Teach Soap

Finally going to give castile/bastile soap a try! Anyway, I want to add a little something for bubbles and was going to put 5% castor oil. IS this enough to make a difference? I don't want much else for oils to keep it as gentle as possible without having the slim feeling! How long does it really take to cure? 4-6mths is what I have read!

PS-soapcal.com has not much good in the way of numbers about this soap, and that must be why we shouldn't go entirely by those numbers:)

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www.fostersfields.ca
https://www.facebook.com/FostersFields

95% olive oil with 5% castor should give you enough bubbles.

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

Perhaps 7% is better???

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www.fostersfields.ca
https://www.facebook.com/FostersFields

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

I do 5-6 % of castor and then just a small about of a butter, usually cocoa as I do not want shea on infants skin. It is the long cure- 6 months is absolute- that helps.

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

Just curious - why not shea on baby skin?
I have a lot of customers who buy my shea cream for the tiny ones and they love it...

Shea butter can be sensitizing to babies. Shea butter makes me itch, so I use mango butter instead.

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

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

Why such a long cure time? I seem to remember making castile in the past without a 6 month cure. I'm worried now because I just did a CPOP batch of about 75% olive oil soap.

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Logansama aka Belinda
Nor Cal

I made a loaf of 26% castor oil on 2/23, which turned out great as I'm already using it and giving it away. I used a good bit of salt to harden it up. It was mostly beginner's luck as was my first salt bar. I won't use that much castor again now that I know the difference between a saturated, unsaturated, & monounsaturated fat like castor. I've never heard or read that before anywhere about castor needing 6 months to cure.

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

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

Do you put any preservative in it, particularly in light of such a long cure? How do you know how much (preservative) to use, if so? I'm using the same preservative as Dr Bronners since dr Bronners is organic and this tocopherol doesn't look natural, but it must be. I just put a few drops per loaf w/ the fats before mixing in the lye. When using supposedly hempseed oil i use a couple more drops than normal. Is that sounding about right to you guys?

You don't need a preservative in solid soap, only in liquid. I have some 3 year old castille that is still fine, no signs of DOS.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Tocopherol is vitamin E. That's not a preservative, but an anti-oxidant only.

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