Hi everyone! After a long hiatus, I'm venturing back into soapmaking. The benefit of my time away has allowed me to really judge some very fully cured bars of soap I created last year, and now I want to improve on them.
I use an olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, and castor oil blend for my soaps. I like this blend for how easy it to unmold and how it feels in the hand when being used, good lather, hard but not too hard that if I dropped it, an edge would chip off etc. However, while it's perfect consistency for my tastes as a shower bar soap, it fails pretty spectacularly as a hand soap when it's constantly being used all day long. It ends up like a soft mush by the end of the day. Ultimately, I'd like to create a recipe that works as both a hand and body bar.
Does anyone have tips on how to make for a harder bar? Would I need to explore using other oils (like palm) to achieve the consistency I want? Thanks in advance!