Recipe Help

[funnygirl]

Well, my first batch of soap appears to be way too drying. Not what I was looking for at all. Im having a hard time finding a moisturizing recipe to use that includes the oils I have on hand. I went back to soap calc and came up with the following recipe.

crisco 30%

canola 20%

coconut 15%

palm kernal 15%

sweet almond oil 10%

castor oil 10%

Can one of you experts run it through the calc and tell me what you think of the qualities? I just havent learned all the properties of different oils yet, so I just want an experts opinion on how this recipe looks. I want a fairly hard bar, that will clean the skin, but leave sto skin moisturized, not dry and tight. I will be useing GM again, as I like the creaminess it provides. I think I am useing the oils in amounts that should hold/store well, but Im not positive about that either. Any help will be very much apprieciated!

Oh, also. Should I change the Lye Concentration % to 33%? This seems to be a number I keep seeing.

[CareBear]

I don't have time to run it now, but if you look for Quiet Girl's recipe in the recipes section you will have a winning recipe at your fingertips! Stellar lather and not drying at all, even to my old-lady skin. Darwin's basic is another fantastic choice - I love that one and use it often too. I don't know if I posted my basic one or not, but if I did, mine is not drying either.

[Steph in tx]

I'm no expert, but this is what I pulled off the Soap Calc,

Summary of values:Hardness36 to 50Cleansing14 to 22Condition45 to 80Bubbly lather14 to 33Creamy lather16 to 35

With your recipe, it looks like Condition is at 62 so that's mid way. Look on the Soap Qualities Page to get a better idea of what would maybe be used to bring that # up?? Just guessing....I'm trying to eat lunch and do this at the same time....

Also go to Oil Page. You can check out by SAP or Conditioning and such...just click on how you want to see how these oils act.

[Scented]

Hey you can try subbing in the hazelnut for coconut (for number use only ... not for the actual coconut), which will reduce the amount of lye used and that might make your recipe feel better. Just something to try out and see what you think.

I'd stick with 38 number for the time being, personally.

What I see when I entered your recipe is a bar with a 32 for hardness (I typically shoot for 38-41 range)... so i'm wondering what I entered wrong because I thought someone posted a 36. The cleansing is in the 19 range, so that's a good range.

I'd still try the subbing hazelnut in for the coconut and watch your lye number go down. Use that lye number only and see if that doesn't make your recipe not so harsh.

[funnygirl]

The problem I seem to be having, is that when I up the conditioning, the hardness goes down. Right now the hardness is at 32, but the crisco should actually harden it up a bit more than that. Blah! I will check out those other 2 recipes and see how they fair. Thanks!

[CareBear]

The problem I seem to be having, is that when I up the conditioning, the hardness goes down.

- yep, it's a trade-off. when I try to up the bubbles the conditioning drops too. It's a balancing act!