So....I went to Florida on vacation last week. We went into a swim shop and I was talking with the shop owner about natural things and told her about my soap. Luckily, I had a few bars with me to gift to a friend so I took them in so that she could see them, and it looks like I have a new account. This nice lady owns two stores along Gulf Blvd in two different communities.
I made two different soaps yesterday. A hot process Cool as a Cucumber soap with cucumber, aloe, and chamomile for after-sun skin. And a cold process Island Tropics soap that smells like a tropical fruit drink. Guess which soap is which - not all that difficult, is it?
You guessed it. Cool as a Cucumber soap above and my Island Tropics soap below. (Bet you wouldn't have known without my input).
I'm not sure if the tropical smell is going to hold but if not, I'll make a white soap and in-bed the shreds in the white soap.
Soap always seems to have a mind of it's own!
Replacing the water with a lather booster that contains sugars, like beer or wine.
If you are looking to stabilize or sustain lather, try:
Using castor oil at 5% to 10% of your recipe. (Be forewarned, using more than 15% castor oil tends to make the bar sticky, tacky, and rubbery.)
Adding or increasing oils that support lather, like almond oil, lard, tallow, cocoa butter, palm oil, shea butter, or sunflower oil.
Decreasing oils that do not contribute a lot to lather (or hinder it), like olive oil.
If you are looking to increase conditioning in a soap recipe, try:
Replacing the water with alternative liquids, like goats milk (or other milks), yogurt, or aloe vera juice.
Increasing the superfat of the total oils, to condition the skin.
Adding or increasing nourishing oils, like apricot kernel oil, avocado oil, olive oil, rice bran oil, or sunflower oil.
Adding “luxury oils” at 5% to 10%, like argan oil, evening primrose oil, flaxseed oil, hempseed oil, jojoba oil, meadowfoam oil, pumpkin seed oil, or wheatgerm oil.
If you are looking to increase bar hardness, try:
Increasing your hard to soft oil ratio, by using a higher percentage of hard oils (oils that are solid at room temperature).
Adding stearic acid at 0.5% to 1% of the total formula.
Adding beeswax at 1% to 5% of the total formula.
Adding sodium lactate at 1% to 3% of the total formula.
When that’s all said and done?
Remember, that these are all rough guidelines to help you find YOUR best soap recipe. Your soap recipe’s current oil and fatty acid profile will have a huge influence on whether these tips will work for you. When it comes down to it, learning the fatty acid profiles of each oil and what properties they contribute to your formula is the key to successful formulating.
I love my 2 grandsons and reading. I like traveling but the only place I go any more is Colorado. Maybe after I move to Colorado I'll travel to other places.
