Teach Soap

Hi all - Here's another superfat question. I'm about to make the plunge into cold process soap making. I have all my materials. I want to add some castor oil in the superfatting process. I have a great book on soapmaking, but I'm unclear on one thing. If I add an ounce of castor oil (for the sudzing) effect. Do I include this ounce in my lye calculator before I begin my measurements? Or is this something that is left out of the lye calculator and just added at trace? Thank you.

I'd put it in the lye calculator, that way you can duplicate it or adjust as necessary without having to remember "Oh yeah...that's the batch I threw some of xyz in!". You can use whatever superfat % you choose, like on MMS it gives you a range from 0-10%....on soapcalc, it gives you the option to create the superfat % you want and gives you the exact lye calc for it.

Calculate all your oils or butters up front. You don't need to add it at trace, as the lye will take whatever it wants, up to 48 hrs. later. Add all your oils and butters together at the same time.

If you do hot process, then add that extra ingredient at the end of the cook. In that case that will be your superfat.

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

Thank you vinca leaf & soapbuddy. I will try and figure out how to post a pic of the very first batch! Thanks again, you all are so helpful.

What book do you have? I am always looking for a good one!

I have: The Everything Soapmaking Book, 2nd edition; by Alicia Grosso

Oh and it has lots of recipes in it!

Thanks!

When you check a recipe how do you know how much its superfatted? A lot of books don't tell you, and after todays disaster I will be checking every recipe before mixing. The lye calculators usually ask for a superfatting percentage and depending on that, it calculates differently. The more I read the more confused i get

I'm a newbie at this, but I don't superfat. I enter all the oils that I'll be using. I don't add anything at trace as far as oils go, except for maybe a TBSP of glycerin that I have mixed my color into & FO or EO.

Superfatting and lye discount are same thing. So if you do a 5% lye discount, your soap will be 5% superfatted.
Always run any recipe from a book through a lye calc. Mistakes in soapmaking books have been known to happen.

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

I'm a little confused on superfatting as well. What I've been doing is making a recipe on From Nature With Love's soapulator. On that one it asks for a superfat oil and %. Then I take that recipe and enter it into the summerbeemeadow recipe resizer to fit my specific mold. It only asks for the superfat %, not the oil you're superfatting with. It seems like one is adding extra oil where the other is doing a lye discount. Wouldn't this be like a double whammy? Is there an easier way to do this?
Thank you

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