Teach Soap

Hi Everyone

I'm Ange from New Zealand!
I joined your wonderful forum some weeks ago and have done lots of reading in preparation for making my very first batch but still have a few questions before I start. I would be most grateful if anyone would be able to answer a few questions for me

I finally decided on two recipes I would like to make and ran them both through the Bramble Berry Lye calc, as I wanted to double check it I then ran them through SoapCalc but got different amounts for the water and Lye (both recipes were 5% super fat) Below are the recipes I ran through and I am working in grams.

Recipe 1
7% Castor
13% Cocoa Butter
20% Coconut
30% Olive
20% Palm
10% Shea
BrambleBerry said 137.902gm Lye & 330gm water
SoapCalc said 138.128gm Lye & 380gm water

Recipe 2
10% Sweet Almond
5% Castor
20% Coconut
15% Olive
25% Palm
25% Rice Bran
BrambleBerry said 136.372gm Lye & 330gm water
SoapCalc said 136.759gm Lye & 380gm water

I noticed there is not too much of a difference but my question is which one do I go with? Also do you think my recipes look ok? I have noted that soapcalc gives you a suggested range for the soap quality of your recipe and just wanted to know if it is important to adjust your recipe to fit in the suggested ranges? I have read a bit about the different hard/soft oils so have taken that into consideration when building my recipe but as I am not experienced I would love some feed back to see if I am on the right track.

The other question I have is about the best soap temp, with all the reading I have done I have found soaping temps vary a lot between soapers....could you please advise me what the best temp would be? (I will be working in Celsius not Fahrenheit)
My last question is about GEL and was wondering if you could clarify this for me please.......If I want my soap to gel do I insulate and keep warm? If I don't want it to gel do I keep cool? If I didn't want it to gel do I have to put in the fridge/freezer or leave out in a cool place?

Thanking you in advance!! I would very much appreciate any advise!

I'm new too, but I'd say go on the safe side and use the recipe that uses a higher water to lye ratio.

A slight variance in water is not critical. On the second recipe, sweet almond is considered a soft oil, so that recipe might come out soft.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

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Ange

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Ange

FYI - different soap calculators use different SAP values for the various oils so that could account for the different lye/water amounts in your recipes. It doesn't mean one is wrong. Find a calculator you like using and use it for all of your recipes.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Ange