Teach Soap

I've been working with MP soap for a while now and love it. But I'd really love to get into CP soap too. I've been reading and researching (have both The Soapmaker's Companion and The Everything Soapmaking Book). I wanted to start small, in case the batch doesn't turn out well. Also, I wanted it to be small because I plan on making several batches, so that I can get used to making CP and everything that goes with it. Most of the ones that I'm finding are 4-5 lbs. I looked at AnneMarie's small batch on the TeachSoap.com but they call for hempseed oil which I didn't want to start with. I've scoured the forum for a small recipe but only found one and it was more in percentages.

Does anyone have a good, small batch recipe they'd be willing to share, maybe to test fragrances or colors? Just don't want to waste a ton of soap if the batch doesn't turn out well.

Thanks for your help!!!

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

You can convert any of those % into ounces. Take a look at Kathy Miller soap http://www.millersoap.com/#Soap Contents , run it through a lye calc, then change the total to 16 ozs. Since that's a pretty small recipe, I would convert the ozs. into grams. You will get a better accuracy this way. If you post a recipe, I would be happy to help you with it.

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

Thanks, Soapbuddy. I didn't think about working backwards. I do have a question, which oils are usually the most popular for basic or simple recipes? I see coconut oil,canola oil, olive oil, palm oil, I didn't know what else was popular as a base. And where do most people start with superfat?

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

I do not know your stance on oils or what you have on hand so I recommend you go to this soap calc and tweak your numbers here. If you have an accuarate scale and want small batch I'd go for 500g thats what I usually do. Like Irena I like my superfat at 7% I dry out quickly too and I feel like I get tons of bubbles and lather so if you want that change it as well. Play with the percents of the oils you have then click calculate recipe then click view or print recipe and it will give you numbers since your new I'd say try stay in the ranges provided on the chart this time until you get a better feel at experimenting. Walmart has coconut (usually use around 30% no more) olive (best base and very stable nice slow trace use at any level) castor ( I like it use it at 5-10% but not sure "safe " usage is find in health section) safflower and sunflower ( can be used as 20-30%). Lard is great and cheap too I use at less than 20% but not sure about actual use levels for it. Here is my fav soap calc

http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

Good luck and welcome to cp

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

Thank you, to you both! This helps a lot. I'm working on a couple of holiday fairs with my MP and other products and once the holidays are over, I plan on trying my first batches. I also know that I'm getting a fancy schmancy new scale & thermometer for Christmas (I love that my husband is in support of this). But this gives me a good head start from people that soap. I'm learning a lot from my books, but it's good to hear it from multiple sources!

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

The first recipe I ever made is based off Bramble Berry's beginner recipe using equal parts Canola Oil, Palm Oil, and Coconut Oil. Except I subbed Canola Oil with Olive Oil.... so I ran it through the lye calculator again because that changed the water/lye ratio.

I went ahead and ran the following recipe through the lye calc with a 5% superfat and posted it for you. Because you're working with a very small amount it's good to use grams for better accuracy. This is a 2 pound batch. If you cut 4 oz. bars that gives you 8 bars. If you want to make a larger or smaller batch then just use the percentages and input them into the Bramble Berry calc and you will get different gram amounts.

Coconut Oil (76 Degrees) -- 172.65g -- 28.0%
Olive Oil -- 221.98g -- 36.0%
Palm Oil -- 221.98g -- 36.0%
5% Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) Amount -- 87.819g
Grams of liquid recommended -- 203.48g
Yields -- 907.90g (or 2 pounds)

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Soapmaiden (Natalie)

If you have the Everything Soapmaking Book, she has a recipe in it that is really nice using just olive, coconut and castor oils. It's also listed for a 1# batch. That was the first soap I made and I still use that recipe, but without the castor, because if you superfat at 7%, you really don't need it. It makes a nice bar with lots of lather/bubbles. Just run the recipe through Soapcalc.net or another lye calculator before using it. Good luck on your first batch!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Bramble berry had this on Lovin soap and i have used this recipe numerous times and it is great. I have tweaked it with some nice butters. I ran it through a soap calc to make sure I was right on the lye. It lathers great and is mild.
http://www.lovinsoap.com/1359-2/

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JULIE

The Lord is my Shepard