Teach Soap

The basic recipe we received in our "beginner" class calls for 18oz coconut oil, 28oz. crisco (solid), 18oz of olive oil +2oz essential oil, 2oz powdered herb (optional), I'm sure the recipe will be good, but I am wondering if anyone else has used Crisco. If in the future I want to use this combination as a base what would substitute for this solid fat? (knowing I need to run it through a lye calculator..once I figure that out) about to make the 1st batch!!

It depends what's in the Crisco. Is it hydrogenated soybean and palm? Due to soybean's SAP value, I would just recalculate with an oil that you like. You can use lard, tallow, rice bran or palm kernel. Depending on which essential oil you use 2 ozs. for this size batch might be too much.

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

Very interesting......Crisco is made up of soybean oil and fully and partially hydrogenated palm oil. Now that I've read the ingredients it sounds ok. The container doesn't indicate the percentages of each, however. So, if I were to substitute actual palm oil and or another oil for the 28 oz of Crisco, I should run these ingredients through a lye calculator to see what changes might be required there? This is getting complicated. I better stick to the recipe.

That's a big recipe for a beginner. I would recalculate it into a two lb. batch.

Here is your recipe as written:
Coconut Oil 18ozs. 28.12%
Olive Oil 18ozs. 28.12%
Soybean Oil 28ozs. 43.75%
Total Weight 64ozs.
For that size batch, you would need 16 to 24 fluid ounces of water and 8.8 ozs. of lye for a 7% superfat

For a 2 lb. batch
Coconut Oil 9ozs. 28.12%
Olive Oil 9ozs. 28.12%
Soybean Oil 14ozs. 43.75%
Total Weight 32ozs.
For this batch, you will need 8 to 12 fluid ounces of water and 4.4 ozs. of lye for a 7% superfat.

In this instance, you can see that the lye amount is half, but it doesn't always work out this way. As you get comfortable with your batches, I would add some castor oil in there for more bubbles.

Anytime you change the recipe in any way like different oils, you HAVE to run it through a lye calc. Different oils have different SAP values and saponify at different rates. You simply cannot sub one oil for another without recalculating.

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

Thank you very much, Soap Buddy for your tips. I need to play with these "lye calculator's" to make sure I understand them.

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

I was also given that recipe in the class that I took. It makes a very nice bar of soap and its really economical. I like to use it when I want to try out new scents or color techniques, but I have moved on from that basic recipe to one that I formulated myself that omits the palm (and crisco) oils all together and adds shea butter, cocoa butter and almond oil. I like the new recipe a lot better and its really not that much more expensive!

_________________
Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com