Teach Soap

Hello everyone. I have a question about some of my soaps. I make a variety of soaps and everyone in my family says that they love them and my husband loves them. However, occasionly after washing my hands with some of my soaps my hands get dry and flaky looking. I haven't had this problem anywhere else...just my hands. I can attest to the fact that my husband is not having any problems with the soaps.(his hands are smoother).
Anyways, I'm thinking that I may be reacting to the coconut oil but I have no idea really. I never use more than 30% coconut oil in my soaps, so do you guys think that could be the problem. I have read that some people find coconut oil drying. I do have really sensitive skin.
The oils that I use in my two most common batches are...olive oil, palm oil, shea butter, coconut oil. I superfat at 7-8% on every batch

The other day I made my first batch that was entirely my own recipe, which was a bit of a stab in the dark, but I made it with less coconut oil, some shea butter and sweet almond oil, palm oil, and olive oil. It has to dry some more before I can try it.. I dont know if my dry skin is related to the coconut oil or not....any thoughts?? I really appreciate your input. Thank you.

You know, when I first started using shea it made my hands peel....kinda like I had dead skin buildup or something...ew! But not dry/itchy...just a lil peely.

How much did you superfat?

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

thanks for the replies thusfar ....Vinca...that's exactly how my hands look....like they are peeling...they really dont feel that dry ..they just look bad.

Soapbuddy..I always superfat at either 7 or 8 percent..

I would try making a small batch without coconut or shea. It's possible you might have allergies from one of these.

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

thank you soapbuddy....I'm very new to designing my own recipes. I've only made one so far and it still had coconut and shea...Could you help give me some ideas as to what may be good replacements for these oils? I'm a bit confused about making recipes b/c I think the coconut is supposed to make the bar lather...any other suggestions? I'm thinking I could maybe try cocoa butter instead of the shea and run it through soap calc
thank you so much. I hope I'm not asking you too many questions..you've already been such a great help on this forum.

Try palm kernel or babasu instead of the coconut. Cocoa butter or mango butter might work too.
If you change your recipe, don't forget to use a lye calc, as these have different SAP values.

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

I don't know if babasu is a sustainable resource. It's an oil I don't normally use.
Almond oil is a soft oil. I would go with Babasu, mango or cocoa butter, palm oil and olive.
If you have any castor oil, it would help with the bubbleage factor. You can usually find a small amount in your local pharmacy.

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

Beeswax is your best friend.

hi cubbles does beeswax help out with dry skin? thank you

Beeswax helps with hardening your bars a little. If coconut and shea are your culprits I'd try subbing these two with other oils and add an eety bit of beeswax. I've been using it at about 2% when I use lots of soft oils. Don't forget to include this in your lye calculator!

Lard and Tallow can also help with making your bars a little harder. Haven't tried Tallow yet, but Lard has worked for me. My first lard recipe had 50% lard, 20% coconut, 10% olive and 20% canola. Super creamy lather, the oatmeal i added to it makes for a really nice exfoliating bar.

No flaky skin after using this bar!

thanks for the information cubbles. I would like to try some beeswax. I'm going to be experimenting with some different things here soon I guess. I'm a veggie oil only soaper though. I have heard good things about lard but its just not my thing I guess. I just bought some other things to try though and will definetely be buying beeswax too.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it cubbles and soapbuddy.