Teach Soap

Hi everyone. I'm back with another lye calculator question. I do not quite understand how to use the lye calculator. I am using the calculator on http://www.soapcalc.net. This part is essential to soap making, so I really need to understand how to use this tool.

Here is what I do understand:
-I need to mix hard oils with soft oils to give the soap a good balance.
-I understand what super fatting and lye discount is.

Here is what I don’t understand:
-I do not understand how much of each oil I need to get that good balance.

I want to make a basic recipe using shortening, olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil (76), and essential oil. Lye water would be a part of this too.
I think I understand that each products must equal 100% for a whole recipe.
I don’t understand how I would determine how much of each ingredient I need to use to get the right recipe. I know I need to input the weight of each oil, but how do I figure the right amount of each oil I need?

Thank you for your help and I do not mind sharing my phone number if this can be explained over the telephone.

The only way to get the right percentages of oils is by punching it into the calculator and seeing what the soap qualities look like on the table. But, unfortunately the table's not always correct in what it says.

Formulate in percentages first to figure out what looks good, then you can figure it out in weights.
You don't really figure essential oil into the recipe, so we'll leave that out.
But here's something you could start with:
30% Shortening
30% Olive Oil
30% Coconut
10% Castor

The qualities look like this:
Hardness (29 - 54) ~ 45 = Good

Cleansing (12-22) ~ 22 = Too harsh

Conditioning (44-69) ~ 51 = Good

Bubbly (14-46) ~ 31 = Good

Creamy (16-48) ~ 32 = Good

Iodine (41-70) ~ 52 = Good

So then you'd want to adjust the amount of coconut oil to get it less cleansing. Then you just experiment from there.

_________________
Genny

Also, I just re ran the recipe through the calculator at:
35% shortening
35% olive oil
20% coconut oil
10% castor oil

and it dropped the cleansing to 15, which isn't too bad.

_________________
Genny

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

Genny, thank you so much. I finally understand how the calculator works. I started to play around with the numbers and understand the soap qualities better. I also see how I can experiment to get the desired results.

As far as essential oils, when would I add those. Would I have to discount part of the castor or olive oil to make up for the amount of essential oil I want to use?

Essential oils are not included in lye calc. You add them according to how much you can safely use per lb. of soap.

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

Thank you soapbuddy.

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