Teach Soap

Newbie need help with this recipe a recipe (found on the internet) I am trying to cut in half.

44 oz tallow ------------to-----22 oz tallow
20 oz olive oil --------- to-----10 oz olive oil
20 oz coconut oil ------to-----10 oz coconut oil
12 oz lye ------------- to----- 6 oz lye
32 oz water ------------ to-----16 oz water

I ran this though the lye calculator (for the half batch) at BB and for the smaller batch came out to:
6.22 oz of lye
13.86 oz water

Why the small difference in the lye? And why less water?

And can I add one oz of EO to the half batch? If so do I add 2 oz of water?

Can I add one tabespoon of cinnamom for color?

Thanks so much for any help or suggestions! I am new to soaping! This will be my second CP soap.

I get 10 to 16 fluid ounces of water. 6.22 ozs. of lye is only 1% superfat. Your soap could end up lye heavy or extremely drying. I would do 7% superfat which is 5.8 ozs. of lye. Yes, you can add EO to it. Don't add more than the maximum amount of water, which is 16 ozs. Adding extra than recommended water can make the soap soft and it would take much longer for the extra water to evaporate.
You can add cinnamon, but be careful. It could be irritating.

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

Soapbuddy thank you! So Superfat is the amount of lye you add? The more lye the harsher the soap? I think I have alot to learn.

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

My preferred method of resizing recipes is to calculate the percentages of all my oils. I use SoapCalc, and once I have the percentages plugged in, then I can just change the batch size and Soapcalc figures all the differences in amounts of oils, lye, and water for me. I've never used the BB calculator, so I don't know how that one is set up.

It seems to me I read something a long time ago about why you really can't just divide up the amounts of ingredients (or multiply them, either). I'm thinking it's something Susan Cavitch wrote, but I don't have the information at my fingertips.

As far as the difference in water, I don't know and don't have a calculator handy to determine the water percentage of the original recipe. (Usually the amount of water used to disolve the lye is a percentage of the oils weight.) The BB calculator may have a different default water percentage than the original, which would explain the lesser amount.

You don't need to add extra water with the EO. The amount of EO or FO you add has nothing to do with the amount of water or lye in the recipe. The "oil" in "essential oil" or "fragrance oil" isn't taken into consideration for the lye amount calculation.

Welcome to the world of soapmaking. And remember, there's always something to learn. I've been making soap for about 15 years, and I'm constantly learning new things.

Anita

Okay, I just ran a recipe I did on SoapCalc through the BB lye calculator. Got slightly different amounts on the lye (3.403 ounces for SC versus 3.398 on BB) and water (9.12 ounces for SC and 7.92 on BB)

I couldn't find anyplace on the BB calculator that gave the water discount, so the only thing I can say about it is that it's smaller than the default for SoapCalc, which is 38%.

Anita

I think SoapBuddy covered it all, the only thing that I would add is that, when calculating EO's into a batch, I go with the following recommendations (the Soap Queen uses these too); .7 ppo for normal strength EO;s, .4 for strong ones (like peppermint, wintergreen, ect.) and .8 for citrus ( since they tend to fade). These are general guidelines, but they keep you from over-using, and EO's are not as forgiving as FO's when it comes to irritating the skin.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I just want to say thanks to for all your help. I did make the soap with some corrections and am please with the out come.

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