Teach Soap

I'd like to make a castile baby soap for someone I know for Christmas, so I'm thinking I should make it now to give it plenty of time to cure. Castile soap does take a long time to cure, correct? My question is, how high of a superfat can I go with a 100% olive oil soap? Is 15% too high? I want it to be as gentle as possible for a baby's skin, but I don't want it to go rancid. Also, what is a safe percentage of Lavender EO to use in a baby soap? Thanks, all!

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Olivia :)

I would definitely make the soap now. I make all olive oil castile with a 7% superfat. Depending how old the baby is, I would leave it unscented. Babies under 2 yrs. old need no fragrance.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I love making my baby soap, but will give it a good 6 months to cure. I do anywhere between 6-7 % superfat. But I also add 5% cocoa butter and 5% castor oil. I also take a good water discount to help with the curing. I never color or scent. To make it "cute" I use a stamp to press an image into it and wrap with "baby" colors. I will say I have a number of adult friends that prefer this soap over all of my others.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Thank you!! Great ideas about packaging, Bubbles2!

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Olivia :)

Water discount helps the soap to get harder, but it will not speed up the cure.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Won't the soap be just as cured as any other soap after 4-6 weeks, though? I thought the point of waiting 4-6 months was because olive oil soap is so soft that it needs extra time to get hard, not to cure. Is that not right?

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Olivia :)

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks soapbuddy!

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Olivia :)

Okay, I made the soap yesterday evening and un-molded and cut it this afternoon. I thought I would need to let it sit in the mold for at least a couple of days before it would be hard enough to cut. This soap was quite to the contrary though; it's already pretty hard, maybe harder than my first soap when I un-molded it! Hmmm, I thought castile soap is usually very soft. I hope I added all the ingredients correctly.

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Olivia :)

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Thanks ljm1180! That makes sense, I feel better about it now!

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Olivia :)

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I made castille (100% olive, 8% SF) 2 years ago and it is still getting better with age! It now makes a pretty dense lather rather than a slimy lather. Mine was ready to cut within 12 hours of making it when my other soaps usually take 2-5 days!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Oh, wow, 2 years? I don't think I could wait that long! That's like a luxury soap! Maybe I'll try that with one of these bars I just made...

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Olivia :)

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!