Teach Soap

Hello all,

I'm getting ready to make my first batch and I had a few questions.

I have coconut oil, palm kernal oil, olive oil, shea butter, caster oil. I have a recipe I got from a soap making book that uses all but the shea butter. I'm going to stick to my recipe, but I was wondering if there are percentages I should shoot for or avoid? Don't use more than x% coconut oil, or use at least x% olive oil. Is there a site or book out there that give all the benifits or disadvantages of the main oils used in soap making?

I ordered palm kernal oil by mistake. I intended to order palm oil, so I will get some palm oil next time I order. Any other oils I should consider on my next order?

In my first batch I'm shooting for 2lbs. I plan on using a 4qt crockpot to cook it. The molds I made will hold 5 1/4 lbs and 8 lbs. I'm not there yet but would a 7 1/2 qt crockpot be big enough for my 8lbs batch. Thanks for all your help. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.

What feels great for one person, might be drying to someone else. I have the Soapmaker lye calc and use it quite a bit. I plug in my recipe and it will tell me how it compares to their benchmarks. http://www.soapmaker.ca/

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

Perhaps this will help. I printed it up for reference.

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ween rules

Thanks for the links.

Soapbuddy -- is the calculator worth the $90? I have seen a couple of other lye calculator that were free. What does it do that the free ones will not?

Thanks

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

Thanks for the description. I'm not to that point yet. Maybe someday, but not today. Thanks again