Teach Soap

Hi!
A friend of mine is a beekeeper and gave me some of her honey. I'd like to thank her with a soap made from it, so I'm going to expertiment with a small batch of the basic recipe I'm using to practice, adding some honey in it to see what I get.
Do you think that a 3% of the total recipe (water/lye included) would be ok?
Should I use my usual 5% superfatting?
And... should I expect some overheating issue due to the sugar content?

I believe the recommended usage is 1 Tablespoon per pound of oils but you may need to experiment. Be aware that honey will increase your soap temperature so insulating your batch may cause overheating. All that said, honey is very nice in soap!

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Linda

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

Thanks!
I'll use chestnut honey... I guess it will turn the soap brown, right? If so, what about adding a little cinnamon EO to match the warm tone of the soap?
To avoid overheating, should I leave it in the mold uncovered or is it better to put it in the fridge for some time?

I've never seen chestnut honey so I don't know how dark it is. It may change the color of your soap and it may not. You probably won't smell the honey in the finished soap so you can scent it with whatever you like. Spice EOs like cinnamon can cause the soap to heat up so if you use that with the honey you'll probably need to put it in the fridge.

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

3% honey could easily make the soap overheat. I would go with 1 TBS per lb. of soap. Cinnamon can be irritating and should be used at small amounts.

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

A thick oil film on the surface of the batch is not a good sign, right?

This was my recipe:

Castor 20%, 80 gr
Coconut fractionated 20%, 80 gr
Olive 30%, 120 gr
Palm 30%, 120 gr
Water, 152 gr
Lye, 56 gr
7% superfatting
1 TBS of chestnut honey
6 gr of cinnamon EO

I soaped at circa 45 C°, poured the honey at light trace, stirred with spoon for a couple of minutes, then added the EO (and got the most lovely orange hue); stirred a little more and poured the soap into the mold. Covered with saran wrap and put into the fridge. It's been sitting there for an hour now: I snuck a peak at it and all I see it's a thick layer of oil floating on a spongy base... I'd say a 1 cm deep oil layer. I don't know what to expect right now. Any foresight?

I guess you've applied too much castor oil. Regardless of the price, too much castor oil has a negative impact on the foam.
Well, I've never applied that much castor oil. Are there others here who apply more than 10% castor oil?
Oil on the surface would disappear in most of the cases if your calculation is correct.
As Irena mentions, cinnamon EO (if it is from leaves) is very sensitizing and should only be applied therapeutically and in very small dosages, if you're applying cinnamon bark oil it's not that bad as leaves oil but still you should be careful.
Why don't you try a milk& honey fragrance?

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Genius is 1 % inspiration and 99 % perspiration

Aaaargh, I knew I had to be cautious, yet I thought that 6 gr for 500 gr of soap was safe enough I wanted a warm, comforting note that was all from natural origin... but if the amount I used it's still too sensitizing, in the future I'll definitely go for a fragrance oil like the one you suggested and drop the EO cause.

I'd never guessed it was the castor oil that messed up the batch! In the few batches I made before this it never gave me problems (but the other times I used a lower superfat). Lesson learned! Thank you

I've used castor at 15% in a shampoo bar, but for all the rest of my soap it's at 5%.
If the base is spongy it may have overheated or possibly you had a false trace and it separated; but it sounds like overheating.

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

Otion recipe for
Three Pound Batch Shampoo Bar Recipe:
10 oz Coconut oil
10 oz Palm oil
8 oz Castor oil
8 oz Olive oil
12 oz Distilled Water

Perhaps your soap fell out of trace. Did you pour it at light trace? Was it emulsified well before you poured?

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

hahaha I almost made a shampoo then!

When I poured the soap into the mold the trace was well marked and it seemed emulsified. Nothing seemed to be acting strange to me, until I looked in the fridge.

This is how the soap looks like today: there's a crater filled with heavy grease. I scraped the grease away and unmolded the soap to perform a sort of autopsy. It leaks brown liquid from the sides and the base seems sugar coated. I think I should bid it farewell.

I'll try again with:
Castor 10%
Coconut 20%
Olive 35%
Palm 35%
5% superfat

From what I get from your answers, my problem was due both to the 20% castor oil and the overheating, but the two were not related, right?

They were probably not related...just coincidence.

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

Hi again
I'm trying again, with less castor oil.
What if I use a little cinnamon powder as a substitute for cinnamon oe? Would it mantain some of its spicy scent? If it's so, should I dissolve it the water or add it at trace?

You won't smell it in the finished soap.

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

I'm hopeless!