Teach Soap

I've been looking around the forums for a day or two while waiting for my account to be accepted and there are a couple things that I have questions about. 1) does soapcalc account for your superfat % in its calculations? I want to be 100% sure =D 2) How much colourant do you add per pound of fats? I have oxide colours. 3) How do I use titanium dioxide that is water soluble if I only want it for part of the batch? 4) Last but not least... is there an optimal temperature for aging your soap? My room is usually around 16*C (62* ish F), I can use a little oil heater if I need to raise it some, but I prefer it refrigerator cold hehe

Thanks in advance! You guys are so great with advice! So glad I found these boards!

<3 Heather

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

You can use the one at The Sage. It gives you how much of a lye discount (also called superfat) variance. I normally do a 7% superfat. I add everything right up front. I don't add any oil or butter at trace. Lye is still very active at trace and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that any particular oil or butter will end up as your superfat. The exception to this would be if you hot process the soap, then add any "superfat" oil or butter after the cook.

BrambleBerry also has a soap calc, but I haven't used it yet. As far as colorant, start with 1/4 tsp. of oxide per lb of soap. Water soluble TD can be mixed with a small amount of glycerin to make a slurry. Then add that to the soap portion that you want to make lighter. Soap ages best in a coolish and dry environment. My soaps cure at around 76 degrees. Some people use shoe boxes to cure their soap in.

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

Hi, Heather! It looks like SoapCalc's lye calculator has a default superfat of 5%, but you can change it to whatever you want. I usually set my superfat to 7%. The superfat can be found below the "Super Fat & Fragrance" column just above the recipe column.

I use oxides a lot, too, and I would start with a small amount. You can always add a bit more if you need to. I'd say that 1/4 tsp. - 1/2 tsp. per pound of oils sounds about right, depending on how strong you want the color. If you use too much, you may get a colored lather. I usually mix my oxides with a little bit of glycerin to work out the clumps before adding it to my soap. If I want to use two or more colors in a batch, I usually just make one big batch of soap (with all of my oils and fragrance) and then separate out what I want for each color. Keep in mind that some fragrance oils can discolor your soap, so plan accordingly.

My soaps cure anywhere from 70-79 degrees F, depending on the time of year. I live in the southeast US - it gets pretty humid here sometimes, but they do fine. It does seem easier when things are cooler and drier. I think your soaps will cure fine.

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- Jenny -
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Excellent! Thanks for the advice! I can't wait to get a batch of CP going, I suspect I'll be extra newbie and check it twice at day for the first while, just 'cause!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

Ohh goodie! My supplies arrived from Canwax today!! Thinking I'm going to have to make some soap on my day off (Tuesday). So excited! I got some CP tested FO to use and some oxide colours. I also got some green tea extract powder and chamomile powder but I will omit those from the first few batches. Not sure how much of those to use per pound yet either!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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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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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I've done a couple batches of HP now so I know how to watch for trace, and the lye part was easy (I have a BSc and worked with lye a bunch in University =D). Just going to use a little FO I think, probably no colour. Though with my genetics I should be trying the absolute hardest CP possible, fail at it, then get grouchy cause I did NOTHING wrong! =P

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist