Teach Soap

Didn't want to make a bunch of posts per question ~ so compiled my confusions all here! (I've been reading a ton and tried using the search feature on the forums, but it always tells me the keywords are too common and won't let me find the answers!)

Now that I've tried a bunch of different oils, a bunch of different techniques and a bunch of different colors & FO's -- I'm looking to get one good recipe to work with for a while.

Here's what I've come up with:


30% Light Olive Oil
25% Coconut Oil (76 deg)
25% Crisco/Shortening
10% Castor Oil
10% Shea Butter

Hardness 36
Cleansing 17
Conditioning 61
Bubbly 26
Creamy 28
Iodine 70
INS 138



1.) First - how's the recipe look? My below wants/needs will affect the recipe outcome - but looking for suggestions and number tweaking!

2.) I am looking for a WHITE soap. I seem to have a lot of issues with Titanium Dioxide not mixing enough and leaving powdery streaks and making a faster trace. Are these ingredients a good, white soap? Any alternative suggestions?

3.) I am trying to get a lower cleansing (that number seems to be really hard not to go too high with) while getting the condition/bub/cream high... This is leaving the bar hardness kind of low.
- I'm trying to stay away from Palm Oil if at all possible.
- Is there a recipe tweak to help?
- I've heard of different ingredients to add to soap to help with the hardness such as:
- salt
- sugar
- steric acid
- sodium lactate
Thoughts on those? Which are best? Any downsides? Usage rate?

4.) I've been doing the normal 5% Super Fatting. I've heard going to 7-8% makes the soap more conditioning, but when I change that on soap calc, I don't see any change in the numbers. How do I know how much super fatting is helping/altering my recipe?

5.) On the subject of water discounting. I live in Florida and my house stays pretty humid, so drying/curing is a pain. I read an okay discount is from 38% down to 32% is that okay? I know there's a lot of issues with it and I might just skip it all together, but I wanted to see if this would help harden and dry them faster

6.) My molds are small and I like to make pretty tops, so never seem to have room for a lid and insulation. I like the gelled look so I'm going to get some silicone loaf molds to try CPOP.
- Is that method only for large loaf molds - or can I put smaller muffin sized molds in the oven too?
- Are there any ingredients that have an issue with CPOP? Like the water discounting?

7.) Does CP soap ever melt? I gave one of my test bars to my brother and he accident left it in the car for a few days. He said it was fine and now his car smells really, really good. I know MP soap would have been a puddle within a few hours in the hot summer - but made me wonder what temps CP soap can withstand.

8.) Color Morphing: I made a soap with olive oil, coconut oil, PKO, shortening and sunflower oil. I scented with Coconut Lime Verbena and separated light trace oils into 3 bowls, #1 got TD, #2 got shamrock green mica, #3 got cappuccino mica.
As I was mixing them, I noticed the #2 that was SUPPOSED to be green, turned into a light brown. I thought perhaps my oils were too yellow, so the green color/yellow oils made it brown. So I poured layers of white/light brown/dark brown into the mold as seen here:




See - all white and light brown swirls? I was disappointed as I was looking for white/green/brown... But then the next day when I went to unmold - look what I got!



I'm guessing the blue-ish spots are just mica that didn't mix well - but why the weird morphing change from brown back to greenish?!?








Ok, I am sure I had more questions than that -- but that's what I had written down. Please feel free to answer any or all (one cookie per answer!) or post links/point me in the direction of places with the answers. I'd really appreciate all the help I can get! If I get these issues down pat, I think I'll be set for a few months in the kitchen.

_________________
~*~ Jennifer ~*~

10% castor for me makes for a soft bar. I don't go above 20% coconut. What is in your Crisco?
I take the numbers in soap calc with a grain of salt. I always superfat at 7%, as anything lower I find drying.
If you input castile the numbers in soap calc don't look good at all, yet it makaes for a nice hard, mild soap.
Some micas do change while the lye is active. Once the pH goes down a bit they change back.

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

_________________
~*~ Jennifer ~*~

Palm has a different SAP value then soybean. If you know for sure that Crisco is mostly soybean oil I would go with that. If the lye calc has Crisco, try it that way. If you want a blinding white bar, use 100% coconut with a 20% superfat.

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

Soybean oil isn't as white as Crisco and may leave you soap more yellow. I've used the Crisco with palm in my soap and it's worked very well. You could take 5% from your castor (and 5% from your coconut if you want) and add it to the crisco %. I add salt at 1 tsp PPO to my soap to make them harder. Soapcalc figures olive oil as a soft oil, so that brings down your hardness number. I think your recipe will be fine once you reduce the castor (and coconut if you want). I don't have a problem with 25% coconut as long as the SF is at 7%, but other people find it drying.

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

Thank you Irena & Linda! I shall go tinker and test.

_________________
~*~ Jennifer ~*~

To give you a few more answers:
#2. White bars... use light oils: coconut, babassu, PKO, palm, castor, lard, mango butter, almond oil, kokum. Some olives can be ok but check out the starting color as this will give you some indication. I have never tried to do an all white bar and TD tends to give me some spots. I do like to add white tops or some white swirls. For this I have found pearly white mica from BB has worked the best for me. And I have noticed that it may not be very white at first but gets there in the end.
#3. Palm free... I have been working on that one as well. What about lard... I love my lard soaps.
#4. Numbers don't change? Actually the number that does change is the lye amount. I do not use soap calc as much since I have the soapmaker program but I am suprised that it does not show an increase in moisturizing.
#5. Water discount... you could try lowering it. That does affect the hardness\cure. But there are some things that you should not discount for: some additives, some fragrances. And of course your recipe can also come into play. So the best answer would be to go down a little with your recipe and watch the results.
#6. I love my silicone molds. The individual ones are hard to get to gel....even in the oven as they are just tooo small to hold the heat. We had a hot summer so I have not gelled in the oven but will go back to that method soon. I have also used a heating pad under my molds and put a box over the top and that works.
7. I have never had CP melt...but I live in Wisconsin. I think SB said she did once in a car, it can get really hot in a car!

Hope some of this helps.... and I happen to like the green...do not see brown at all in there.

_________________
Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!