Teach Soap

Hi Everyone,

My name is Angel and I am new to soaping. I am in the process of purchasing my necessary supplies. I am very excited about my new venture.

So, here is my question: I want to make a basic recipe using olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, distilled water, and lye. I want these batches to be 1lb because I want to experiment in small batches first, write down my ingredients, how much I used, and the results. I eventually want to increase the batches to 3lb, 5lb, 10lb, etc depending on the size of the mold I will be using. How do I determine how many ounces of each ingredient will get me 1 lb, 3 lb, 5 lb, of soap? Will a lye calculator help with that?

Thank you.

Run your recipe through a lye calc always! I would also change the ounces of oils or butters to grams, since 0.1 oz. can change your soap to possibly being lye heavy. Make sure that you have an accurate scale. If you want to know how much your mold will hold you can do one of two things. You can put the mold on the scale, tare it, then add water and note the weight of the water. Or you can multiply height x length x width and multiply by 0.4.

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

Yeah, what she said! hehe

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Thank you soapbuddy, but I see that I wasn't clear with my question. If I have a 1lb mold, how would I know how many grams of each ingredient of lye, oil, and water would make up 1 lbs of soap?

Or for instance, I found a base soap recipe on line:

24 oz. olive oil
24 oz. coconut oil
38 oz. vegetable shortening (Crisco)
12 oz. lye
32 oz. distilled water
3-4 oz. any essential or fragrance oil

This recipe makes 8 lbs of soap, but I have a 1 lb mold (or 3 pounds). How would do I figure out how much of each ingredient would make me 1 lb (or 3 lbs) of soap?

I hope I described this better.

Thank you.

Well, my math tells me your recipe is olive oil 28%, coconut oil 28% and crisco 44%.
So go to soap calc on the net, put in your total weight in oils, then you can choose the oils you want and put them in as a percentage.
I could do some of this for you but learning to use the soap calc is good to do from the beginning on.
Also remember if you are going to do a batch as small as 1# you should change to grams. I have never done this size.
I will usually put in 2# of oils and with the lye and water I yield about 3# of soap.
Soap calc will also let you see the expected properties of your soap. Once you have decided on a recipe bring it back to the forum and we can double check it. Once you learn to use a soap calc it is fun and fosters creativity. Go for it!!!!

_________________
Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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

Ah!!! Got it. Thank you.

_________________
Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

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

Thank you!

_________________
Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

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

Frankly using a shoe box is not a good idea. The mass of the soap inside will bow out the sides and you'll end up with weird shapes that are not commerically acceptable. This even happens using a 1L milk carton which is much smaller and has 4-sided integrity. Build a simple wooden box mould, or buy a suitable mould.

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

Yeah, I just got a new pair of shoes last week and thought I could use the box for a test batch since I am still learning how to do this. I had read about a formula for seeing how much soap a particular container could hold because, well, part of my mission in making soaps is to reuse or re purpose as many materials as I can as a way to lessen my impact on the environment (but most importantly my pocket book) and to learn how to be a better consumer

I dont mind what my soap looks like because I can always shave it and shape it, but, my friends and family really do kind of like the rustic look of a strange mass of something that I call soap! lol.

It definitely makes them want to touch it and pick it up...especially the odd shaped ones that will be felted with wool eventually! I even take the brown paper bags from the grocery store and cut the whole thing into long one inch pieces and use those to band recycled and free sticky labels that I have found on craigslist. I do have a couple of really nice wooden molds (8lbs and 10 lbs) that were made for me, but they are too large for me to use for test batches.

_________________
Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

When you read all the 'just starting / newbie' guides out there, one thing that is common amongst nearly all of them is using things like shoe boxes and such to cut down on costs.

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