New Soaper First recipe help

[TAH]

Hi, I'm new here and new at soaping. I found this forum a month ago and its been amazing the collective experience and knowledge on this forum! So hopefully some of you can help me by commenting on my first recipe before I actually make it. I've made several batches but this is my first recipe. I want one that feels rich and moisturizing but has good bubbles too. Is 7% too high on Castor Oil? Will 26% Coconut bother sensitive skin types?  

 

45% Olive Oil 

26% Coconut Oil (fractionated) 

10% Avocado Oil 

7 % Castor Oil

8 %Shea Butter

4 % Kokum Butter

 

Oh and I have some powdered pigments I want to try: Teal Green chromium hydroxide , Neon Blue Aluminum Hydroxide and a lavender matte oxide. I think I'm supposed to mix the pigments with some of the oil in the recipe then use that pigment/oil mix to color all or part of the soap mix at trace?

 

Thanks so much,

Taccie

[Jcandleattic]

I would change the coconut from fractionated to either 76° or 92° but otherwise looks good. 

Fractionated is very good in scrubs or lotions and leave on products, but loses a lot of it's properties in soap due to the lye. 

You don't list your lye or water amounts which is fine, but you also don't say what your superfat will be? I always do at least an 8% SF - but I have a decent % of coconut oil in my recipe which can be drying in high amounts. It can bother sensitive skin, but I have never ever had one complaint about my soap being drying, and I've been soaping for over 12 years now.  

Most people use Castor between 5-10% so you are good with the 7%. 

 

You will get more people answering who will run your numbers through soapcalc and give you the sidebar numbers such as the cleansing, moisturizing, oleoic acid levels, Iodine levels, etc., which is a good knowledge base to have for sure, but I put zero stock into those numbers, and after my first year or 2 of soaping, stopped looking at them altogether. But that's just me. They DO help with formulating once you understand what they mean. 

 

As for the colors, you can add to your oils if you are going to make a 1 color soap, or you can split your batch and add at trace/emulsification. You don't necessarily have to use your soaping oils to mix, however once you are comfortable with the process and in about a year or so want to start selling, whatever you mix it with (be it your oils your soap is made with, an oil not in your recipe, glycerin, or other) it must be listed with your ingredients. 

 

I always mix my colors with a little almond oil, but all of my colors are premixed, so I don't take any out of my soaping oils. However, almond oil is one of my oils in 95% of my recipes, so I very rarely have to add it to my labels because it's already there. 

 

Good luck, welcome to the forum and addiction!  

 

Hope this helped some. 

[TAH]

Write Stuff, thank you! I did not know that about  fractionated coconut oil.  My superfat was set to 6% . You said you use Almond Oil in 95% of your recipes which has me thinking it must be good stuff, but I'm not sure why? 

[Jcandleattic]

You're welcome. 

I just like almond oil. I like the way it feels on my skin and the added - oomph - it gives my soaps. I only use it at a 5-10% margin though. 

 

Take a look at this thread and it will show you why people like 1 particular oil or another in their soaps. 

http://www.craftserver.com/topic/106955-whats-your-favorite-soaping-oil/

 

I'm not saying the FCO won't make a good soap, it very well could, and probably would, but it's an expensive oil, and is better served in a leave on product, IMO.  

[TAH]

Thanks!

[TallTayl]

I would make the recipe you came up with and see what YOU think. Every single soap maker has their own preferences. Not many people love the same things.... I tend to take the numbers on soapcalc and other calculators with a grain of salt. Kind of entertaining, but not the whole picture.

You have a lot going on, so have your colorants, fragrance, molds, etc. all set and ready to roll quickly in case things speed up on you. We all go through the same bell curve when learning. We start with an available formula, then start on our own journey throwing everything in the pot in search of the best recipe, then as we learn we settle on something uniquely awesome to us.

Keep your batch sizes on the smaller side so you can experiment a lot without having mountains of soap to deal with.

[topofmurrayhill]

Will 26% Coconut bother sensitive skin types?

26% Coconut Oil (fractionated)

Fractionated coconut oil will, because it's not really coconut oil. It's just the capric and caprylic acid from coconut oil, which is ordinarily just a tiny percentage. FCO leaves out everything from the CO that you actually want for soap. It's good as a carrier oil or whatever, but capric and caprylic soap smells bad and seriously dries your skin. So never use FCO for soap.

[TAH]

Thanks topofmurryhill. I certainly did not know that about fractionated coconut oil. I thought it was  just "better" coconut oil I learn so much here. 

[Candybee]

Your recipe looks good to me. Just switch out the FCO for regular CO and you're good to go. I love experimenting with new recipes plus I am always tweaking on ones I currently use always looking for ways to improve them.

[TAH]

Thanks Candybee. I'm going to try it this week. 

[Crafty1_AJ]

I agree with switching the FCO to 76 degree coconut oil.    I don't think your percentage is too high.  But for people who are sensitive to coconut, you can sub palm kernel oil.  I use 76 degree coconut in almost all my soaps, but I do make one recipe without coconut for those who prefer it.  I use PKO instead.