magsglass Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 I have a question on soap theory. Recently I concocted a batch of soap that contains >70% hard oils. Looking at the soap qualities in Soapcalc it looked pretty good, so I made it and it seems to have turned out great. However, I've often heard that hard oils should be kept to around 50% of the batch. Can someone tell me: what is the reasoning behind the 50% hard/50% soft oil rule of thumb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 The 50/50 is just a basic guideline for those starting out. Just to give them a starting point. I use about 65% hard in mine!50/50 will create a resonably hard bar, and with all the soft oils in there, trace normally comes slower. Something definetly needed with those first batches. I've seen all kinds of weird looking recipies that don't follow any rules but are fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magsglass Posted October 8, 2006 Author Share Posted October 8, 2006 Thanks, Bunny. Your explanation makes perfect sense to me. So far I'm really digging this heavy hard oil batch I made. After trying and tweaking a lot of recipes, I've got a solid idea of the characteristics I want for my basic soap recipe. Hopefully this cures out as well as I'm expecting it to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crafty1_AJ Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 My recipes generally have from 40-60% hard oils in there. But this isn't a hard and fast rule. Look at castile soap -- 100% soft oil. I make a "Grandma's Old Fashioned" soap that is 100% hard oils. A friend swears by this soap and says it's the only soap that makes him feel truly clean (he has oily skin). So don't worry about bending that guideline now and then. With enough cure time, almost any soap will eventually be good. Oh, and I agree with Little Bunny Foo-Foo's comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carriegsxr6 Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 I find that keeping the "hardeness" (in the soap calc) around 28-32 makes a nice solid bar that also has high conditioning and bubbly lathering properties.When I try to make a harder bar, I usually loose alot of my conditioning properties. I use almost 70% soft oils in my recipe (15% of that is olive so it actually hardens harder than other soft olis). I also use 15% butters in my recipe as well to help compinsate. With this I get my hardenss to 28 and conditioning to 68. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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