soap

Bastille Hand Bar — High-Coconut

Brambleberry 6-Cavity Oval — Cold Process Method

Batch #5 — June 27, 2026

Mold: Brambleberry 6-Cavity Oval Silicone (3.5" L x 2.5" W x 1" H per cavity) Yield: 6 bars | Cure: 4–6 weeks | Active: ~1 hour Basis: Batch #2 oval, rebalanced 72/18/10 → 62/28/10 and 5% → 6% SF for a gentle-but-effective hand bar. This is the recipe Batch #6 was scaled up from

Lye safety — the non-negotiables
  • Safety glasses and nitrile gloves on before touching lye.
  • Lye (NaOH) is caustic — it burns skin and eyes on contact.
  • Always add lye to water, never water to lye.
  • Work with good ventilation — the fumes are brief but harsh.
  • Soap-only equipment — nothing returns to kitchen use.
  • Raw batter stays caustic until it saponifies.

Safety: glasses and gloves before lye · lye into water, never the reverse · ventilate · soap-only equipment · raw batter is caustic until cured.

Recipe

Component Amount Notes
Olive oil 335g 62% of oils
Coconut oil, refined 76° 151g 28% of oils
Castor oil 54g 10% of oils
Distilled water 205g 38% of oils
Sodium hydroxide (lye) 75g SoapCalc-confirmed (75.18); 62/28/10 @ 6% SF, 540g oils
Sodium lactate 6ml (~1.25 tsp) Into cooled lye solution; speeds unmolding
Sensuous Sandalwood FO 11g 2% rate — Brambleberry; warm, earthy, woody; non-accelerating
Kaolin clay 11g Stick-blend into the combined oils before adding lye

6% superfat (up from 5%) — cushions the higher coconut so frequent hand-washing won't dry skin. Oil blend 62% olive / 28% coconut / 10% castor — 28% coconut is the balance point: real cleansing and lather without tipping into a degreaser. Fragrance at a light 2% rate (11g Sensuous Sandalwood); at that load, browning is a non-issue.

Lye: confirmed at SoapCalc.net — 62/28/10, 540g oils, 6% SF, 38% water → 75.18g, rounded to 75g.

Instructions

Step 1 — Gear Up

Glasses and gloves on. Ventilation on. Pre-weigh everything into separate containers.

Step 2 — Prep the Mold

No prep for the silicone oval mold. Set it on a flat surface.

Step 3 — Lye Solution (allow ~30 min to cool)

  1. Weigh 205g distilled water into the 2qt stainless bowl
  2. Weigh 75g lye separately
  3. Pour lye into water — never reverse. Stir until clear (heats to ~185°F, brief fumes — don't lean over it)
  4. Stir in 6ml sodium lactate
  5. Cool to ~105–120°F

Step 4 — Oils + Clay

  1. Melt 151g coconut oil, then combine with 335g olive and 54g castor in the 6qt stockpot on the induction element
  2. Stick-blend 11g kaolin clay straight into the combined oils until smooth — no slurry cup
  3. Bring oils to ~105–120°F, within ~10°F of the lye

Step 5 — Combine and Trace

  1. Pour the cooled lye solution into the stockpot
  2. Stick-blend in 5–10s bursts, alternating with hand stirring
  3. Blend to light trace — moves a touch faster than the 72/18/10 blend from the extra coconut, so don't over-blend

Step 6 — Fragrance

  1. Add the 11g Sensuous Sandalwood at light trace and hand-stir 1–2 min

Step 7 — Pour, Spritz, Insulate (24–48h in mold)

  1. Pour evenly into the 6 cavities; smooth the tops
  2. Spritz the tops with 99% IPA
  3. Bridge cardboard over the mold (risers so nothing touches the soap) — individual cavities cool fast, so insulate to keep gel even
  4. Leave undisturbed 24–48h

Step 8 — Unmold

  1. Firm and not sticky before unmolding
  2. Flex the silicone to pop each bar out — sodium lactate helps
  3. No cutting — bars are individually molded

Step 9 — Cure (4–6 weeks)

  1. Rack with airflow on all sides; cool, dry, out of direct sun
  2. 4 weeks minimum. Higher coconut hardens the bar faster than the Bastille loaves, but the high olive still wants a full cure; soft the first couple weeks — use a draining dish
  3. Label with the batch date

Batch Notes

Outcome

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