Soap Making 101

[okiegirl1]

I always used the market kind ('cause that's what I had) but I never did smaller than 5lb batches. I'z too scared to do such tiny batchs, just for the reason that happened to you. I'm not a real accurate/follow directions type of person, so the leway the bigger batches give me, allow for my scatterbrainess.

 

[me&thegals]

I was hoping someone with actual experience would reply! Okie, just out of curiosity, what's the biggest pound-of-oil batch you have ever done? Did you always superfat for texture or to avoid possible too much lye?

 

[noobiechickenlady]

OTOH, people made soap WAY before digital scales, so who am I to say?

That's what DH said... me too.

I think I may be able to talk my boss out of the old postage scale we still have stuck in the vault. I saw it when I went to grab a new pen. It's digital, and could be FREE! Wish me luck!

ETA, Thank you okie! I'm going to try a larger batch, even if I can't get the scale above.
And, look what I found when I googled soapmaking without a scale: http://www.millersoap.com/soapsfluid.html

 

[okiegirl1]

I was hoping someone with actual experience would reply! Okie, just out of curiosity, what's the biggest pound-of-oil batch you have ever done? Did you always superfat for texture or to avoid possible too much lye?

it was for texture. never had a lye heavy bar. On the recipe I always went in the middle to the higer end for excess fat. (7% - 8%) then I'd drop a small plop of shea after trace before molding. I always got a really good trace first, and never had any seperation. I had a pretty good client base when I closed up shop, so I must'a been doin' something right. I made proably a two or three batches at a time, then would make more a couple weeks later.

I've been out of soapin' for a couple years, so I have to refer back to my mounds of recipes and notes to get real detailed info.

The biggest I ever made was probably a 7 pound batch.

 

[Mackay]

I'm looking at the 3001P

http://under-50.balances.com/


and here's a triple beam. I like triple beams. very accurate

http://www.goldtestsolutions.com/in...oducts_id=24&zenid=3lg9f4ottromkqnpkr5b74adu3

 

[hennypenny9]

When I gave these to my co-workers they really liked them, and I didn't see a castille soap recipe yet, so here! This makes a low to moderate amount of suds, not incredibly hard bar, but is nice and moisturizing, and only has three different oils. "Real" castille soap is 100% olive oil, but I haven't been brave enough to try it.

* 80% olive oil
* 10% palm oil
* 10% coconut oil

Or, to make about 4.5 lbs of soap, you would use:

* 40 oz. olive oil
* 5 oz. palm oil
* 5 oz. coconut oil
* 16 oz. water
* 6.7 oz. lye
* Between 1.5 and 2.2 oz of fragrance or essential oil, according to your preference

Also, I have found this to be helpful. From http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/a/createcprecipe.htm

Each oil will contribute a different quality to the final bar of soap. The qualities can be categorized in four ways:

1. Hard, stable, long lasting - (palm oil, beef tallow, lard)
2. Lathering - (coconut, castor, palm kernel)
3. Moisturizing/Conditioning - (olive oil, canola, sunflower, soybean)
4. Luxury/Super Moisturizing - (cocoa butter, shea butter, almond oil, hemp oil, jojoba)

(Many oils will have multiple characteristics - e.g. shea butter is super moisturizing and makes a very hard bar of soap as well. Coconut is primarily used because it makes great lather, but makes a super hard bar too. Tallow is primarily used as a base oil (hard), but it makes really creamy, moisturizing lather. Etc.)

A basic balanced recipe should have some of at least the first three oil categories - hard, lathering, and moisturizing.

 

[me&thegals]

Thanks, HennyPenny! That looks like a great modified castille recipe, and I have all those oils.

Has anybody ever tried "salt" soaps, where at trace you dump in salt up to a 1:1 ratio of salt weight to oil weight? They're marketed as "spa" soaps and a lot of people apparently love them!

 

[Farmfresh]

I use an old kitchen scale that weighs up to 25 pounds. It is very accurate to the ounce, but I doubt those newer scales are as accurate as my old 1940 one is!

My favorite Castile soap recipe comes from "The Complete Soapmaker" by Norma Coney.

It is 100% olive oil Castile.

52 oz olive oil
7 oz lye
20 oz cold water

This is a great book for the beginner by the way.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

FF, that's the book I was given I would love to find a scale like that! How cool!
Good news, I was given permission to take home the obsolete postal scale from my office. It's digital and measures to 1/100 of an ounce.

Q-I've heard that 100% castile soaps can be slimey. Have you found this to be the case?

Henny, I like that recipe and I have all those oils too

 

[valmom]

Well, I made my first batch of soap! Well, I made it last week, and apparently it didn't work- it stayed sort of soft and fat floated on the top of the mold. I scraped it out and re-batched it today to see if I could get it to work, and it looks a lot better! I didn't realize a small batch would be more difficult than a large batch (duh) so I only went with 1 pound total of oils, figuring it would be less of a mess if it failed.

So, Maybe I have a few bars of soap! Next- try it again and see if I can get it right.