Soapers?

[Bettacreek]

Just wondering who else here makes soap. I ordered lye (received it last week), and have just now gotten around to making a test batch. I only had 11 grams of rendered tallow (from a jar of canned venison, lol), then put 39g of soybean oil (Wal-mart's vegetable oil). I couldn't calculate the lye (eep) so I rather kind of estimated, same with the FO (mulled cider). Hopefully it turns out, lol.

 

[DuckLady]

This is a great lye calculator
http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

I used to make my own soap, but got out of the habit and now only buy hand crafted soap.

 

[Morgaine]

Congrats on your first batch!

You should always use a lye calc (even if someone gives you a "tried n true recipe) because you don't want a lye heavy bar. I love soapcalc.com

We have a good group of soapers here, link is in my siggy.

 

[Bettacreek]

I used another soap calc, but, my scale is a postal scale, and isn't always accurate when you're weighing 1 or 2 grams. With such a small "batch" (50g, filled two ice cube holes in an icecube tray, lol), it only needed 2g of lye.

 

[Hoosiermomma]

I would love to start making soap, especially goat's milk with oats and honey. Does anyone have a 'recipe' that doesn't use lye? I bought some soap off of a wahm once and she didn't use lye at all. I can't exactly remember what she put in there but it was more on the soft side (for lack of a better phrase) than the soaps made with lye. Any ideas on what she could've used?

 

[Bettacreek]

It could have been a melt & pour base soap. That's honestly the only thing that I can think of. It still uses lye, you just don't personally use it, if I remember correctly.

 

[Morgaine]

Quote:
Hmm, well if there is no lye, there is no soap. It could have been a detergent bar or like Bettacreek said, melt and pour base.

Hoosiermomma- If you are interested in learning more, millersoap.com is an excellent site with a lot of great info. Read on there.

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, I ditched the first batch. I made another batch, 1 part bacon grease, 2p heavy cream and 3p soybean oil. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to scent it, and, it didn't get poured into a mold, because we ended up making a split decision to take the whole household spotting, so, it's molded in the shape of a bowl and it has a spoon in it, lmao. But, it does work! I'll have to melt it down, add scent and mold it today. But, I'm super excited. Now I'll have to order some other soaping supplies and get to work! Hopefully I can make x-mas presents this year, or even sell a few bars to get some cash for x-mas presents!