Teach Soap

Hello,

I am very very new. New to soaping and new to this forum! HI!! I have been making medicinal salve for 3 years. I grow my own herbs for that and of course veggies as well (but not for salve). Due to allergies in the house we have had to go alcohol freeeeee. I am now forced to do what I have always wanted to do, but have been scared to do and that is make my own cold processed soaps. I have already bitten the bullet of doing my first batch which came out really nice. I did it in a silicone muffin pan. I then ordered supplies from bramble berry and a few other places as well. I had looked into molds though and they are so expensive so I designed and built my own. I built a multi loaf cutter with guitar strings as well. It will hold a 355.324675 fl oz batch thus will be 22 lbs of soap. I do realize as someone who is new and hasn't even made a loaf yet, it is a bit over zealous to go big to start.... oh well lol. Here is why I am posting this though. I have a recipe but with that recipe I am a bit confused about fragrances. I ordered an alcohol free fragrance but I have noticed not many places if any state what the base oil is for these fragrances. I know the flash point 175 but how am I supposed to calculate a mystery sap value? Would I want to calculate my fragrance into my superfat because of this? And realistically what % of fragrance would you want to add to your recipe anyway? On all of the lye calculators I have run my recipe into fragrance is completely separate, however I can't find any recommendations online. I want it to be scented but I don't want it to be overpowering either. I made that mistake with a body butter I made and it came out smelling like a patchoulie pine forest had been freshly cut down haha. I make herbal oil infusions for my salve so I am now working on several different floral fragrances of my own in the kitchen so once those are ready since i made them i will know what their sap value is. I would like some advice. Except please don't advise me to not use my big mold to start out with because I am going to do it anyway. The cool thing about it though is I have wooden dividers if I choose to do a smaller batch. Anyway any advice minus my batch size will be very appreciated!!!

Pure, manufacturer's grade fragrance oils do not have alcohol. Alcohol would make your soap seize.
Fragrance oils do not have a SAP value. They are calculated by the total amount of oils or butters you use.
Each essential oil (or fragrance oil) has a safe usage rate. There is no one size fits all.
With that said, I use 0.5 to 0.7 oz. per lb. of oils for most of my soaps.
Be aware that some florals can make your soap seize and some spice essential oils can too.

I know you are set on making a large batch, but will you know what to do if something wrong happens?
False trace, acceleration, seizure, separation, oil seeping, etc...
That would be a lot of soap to loose.

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

Your infusions will not come out in your soap. You need essential oils or fragrant oils. They don't really have a "base", and for all intents and purposes you can consider them to have zero SAP values. Fragrant oils can cause problems like severe trace acceleration, discoloration, ricing, and other issues. Therefor it's best especially for large batches to use a fragrant oil that is known to YOU to be well behaved. You'll waste a ton of supplies if you haven't had experience with the various fragrant oils you intend to use for a big batch. I can't count the number of times I've purchased a fragrance oil based on the positive product reviews about its behavior only to have a terrifying experience. Floral type fragrances in particular almost always cause bad things to happen.

Lacking experience, it may be best to stick to essential oils rather than fragrance oils for now. Lavender, Cedarwood, Lemon Grass, Patchouli, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, and a list too long to mention here, all stick really good and well-behaved for beginners. How much you use depends on the EO you choose. Some you can go up to 5%, others like clove or peppermint should be MUCH lower than this.

Other than your mold and cutter, have you taken care of the logistical and equipment problems for making a single 22lb loaf yet? If you haven't the results might be catastrophic. Overheating is the biggest issue with a mass that large and could have implications that go far beyond just wasting supplies. Have you contacted your house insurance company to find out if you'll still be covered should the worst happen making a batch like this? If so, your insurance company is a lot more kind than mine is!

I won't question why anyone would need a loaf this big (perhaps you only have time to make soap once every 10 years), but I'd definitely advise you to get at least 10 or 20 batches under your belt before you even think about doing anything larger than a few pounds. And if you're thinking of selling... well selling soap without having considerable experience with many batches is dangerous, unethical, and frankly hurts the image of handmade soap for those who've worked years to perfect their craft.