Bastille Hand Bar — High-Coconut

Nurture 5 lb Loaf — Cold Process Method

Batch #6 — July 17, 2026

Mold: Nurture Handmade 5 lb Premium (18" L x 3.5" W x 2.5" H liner cavity) Yield: ~18 bars at 1" cuts | Cure: 4–6 weeks (cut date: ______) | Active: ~1 hour Scaled from: oval hand bar (62/28/10 @ 6% SF) at 2.96× — 1,600g oils vs 540g

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

Recipe (as made)

6% superfat — cushions the higher coconut so a frequently-used hand bar won't strip skin. Oil blend 62% olive / 28% coconut / 10% castor (high-coconut hand-bar ratio, not the 72/18/10 body-bar ratio).

Fragrance (as made): 24g Vanilla Bean + 20g Sensuous Sandalwood = 44g (~2.75%, light), run vanilla-forward — this retired both Brambleberry bottles. Vanilla Bean is high-vanillin, so the loaf cures to a deep, uniform brown — expected, on-brand for kraft wrap. This is the Batch #2 scent scaled up.

Lye: confirmed at SoapCalc.net — 62/28/10, 1,600g oils, 6% SF, 38% water → 222.8g NaOH, rounded to 223g, water 608g.

Instructions

Step 1 — Gear Up

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

Step 2 — Prep the Mold

Assemble the silicone liner in the wood frame, push-out holes down; set the clear acrylic lid aside for now. No towel insulation needed — the clear lid handles soda ash.

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

1. Weigh 608g distilled water into the 2qt stainless bowl
2. Weigh 223g 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 ~18ml sodium lactate
5. Cool to ~105–120°F

Step 4 — Oils + Clay

1. Melt 448g coconut oil, then combine with 992g olive and 160g castor in the 6qt stockpot on the induction element
2. Stick-blend 32g kaolin clay straight into the combined oils until smooth — no slurry cup needed
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 loaves — the extra coconut speeds trace — so don't over-blend

Step 6 — Fragrance

1. Pre-mix the Vanilla Bean + Sensuous Sandalwood in a cup, then add at light trace
2. Both are non-accelerating, so a few low-speed stick-blend pulses or a 1–2 min hand stir both work

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

1. Pour into the liner; smooth the top
2. Spritz the top with 99% IPA
3. Seat the clear acrylic lid
4. Leave undisturbed 24–48h (up to 3–4 days is fine)

Step 8 — Unmold and Cut

1. Firm and not sticky before you pull it — give it more time if soft
2. Remove the wood sides, lift the liner out, peel it off the loaf
3. Cut at 1" in the MoldMarket miter box with the bench scraper → ~18 bars. Air-cure clock starts now

Step 9 — Cure (4–6 weeks)

1. Rack with airflow on all sides; cool, dry, out of direct sun
2. 4 weeks minimum. The higher coconut hardens the bar faster than the Bastille loaves, but still cure it out for mildness
3. Label with the batch date

Batch Notes

• High-coconut (28%) hand bar — bubblier, more cleansing lather than the 72/18/10 body bars; the 6% superfat keeps it from stripping with frequent hand-washing
• VB + SS browns dark over cure (high-vanillin Vanilla Bean) — expected, fits the kraft-wrap look; Batch #2 pairing scaled up
• Volume (confirmed): poured at 44g fragrance → ~2,456 mL of batter into the ~2,581 mL cavity ≈ 95% fill; no overflow. 1,600g oils held the line (Batch #3 overflowed at 1,787g)
• Retired both Brambleberry bottles (Vanilla Bean ~9g / Sensuous Sandalwood ~7g left after this batch — corrected 2026-07-17 once Batch #5's unrecorded 11g was identified)
• No coffee grounds

Outcome

• Poured 2026-07-17. Fill computed at 95.2% — the calculator and the by-hand volume check agree to within a few mL.
• In the mold as of 2026-07-17 — cut still blank. First loaf to be cut in the MoldMarket miter box, which has never cut a real loaf; Batch #6's 1" cut is described as a plan, not yet a record.
• When cut: run a poured/cut retro to set the cut date (starts the cure clock), record how the miter box handled a Nurture loaf at 1" and the actual bar count, and confirm the loaf cleared the box's 4.625" × 3.5" opening.
• When cured (~4–6 weeks after the cut): a second retro for the finished-bar verdict.

Resources

• Lye calculator: SoapCalc.net
• Supplies: Nurture Handmade | Brambleberry | Jedwards International (Braintree, MA — local, bulk oils)