Teach Soap

Hi! I am so excited to join this community. I have spent the last few months researching soapmaking. I have been reading blog posts, watching Bramble Berry tutorials, I read a few books and now want to begin my journey soapmaking.

For a reference I am going to try a basic test recipe from The Everything Soapmaking Book:

5 oz Olive Oil
5 oz Coconut Oil
4 oz Almond Oil
2 oz Shea Butter
0.5 oz Castor Oil

5 oz water
2.4 oz lye

I ran the recipe through soap calc pro and it states 4.95 oz water and 2.3 oz lye (it also states 30% water / 7% superfatting), I also ran the recipe through Bramble Berry's lye calc and it stated 5.45 oz water and 2.27 oz lye (it showed 7% superfatting but not percentage of water). And lastly I ran the recipe through the sage's calc and it suggested between 4-6 oz of water and if I wanted 7% excess fat to use 2.3 oz lye (2.4 oz of lye showed 3% excess fat)

My questions are:
Should I still cover my mold with plastic wrap if I plan to insulate?
If I combine my lye solution and oils at 130 degrees do you think this is enough to take my soap through complete gel phase all while insulated? Or do you think this will overheat my soap? I am not planning on using anything else that could make the temp rise my first bars will be sans FO's, EO's, honey etc.
Should I reconfigure my recipe to include beeswax to prevent ash, or do you think the higher temp can possible prevent it using the recipe as is?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

Dawn

The reason why there is a difference is because each oil and butter has a SAP value. The SAP value varies from harvest to harvest and season to season. Some lye calculators take the higher SAP range and some take the lower SAP range. I use The Sage lye calc. I don't need all the bells and whistles the other calcs provide. The Sage also gives me a variance on water and tells me different superfats.

I always superfat at 7-8%. I add all my oils and butters right up front, melt them and let them cool off to about 110 degrees. I combine the lye water and the oils right around this temp. The lye does not discriminate. It will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that any particular oil or butter will end up as your superfat. I add beeswax to my batches and I don't get ash. Beeswax needs to be calculated into your recipe. Higher temps don't prevent soda ash. Higher temps can accelerate trace. Personally, I would not soap at 130 degrees.

You can use butcher paper or wax paper on top. Since I prefer not to gel, I don't cover or insulate.

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

Thank you for the insight! I like the sage calc as well, just as a "almost" new soaper, I found it confusing on how much water to use since it gives a range. If you were adding beeswax to this recipe how much would you add (I will definitely run it through the sage calculator). I want to try both gel phase and not. When you suggested Butcher paper or Wax paper was this meant to go along with insulating? or just the paper by itself?

May I ask why you don't prefer to go through gel phase?


Thanks a million

Dawn

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

Thank you so much!

Dawn