Teach Soap

Been forced to put down the soap for the past few weeks -- I'm having withdrawal! But now that some of my first batches are being tested by myself and some cheerful volunteers, I've got a question about texture

With one of my recipes, the finished bar, when first used, sticks to the skin a bit. I don't find that it leaves the skin sticky or anything, but it's hard to actually use the bar at first, it sticks so much! It doesn't glide over wet skin as one might expect soap to do. After a little persistent use, it seems fine, though, almost as if some layer had to be removed from it. Is there something in the recipe causing this? And/or can I counter it with something else? Or maybe the soap just needs to cure longer? It was at ~2 weeks when I used it (I'm impatient, and the water's at 30% ;D) but ~4 when other folks tested, and I still got a comment about the stick. Here's the recipe:

Coconut Oil 28%
Palm Oil 20%
Olive Oil 30% (half of this was infused with comfrey leaves for color)
Shea Butter 8%
Castor Oil 14%
1 tbsp honey PPO
approx. 1 gram of goat's milk powder per 1 oz of oils
SF: 6%

Looking at it, I suspect it may be the castor oil, but... but I need lather!

On a side note, I made an oatmeal soap with the same base (minus all the comfrey infusion, plus some ground oatmeal), and it doesn't stick at all -- but I've noticed that oatmeal makes for a very nice lathery soap, which may make a difference?


Possibly related question: what exactly IS slip? I see it mentioned with virtually every shaving soap and almost every comment about using clay, but I can't find what it actually means anywhere. My first thought was that it meant the slipperiness that soap can leave on your skin, but somewhere or other, I saw it used in such a way that it almost sounded like the opposite. Help?

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

I only made one soap with that much castor and it was way too soft. Castor can make soap sticky, so it's possible. In wet shaving, slip is what the razor does as it glides across the skin and the hair (beard).

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

I've noticed this issue with one or two of my soaps too. As in the soap sorta resists wet skin at first. Though once the soap gets some "momentum" with the water/lather, it's just fine. My recipes are similar to yours in terms of ingredients except I have never used that much castor oil. I think the highest I've used is 10% but most of my recipes have only 5%.

One soap I made with 10% cocoa butter seems to have a bit of stickiness too but not in a bad way ... once you lather it up it's amazing.

Hard to know exactly which ingredient or additive would be causing this but you've got me curious too!

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

WOW. I thought it was best to not go over 5% with castor.

Thanks all! Now that I'm looking I see castor usually rated for 5-10%. I actually don't find this particular soap base to be too soft once it's cured, and people seem to like it once it gets going, but "resistance" is a good word for it, it just doesn't glide over the skin like it should (at first). I've had other soaps bought from other sources act like that in the past but this particular batch was really noticeable. XD;

I'll try dropping to 10% next batch... I just hate plugging stuff into SoapCalc and watching that "Conditioning" number plummet ;(

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

I use castor up to 5%, but I also do a higher superfat (7%). Take the conditioning numbers with a grain of salt. Olive oil doesn't look good there either, but a lot of people love castille.

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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!

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

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

Love this thread!

Does higher SF "counter" higher cleansing (from the relatively high CO)? i.e. I want that gorgeous lather from the CO but not the drying effects. In my experience thus far even a cleansing number of 17 feels too high on my skin. i.e. the guys like that squeaky clean feeling but me, not so much.

All a matter of opinion I realize but I think I'm a lot like Jenova ... I can't HELP myself from tinkering right down to the single percentage points ...

Karri

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I soap therefore I am.

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

Thanks guys! I think I'll try adding a little sugar, I found that tip elsewhere as well and it seems simple enough :3 (Lather is apparently something that at least some of my testers want more of -- me, I'm not picky, I just like being clean and hopefully not overdry. XD; I'm one of those "but does it smell good?" people )

Re: numbers vs. testing, of course the ultimate solution is to try it -- but given limited time to soap with (and the 3+ week waiting time to test the results... sigh!), I like to imagine that I can calculate a good starting point on paper... (That, and I am a little compulsive about numbers, but that's a whole other thing. XD)

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

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I soap therefore I am.

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I soap therefore I am.

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