Teach Soap

Hi everyone,

I am new here, I joined the forum 2 days ago. My name is Stacey and I live in Australia. I have been contemplating writing this post. I know everyone's a newbie at some stage, I just feel silly, as I'm most certain I've jumped the gun with both batches of soap I've attempted, really not sure if this second lot is going to turn out.

I re calculated a recipe I found on a website with a lye calculator, because the amount the recipe called for was a large amount.
I ended up using:
100ml of canola oil
70ml of sweet almond oil
50 ml avocado oil
70 ml of coconut oil
90 ml castor oil (this is where im sure i stuffed up)

I read somewhere in a recipe that castor oil was only meant to make up 5% of the soap. Does this apply to all soap recipes?

After I made the soap the next morning I read every website I could find, until I ended up with a headache, and it was only then that I read that the oil and lye solution are meant to be at the same temperature when combined. It traced pretty quickly, and took on a texture like stewed apple. I also didn't read that colours were meant to be added into the oils, I tried to add liquid colour at trace, it slid right off the soap.

After the soap had set, the top of it went hard, grey and it looks grainy. The rest of the soap is just a light yellow colour. It cut fine, sort of looked like turkish delight. lol.






Not the prettiest soap, but I'm just wondering, does it look like it is going to be okay to use if it cures properly?

- Stacey.

Hi Stacey.

Congrats on your 2nd batch. Don't be too concerned about how your soap looks. My first batch was a disaster.

In a couple of days you can do a zap test. Just touch your tongue to the soap, if it zaps like a 9 volt battery (giving your tongue a little zing, then your soaps are lye heavy and will probably need rebatching). I usually combine my lye & oils when the temp is below 110 degrees. They aren't always the same temp, but are close. I bring my temps down to between 100 to 105 degrees when working with floral fragrance oils.

I cut these 3 days ago, so I just did a zap test, no zap!

I can't wait to make another batch. Now I have read a lot, I hope the next batch comes out half decent.

I tried to re batch my first batch and it was a complete disaster, it ended up looking like rotten tomato soup .. lol.

-Stacey.

_________________
Stacey - Victoria,Australia.
Photo stream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjuiicix/
Facebook Page:http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Body-Dessert/122830561107347

Congrats on your batch! Do you have any olive, palm or palm kernel oil available? Any butters like shea or mango?
These oils are all soft oils: canola oil, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, castor oil, so your soap will be soft for a while.

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

hi soapbuddy,

I went out and bought some olive oil the other day, and today went out and got some copha (coconut oil), and some solidified animal fat (supafry and another brand). I'm going to experiment with these and see how I go.

I've found a recipe on a website for a small batch of soap, and only calls for olive oil and copha (coconut oil), and you can add some e/o or colour. The instructions are set out well. Will give it a go tonight and see what comes of it

- Stacey

_________________
Stacey - Victoria,Australia.
Photo stream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjuiicix/
Facebook Page:http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Body-Dessert/122830561107347

Hi Stacey and welcome. For your first batch the soap looks very good. My first batch turned out to be decent soap but looked horrible. Sounds like your off to a good start. I think it's better to concentrate on how well your soap performs first. Worry about colors and appearances after you get your recipe perfected. Again, welcome.

Stacey - don't know whether you'd be interested in this recipe, it's from Alicia Grosso's soapmaking book.

These recipes are all 1#:

Olive Oil - 10.5oz Olive oil - 6oz Olive oil - 9oz
Coconut oil - 5.25oz Coconut oil - 5oz Coconut oil - 4oz
Castor .5oz Lard - 5oz Palm oil - 3oz
Castor - .5oz Castor - .5oz

run these thru a lye calculator to get your lye & water measurements, I would suggest not going more than 6% superfat to start out.

I converted the castor to ounces because Alicia has stated to superfat with that, but that's not necessary when first starting out. They are just a tad over 1 pound.

Happy soaping!

Hi Stacey, Just remember we were all new at one time and guess what we understand!

My one little addition is that in 6 weeks all soaps look way better and in 2 months even more well defined, at least that has been my experience. Patience is your best friend when soaping. I was stamping a bunch of old soaps the other day and the textures, frag and look do change over a three month period.

Oh well and yes ALWAYS safety glasses, gloves and absolutely use www.soapcalc

Have a grand time!

_________________

~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

If I could only have one soaping book it would be Alicia Grosso's The Everything Soapmaking Book 2nd Edition. I still have many pages marked and refer to it frequently.

Spotted Cat I'm having trouble reading the amounts of the oils you were sharing, is it my computer?

_________________

~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Must be your computer cuz I can read them. However, if you have Alicia Grosso's 2nd Edition book, they are in there - Chapter 9, Cold-Process Recipes: recipes start on page 116

This is what your post looks like to me. It does look a little confusing.

Olive Oil - 10.5oz Olive oil - 6oz Olive oil - 9oz
Coconut oil - 5.25oz Coconut oil - 5oz Coconut oil - 4oz
Castor .5oz Lard - 5oz Palm oil - 3oz
Castor - .5oz Castor - .5oz

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

I don't have the book yet. It's due to be delivered tomorrow. Yea - a package. Without the book, I'm guessing that these are 3 recipes with ingredients listed in columns? Probably a few spaces or tabs would clear things up. Can't wait for the book. Seems I have every soap book but this one. They've replaced the cookbooks I used to read at bedtime now that I'm making more soap than meals.

Wow - Soapbuddy, that looks totally different than what is showing. I post 3 recipes and spaced them with the tab button, apparently that didn't show up in the final post. Let me post it again

Okay here goes - 3 soap recipes from Alicia Grosso's book alittle modified as I don't use TBSP as suggested. These will be alittle over 1#

Recipe #1

Olive Oil - 10.5oz
Coconut oil - 5.25oz
Castor oil - .5oz

Recipe #2

Olive oil - 6oz
Coconut oil - 5oz
Lard - 5oz
Castor oil - .5oz

Recipe #3

Olive oil - 9oz
Coconut oil - 4oz
Palm oil - 3oz
Castor - .5oz

Run thru lye calculator to get lye & water amounts. I hope this is clears it up. Just wanted to give you some simple recipes to work with and hope these help you out Stacey.

That looks better.

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