Teach Soap

Soapbuddy mentioned in "If you are a newbie to CP soap, please read"...about oils that make soap hard or soft and about shelf life.

Since I am a total newbie and I am trying to research everthing before I make my first batch of soap I thought you could all help.

What are some of the butters and oils you use and what is it that they do for your soaps? How do they smell? Also I have read about FO heating up the soap? Am I understanding this right? What makes that happen? I've also read about some FO discoloring. How do I find out which ones do this?

Sorry for all the but I am in the research phase of soap making and I am sure I will have lots more before I actually make my first batch of soap. Thanks to all of you for the help!

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~Tina~

Great questions and I know I don't have all the answers, but a book that helps me a lot is "The Soapmaker's Companion" by Susan Miller Cavitch. She provides an excellent explanation of the composition of common oils and butters and how they affect the soap and soap-making process.

I buy all of my fragrance oils from Brambleberry because they test each one in both M&P and CP soaps and will usually note on their website if an FO causes CP soap to trace quickly or if it will turn your soap brown.

Personally, I like use olive oil, palm oil and coconut oil (no more than 30%). I also use castor oil at 5% for extra bubbles. Then, I vary the recipes or superfat with different oils and/or butters, such as sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, mango butter, cocoa butter, etc.

Have fun and be safe!

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Catie Beth

There are many oils and butters that work well in soap. It's a matter of personal preference and a balancing recipe. I suggest that you get the Soapmaker program and play around with it. There are some recipes in there that you can compare yours with. I added a post about the shelf life of oils here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3800
Some books, like the one above, suggest adding water to the lye. Please don't do it!!! Always add your lye to the water. I believe that error has been updated in subsequent printing, but some of the older editions out there still have this mistake.

Add all your oils and butters at the same time. Even at trace, the lye is still quite active and it will take what it wants. There is no guarantee that a particular oil will end up as your superfat, unless you add the oil after the cook (for HP).

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

Soapbuddy - I'm glad you mentioned about adding lye to water and not vice versa.

I would also suggest viewing SoapQueen TV's videos about making CP Soap, as she does a good job going over the safety issues. About.com also has some videos about making CP soap.

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Catie Beth

Thank you Soapbuddy and Cathe. I will get the book and thanks for the link to shelf life of oils.

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~Tina~

Alicia Grosso Soapmaking book is a good one.

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