Stop Soap Drag

by Christina
(New Zealand)

I’ve combed the internet and cannot find an answer to why when I rinse off with my soap my skin feels a bit “sticky”, not as in there’s honey on it, but like there’s not a smooth glide…


All has been triple checked with my recipes, lye discount of 5%. Nice hard bar, good lather, not drying ~ really wonderful soap, except this “dragging” feeling.

I tend to use : Babassu 25%, Shea 25%, Olive 25%, Rice Bran 25%; 33% water.

Any ideas? Thank you so much.

Answer:

Your recipe looks great!

To help with making your soap glide rather than drag, try adding in Kaolin Clay to your recipe. Silk peptide is another ingredient that will increase the 'slip' of soap. Both are often used in shaving soaps because of their slippery nature.

I'm also wondering if you may have hard water. I do recall one home I had...way back...that had especially hard water and when showering, it felt like there was a lot of friction when rubbing my skin.

Do a quick experiment by filling a sink with warm water to which you have added 1/2 cup of baking soda. Swirl the soda around until it dissolves. Lather up really well and get your arms all soapy to the elbows and then rinse. Do you get that same feeling? If not, you likely have hard water and short of installing an expensive water soften, there isn't much you can do about that.

If you don't mind baths rather than showers, add baking soda to your bath each time and it will soften your water.

Good luck,
Cathy

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Hard water and soapmaking
by: MargaretAnonymous

I live in Kent in the UK which is an extremely hard water area.I think the solution to hard water problems is to always use distilled water.Its fairly inexpensive if you look around on the Internet ! Hope this helps x

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Answer to why soap feels sticky
by: Jeff

Too high a percentage of shea butter. Typically use 3-7%. Use more and your soap will feel sticky.
Try a batch lowering Shea to 7%.
Replacing with half 9% Castor and 9% Coconut 76.
Most of the properties of your soap will remain the same (hardness, conditioning, iodine) except no more sticky and you will double the amount of bubbles and cleansing properties.

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