Soap Makers Help!

[cockadoodlemom]

Lye Calculator Results Oil(s) Selected Amount (oz) SV Lye (oz)

Almond Oil (Sweet) 15 0.1360 2.040
Coconut Oil 10 0.1780 1.780
Olive Oil 15 0.1340 2.010
Sunflower Oil 15 0.1340 2.010
Totals 55 7.840
5% Superfatted Recommended Lye Amount 7.448
Ounces of water recommended 18.150

This sound ok to you MP & NP? instead of wate I am using goats milk

 

[smom1976]

I didnt put any fragrance or EO in my bars.. I wanted to make them for sensitive skin,,,

 

[chiknwhisperer]

un I melted my brand new snowflake mold!

I didn't let everything cool down enough and I melted it

It was going to be my mold for the Christmas presents I was going to give. Oh well I guess. At least I didn't burn down the house or anything

Well I learned my lesson. And I am also going to use an old drawer for a mold as well. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Darn it! I'm sorry that happened. I wonder why that happened? Could it be the added milk that made it heat up so much?

Did you lose the whole batch?

The drawer works great, at least until I can get a nifty one like what MP and Ninja have. The first time I lined it with waxed paper. This last time I tried a trash bag. The trash bag left more wrinkles, but I actually managed to get it more flush than the waxed paper for some reason, so my corners look a bit better. You may need to increase your recipe to fit the drawer. Mine measures 13" X 10" and I'm using about 112 ounces of oils plus the water/lye, and other goodies.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
I would expect this to be a soft bar, until it's cured, at least. I wouldn't try to unmold it immediately after gel & cool-down, and I'd also probably not slice or trim it until it had air-cured for a while after being unmolded. MP might have some other ideas. I can tell you it's going to be a lovely bar for your skin!

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I DID IT!!! It worked! I made chocolate soap.

lol and I didn't melt anything this time. I think that last batch I didn't let it cool down enough before I started mixing them together and I made a big mess. When dh got up he just shook his head and said he isn't taking me to the hospital when I burn myself. I told him practice makes perfect lol. Yeah I can't wait to see how they turn out. I need a bigger scale though if I'm going to start doing this alot,, which I want to. This is fun when your not melting your molds lol

 

[redhead83402]

WOW ~ another thing learned on BYC!! This looked so interesting, I read this whole thread, & now I have also put several soap-making books from my library on hold, so I can pick them up in the morning.

This is something I have always wanted to do ~ I remember going to my great-grandma's house, and seeing her huge uneven blocks of yellow lye soap ~ she used to tell us ~ "don't use that soap, it's just for scrubbing" ~ then she'd point us to smaller brown-ish creamy colored bars that smelled like cookies. I imagine those were the milk-based ones, based on what I've read. Every year, up until she died, at age 91, she would make huge vats of soap. Some, like the yellow, was for scrubbing, ( literally, she scrubbed toilets with it, I saw her do it, with the bar itself, and it WORKED!), & some was for bathing. She would render & save her fats all year round. This is the same grandma that used to grow meat chickens & take them to my grandma's ( her daughter) house, and they would have a chicken-choppin' fest! They both grew huge gardens as well, & not conventional ones ~ their gardens went all over the yard, mixed in with the flowers, the trees, the shrubbery, just everywhere! I remember being in those gardens thinking they were wonderlands. I especially remember the fresh razberries & straight cream we always got as a treat when we visited. Fond memories....

I have always been enchanted by the beautiful bars of handmade soaps, especially the large-ish rough looking ones, they usually smell the best! ;-D I had so much fun with chocolates, I just know soaps will be a delight to make & use ( AND less fattening!!) ;-D
Thanks again, my fellow BYC-er's ~ you guys are just awesome! ( aawww.......group hug, group hug lol ;-D)
~Red

 

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
I would expect this to be a soft bar, until it's cured, at least. I wouldn't try to unmold it immediately after gel & cool-down, and I'd also probably not slice or trim it until it had air-cured for a while after being unmolded. MP might have some other ideas. I can tell you it's going to be a lovely bar for your skin!

I agree with NP. This will be a soft bar initially.

I ran it through another lye calculator - because I roll like that -

Fat Amount(oz wt) % inrecipe
Almond Oil, Sweet 15 27.27
Coconut Oil 10 18.18
Olive Oil 15 27.27
Sunflower Oil 15 27.27
Total Weight 55

% excess fat Lye Amount(oz wt)
5 7.59

For the size of fat batch that you are using, recommend that you use approximately 14 to 21 fluid ounces of liquid.

I would use 16 ounces of goatmilk- it will help with the curing not to be so wet. Make sure the milk is slushy cold. Let the lye mix cool way down - like to 95 - 100 before mixing with the oils. The coconut is your only solid fat (at room temps) it will take this one a longer time to set.

Don't be in a hurry with this one. It will be soft for a while.​

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Great story, Redhead! You told that story so well that I could picture it. You must write that one down for the generations that follow!

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Can I pick some more experienced brains on my soap recipe options? Tomorrow, I'm getting together with a group from the church garden and we're going to attempt to make two batches of soap. One other person in the group has made soap but isn't overly experienced, and you all know that I'm brand new at this. So, this is a bit of the blind leading the blind here.

Can you help me perfect this a bit? We want to do:
* Lemon Verbena with poppy seeds (water based)
* Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey with goat's milk, oatmeal, and honey added. This will be our first attempt with a milk based soap.

I really don't want to mess these up, so any suggestions are welcome!

The first recipe I used was from the TSC, but I backed the SuperFat down to 7% from 10%:

Coconut Oil 35 oz ( 31.25%)
Olive Oil 46 oz (41.07%)
Palm Oil 31 oz. (27.68%)

Total Ounces of oil: 112
Lye: 15.72 ounces (445.7 grams)
Water: 37% or 38.54 ounces

At Trace: Lavender 40/42 EO and lavender buds


I wanted to use some of the other oils I bought - Castor and Avocado. I asked questions here, did some reading, compared recipes (including studying exactly how TSC changes her recipes) etc. I wanted to bump the SuperFat up to about 8%, but do it by adding the avocado oil at trace. I ran the numbers with the Avocado oil added and not added, then adapted it. I found that if I did 112 ounces of oils at 6%, then added 2 ounces of Avocado at trace, that it should come out at about 8%. Did I figure that right? I came up with this:

Coconut Oil 33 ounces (29.46%)
Palm Oil 31 ounces (27.68%)
Castor Oil 8 ounces (7.14%)
Olive Oil 40 ounces (35.71%)

Lye: 15.76 ounces (446.8 grams)
Water: 37% - 38.95 ounces

At trace:
Avocado Oil - 2 ounces
Applejack and peel FO - 2 ounces
Orange peel, cinnamon, and cloves (very small amount)


Can you suggest any further tweaking or special changes to adapt for the milk or to make these even better? I have 1 quart of milk, but can get more if recommended. I also access to safflower or canola oil if you think they'd be a good addition.

We're aiming to offer these toward Christmas to support the garden as it heads into the Spring growing season, so we can't afford a particularly long curing time.