The "Perfect" Soap Recipe

Great article on the "Perfect" soap recipe from Modern Soapmaking

Here is a part of the article. The author really knows her stuff.

So, what is the secret to the best soap recipe?

Learning your fatty acid profiles, understanding your oil properties, and tweaking a formula to your liking is the name of the game.

Additive Testing – Lather Lover’s Swap 2012 (Check out the results right here!)

If you are looking to increase the size of the bubbles or the amount of lather, try:

• Increasing the percentage of oils that contribute to bubbly lather, like coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and babassu oil
• Decreasing the superfat of the total oils, as too many free oils can cut down on lather
• Using a lather increasing additive like sodium citrate, sodium lactate, sugar, or rosin
• 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.

If you are totally stuck on trying to get the features you want with your formula, let’s talk – I can help you get there.

Want a soap recipe to start off with?

Check out my soap making tutorials to see if a recipe strikes your fancy, like this recipe featuring silk or this one using cambrian blue clay. If you want to give it a go in formulating your own soap recipe, try this basic builder soap formula:

• 60% Hard Oils (Solid at Room Temperature)
  • 30% to 45% Lathering Hard Oils
  • 15% to 30% Conditioning Hard Oils
• 40% Soft Oils (Liquid at Room Temperature)
  • 20% to 30% Nourishing Soft Oils
  • 5% to 10% Luxury Soft Oils
  • 5% to 10% Castor Oil