Teach Soap

I found a recipe for pumpkin soap that has actual pumpkin in it. Would love to try it but want to cut the recipe down.
I can figure out all the oil oarts with soapcalc but how do you figure out the ratio when adding something extra to
your soap? (not just pumpkin..)

Basically wondering when you are creating/trying a new recipe how do you know how much to start with (pumpkin,
cucumber etc)?

Thanks

What is the original recipe and how much pumpkin are they using?

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

20.5 oz Coconut oil
22.4 oz olive oil
18 oz palm (which I am converting to lard)
4 oz shea butter

9.5 oz lye
16 oz water

8 oz canned pumpkin
16 gm grapefruit seed extract
4 - 6 oz pumpkin pie fragrance oil

My mold holds a total of 35 oz

that's a lot of pumpkin for that recipe. i'd use more like 22 oz of water, and cut the pumpkin back to 4 oz max. since you're resizing the recipe to roughly half, you're going to end up with about 2 oz of pumpkin. as a general rule, you want your water amount to be at least twice the lye weight, just to insure that the lye dissolves completely.

while i'm at it, they're high on the FO - i think 4 oz should be the max for the original recipe size. that's 1 oz per pound of oils, which is kind of a handy guideline for the upper limit on most fragrances. with something like "pumpkin pie" there's a good chance it's going to have a spice component, which will be more likely to speed up trace and overheat. you can probably go a good deal lighter, say .7 oz ppo, and still have a nice strong scent.

and ditch the grapefruit seed extract, it isn't going to do a darn thing in this formula except cost you money. they probably have some idea that it's going to preserve the pumpkin, but that's not true for a number of different reasons.

man, i'm just full of opinions. lol.

_________________
http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

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

Well while we're at it with opinions does anyone have a clue if this should have some type of use by date, or if it needs a preservative or something to keep it from well I dono molding? This is very interesting!

_________________

~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

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

as long as any added veggies or fruits are well pureed and mixed, the shelf life is the same as any other soap. chunks get NASTY. and soapbuddy's right, i wouldn't do it with M&P either.

_________________
http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

When you are making up your own recipe and want to add stuff like this is there a general rule
of thumb to start with? (ex 1% 1 tbsp etc)

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

Thank you soapbuddy and thank you magic. How cool is that the pumpkin saponifies!

Does pureed pumpkin add special properties to soap, lather or feel, or is it used as an aesthetic touch like color?

_________________

~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂