Has anyone made Castile Soap?
Can you share some tips with me? I have tried making it today. It took forever to trace and it's the consistency of opaque jelly, I would say, didn't get very hard...maybe I didn't wait long enough?
thoughts? advice? any one?
thank you
Merilyn
Hi Merilyn,
I've been making CP soap about 12 years and finally attempted LS last year!
Generally speaking, the online soap wisdom I've read recommends no more than 5% Castor Oil usage in CP or HP. More does not = better results when using Castor Oil. A little goes a long way and it's primary function is to increase lather & "slip" as well as add additional moisture.
About.com Candle & Soapmaking has excellent instructions on Liquid Soap making as well as usage percentages for Castor Oil. I know I haven't addressed your specific question on Liquid Castile but I think you'll find the discussion and rationale on oils, their use percentages, and tweaking them to your own preferences helpful for both CP & LS.
I started with a basic, generic LS recipe (from Ellen Peacock of Ellen's Essentials) just to have a sure fire result (no alcohol). David Fisher of About.com Candle & Soap Making uses her same LS recipe w/ a step by step "how to" including recipe, instructions, and photos. His discussion of dilution amounts for LS is tremendously helpful, too, as some authors & recipe writers are not real clear.
My results have improved greatly since I took David's advice to divide the LS paste (before dilution) in whatever increments one likes (he used 8oz. I believe) and refrigerate until you're ready to dilute, color, and scent. This allows one to experiement easily w/ different colors and scents w/o sacrificing the entire batch.
Some additional wisdom on dilution I found in a forum follows: if your LS paste is primarily made of Olive Oil use the general rule of 1 Part OO paste / 2 Parts H20. When other oils comprise most of the recipe us 2 Parts paste / 1 Part H20. Be open to experimentation with the above recommendation.
I will be happy to share any hard fast rules should I discover them as I continue to experiment myself!
Joan
"Castile" soap has become a 'slippery' term (pun intended) in the soapmaking world.
Traditionally, Castile soap is a solid soap made with olive oil, water and lye, only.
It is very gentle to skin, but produces very little lather and can be somewhat difficult to saponfy using 'cold process' methods. Coconut or other oils are often added for better lather and cleaning and to facilitate processing, making "Castille" a'fuzzy' term.
We make a 100% pure olive oile castile bar soap using an in-oven, in-mold hot process in a low-temperature soap oven. Moms love it for their young kids.
100% olive oile castile liquid soap similarly produces little lather and requires modification.
Perhaps other soapmakers might want to share their experiences on this?
Hi Merilyn
Sorry to take so long to get back to you. Local record-high heat has pretty much put me "down & out" for a couple of weeks.
Re:
"With this batch of Liquid Castile/Bastile I used 80% olive oil and 20%
castor oil. It's still soft and spongey after hours and hours.."
If you're making liquid soap, especially with alcohol+water methods &/or large proportions of castor oil, the resulting soap-base paste can be just that: a "soft and spongey" if not downright gloppy mass.
There's nothing inherently wrong with this in LS base. It will still dilute just fine.
Hi Steve,
Sorry you're suffering from the heat - there's no way to get away from it!
Thank you for answering. This LS batch was not made with the alcohol method - but good to know that it will still dilute. I had to pitch that batch because my pot's time was too valuable. But you're suggesting that I have to keep my castor oil %'age under what, 15? or 10% ??
Let's say I had diluted this 80 OO/20 CO base...would it have been clear?
What are other reasons that LS does not form a paste in the initial stick blending session?
Merilyn
Hi Merilyn! -- And thank you Steve, for everything you're doing! I AM an adverterous soaper, hence I don't spend much time on the computer / in forums - but I'm trying to find a balance. What a wealth of help/comraderie/inspiriation in the forums! I just this morning finished up my first batch of liquid soap with the koh I ordered from Summer Bee a while back. A couple of harrowing moments, but it turned out great!
I made two batches of bastile about a month ago - another first! - and was happily shocked when it turned out as well as it did. I based it on a recipe that I found quite a while ago online - I don't mean to not give credit, but I don't remember where I found it. I do both cp and hp, but feeling the need for instant gratification (and to know sooner rather than later if I had a failure on my hands!) I decided to do the bastile hot process. I decided to 'go for broke' on the first batch and use goat's milk. Unfortunately I didn't realize that I had accidentally set the pot on high - came out smelling burnt - but other than than it seemed like it would shape up really well. Threw in some eo's and fo's in hopes of covering the burnt smell!
I made a second batch the next day using just water, and with a nice blend of eo's - setting the heat on low this time! The batches weren't at all gloppy, and I was able to cut them the next day. Within a week they were quite hard. Amazingly, the burnt smell of the gm batch dissapated completely. Like you Merilyn, I used part castor . . . LOVE castor oil for soaping!! . . . bad memories from childhood tho - yuk!
I did use about one and a half teaspoons of sodium lactate to help in hardening the soap, and about 2 teaspoons of sugar to boost the lather, both of which work beautifully. The recipe I used is as follows --
32 oz. of olive oil (I use a grocery store brand that's labeled hearty, robust flavor - I like the scent of it)
3 oz of castor oil
4.5 oz lye
12 ounces of water
I threw in a little olive oil at the end of the cook, just in case there was any lye still hanging around. I think next time I'd up the lye discount to 7 or 8 percent. I hope you're still out there Merilyn, and that you haven't given up on the oo/castor oil bastile!
Maggie
Hi Maggie,
Thank you so much for your reply, very nice...but I think you misunderstood my process. I was referring to liquid soap! This section of the forum is for liquid soap making...not CP or HP...but I can see how you might get the LS and the HP confused!
I've actually made CP 'Bastile' soap and I agree with you, it's wonderful...in addition to maintaining a lower heat as you found with your HP bastile, my trick for HP managability is a little sodium lactate...works wonders! I'm guessing if you put your GM in at the end of the cook after it's cooled down a bit, you might be able to avoid burning the sugars in the milk.
best
Merilyn
Thank you Steve - I'm familiar with making a "bastile" = bastardized castile CP soap that is 70% olive oil.
I am getting the distinct feeling however, that either other liquid soapers are not as adventuresome, or they're not participating on this forum...it's getting lonely out here in my studio with no one else to bounce ideas off of...thank goodness you're administrating the forum!
With this batch of Liquid Castile/Bastile I used 80% olive oil and 20% castor oil. It's still soft and spongey after hours and hours...what can I do? I would hate to waste these ingredients...do you think I should find a way to rework my calculations and add in some coconut oil?
Not really sure how to proceed and I need to either get this batch out of my pot so I can continue with more of something else or fix it, if at all, hopefully possible...
thank you!
Merilyn