Teach Soap

I am new to CP soap making and am writing my own recipes. The recipe I made uses 20% palm kernel oil. 40% coconut oil, 5% castor oil, and a mix of other oils for the remainder. What can I do to prevent the bars from melting as quickly in the shower?

I am letting them sit for six weeks.

How long do they last in the shower?
How are they being stored in between uses?
Are you using full water when soaping?

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Genny

How much are you superfatting? What are the other oils you are using and what is the %? That's a lot of coconut oil. I normally don't go above 20% as I find anything over that drying.

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

The base oils in your formulas are going to impact bar hardness the most. Formulas high in CO and Lard make hard bars. This is a case where you can use the INS numbers on a lye calculator to play with getting good hardness values for your specific formula.

Additives that harden bars:
Beeswax - 1-2%
Sodium Lactate 1-3%
Stearic Acid 2-5%

I've tried and no longer use Sodium Lactate. I don't think it makes a harder bar. It does harden up soap faster, so it can be useful to aide unmolding, especially for single cavity or low volume molds. Some folks use plain old kitchen salt to harden the bar faster for unmolding (1/2 tsp PPO).

I'd like to try beeswax next, but I've been a little scared because of its high melting point (145 degrees F). I'm not sure how it's used for CP soaping. I wouldn't want to mix oils & lye at 145 degrees F, so I'm guessing you need to melt it separately and add at trace. I don't know. I don't have experience with beeswax in CP. Maybe someone else here has some experience.

Shea butter makes an incredibly hard bar and also gives a nice silky feeling to the soap. Like OO, it doesn't produce much foam or lather - I have some 100% shea soap that I made two years ago and it is much, much harder than castille the same age. Try 10% shea in your recipe.

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

I do not care for bees wax in my soaps, and if you add too much it actually makes a softer bar. You can add babassu oil, cocoa butter, palm oil, or rework your combinations, to make a hard bar. Depending on the additional oils, this should/could be a hard bar, so if it isn't, just switch something out. All that aside, I would lower the coconut to closer to 20% too.

Storage is something that matters with soap. If you are not allowing your soap to drain in between using, if it sits in water, it will not last as long.

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

Tammy

Thanks for all the info! I am superfatting at about 5%. The other oils in the bar I tested were 20% sesame, 15% olive, and 5%castor. It lasted about a 9 days in the shower, though it may not have drained properly and I may have used more than I needed on the washcloth. (Love my soap too much!)

On my next batch, I think I will drop the coconut to 30% and use shea at 10% for more hardness

Your high sesame % and your lack of another hard oil is at least part of what is giving you a soft bar and cutting your time in the shower. I would cut down the sesame oil and add in some more olive oil, some palm, palm kernel, cocoa butter, shea butter, babassu oil, or some combination thereof. While I never use over 20% coconut personally , using 25% or less is best for controlling the drying effects, except when doing a salt bar or upping the super fat to counter the drying effects.
Under most conditions a cp soap will last longer, so watch the drainage issue and look at your formula.

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

Tammy

Sesame oil is considered a soft oil. It also has a short shelf life and is more prone to DOS. I would use another oil. I agree with Lavender lady; add some more olive oil, some palm, palm kernel, cocoa butter, shea butter or babasu oil.

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

I will definitely make changes. I used sesame oil in my very first attempts because it sounded interesting. I am happy to substitute more olive oil in its place.

And while shea butter is more expensive than coconut oil, it sounds like decreasing coconut to 30% and adding 10% shea will keep the bar hard and add conditioning.