Teach Soap

First off: Thanks for letting me be a part of the forum!

My question is why do lye calculators only add up the fats when they give you the total amount of the recipe. I may not be asking in the right way, but if there are 48 ounces of fats/oil and you need 18 ounces of water and 6.75 ounces of lye, why does the calculator not show the full weight of the recipe? Should the weight not be 72.75 ounces or approximately 4.5 pounds?

I have the hdpe molds that make 3 lbs CP per mold. I don't really want any overflow to place in another mold. I know soapcalc.com doesn't give you the option to resize the recipe but thesage.com allows the resize. Thanks in advance!

Wait, maybe I do have one more question. I bought a kit from the Soap Barn and they recommended only using 1 oz of fragrance for 3.25 lbs of soap. I know this is a little low (?) but the smell is wonderful - Fuzzy Navel! I tried some fragrance I got from The Candle Makers Store with the same recipe and only used 1 oz - (1 batch Plumeria and then1 batch of Sweet Pea/Peony) , but the smell isn't as strong, not even close. I was a little disappointed in these 2 batches.

They add up the fats only because some people discount their water. If you want to know exactly how much your mold will hold, go to Summer Bee Meadow Lye calc and input your normal recipe. Then towards the bottom, there is a portion for imputting the length, width & height of your mold. Click recalculate and it will give you how much soap that particular mold will hold.

As far as fragrance, 1 oz. for a 3 lb. batch is not enough. Minimum that I would use is 0.5 oz. PPO. So if you have a 3 lb. batch, that means you would need a minimum of 1.5 ozs. of fragrance. I normally use about 0.7 PPO. So, for me, I would have used 2.1 ozs. Be aware that some Peach fragrance fade; badly.

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

Sounds like you will be just fine then.

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

One of the other soapers on this forum told me about Summer Bee calculator. Its great! After you put in you recipe, then it will give you the option to resize. I love this calc. Here's the link.

http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/content/ ... pe-resizer

Happy Soaping!