Teach Soap

how do you figure how much of each oil you want to use? Why 24 oz of this and 18 oz. of that? Besides batch size...

If I am going to cut a recipe in half or a quarter- do I just split down the middle? Lye percentage and all?

The sage, which is Majestic Mountain Sage's web site, has a lye calc that I use often, and if I'm not mistaken, BB has one as well. In my opinion, I believe that because of the oil's properties, this is what the percentages are based on. I have seen on this forum, people talk about a calculator that explains the oil's properties and if there is something in particular that you are going for, let's say a bar that might have more lather than another bar, that you have to include castor oil into your recipe. All of the percentages are confusing to me as well, but according to all of the lovely wonderful helpful people on this forum, this soap calc. is the way to go. The only thing is, I don't remember the name of it. Just type soap calculator in the search engine within this forum and you should be able to find it. I hope I was right in my explanation, if not, someone please follow up!!

Sonya

You need to take a look of the properties of each oil and see what they bring to the table ie: castor in small mounts will give you more bubbles.
Anytime you change the recipe; whether oils or the weight, you need to run it through a lye calculator again. You cannot halve the recipe and make it as is.

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

I can spend an hour running variations of a recipe through soapcalc until I get just the qualities I want in a soap - I enjoy the process! It's neat to see how changing the percentage of one oil or changing the type of oil will change the character of the soap. (Yes, I'm a geek. I admit it... )

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

I am just as much of a geek as Ljm! I really enjoy playing with the calculator too and finding how 1% can change something! That calculator is http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp but, as someone else mentioned, BB has a wonderful, easier one, and there are also others. So just find the one you like the best, the one you understand and can use the easiest, then go for it. After time, you may change your preference or use more than one.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I guess i am to new at this to know what oils, etc. produce certain qualities. I have checked out the soap calc. but right now they are only good for telling me how much lye to add. I don't know certain combo's or % to have a inkling of how the soap will turn out.

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

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

soapbuddy. I just read the info on the like you posted. Does it really mean an excess lye at 1%???? to superfat. That is kind of scary to mean sepecially since I recently uped my lye discount from 5% to 7%.

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

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was sure you and many other people have said that about the lye taking what it wants. The subject keeps coming up and I start to doubt my own remembering.

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

I used to add oils at trace until I figured out that there was no point to it. Now I add everything together before adding the lye mixture. Much easier!

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