Very Small Soap Bar

[7 Pawz]

I'd like to cut down on the leftovers from some of my experiments, so I've decided  to try the recipe for an experiment soap bar from The Soap Makers Companion, Susan Cavitch.   It's about a 5 oz bar size.  Since I try to stick to oils that I can get from the market, I decided to substitue vegetable shortening for the palm oil.  The other oils are olive and coconut.   I wanted a harder bar, so I thought about taking 2% on the discount. I did run the receipe through a lye calculator as well.   I read online somewhere that 2% was a danger zone?   I thought the more soaponified the oils were, the less likely rancidity would occur?   Normally I use around 5% discount.

 

[Candybee]

Funny you should ask this question. Its being hotly debated on another forum right now.

The consensus is that the % you superfat is not what determines or effects the outcome of a soaps's rancidity. Its the oils themselves and or the combination you use them in. I myself feels that it does help to lower the superfat or at least keep it in the standard range (5-8%) to minimize the possibility of rancidity.

I am no expert but I can say in the years I have been CP'ing I have only had one batch with DOS. The recipe for that was a facial bar with lots of sunflower, soybean, and grapeseed oil. The sunflower and grapeseed are high in iodine. When I checked back at soapcalc and ran my recipe through once more it was then I realized my iodine was off the recommended level. I adjusted the level by lowering it and so far have not have any more DOS incidents.

There are other ways to minimizing rancidity:

Know the shelf life of your oils. You can always date them upon purchase to be sure you use them. But you don't always know how long they have been sitting there so you have to take that into consideration. Tasiting and smelling them also helps. You can usually tell by the smell or taste when an oil has gone bad.

Use an antioxident like ROE (rosemary oleoresin) which can prolong the shelf life of an oil. If you use ROE in your unstable oils or short shelf life oils (Hemp oil has a short shelf life) you can extend it.

Also, mixing your recipe oils with oils that are stable and have a long shelf life can also extend the life of your soap and diminish DOS.

[TallTayl]

The fatty acid profile of your overall formula is the biggest factor to prevent DOS.

A combined Lineoleic and Linolenic acid fatty acid total of under 15 generally staves off the dreaded DOS.

I SF at 8% or more for every single batch. Some soap i have that is 6 or so years old with that SF is still as pristine as the day it was made.

[Candybee]

 

A combined Lineoleic and Linolenic acid fatty acid total of under 15 generally staves off the dreaded DOS.

 

Good to know. Thanks!

[7 Pawz]

 

 

Good to know. Thanks!

Me too, thank you

[7 Pawz]

Funny you should ask this question. Its being hotly debated on another forum right now.

The consensus is that the % you superfat is not what determines or effects the outcome of a soaps's rancidity. Its the oils themselves and or the combination you use them in. I myself feels that it does help to lower the superfat or at least keep it in the standard range (5-8%) to minimize the possibility of rancidity.

I am no expert but I can say in the years I have been CP'ing I have only had one batch with DOS. The recipe for that was a facial bar with lots of sunflower, soybean, and grapeseed oil. The sunflower and grapeseed are high in iodine. When I checked back at soapcalc and ran my recipe through once more it was then I realized my iodine was off the recommended level. I adjusted the level by lowering it and so far have not have any more DOS incidents.

There are other ways to minimizing rancidity:

Know the shelf life of your oils. You can always date them upon purchase to be sure you use them. But you don't always know how long they have been sitting there so you have to take that into consideration. Tasiting and smelling them also helps. You can usually tell by the smell or taste when an oil has gone bad.

Use an antioxident like ROE (rosemary oleoresin) which can prolong the shelf life of an oil. If you use ROE in your unstable oils or short shelf life oils (Hemp oil has a short shelf life) you can extend it.

Also, mixing your recipe oils with oils that are stable and have a long shelf life can also extend the life of your soap and diminish DOS.

Very good points to remember, thank you

[ChandlerWicks]

The fatty acid profile of your overall formula is the biggest factor to prevent DOS.

A combined Lineoleic and Linolenic acid fatty acid total of under 15 generally staves off the dreaded DOS.

I SF at 8% or more for every single batch. Some soap i have that is 6 or so years old with that SF is still as pristine as the day it was made.

Awesome, thanks! Checked my recipes & all under 15!

[Shar]

Mine are all under 7. high humidity, heat, and sunlight is bad for soap too, and can possibly cause DOS in soap.

[TallTayl]

Mine are all under 7. high humidity, heat, and sunlight is bad for soap too, and can possibly cause DOS in soap.

As can some fragrances.

[chuck_35550]

My formulas average 6 for lineoleic and 1 for linolenic. Iodine at 50 or less is ideal in most instances. Superfatting is an insurance against lye heavy formulation but can also help where a specialty soap needs additional qualities of a type of oil to offset harshness or the lack of some quality in the soap. The real argument for me has always been how do you know what the lye will choose to saponify? So you put your almond oil or argan in last and think that the saponification or cook is done and won't affect your more precious oil? Saponification is ongoing and chains are being composed at random within the mold (that's my opinion)with no real control over the final outcome. You can predict when you are able to reproduce the bar qualities the majority of the time but we all know that other factors (such as soap fairies) can sometimes change the outcomes in the most predictable of soap formulations. I find rice bran to be the worst culprit for rancidity when used in place of olive or in a blend of olive and rice bran that makes up 50% of the formulation. I use high oleic oils like sunflower and safflower to increase the oleic instead and use rice bran or any other oil that increases those previously mentioned fatty acids in smaller amounts. Just my opinion.

Edited September 5, 2014 by chuck_35550

[7 Pawz]

My formulas average 6 for lineoleic and 1 for linolenic. Iodine at 50 or less is ideal in most instances. Superfatting is an insurance against lye heavy formulation but can also help where a specialty soap needs additional qualities of a type of oil to offset harshness or the lack of some quality in the soap. The real argument for me has always been how do you know what the lye will choose to saponify? So you put your almond oil or argan in last and think that the saponification or cook is done and won't affect your more precious oil? Saponification is ongoing and chains are being composed at random within the mold (that's my opinion)with no real control over the final outcome. You can predict when you are able to reproduce the bar qualities the majority of the time but we all know that other factors (such as soap fairies) can sometimes change the outcomes in the most predictable of soap formulations. I find rice bran to be the worst culprit for rancidity when used in place of olive or in a blend of olive and rice bran that makes up 50% of the formulation. I use high oleic oils like sunflower and safflower to increase the oleic instead and use rice bran or any other oil that increases those previously mentioned fatty acids in smaller amounts. Just my opinion.

I'm thinking of substituting Lard for the palm oil in the small bar I want to make, only because its readily available for me. The other oils are Olive and coconut.

[7 Pawz]

UPDATE

 

I just made the small bar of soap, with scent included, it was close to a 5 oz in all. actually, it was kind of fun to make it; I ended up using veg shortening, coconut and olive oil.  Scented it with Peaks Key Lime, no dye.   I've not tried making just one bar, but it might save me a little time later if I do this one in a while.   Its in the mold now. Cant wait to get it out.   I used my frother  instead of stirring, it worked great for this.

[chuck_35550]

Personally, I like beef tallow. You can go to a butcher and ask for fat scraps and render it down to a snowy white tallow. There are plenty of good Youtube tutorials for help but its pretty basic stuff for making lard or tallow.

[TallTayl]

On teensy bars, i should have mentioned use a good gram scale to measure. A difference of a gram in that small of a batch makes a big difference over all.

Also with small batches the thermodynamics are all askew. The soap will not get as warm in a tiny mold (that energy from the chemical reaction that creates heat to saponify the oils is really small). That will change the overall feel of the finished soap for a while. Eventually, after a long, long cure it will approach the same feel as a bigger, warmer batch.

And.... For soap that is initially harder earlier, rather than worry about SF (which has little to absolutely nothing to do with bar hardness), use less water instead (create a stronger lye solution using less water). Your SAP calculator should have settings to adjust the amount of water needed.

[7 Pawz]

On teensy bars, i should have mentioned use a good gram scale to measure. A difference of a gram in that small of a batch makes a big difference over all.

Also with small batches the thermodynamics are all askew. The soap will not get as warm in a tiny mold (that energy from the chemical reaction that creates heat to saponify the oils is really small). That will change the overall feel of the finished soap for a while. Eventually, after a long, long cure it will approach the same feel as a bigger, warmer batch.

And.... For soap that is initially harder earlier, rather than worry about SF (which has little to absolutely nothing to do with bar hardness), use less water instead (create a stronger lye solution using less water). Your SAP calculator should have settings to adjust the amount of water needed.

When I unmolded the soap bar, it was a little soft, had a small crack in it.  I pressed the crack closed and let the bar harden.   It is now to the point where it has cured to a nice hard, white bar, still not ready to use yet, have a few days to go on that, but I am anxious to see how it works out.  The FO I used was not strong enough for my liking, so that is the only change I'd make at this point.  I did find that when I unmolded the soap, it had a ring in the center, so I guess it didn't gel all the way?   The ring is no longer there tho.   I can see your point about the thermodynamics to.