Teach Soap

Hi,
How do I decide how much MP base I need to melt & color and add fragrance to make say a 1" layer in a mold or to fill the whole mold?

I usually just wing it, but I want to be more exact.

einnoc

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"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

When I want to figure out something like that, I would fill my mold with water to the level I want it then pour that into a measuring cup. Now you can figure out how many cups or fractions thereof you need of MP. Typically for me, 1 cup of MP is about .55 lbs of soap. Don't add water ontop of soap already in your mold to figure this out. This is how I figured out how much MP soap I needed for the pink layer in this soap:


And the rest was a guestimation based off of 2.5 lbs used in the entire loaf.

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Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

length x width x height x .4 should get you pretty close. Or you can do it without math by pouring water into your mold and then into a measuring cup.

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

Thank you, ljm1180 & tcmatteson,
tcmatteson, this soap is so beatiful!
Did you pour each pink on a slant until it hardened and then pour the green in the middle?

It is very nice!
einnoc

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"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

Yes, that's how I did it I tilted it one way and poured in the pink and let it harden. Then tilted it the other way and poured the same pink until it hardened. Then I poured in a thin layer of brown without moving the mold (it was still tilted) and when that hardened, I tilted the mold the other way and poured a second thin layer of brown. Once that hardened, I placed the mold on a flat surface and filled it up with the green!

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Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

Great job tcmatteson!

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

WOW! Thanks tcmatteson! I'm glad I asked my questions! Thank you for sharing!
I love this soap!

Oh! Great picture too! I sent my other camera back and my new one arrives tomorrow! I went back to an Olympus!

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"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

ljm1180,
I'm sure it's obvious, but why do you multiply the length x width x height by .4?
Maybe I'm having a duh moment!

I looked it up ....

"One way to estimate how much a mold will hold is to measure the internal dimensions of your mold -

length x width x height x .4 will give you the ounces that it should be in the recipe..

For example, a mold that is 18" long, 3.5" wide that is poured to 2.5" tall will hold 18 x 3.5 x 2.5 x .4 which is 63 oz. Which is close to 64 oz, 4 pounds.

So when someone talks about a 3 pound soap recipe, they are usually referring to the amount of MP or liquid the mold will hold. "I still don't get the x.4 ...

Thanks,
einnoc

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"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

My guess is that the .4 represents the weight (in ounces?) of a 1" x 1" block of soap because when figuring out how much soap to use, not only do you need to know the volume, but the weight as well ^_^

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Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

Hi tcmatteson,
I never thought of that!
So if I want a bar that weighs 4.5 oz, I'm going to multiply by .45? or .5?
einnoc

_________________
"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

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

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Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

Hi tcmatteson,
Thank you. You explained this very well!

you multiply the volume (in inches cubed) by the average weight (0.4 oz) per inch cubed.[/

Makes perfect sense to me now!

Don't you just love the math!

einnoc

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"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

I try

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Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!