I’m not happy. With my CP Recipe that is. I’m almost happy. I’m close. But I’m not there yet.

A few months ago now, I did a major overhaul of my recipe – taking out Palm Oil and swapping Almond Oil over to Apricot Kernel oil (for those soaps that I used it in). The removal of Palm is for obvious reasons, and I’m very proud to be making palm free soaps. The switch to Apricot Kernel oil was to remove the last of the ‘nut’ oils out of all my products. Chance of allergy reaction with Almond Oil was slim, but still, better to be safe than sorry.

About a month or so ago, I tweaked my recipe to swap over my Shea Butter for another kind of butter (actually, two!). Shea was just too grainy feeling for my liking.

Yet now, a mere month later, I sit here with my Soaping Software struggling to cope with the ten different recipe options vying for their spot on the ‘this is what we will be’ results graph.

Why? Bubbles. All because of bubbles.

I have good lather, but I don’t have enough bubbles. I want more bubbles!

I decided to make up a spreadsheet with all the different oils I can obtain relatively easily, and started outlining the different variations.

Batch #1 – Oils 1, 2, 3 and 4
Batch #2 – Oils 1, 2, 3 and 5
Batch #3 – Oils 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Between the different oils, the oils with similar qualities, the butters, the additives, etc, I’ve come up with 18 different combinations. Assuming I’ve missed a couple and we’ll call it an even 20.

Um…

20…?

Right…

Now, I can make 20 batches, that is not the problem. And I’ll even cut them into small sample sizes in the hopes they can be tested a little sooner. I really don’t envy waiting an entire 5 weeks just to start testing however.  I’ll go crazy!

But once they’re cured? What then? Yes, I can force myself into multiple showers (an hour!) to try and get all the bars tested. After all, each bar would require at least two, if not three or four showers to really gauge the use of it. But what I’m struggling with is how on earth I could possibly expect others to help me test TWENTY bars of soap!! Sure, everyone loves a freebie, but still. Even testing only once a day (for those that only shower once a day), times minimum two days per bar to test. That’s FOURTY days of testing. OVER A MONTH!!

*starts to count on fingers….* A week to make all 20 batches, five weeks to cure, a week to post out, and another four to five weeks of testing. EEP! And what am I meant to do in the mean time? Continue with the recipe that really, now that I’ve decided to improve it, is failing in impressment levels? Or just, and don’t even say it out loud… not make soap at all?!

I had thought five. Five bars to test. Not TWENTY!! I think I’m going to have to break it up into two, possible three testing phases. The first being the primary oils to see which combination of those I prefer. Then test by swapping similar oils to see if one is better than the other, and the third being the butters.

Granted, I could just google until I come across the “omg I have the perfect recipe and have posted it online for the world to see” recipe, because, you know that happens so often. People spend months and months perfecting a recipe they feel is the best, and then hand it over on a silver platter to every betty boo who wants to make soap and rake in all the cash!

*whispers* That was sarcasm by the way…

No, I want to formulate my own recipe. I want to work out my own percentages, with the ingredients that I prefer for varying reasons, and with no palm! I’m completely ignoring the fact I have since found someone who get’s Palm Oil from sustainable sources (round table of we love apes or what ever they are called)… It’s hard, it almost hurts physically as palm can bring such wonderful features to a soap. But I will remain vigilant in my protest on all things palm. *stomps foot in defiance while whimpering that it’s just not fair!*

Now… to somehow narrow these 20 down to, well, at least under 10! *groan*