Allergic to everything so starting from scratch can you help?

[raecraftybruja]

For years I've been interested in making cold process soap. I've always strayed away from it though because caustic chemicals in the kitchen and the amount of math required scared me. Recently, I've decided to finally take the plunge!

But, I have a problem: everyone I know, including myself, is allergic to just about everything! From nuts, coconuts, dairy, gluten, even a large number of flowers, herbs, resins, and the like! Because of this I have to be very careful about what oils and fragrance and/or essential oils I add to my batches.

Luckily, I have ADHD, which happens to come with the super power of hyper focus and fixation! I've researched a LOT and feel like I have a general (noob) understanding of the soap making process. Unfortunately, I can't figure out, for the life of me, how much of each thing to use!

My current soap base:
Olive Oil
Babassu Oil
Shea Butter

I also need to include a few additives to help with things like dry skin, eczema, psoriasis, and the like. My current list of additives is as follows: Kaolin Clay and/or Sea Clay as well as some Sodium Lactate due to the high levels of humidity in my apartment (I worry the bars won't cure properly without it, even though I have a dehumidifier running).

Some Mica colorants and some fragrance oils

I was able to purchase a "Soap Makers Kit" from Amazon that includes two soap loaf molds that are *supposed to be* 46oz.

So here's my confusion/question: How in the world do I figure out how much base oils and clays do I add? I've learned that it is best to measure in grams for better accuracy sooooo do I convert the supposed 46ounce soap loaf to grams to find the final weight of my loaf in order to figure out how much base oils to use? And how much clay per pound of soap?

I will probably have more questions in the future. I feel really silly like this is probably more simple than I am making it, but it happens.

Thank you ahead of time for any assistance you're able to offer. Happy soap making!!

 

[Yooper]

For a case like yours, I’d start with a simple 100% olive oil soap, with a superfat of 5%. That’s it. No fragrances, clays, etc. That does take a long time to age, but it is such a gentle and non-allergenic soap that it’s definitely the safest bet. It’s not recommended to use soap on infants, but I’ve seen castile soap, which is what a 100% olive oil soap is, marketed as a ‘baby soap’.

There are also lots of recipes out there for ’bastile’ soap- basically a contraction of bastardized castile soap, which will be mostly olive oil but have shea butter or another gentle oil in it too and have conditioning qualities but not the texture of 100% olive oil soap.

If you do use additives, use one at a time to ensure that you don’t have a reaction. I use few additives unless for a specific purpose (charcoal for my teenage grandson, pine tar soap for his brother’s eczema, etc).

to figure out the amounts you want to use, well, that is the whole point of the recipe builder. It calculates the amount of water (or goat’s milk or other liquid), and lye for you. It can also take your mold measurements and give you the right sized batch.

 

[raecraftybruja]

Where in the world do I find the mold measurements input location in the recipe builder?? I don't see a place to input that information.

 

[Yooper]

It’s in the top where you are setting up the amount of oils using.
Slide the option over:


And then it opens the boxes to input your mold size:


It can be done by hand of course, but this makes it much easier!

 

[raecraftybruja]

Also to note, I considered going with a pure Olive oil soap for my first make. Unfortunately, I don't feel like it would ever cure. The humidity in my apartment is literally so high that the maintenance team had to lend me a dehumidifier and is constantly making repairs around the apartment. I live in a pretty low income area, it's not a great neighborhood and admittedly the apartment is pretty much falling apart. I take on hefty projects to sort of distract my brain from focusing on the chaos surrounding me.
The humidity level in the apartment was in the 80s before we plugged in the dehumidifier, and it isn't big enough to cover the whole apartment.
Because of the humidity, and the coconut allergies, the first thing I did was to search for a coconut oil alternative. Babassu came up, it's solid at room temperature so that will help the bars to set. Shea butter is similar.
Seriously... We're basically breathing soup here.
In a swampy Michigan.

 

[Yooper]

Also to note, I considered going with a pure Olive oil soap for my first make. Unfortunately, I don't feel like it would ever cure. The humidity in my apartment is literally so high that the maintenance team had to lend me a dehumidifier and is constantly making repairs around the apartment. I live in a pretty low income area, it's not a great neighborhood and admittedly the apartment is pretty much falling apart. I take on hefty projects to sort of distract my brain from focusing on the chaos surrounding me.
The humidity level in the apartment was in the 80s before we plugged in the dehumidifier, and it isn't big enough to cover the whole apartment.
Because of the humidity, and the coconut allergies, the first thing I did was to search for a coconut oil alternative. Babassu came up, it's solid at room temperature so that will help the bars to set. Shea butter is similar.
Seriously... We're basically breathing soup here.
In a swampy Michigan.

I live in Michigan in the summer, and Florida in the winter- we have a very humid climate as well. I still make soap, but it is more challenging for sure. All soap bars will sweat (there is glycerin in the homemade soap which is great for skin, but does attract moisture) but they will still cure.

Ideally the curing and storage places you have would be drier, so maybe a rack near the dehumidifier with a fan could help.

 

[raecraftybruja]

Oh wow! The web browser version of the recipe builder is different!! Wow! Thank you so much!!