Teach Soap

I am a new soapmaking so I don't have nearly enough experience to make up my own soap recipes. Nor am I even confident enough to begin tampering with the proportions of my basic recipe. As a beginner, I am also limited on supplies as it has taken a lot of money to gather all the supplies and equipment to get started with soap making.

Anyway, I have made about 4 batches of soap so far in my 1lb wooden mold and this is the only recipe I've used:

My Basic Recipe (1lb)
7.9 oz distilled water
3.4 oz lye
8oz coconut oil
8 oz palm oil
8 oz Olive oil
Fragrance
Color

I would like to make some soap for my 83 year old father but I need something that is moisturizing as he complains of dry skin. Can anyone give me some ideas on how I can change the above proportions so that the resulting soap is more moisturizing and less drying? Do I need to add an additional ingredient or do I just need to change the proportions of the above recipe?

I can buy an additional ingredient if needed but I want to stay away from pricey or exotic ingredients due to a tight budget.

Thanks so much for your help.

Coconut oil can be drying to some people. I would reduce your coconut to no more than 25%, that will help. My first, basic recipe that my grandma showed me was 50% lard, 25% palm and 25% coconut. I don't use lard anymore, though it does make a very nice soap, I've swapped out for Olive oil instead.
Remember to run the recipe through a calc. if you're reducing or increasing oils.
Also, even if the soap isn't drying, dry skin need moisturizer of some sort. I live in Colorado and go through gallons of lotion this time of year, especially since we haven't had any snow yet

Best of luck!

Brandy

I'm curious - if lard makes good soap, why don't you use that anymore? Is it just because you don't want to use anything from animals?

When you say reduce the coconut to no more that 25%, I'm not sure how to change up my recipe to reflect that. I am embarrassed to say that I am terrible (really terrible) at math - so much so that I originally wondered if I would even be able to learn to make soap.

I found my basic recipe on the Bramble Berry YouTube video tutorial for making cold process soap and the amounts were already worked out for me. All I had to do was weigh the ingredients to the exact amount called for in the Bramble Berry recipe.

So what would my new measurement be for coconut oil? And would I increase the olive oil or the palm oil to make up for less coconut oil? Probably the olive oil, right?

Thank you!

Yep, it's an animal thing, that's why I don't use it anymore. My daughter is vegetarian, so I find it easiest to just keep all animal products out of the house.

Your new recipe would look like this:
12 oz. Olive oil
6 oz. Coconut
6 oz. Palm

The percent thing is actually pretty easy, take the total amount of oils you are using; 24 oz in your current recipe, divide by 2 and you get your 50% (olive oil) 12 oz. Then you have 12 oz remaining, take that and divide by 2, you get 6 oz of coconut (25%) and 6 of palm (25%) See how easy? I'm not great at math either, don't be afraid to use a calculator.

Best of luck!

Brandy

PS- I just ran the recipe I gave you through the BB lye calc. and at 5% superfat, your water and lye stay the same. So, all you have to do is up the olive and down the coconut and palm.

Brandy

I made a soap I called 'Baby bath'. Initally did it for my grandson who has sensitive skin and multiple allergies. My mom used it to wash her plant burns with (wild parsnip) and loved it. I will be making this again soon as my dtr just depleted the supply.

This is about 3 pounds of soap;

Olive oil 29oz (90%)
Cocoa butter 1oz (3%)
Castor oil 1.9oz (6%)
Beeswax 0.3oz (1%)
distilled water 12oz
Lye 4oz

There is no fragrance or color added. You could leave out the beeswax, I did it to give me a slighly harder bar... if you do I would add the 1% to the cocoa butter and run it thru the soap calc.
These amounts will give you a superfat of 5%.

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

I would up the superfat to 7%.

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

Brandy:
Thanks so much for your recipe. So you're saying my new recipe would look like this?

My New, Moisturizing Recipe (1lb)
7.9 oz distilled water
3.4 oz lye
12 oz. Olive oil
6 oz. Coconut
6 oz. Palm

Susie:
Thank you for your recipe too. I do have some Castor oil already but no cocoa butter or beeswax. Can I find the right kind of cocoa butter at Walmart or a grocery store? What is the 'right kind' of cocoa butter to use? I would probably try your recipe without the beeswax (for now, anyway).

Soap Buddy:
What exactly does it mean to up the superfat to 7%? Where you referring to Brandy's recipe? Does that change My New, Moisturizing Recipe measurements above?

I read about superfatting in Anne Watson's soap book but I guess I need to go back and read that part of the book again as there is so much to learn about making soap and I don't have as good a memory as I once had. I will also go look at the Lye Calculator and see if I can figure out what that's all about. A Lye Calculator sounds intimidating to me. . . even the name scares me and brings back terrible memories of high school math tests! Thank God for this forum and for all you helpful people.

Linda

Susie:

I forgot to ask you . . . if your recipe makes 3lbs of soap and my mold only holds 1lb, can I just divide every one of the ingredients on your list by 3?

Yep, that's what the new recipe would look like. If you superfat it to 7%, your water would be 7.92 oz and your lye would be 3.29 oz.
If you go to http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx
Then, all you have to do is put in how many ounces of each oil you are using, then scroll to the bottom and determine your superfat (I use 5%) and click "calculate" it will then tell you exactly how much water and lye you need, super easy. It will also tell you your percentages of oils you are using. So, you can just play around with it, lots of fun actually

Have fun with this, soap is fun!

Brandy

Cool! Thank you so much.

Hey, can soap be made with only olive oil, water and lye? If so, how does that kind of soap turn out? What are the pros and cons? I only ask because it seems like it would be cheaper to make than those that call for palm and coconut oil (which I have to get by mail order).

I keep forgetting to ask this question:

Is the purpose of superfatting to make soap more moisturizing? Wouldn't most people want their soap to be superfatted? If I am going to superfat a soap, should any of the ingredients be held off and added at trace? Or all they all added together at the same time?

Thanks!

Yes, you can do 100% olive oil soap, it's typically called Castile, from the region in Spain in which it originated. It takes longer to cure, has little to no bubbles, but it very mild. Oh, and it takes forever to trace. Stick blender is required for this one
It takes at least 8 weeks to cure, though most of us that make Castile soap let it cure for 6 months. It's still a bit slimy after cure, but again, it's very mild.

Some people hold oils back and add them in at trace, and some just add all the oils at once. I add them all at once. Superfat and lye discount mean the exact same thing. So, if you superfat at 5%, that means there is enough lye to "eat up" 95% of your oils and 5% will remain. Though too much superfat is just going to leave you with an oily mess, and too little could leave you with lye heavy soap. It's really a trial and error sort of thing, finding the right amount for you.


Brandy

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The lye at trace is still very active, so add all your ingredients up front. The lye will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that any particluar oil or butter will end up as your superfat. The exception is if you add the oil or butter after the cook.

All soaps need to be superfatted. It's also called a lye discount. If you don't, you could end up with lye heavy soap.

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