Teach Soap

I have been gearing up to the point of making CP soap for a bit now and finally have all of my ducks in a row ingredient wise. I found a recipe that at first sounded wonderful and I have all of the ingredients for it. But I ran across a post elsewhere that says you should not use as much castor oil as I was planning to. Can you guys tell me if these proportions are correct ? From the post I read this will turn out a too soft bar initially that will take at least 6 months to cure This is the soapcalc version of it because I ran it through there. It is for a small test batch.


Total oil weight 2
Water as percent of oil weight 38 %
Super Fat/Discount 5 %
Lye Concentration 27.19 %
Water : Lye Ratio 2.678:1

Sat : Unsat Ratio 44 : 56
Iodine 55
INS 159
Fragrance Ratio 1
Fragrance Weight 2 Oz
Ingredient Pounds Ounces Grams
Water 0.76 12.16 344.73
Lye - NaOH 0.284 4.541 128.736
# √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams
1 Castor Oil 30 0.6 9.6 272.155
2 Coconut Oil, 76 deg 30 0.6 9.6 272.155
3 Walmart GV Shortening 30 0.6 9.6 272.155
4 Sunflower Oil 8 0.16 2.56 72.575
5 Mowrah Butter 2 0.04 0.64 18.144
Totals 100 2 32 907.184
Soap Bar Quality Suggested Range Your Recipe
Hardness 29 - 54 42
Cleansing 12 - 22 22
Conditioning 44 - 69 54
Bubbly 14 - 46 49
Creamy 16 - 48 47
Iodine 41 - 70 55
INS 136 - 165 159

Lauric 15
Myristic 7
Palmitic 14
Stearic 6
Ricinoleic 27
Oleic 17
Linoleic 10
Linolenic 0
Additives Notes

I meant wrong of course. Just been up all night cipherin !

I recognize soapcalc recipe copypasta when I see it! For ease of reading:

Water 12.16 oz
Lye 4.541 oz
5% SF

Castor Oil 30% (9.6oz)
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 30% (9.6oz)
Walmart GV Shortening 30% (9.6oz)
Sunflower Oil 8% (2.56oz)
Mowrah Butter 2% (0.64oz)

That does seem like it's going to be a bit soft... I've used up to 14-15% castor and that was a bit squishy over time. XD It's perfectly usable soap, it just sorta dissolves too fast in water, and I was told by a tester that one of these soaps kinda became a soap-dish-shaped squishy puddle. (I would assume that was a non-draining soap dish... but still.)

I'm not entirely sure what oils are in the shortening -- I'd guess palm and/or soy. I'd add some olive oil in here to replace a lot of that castor oil; it should give you a harder soap but still be conditioning I think most of the folks here suggest no more than 5-10% castor.

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CP newbie who's turning into a soaping addict!

That is a lot of castor. I would probably use 5-10% and use olive oil for the difference. I would also do a 7% superfat because of the higher amount of coconut oil and the tallow in the recipe.

Great value shortening is a beef tallow & palm oil mix. I've used it with great success. 30% is a good amount for that.

I would change the recipe to:

GV shortening 30%
Olive oil 30%
Coconut 25%
Sunflower 8%
Castor 5%
Mowrah butter 2%
Superfat 7%

This should give you a fairly hard bar with lots of bubbly lather.
Good luck!

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

My 2 cents: I have used up to 20% castor, but the other oils were much harder in general, like palm kernel oil, for example.
GV shortening, at least at the Walmart near me - has 3 radically different formulas - make sure you are choosing the right one for the correct SAP values in soapcalc.
One more thing to consider - sunflower oil has a rather short shelf life - you want to avoid rancidity, so you might reconsider something else for that one.

Playing around on soapcalc can be addictive, can't it?

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

I've done up to 15% castor. It made for a very soft and sticky soap that had to be left in the mold. It was fine once cured though.

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

Thank yall for the help. I am officially addicted to soapcalc ! I will reformulate it using the recipe posted on here, but the walmart shortening I have is the partially hydrogenated soybean oil and the fully hydrogenated cottonseed oil . I have suttocide a for a preservative, should I still lay off the sunflower seed oil ??

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

Thank you Irena ! If you guys could see my desk it is full of notes I have taken, books full of pages marked. I have recalced again using the SAP for soy.

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

Oh and thank everyone else too ! I am ready to start making soap. I have been researching the topic for three months !

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

Yeah I was at first afraid of working with lye but after many hours of reading and researching I decided to jump into it ! I have a mind for research and details so I may have found my calling !

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