Why make it
This bar shows what a butter does when it carries a recipe: 60 % shea with 30 % coconut and 10 % castor. It lands inside every band the convention sets, hardness 52, cleansing 20, conditioning 45, and its INS of 162 is close to McDaniel's ideal of 160. Shea's stearic acid gives the firmness, coconut the quick lather and castor steadies it. Shea has been used on skin and hair across West Africa by long tradition, and makers credit its unsaponifiable matter, 2.4 to 11.6 % in a study of 36 samples, for the feel of the bar. The catches are cost and shea's habit of speeding trace (Faiola). Swap in cocoa, mango or kokum butter to see what each one does at the same share.
Sources
- Triterpene alcohol and fatty acid composition of shea nuts from seven African countries · Akihisa T. et al., Journal of Oleo Science 59(7), 2010
- Pure Soapmaking · Anne-Marie Faiola, Storey Publishing, 2016
What tradition, makers' experience and research say about soaps like this, each labelled for what it is. It is not medical advice, and no soap treats a skin condition: if you have one, ask a doctor or pharmacist.
The oils
| Oil | Share |
|---|---|
| Shea Butter | 60.0 % |
| Coconut Oil | 30.0 % |
| Castor Oil | 10.0 % |
How it is made
| Process | Cold process |
| Alkali | NaOH |
| Superfat | 6 % |
| Water | lye water at 33 % |
| Iodine value | 43 |
| INS | 162 |
How to make this
A method is a convention, not chemistry. These are the steps most makers follow and the reasons they give.
Before you start
- Goggles and gloves, and nobody else in the room who does not want to be.
- Weigh the oils.
- Weigh the alkali and the water separately.
The lye solution
- Alkali into water, never water into alkali. The wrong way round can boil and throw caustic solution out of the jug.
- Add the alkali to the water and stir until clear. It can pass 90 °C on its own; let it cool.
The oils
- Melt the hard fats, then add the liquid oils to bring the temperature down.
- This blend is 31 % stearic and palmitic acid, so it will thicken the moment the lye goes in. Have the mould ready, stir by hand, and do not reach for the stick blender.
Bringing them together
- Bring the lye solution and the oils to 32–49 °C, the oils melted and clear. That is the range the books work in, and soap forms anywhere in it: warmer batter traces and gels sooner, cooler gives you more time.
- Shea Butter melts at 33–40.5 °C. Batter that cools below its hard fats thickens without saponifying, which is false trace: keep it warm enough to stay clear, and if it happens, stand the pot in hot water until it clears, then blend on.
- Pour the lye solution into the oils.
- Blend to trace: the batter thickens and a drizzle sits on the surface for a moment before sinking.
Into the mould
- Pour into the mould.
- Cover it. Insulating pushes it through gel; leaving it cool gives a paler, more opaque bar. Either is fine.
- Unmould and cut when it is firm enough not to drag, usually a day or two.
The cure
- Cure four to six weeks on a rack with air all round: the water leaving is what makes a bar hard and long-lasting.
- The weeks are for a hard, long-lasting bar. Whether one is ready to use or to sell is your own check; Watson uses pH strips.
What the numbers say
- Lauric acid 14.7 %
- Myristic acid 5.7 %
- Palmitic acid 4.9 %
- Stearic acid 26.2 %
- Ricinoleic acid 8.9 %
- Oleic acid 31.1 %
- Linoleic acid 4.7 %
- Other 4.9 %
Saturated : unsaturated 56 : 44
Computed from the fatty acids of the fats above. The bands are what the craft has settled on, not chemistry — a bar outside one is not wrong.
Try it differently
25 variationsThe same soap with one thing moved. Each opens in the calculator ready to change again.
- Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Oil) instead of Shea Butter
- Mango Butter instead of Shea Butter
- Kokum Butter instead of Shea Butter
- Sal Butter instead of Shea Butter
- Illipe Butter instead of Shea Butter
- Murumuru Butter instead of Shea Butter
- Cupuaçu Butter instead of Shea Butter
- Tucuma Butter instead of Shea Butter
- 5 % superfat
- 8 % superfat
- Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Oil) instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Cocoa Butter (Theobroma Oil) instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Mango Butter instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Mango Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Kokum Butter instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Kokum Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Sal Butter instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Sal Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Illipe Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Murumuru Butter instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Murumuru Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Cupuaçu Butter instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Cupuaçu Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
- Tucuma Butter instead of Shea Butter and 5 % superfat
- Tucuma Butter instead of Shea Butter and 8 % superfat
Where these proportions come from
Our own construction: a butter-led bar, shea at 60 % with coconut for lather and castor to hold it, to show what a single butter does as the main fat.
A canonical formulation: the proportions the craft has settled on for this kind of soap. Not transcribed from a document, and not copied from anywhere.