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How do lush make their rapeseed coconut oil soap bars so firm/hard (compared to my mushy not very long lasting coconut rapeseed oil bars)?
I usually use some sodium lactate, sugar and citric acid (for soap longevity/prevention of quick spoilage/DOS from high percentage of soft oils, with extra lye/caustic soda to 'cancel out' acidity, too) and maybe a bit of salt, combined with about 70% soft sunflower, soybean or rapeseed oil, whichever I have a good amount of at the time - with 30% hard coconut oil. I use sodium lactate for added solidity and quicker cutting and unmoulding times, but most of the time it's still extremely soft even a week or two later and is difficult to cut into nicely.
Does anyone have any suggestions to how I could improve my rough formulation? I usually water discount too, to try help with the softness but that often doesn't seem to help all that much.
I would use lard or palm oil and have used lard for soap in the past, but I'd prefer not to use either of those oils although they would probably help with my problem.
. . . .
EDIT: basic recipe/formula I usually use that would be adjusted whenever for upscaling or downscaling:
700g rapeseed oil 300g coconut oil
Somewhere around 200-400g water depending on how I want to water discount
10-20g citric acid and extra lye/caustic soda to adjust for the acid neutralising some of the lye (I don't remember the exact amount rn off by heart, I'd look it up when I needed to)
Lye for a superfat of around 4-6% ignoring the citric acid and additional lye
2tsp-2tbsp sugar or honey (the amount suggested to add varies per pound or kg)
2tsp sodium lactate
Maybe salt, one or two tsp
And fragrance oils or sometimes essential oils, and micas
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