Teach Soap

How do you input into a lye calculator types of milk or carrots etc?

That stuff does not react with lye so it won't calculate it. I believe, concerning milk, that you treat it just like water but you should take steps necessary to keep the milk from spoiling like soaping cool and using a bowl of ice to keep the lye solution cool. After wards putting the loaf in the freezer would help to keep the milk from spoiling. Another solution is to mix a 50:50 lye water solution, let it cool completely, then add your extra pre-measured milk.
Some people say they never have a problem and don't have to keep it cool but I wouldn't trust that because milk does spoil in the heat and I believe it has natural sugars in it that creates its own heat.
I want to repeat that I don't have personal experience with milk though. I am just repeating what I have read.

This is what the calculator does do though for example,
Olive @ .135 , 14 oz
Coconut @ .178, 3oz
Almond @ .137, 14oz
Superfat @ %5

(1-.05)*((.178*3)+(.135*14)+(.137*14))
.95(.534+1.89+1.918)
4.124 oz of lye

The liquid amount you choose for yourself but never go below a 50:50 lye:water ratio and that is if you really trust your scale.
I believe the Brambleberry lady has a video on this I just don't know where its at. Its probably on youtube.
Hope your soap turns out good!

Oh yeah, I just wanted to add one more thing that , to me, is helpful in making soap.
I am still learning every day but when I started I really couldn't connect with the soap. Part of that was because I was using a soap calculator. So, I made my own on a spreadsheet. It took me about 4 weeks to think how I wanted it to present the info and what information and I would need to use to make it easy. I had to learn every thing (I already know how to work a spreadsheet) concerning soap, water, percentages and even what ppt means. Not to mention getting it to tell me how much oil to use if I use a different mold by just plugging in the dimensions.
Now the only thing I use a soap calc for is to see what attributes a particular recipe would have. I haven't gotten my spreadsheet to do that yet but has soon as I find the info on that I will and I will know the facet of that too.

Wow thanks for that I didn’t realise that’s why there was no space on the calculator for milks etc. Your spreadsheet sounds fab I wouldn’t even know where to go about making my own one ! That’s what I like about this forum I’m always learning something new.
Thanks

I got the following recipe from bramble berry then I inputted it into their lye calculator but both were different
27oz olive oil pomace
5 Oz coconut oil
8oz buttermilk
2.5oz carrot purée
4.3 Oz lye

But when I add the coconut oil and olive oil to the calculator it comes up with 4.51 Oz of lye and 10.5 Oz of liquid which would be the total of purée and buttermilk.
Would the lye heavy soap be as a result of the difference lye amounts?

I use The Sage Lye Calc.

Here is what I got:
Coconut Oil 5 15.62
Olive Oil 27 84.38
Total Weight 32

8 to 12 fluid ounces of liquid. (water, milk, juice)
4.2 ozs. of lye for a 7-8% superfat.

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

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

I don’t know where I’m going wrong I want to resize my batch to use in my new mould.
How do I input this info into soap cal so that it is resized?
How do I know how much to increase my buttermilk and carrot purée by?
I don’t know if there is anything else I’m missing but hopefully this is the last query as I’m close to chucking this iPad out the window.

This is what I’ve learned so far.
Original Recipe

10″ Silicone Loaf Mold
27 oz. Olive Oil- Pomace (765g). 84.375%
5 oz. Coconut Oil. 15.625%
8 oz. Buttermilk. (227ml)
2.5 oz. Carrot Puree
4.3 oz. Sodium Hydroxide Lye
2 teaspoon sodium lactate
1.5 oz. Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil



Oils as a %
27 Oz olive oil pomace =84%
5oz coconut oil =. 16%


Dimensions of new mould in
Cm. Inches
L=31cm. L= 12.2”
B=16.9 cm. B= 6.6”
H=5.5cm. H=2.1”

Total volume of mould
12.2. X 6.6 x 2.1 x 0.4 =. 67.6cm3

If the yield of the new mould is 67.6 you multiply each % of oil by 67.6 then divide by 100
84 x 67.6 = 5678.4 =56.78 olive oil

16 x 67.6 = 1081.6. = 10.816 coconut oil

In most lye calculators, there is an option to input your recipe as percentages. Do that. You'll likely need to know the total oil weight, which you do, so input that as well.

Once all that is done, you can hit the calculate button (or whatever it is for whichever version you're using). When that's done, it should tell you how much liquid you need. The original recipe used the carrot puree as about 25% of the total liquid, and buttermilk as the other 75%. So scale those up too, based on your new recipe, given what the lye calculator says.

_________________
~Kelly~

So you’re saying I should in put 84% and 16%


I’m not sure what my total wt of oil is
If I go by my calculations below my overal vol is 67.6. But if I then add my total wt of oils 56.78 + 10.816 it is 67.596. So how can that be I’ve not added my liquid to it yet.?


I tried entering the same info into bramble berry’s lye cal and the sage cal.
Bramble berry asks for the total wt of oils if you select %
The sage cal doesn’t . You add the oz and it converts it to a %.

Does anyone know why I’m getting mixed up?


Dimensions of new mould in
Cm. Inches
L=31cm. L= 12.2”
B=16.9 cm. B= 6.6”
H=5.5cm. H=2.1”

Total volume of mould
12.2. X 6.6 x 2.1 x 0.4 =. 67.6cm3

If the yield of the new mould is 67.6 you multiply each % of oil by 67.6 then divide by 100
84 x 67.6 = 5678.4 =56.78 olive oil

16 x 67.6 = 1081.6. = 10.816 coconut oil

Ah. The 67.6 oz IS your total weight of oils. When you multiply the volume of your mold by 0.4, that's what gives you the oils number. The length x width x height gives you total volume, which would include the liquid, lye, and fragrance.

_________________
~Kelly~

Soaping Soprano, I’m tentatively thinking I’ve got it. ( Hallelujah)
I input 84% olive oil
16 % coconut
My total wt is 67.6


Or. Here’s my hopefully last question.do I input the % or the quantity that I got below or can you do it both ways ?

When I multiplied the % of each oil by the 67.6 and then divided by 100 I got th volume of each oil.do I put in each
84 x 67.6 = 5678.4 =56.78 olive oil

16 x 67.6 = 1081.6. = 10.816 coconut oil

I usually keep my recipes in percentages so I can easily scale them to whatever size I need. But you can input either percentages or weights and it will work the same way.

_________________
~Kelly~

I actually think that big ole mold there is humongous and should take 70 oz. of oil. That is not including your liquid. I hope you have one of those pots on wheels!
Is that mold really 6 inches deep?

Ha ha iwannapple, not the height is only 2.1” the breadth is 6.6” . It’s not a big mould if I knew how to reduce the side of photos I would post a pic! It is a 12 bar mould and I’m so looking forward to making my soap. I wanted to keep it small while I continue to learn.☺️