Teach Soap

I'd like to try my hand at make a CP shaving soap. I've found a few different recipes and have played with soapcalc a bit to come up with a possible recipe. I know the only way to truly know if it's good or not is just to soap it, but I thought I'd run the recipe by a few of you here first so that you might be able to alert me to potential problems that you see.
So.....please let me know of any "red flags" that pop up to you when looking this over.......

Olive Oil 25%
Coconut Oil 20%
Palm Oil 20%
Shea Butter 20%
Castor Oil 10%
Avocado Oil 5%

Water as % of Oils: 35%
Super Fat 5%

I was also planning on including Bentonite Clay at 1-2 tsp. per pound of oils.
Also, 1% sodium lactate.

Ideas? Criticism? Suggestions? Send me back to the drawing board???

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

It seems fine. But I personally would prefer to make a synthetic because I want stearic acid, cetyl alcohol, panthenol, vitamin E, and a few other things in there!

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

It's a mixture of synthetic surfactants and thickeners and so forth. Soap itself is a surfactant: basically a mixture of 'ates' eg sodium palmate, sodium cocoate, sodium olivate, sodium stearate. Most shampoo you find in stores relies on one common synthetic surfactant, sodium lauryl sulfate.
Now, I'm old enough to be able to remember using actual shaving soap - came in a tin - and compared with modern shaving gels, well, I don't care for the idea. And I am a bit fed up paying through the nose for these gels. So I just got mine from the bathroom:

Water, Palmitic acid, TEA, Stearic acid, Sunflower oil glyceride, Sorbitol, Aloe vera, fragrance

Now, I love aloe vera and I have to have it, and a soap won't have that, at least not in the 25% I'll put in my mix. Above, it is only about 2%
Here's the formula with probable % and possible alternatives:

Water . . . . Q/S to 100%
Palmitic acid . . . . . . . . . palm oil, I believe; maybe 7%
TEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . not quite sure what this is here for, just to adjust final pH to 5.9 probably. You could use NaOH instead.
Stearic acid . . . . . . . . . . basic building block easily obtained, perhaps 5%
Sunflower oil glyceride . . fractionated sunlower oil, I think I would substitute capric/caprylic triglyceride at say 2%
Sorbitol . . . . . . . . . . thickener and hydrating agent, usage say, 2%
Aloe vera . . . . . . . . . . . their usage, cheapskates, about 2% tops, mine would be 25%
fragrance . . . . . . . . . . . 1% typically, Drax Black from IFF!

In addition I would include Glucamate LT as a thickener and sensorial, and I really am wondering how the h--- that formula works anyway. Where is the emulsifier? I think it is incomplete. Add 5% glycerine monostearate.

That looks like a partial ingredient list barquentine.

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

Barquentine---so are you describing a cream? a foam?
I was considering making more of a traditional shaving soap in a hard bar form.

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Carrie, there are three really great threads on The Soapmaking Forum about formulating a shaving soap with the low, creamy, stable lather that is characteristic of shaving soaps and gels. I've formulated a recipe using their tips but haven't used it yet. I can share it with you if you'd like. Either way, here are the threads:






In particular, the posts by IrishLass are very helpful. She notes that you need to reach a certain amount of stearic in your recipe to produce that lather and oils that will give you higher amounts of stearic, along with a high percentage of castor oil, and breaks down her composition (without giving away her recipe). There is also a "sort oils" feature on SoapCalc that allows you to sort oils by different properties, including stearic content (). So that is helpful to see what you can do with the oils you already have. Alternatively you can add actual stearic acid to your recipe to up the numbers, but it isn't considered a natural product (which I guess is what barquentine meant by synthetic).

Hope that helps!! I really enjoyed reading through those threads.

_________________
Laura<3

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

As someone who's shaved with a straight razor and shaving soap before, I have to say the addition of clay would probably dull your blade as it's a silicate mineral.

_________________
Just call me "Apo"

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Laura----made time this afternoon to read through the threads you linked to. Very helpful----thanks!
Now, to find time to start formulating! Lots of practical info to remember and implement .

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

_________________
Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

I think I am going to start using kaolin clay regularly in my soaps because it is supposed to help anchor fragrances. I mixed it in with the FO in my last two batches, I figure with all the 1oz bottles I just got from NG it could be helpful as I usually use more fragrance than that in my 2lb batches unless it is one that is very strong, or I just need to start making smaller batches with those smaller bottles.

Glad those links helped, Carrie, can't wait to see how your soap turns out!!

_________________
Laura<3

_________________
Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

_________________
Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts