Teach Soap

Last post for tonight lol!

I am working on a recipe for a skin nourishing bar. There is no shortage of fantastic but expensive oils to choose from.....how does one choose? Is there a cutoff for how many different oils one should add to soap?

For example, I want to use the following for their nourishing properties but don't want to add too many oils that I don't get the specific properties from each...if that is possible.

Olive
Coconut
Grape seed
Soy
Avocado
Camelina
Vegetable Glycerine ( where can a find a lye calculator that includes this?)
Tamanu
Sweet Almond Oil

I have learned over the past few months that choice of oils definitely makes a big difference in my bars. However, I have also noticed that it's 55-60% choice of oils and 40-45% length of cure time. I tried a bar with a very mediocre recipe that had cured for 5 months and it was amazingly moisturizing. I have found that a minimum of 2 months makes a gentler bar.

This is what I have gathered about oils from experience and reading:

Olive oil is the best, most moisturizing, most nourishing in soap. Especially a large quantity of it in soap. It's so very gentle on my extremely sensitive and dry, dry skin. It puts moisture back into my skin.

Coconut is a great oil. Makes a hard bar with stable, fluffy lather. However, it's not very nourishing. I use less than 15% in my soap cause it dries me out.

I've been advised to avoid Sweet Almond and Avocado in my soap as soap is a wash-off product and these oils would better be suited for lotions and scrubs.

Tamanu oil sounds pretty amazing. It has antimicrobial properties and is supposed to be wonderful for various skin conditions. However, my best guess is that it would be better suited for lotions and scrubs because it's very expensive for a wash-off product and who knows what the lye does to those healing properties? It may be more nourishing and skin-loving in a lotion.

Soybean oil is more of a filler oil that's less expensive than other oils. There isn't anything very spectacular about it.

Grape Seed Oil is a soft oil and will make your bar too soft unless used in small quantities. However, in a small quantity it may not be worth it.

I would look at Shea Butter and Cocoa Butter. Wonderful butters and can add moisturizing properties AND hardness.

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

Go by the synergy off all the oils or butters used and do a higher superfat. With that said, no bar will be "nourishing" as soap is a wash off product. I've learned over the years that some of my best soaps were the simple ones.

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