Teach Soap

Hi you wonderful folks. I would like to design a recipe for a CP soap for my mom, who has to deal with the very dry air of Kansas winters. I'd like the bar to be nice and conditioning, but ideally without sacrificing a good, hard bar. I put together this first draft:

Olive oil pomace: 50%
Coconut oil, 76 deg: 20%
Palm oil, 15%
Cocoa butter: 5%
Shea butter: 5%
Castor oil: 5%
(Superfat at 7%)
(Maybe use coconut milk instead of distilled water for lye mixture)

Am I being too "precious" with this, in that 5% isn't enough for the shea or cocoa butters to do that much good? I added the palm for hardness and lather stability, but would it be just as well to do away with it and increase the olive oil to 65%, effectively making it a gentle Bastile bar? Would adding a little cornstarch for it's "silky" feel perhaps help?

In advance, thank you for any input you might give. This is my first post, and also want to thank you for all I've learned from reading these posts.

~ Ol' Doc Johnson

Welcome! With 50% olive, I would do a water discount and a higher superfat; like maybe 9-10%

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

I like coconut milk in soap, but I would probably use cow or goat milk instead. I also like Soapbuddy's suggestion of a higher superfat. I think you've got a good recipe.

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

Thank you both very much!

You're welcome!

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

I just made a recipe similar to yours and I added all Goatsmilk (bought at Walmart). Suz at Oregon Trails has a never fail goatmilk tutorial and i have to say it works really well. My goatsmilk never stinks or turn Orange. I am 61 and I use this recipe on my face for makeup removing. I dont always use goats milk and my face is not dry even though I don't use nite creams. My skin used to be on the dry side but since I have using this and my own soaps it is not anymore

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JULIE

The Lord is my Shepard

Thanks, Julie!

Took your advice with the superfat at 10%, and used goat milk for the lye mixture, discounting the liquid some. Went together very well until I added the cinnamon leaf and clove leave essential oils. Things got very thick, very quick. I sort of guessed it would happen, though, and I was still able to get it in the mold fine.

~Ol' Doc Johnson

Hi, OlDocJohnson! I'll bet that soap smells great, but please be careful with those two EO's. Both are very valuable and powerful with their antiseptic, antibiotic, and antiviral properties, but both of them are known skin irritants. Especially the cinnamon EO. It's been my experience as a licensed massage therapist and aromatherapist that these should only be used in low doses. What were your %'s? Did you use an EO calculator? BTW, the "spicy" EO's and FO's always seem to speed things up a bit when it comes to your soap batter tracing.

Definately worth thinking about. I tried to be conservative with them, since they are so strong. I used 0.4 oz EO per pound of oil. Do you think that might have been too much?

You should be okay with those amounts.

Thanks for looking out for me!

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

Good advice. I think perhaps unscented next time. Fun to experiment and learn.

I have unbelieveably dry skin and I use cucumber FO in my bars without an issue. I also use mocha vanilla with ground oatmeal. But I don't go heavy scent with anything.