Teach Soap

I tried my first recipe. I picked the ingredients mostly for my skin issues and then of course had to make sure I had enough solid fats to make a solid bar. I did mess up and neglect to put a couple of things in (teach me to talk and soap at the same time lol) so I reheated it in my crockpot and added what I missed. So it has been curing 8 weeks and I finally tried a bar. I love the way it feels on my skin. What I don't like is that it doesn't seem to suds at all. Can anyone look at the recipe and suggest changes for sudsing?

Oops I forgot to post my recipe lol.

Oil(s) Selected
Amount
Almond Oil (Sweet)
3.36oz
Castor Oil
4.80oz
Cocoa Butter (Deoderized)
0.96oz
Coconut Oil (92 Degrees)
4.80oz
Hempseed Oil
6.24oz
Olive Oil
6.24oz
Safflower Oil
4.80oz
Shortening (Vegetable)
16.80oz
0% Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) Amount
6.707oz
Ounces of liquid recommended
15.84oz
Yields
70.55oz

From what I can see you have a higher amount of Hempseed which doesn't lather well and also soybean. I would recalculate with a higher amount of coconut. Coconut adds more bubbles.

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

Thanks I will up that in my next batch. Should I also lower my hemp seed, or will just adding more coconut do the trick do you think?

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

You need to have soap superfatted to use on the skin. The less superfat, the more drying or irritating it can be. Lye heavy soap can strip your skin and can burn it. Superfat means some of the oils/butters will not saponify and will stay in their natural state. There's more to it then that, but that's the simplest explanation that I can think of right now.

And just so you know adding any better or oil at or after trace is an old wife's tale. The only exception to this would be if you added any oil or butter AFTER the cook. Lye at trace is VERY active and it will take whatever it wants, so there is no guarantee that any particular oil or butter will end up as your superfat at a certain %. So add every oil/butter right up front and superfat at the VERY minimum of 5%. I normally superfat 7 to 8%. This is especially important if you make smaller batches, as there is more room for error.

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