Experimenting Again

Last night, I was going through my book of collected bath & body recipes and came across a collection of soap recipes I'd downloaded from a website in 2002, thirteen years ago. One of the recipes is Hemp Soap.

The recipe, as per the website, is as follows:

• 6 oz wt Castor Oil
• 14 oz wt Coconut Oil
• 14 oz wt Hemp Oil
• 8 oz wt Palm Oil
• 6 oz wt Shea Butter
• 6.82 oz Sodium Hydroxide
• 21 oz wt Distilled Water

 I realize now, after making a few batches, that it really should be in percentages, rather than ounces so I did the math. It comes down to:

12.5% castor
29% coconut oil
29% hemp oil
16.5% palm oil
12.5% shea oil

That, however, doesn't add up to 100%, it's 95.5%, so I changed it around a bit and came up with:

10% castor
30% coconut oil
30% hemp oil
15% palm oil
15% shea oil

I ran that through Soapcalc at 5% superfat and water:lye ratio at 1.5:1. After posting an opinion thread on SMF, it was suggested by a few people that I try it to see what I thought of the finished soap.

So, I am.

I used the percentages above but chose to make the soap with some of the Sweater Weather beer I still have left. I will add some sodium lactate (1/2 tsp) to the batch and no scent other than what's left over from the beer. I'm making a small batch, with 8 ounces of oil.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, the website where I found the recipes for soap and so much more is still up and running and none of the recipes has changed, that I can see, since 2002. You can find it at PineMeadows.net