When learning how to make soap, your base recipe will most likely be olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil. Because of the controversy regarding palm oil, there are some soapmakers that will use shea butter instead of palm oil.
When formulating your soap recipe, you will use grams or ounces, but the total oils and fats will need to add up to 100%. You can play around with different percentages to come up with the soap that you want.
Based on what you want the soap to be, such as moisturizing, hard, bubbly, etc., will determine the ingredients you will use.
The three base oils that I use are olive oil for its moisturizing properties, coconut oil for its cleansing properties, and palm oil (sustainable) for its hardening properties. Sometimes I will use the last 20% of the formula to be a makeup of conditioning, luxury, and moisturizing oils for the skin.
For this Chocolate Biscotti Body Soap, I wanted it to be moisturizing and bubbly. The key ingredient is castor oil. Castor oil creates lather, and it is a humectant so it will draw moisture to your skin. Too much castor oil in your formulation will make for a soft bar of soap.
Once the melted oils and lye water is cooled to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I poured the lye water into the oils. It is mixed until it reaches trace. Then it is poured into the soap mold that has been lined with freezer paper.
After 24 hours, the soap will be removed from the mold to be cut. I waited 30 hours to unmold the soap. This soap smells so good. It will cure for 4 to 6 weeks before it can be used.
Chololate Biscotti Body Soap: 5% Superfat
Olive Oil 43.75%
Palm Oil 27.08%
Coconut Oil 25%
Castor Oil 4.17%
Additives:
Cocoa Powder = 8 grams
Almond Biscotti Fragrance Oil = 42.52 grams
Leave a Reply