Teach Soap

Mostly I like it, but how many grains of salt does one need to take with some of soapcalcs results ?

Olden times they made lard soap. Or tallow. Or lard & tallow. (tard soap?)

It was soap ! It cleaned ! Didn't it ????

According to soapcalc, its' cleansing property was negligible. Same for many other items on the list.

But once something is made into soap.....it's soap ! Maybe cleansing isn't such an important parameter on soapcalc...?

You can wash your face with plain water. Maybe they mean "deep" cleansing...?

That's the hardest one for me on soapcalc. I feel like asking about this.

nonaut, I love my lard soap recipe! But it also has coconut, olive and castor oil in it. I think in the old days it may have been just lard, which doesn't clean well by itself.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

tard soap - LOL

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

In olden times soap wasn't as gentle as the soaps most soapmakers produce today. The olden time soaps could be harsh and lye heavy depending on the oils used. It is very interesting to view the different properties of each of the oils listed on soapcalc. You can have a hard bubbly bar, or a soft and gentle bar just by rearranging and choosing different oils. I think it is part of the magic of today's soap.

I DO like soapcalc for the most part. It's fun making weird combos to see what happens and it's helping my learning process a lot. It's a wonderful tool.

I quess I'm just having "issues" with the cleansing properties part.

Seems we've gone from harsh lye soaps and sometimes dubious ingredients in things to a pervasive chemical world where everything is supposed to be safe.

Now more and more people are going back to more natural AND safe.

Hurray for soapmakers !

QUOTE "I quess I'm just having "issues" with the cleansing properties part".

That is where the testing and note taking comes in. I'm interested in conditioning, bubbles, lather and hardness. I attempt to be in the average range for each of these properties in general. Depending on what type of soap I'm making, facial, body, acne and also what exotic oils I might be using. Hope that helps.

I have also been playing with soapcalc. I understand your frustration. I was pretty happy with me basic recipe then when I ran it through soapcalc it got a cleaning of 1. So...........I am retinking my basic recipe.

Yanno nonaut, most people drink beer when watching football. I've never been much of a beer drinker but do enjoy my wine. I can tell you when I read your "tard" soap comment that I blew some of my family label red out of my nostrils. It's a bouquet I've never quite experienced before. After my sinus cavities heal, I'm going to go pull for the Jets.

I take the results of soapcalc with a grain of salt (except lye of course). If you input all olive (castille) soap into it, it doesn't look good on paper, but lots of people love it for its gentle properties.

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

Well hmmm...I was thinking for example that for cleansing a range of 12-22 meant 12=FAIL and 22=redundant, un-necessary. But if they mean 12-22 is the OPTIMAL RANGE then 11 isn't FAIL, it's just getting pretty weak about cleansing. That would be OK for a dry, not oily face, I think.
I forgot it wasn't all about faces, too.
The "points" range is so much bigger for the other categories. Seemed odd.
Thanks mella and all.

@SuperSoaper: isn't bouquet also referred to as the "nose" ? So you just took it a bit literally...

I finally had a chance to sit down this morning and really get into the soapcalc page and had a blast coming up with new recipes and tweaking the ones I've been using. I can't wait to try some of the variations I printed. What a great resource.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!