at times. I don't think this would be a good time to forget. LOL

I would avoid using so much soy if you want a hard bar. I made a batch with just 15% soy with 3% castor, 15% Palm, 20% coconut and the rest Olive. It's the softest soap I've made yet after a full cure, and where the bottom edge of the bar is sitting on the wooden shelf I'm getting Dreaded Orange Spots (DOS). I have five gallon jug of soy oil and I'm not using it in ANYTHING because it has given me nothing but trouble. Other people like it and use it, but having it as the oil you are using the most of seems like a bad idea if you want a hard bar.

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Just call me "Apo"

OK minds made up since its just for one person I will drop the soy out completely.. Thanks Apo.. The insanity a soaper will go through for a friend. Thankfully shes not demanding this be done BEFORE the holidays or anything like that, and she let me pick the scent. IF the bar comes out ok I will think about making it in a bigger batch and putting it into my stock. And here I thought demanding Clients made me crazy, I stand corrected FRIENDS make me crazier.

The only soap I ever made with salt was a HP castile and it came out so brittle I had to re-batch, then again that makes it one of three HP castiles I've had to rebatch for that same reason, so it may not be the salt to blame.

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Just call me "Apo"

Sesame is a soft oil with a short shelf life. I would either up your olive oil or add some mango, shea or cocoa butter.

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

Could you use Crisco in your recipe (either the old one or the new one with palm oil)?
I use salt in all my soap at 1 tsp per pound of oils added to my lye water as soon as the lye is dssolved. The hot lye solution helps the salt dissolve quickly.

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

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

Thank you guys so much for all the great ideas and suggestions! Yesterday, very frustrated with it all, I went out to Smart and Final ( I am located in Southern California and they are all over the place here) to see if I could find some cute containers for her soap, and WOW did I come across a SUPER find. 100% pure PALM OIL! A 50 lb box for $36.00. I about had a heart attack right there in the middle of the store! So I am picking up some of this MUCH needed oil as I don't have any nor have I ever gotten to even make a batch of soap with it. I am so excited. I wanted to share my super find with everyone. Now if I can luck out and find a 100% coconut oil box that's 50 lbs, that is local and I won't have to pay shipping on, I would be in soapers heaven!

Well after a lengthy conversation with my friend I found out shes only allergic to coconut if she EATS it! So after hollering at her I worked up a pretty nice little recipe.
18 oz Olive oil
8 ox coconut oil
5 oz castor oil
1 oz sweet almond oil
4.4 oz Lye
12.16 H2O
5% superfatting
1.44 oz of FO

any thoughs?

The only thing I would change is the amount of castor, which works out to a bit more than 15% of your recipe. I would drop it to 5% (1.6 oz) and add the difference to your olive oil. If I were making it, I would do a 7% superfat, because that's what my skin likes best.

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