Teach Soap

I read some blogs regarding coconut oil. They said that coconut oil can cause dry skin if it is more that 30% of your base oil... it this true guys?...

hello guys, any comment about this.. i dont know if it is really true.. i love to make higher percentage of coconut oil in my batch because of its excellent cleaning properties... but im a bit worried when saw and read a blog saying that if it is more than 30 percent, it causes skin dryness.

I'm actually one of those people who can't use a lot of coconut oil in my CP, it makes me itch horribly. I use a combination of palm kernel flakes and babassu oil and keep the percentage around 20%.

@Chris: Thank you chris. but if i dont have palm kernel and babassu oil, can i substitute them with a mere palm oil, olive, castor.. and lard?

I can't go over 20% of coconut in my total recipe. That makes it drying for me. You can use palm oil, olive, castor or lard.

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

I shouldn't answer this since I'm way too new at soap making but I believe it depends on the characterisitics of the oil. If you google soapmaking oil properties or something similar you can find a ton info on pretty much any oils and they say around what % to use, of course always put your combo in the soap calc the one the glas provided on the site here http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp will tell you the properties of the individual oil and also the whole recipe. All the oils you said would be great addition I think. You can use your Coconut at 30% as well as palm but look at the spreadsheet and determine the rest out as you want. See what is most important do you want a hard bar, bubbles etc. Look at the numbers on side to see where they fall. Just make sure certain oils in certain ranges its something about the aount of staurated fat and other properties I think Palm Oil, Coconut oil, castor, avocado, and Hemp seed are recommended to be 20-30% of recipe then sunflower, safflower, hazelnut, cottonseed, calendula,kukui nut and others like taht are 10-20%. Lard can be 70% Olive Oil up to 100%, Shortening 50% but these are just numbers I pulled off a few blogs and they just give me a ballpark idea of what would work. That soap calc is a dream and I just look at the oils I have making sure I have few base oils I like to call them the ones that will put constistency in the bar then look at the properties on it till I see what I want. But again I'm really new. I've only made 5 batches of soap and though each made a good bar none are pretty. I just bought some fragrances and micas to spice it up a bit Yeah=) and BB does rock. But I do it for the house and family and as a hobby not for profit maye if my soaps ever get really pretty like some you gals and I put more time into it=)

At the other extreme, you can make a 100% coconut oil soap with a 20% superfat.

If you are making the soap for your personal use, try several different percentages until you find the one you like best. Your skin may be able to tolerate a higher percentage with no problem. I try to keep mine at no more than 25% but I do have a nice recipe that is 30% but has a lot of olive oil.

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

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

Tammy

Im new too on this activity. In fact so far I made about 6 batches yet but in a smaller size. Just to do a trial and error exercise. But for those batches i used about 60 to 80% coconut oil because i only used 2 oils as my base (e.g., coconut and palm) :-/. I was not able to read yet those info, so basically I dont have an idea yet the effect of so much coconut oil in your batch.

And now my soap is already cured and ready to use, so i tried it. And i found out that it is really true, it can. though i felt smooth in my hand all day round but my skin is really dry. THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SHARED IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS, ITS REALLY HELPING me A LOT.

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

Have you considered adding in olive oil? It works great with coconut oil to create a nice bar and you can buy it just about anywhere. I'd play around with SoapCalc or another lye calculator too and that will help you see how different oils and percentages will impact the cleansing / conditioning properties of your soap (roughly).

If you can get your hands on The Everything SoapMaking Book (Alicia Grosso) she has a whole bunch of super simple recipes in there for all the basic oils. Then, once you get a feel for the recipes you like, you can start tweaking and adding goodies (butters/other additives/etc).

Hope this helps!
Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

Oh I didn't realize that olive oil was harder to come by where you were. Hmm ... that does present a challenge!

Maybe you can tell us what oils and butters are the most accessible to you and then we can help you brainstorm

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

There is no banana EO or pineapple EO. As far as vanilla, there is a vanilla absolute.

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