0 - Why and how to make your own soap?
1 - How: the saponification process
Superfatting your soap means you will use excess oil, i.e. more oil than necessary for saponification. Consequently, not all the oil used will be turned into soap; some of it will remain as oil.
1 - How: the saponification process
Superfatting your soap means you will use excess oil, i.e. more oil than necessary for saponification. Consequently, not all the oil used will be turned into soap; some of it will remain as oil.
When you use any detergent, shower gel, or even
homemade soap, it destroys the skin's protective film, which takes a few hours
to reconstitute. Washing too often will weaken your skin. When your
skin is dry for example, it's actually better not to wash - with soap or gel -
the dry and sensitive parts every day rather than trying to fix them with cream
afterward.
The oil contained in superfatted soap temporarily
replaces this natural film by leaving an oily (but not greasy) film on the
skin. This and the natural glycerine contained in cold process soap make homemade
soaps very good for the skin although their Ph is a bit higher (around 9) that
the skin.
Superfatting...
There are two different methods to superfat a soap:
basically before or after the trace. The trace is the moment you know
saponification has started. After this step, you are supposed to add colors,
scents, and, if you chose to do so, superfat oils.
- ... by a lye reduction
You want to use a given amount of oil and from that
information, you will adapt the quantity of lye to use to make it fit the %
of superfat oil you want (see paragraph on The Sage). It means you will use all
the oils of your recipe right from the beginning.
- ... after trace
By superfatting after trace, you have two different
amounts of oil in your recipe. Let's say that you want to make a batch with 500 g oil, this whole
quantity is meant to be saponified: no lye reduction here since you want a 0 %
fat excess. However, you will add the superfat oil later, after the trace. For a 5 %
fat excess, you will add 25 g of oil. You will actually use 525
g of oil in total.
In the first case,
with a lye reduction, the untransformed oils remaining in the soap will be the
same as in the recipe, with the same proportions. However when superfatting
after trace, one considers that the oils added before trace will be entirely transformed
at the end of the process; the only actual oil remaining will be your
superfat oil.
The advantage of
such a method (after trace) is that you choose which oil will (or will not)
remain on your skin after showering. When I use lard, I don't want it to be one
of the superfat oils (which it would be with a lye reduction). Same thing when
you use sensitive oil: it's better to have them transformed, and not remain
as oil. Your soap could go rancid over time (read more on oils you can use).
I actually use a
combination of both methods: a lye reduction so as to have a 1 % fat excess as
a safety precaution, then I add 5 % of the total oil weight which makes a 6
% superfat.
what are the best oils for superfatting??
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Suzana