Teach Soap

Hi everyone,

With only 4 batches under my belt I'm still very much a newbie to soaping & this is my first attempt at creating my own recipe. I'm hoping some of you may be able to review my recipe & let me know if it will work & maybe make a suggestion or two to improve it.
It's the middle of summer here in New Zealand & my partner & I are farming. The NZ sun is VERY harsh, you can be sunburnt in minutes if you don't take care & apply copious quantities of sunscreen. We find our skin suffers with constant exposure to the elements so we thought we might try & make a soap with good conditioning properties.

This is the recipe, I would love your thoughts........

(All measurements are in grams & I will be using 100% Goats Milk & no water)
Olive Oil (65%) 650gms
Coconut Oil (20%) 200gms
Shea Butter (10%) 100gms
Evening Primrose Oil (5%) 50gms
Goats Milk (fresh frozen) 380gms
Lye 133gms

Soap Calc properties:
Hardness: 31
Cleansing 13
Conditioning 65
Bubbly 13
Creamy 18
Iodine 71
INS 133

Lauric 10
Myristic 4
Palmitic 11
Stearic 7
Ricinoleic 0
Oleic 51
Linoleic 13
Linolenic 1

Thank you.

Edited to add........ My previous batches have been a 5% superfat but I've made this one 8%, good idea or not??

The recipe you have (according to the numbers) looks like it would be conditioning but not very cleansing or have much lather. Increasing your superfat from 5% to 8% is going to give you even less lather. I'd stick to 5% superfat. Plus the soap will be a little soft and may be prone to rancidity because of the climate.

Are these the only oils you have to work with? Some palm oil and palm kernel oils would be a good addition to this recipe instead of the primrose oil. I don't know if you can get these oils / fats but they would improve your recipe. Based on the availability of your oils / fats you could tailor your soap to be very moisturizing. Soapbuddy is a moderator here and can probably help you fine tune your current recipe as she's very knowledgeable.

Based on your description of the harsh sun exposure in NZ, you should be careful regarding the fragrance/essential oils you use to scent your soaps. For example: Bergamot is a photosynthesizer and would accelerate sun exposure/burn. So that would be a fragrance to avoid. Others here probably know more about this than I do.

Looks like your off to a good start though. Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for your input SuperSoaper.

We have access to a very good range of oils here. In my cupboard at the moment I have:
Castor
Palm (not Palm Kernel)
Olive
Flax Seed
Neem (for my dog soap)
Canola
Coconut
Shea Butter
Cocoa Butter.

I didn't plan to use any colour or fragrance with this batch, although would be open to suggestions.

Thanks again SuperSoaper.

I would suggest adding castor to your recipe and a little bit of salt to your lye water for a harder bar. Or use sodium lactate if you are able to get it.

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

Thanks soapbuddy. Would 5% Castor be ok? Should I cut back one of the oils to include the Castor or should I add it over & above? With regards to the salt, would normal (iodised) table salt be ok, and would a couple of teaspoons be about the right amount for 1000gms of oil?

Thanks again.

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