# Need help formulating a recipe?



## ars-moriendi (Apr 12, 2015)

I want to make a batch of cold process soap but I'm very confused on how to formulate a recipe. I've looked at soapcalc (I think that's what it's called) and I don't know how to use it in the slightest. :crazy: I have sweet almond oil, coconut oil, and olive oil. I've heard things about castor oil making a good lather so maybe I should incorporate that as well? I read things about if you use this much of (blank) oil then you need to lower the percentage of (blank) oil. Can someone maybe help break this down and help me formulate a good recipe?

Also, how do soap makers feel about lard? When I told my mom I was thinking about putting lard in the soap she was grossed out and said people will be put off if they know there's lard in it because people like "organic" things? Someone else I know told me they thought it was gross that I was using olive oil but I KNOW olive oil isn't bad. So, I'm wondering if the bit with the lard is just a misconception as the olive oil.

Thank you in advance!


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## Dahila (Apr 12, 2015)

try 55 lard, 5% castor Superfat 5,  15% Coconut oil. 25% of Olive oil.  I love lard and I put it in every soap.  We do have a tutorial how to use soap calc.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49627
There u go, and welcome to the forum)


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## ars-moriendi (Apr 12, 2015)

Is almond oil no good? Also, what does, "superfat 5" mean?

An added note, I read the soapcalc tutorial just now and while it gives a good break down of what everything is on the calculator, I still don't understand how to really use it. How am I supposed to know which amount to put in the oz. or % column for the oils?


*EDIT:*Two more things, how do I know how much soap the recipe calculated makes?

And how do I create a good recipe? How did you know to do the percentages that way? 

Sorry for so many questions!


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## Seawolfe (Apr 12, 2015)

Lard makes awesome soap. But don't take my wor for it, try it yourself. Try something like:
Lard 55% (conditioning, makes a hard bar)
Olive oil or almond oil 20-25% (more is more conditioning, less cleansing)
Coconut oil 15-20% (Adds cleansing & bubbles, more can be drying)
Castor oil 5% (helps with lather, more gets sticky)
5% Superfat (good starting point, too little can be drying, too much can make a soft bar that's prone to spoiling)

That's my vote anyways 

Look for a sticky on the top of the beginners soap making subforum for a good tutorial written by one of our own. Oh and get a good stickblender and scale 

Edit to add: many recipes are given in percentages so you can scale to the batch size you want, and it's easier for people to eyeball the ratios quickly.

Superfat is the amount of oils over what the lye can convert to soap. Oils remaining in the soap that aren't saponified. 

You figure out how much soap you want to make based largely on your mold. See this thread for calculations: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2909
I wouldn't start with anything smaller than 1.5-2 lbs of soap. 

Once you know how much oils you need to use, you enter that in soap calc. 

Brambleberry.com or soap queen have some good pages on the properties of soap making oils and suggested amounts. Try a Google search 

You learn the percentages through research, and trial and error to see what you like best.


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## ars-moriendi (Apr 13, 2015)

Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it!
 Does this recipe sound like a good one?:


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Apr 13, 2015)

I don't know what sweet almond oil brings to the party, I've never used it, but that recipe looks pretty decent. 

As to how you formulate a good recipe, what I did was read a lot on the forum - anything about recipe feedback or problem solving is a great source. You find out from other people's experience what works and what doesn't. If someone posts a 50% co recipe with a low superfat, someone will point out that problem and you can learn from it, too. After a while you get an idea about what can make a good soap and what can make a bad soap


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## Susie (Apr 13, 2015)

That coconut oil should be the 76 degree one unless you specifically bought the 92 degree one.  It means that it melts at 76 or 92 degrees.  

Sweet almond oil is more expensive in most countries than olive oil.  This makes olive oil make more sense for most beginners.  My rule of thumb on knowing how much soap a batch makes is 1.5 lbs of soap for 1 lb of oil.  Or 3 lbs of soap for 2 lbs of oil.  Most soap molds will tell you the size in pounds.

Be absolutely sure you get a good digital scale, as everything is weighed, even the water.  Be sure it accurate to 0.1 oz and that you can convert to grams.  If you are not in the US, this should not be a problem, but you have to watch the US ones.


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## Cactuslily (Apr 13, 2015)

Before formulating a soap, I think it's a good idea to get to know your oils/butters fatty acid profile, and what they bring to the party. Most charts also have basic guidelines of percentage useage, but nothing is totally hard and fast rule wise. That way, you can select your ingredients based upon what kind of soap you want. I put my oil/butter info in my soaping binder. Keep good notes. This will help you tweak your recipes. Also make note of what EO or FO used and how it behaved while soaping and during cure etc...this has helped me a lot. Happy soaping!


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## JuneP (Apr 13, 2015)

With such a high percentage of hard oils, this may trace pretty fast and wouldn't give you time for swirls; but the recipe would make a decent soap.

The conditioning number is lower than I like. If you lower the lard and add more olive oil that will up the conditioning. Your creamy number goes down as you lower the lard, but when you replace that with the olive oil, the conditioning number will go up. The more you work with soap calc the more you will learn how to adjust the oils and amounts to get what you want.

There's no palm oil in your recipe, but you can try adding some rice bran oil instead of the sweet almond and compare that to your current recipe. 

Here's a quick recipe I just came up with on soap calc, showing how the numbers can change with lowering the lard, etc. If you want a recipe to drop swirls, hanger swirls, etc. you want to keep you hard oils in the 45 to 50 range, use full water, and soap at room temp. This still has more hard oils than I like to have in a soap for slowing down trace for some swirls. 

Looking at this recipe, I would probably not use it as is. I might up the castor to 5.5 or 6, for instance. I might lower the lard a bit and up the mango butter to 7 or 8. As you can tell, I love playing with soap calc! 

 I tend to use mango butter instead of shea if I want to slow down the tracing time, since shea and cocoa butter have been mentioned to accelerate trace more than mango which they say isn't as hard as the other two. You'll notice your hardness number will go up with the mango instead of the shea.  

Too much palm will also accelerate trace. You can still use it in a recipe for swirls, but I've been designing recipes with palm oil that have the hard oils no more than 48% for slow tracing.

It's good to get a list of the soaping oils and what they do, amounts recommended, and their contents. For instance, Rice Bran has a high palmitic content and is a good one to use instead of palm or in addition to it. 

I've learned so much by doing as others have suggested, by playing with soap calc and seeing how your recipe changes by trying various oils, and butters. If you get a recipe that looks well balanced for your purposes, then check out  the difference if you sub rice bran oil, or avocado oil, or apricot kernel oil, etc for that one. It's a good way to quickly asses what each contributes to your recipe. 

There's so much to learn about soaping, but I love the learning.

June






ars-moriendi said:


> Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it!
> Does this recipe sound like a good one?:


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## Seawolfe (Apr 13, 2015)

Im the one who adores Almond oil, my latest favorite is 65% Lard, 20% almond and 15% coconut - it lathers really nicely with a bit of sugar in the water, but makes a really slippery bar! And believe it or not - that one takes FOREVER to trace if you soap fairly cool.

I personally think the recipe you posted is fine for a first recipe. If it were me I would try one batch with olive and one with almond to see what each brings to the party - but theres no harm in mixing them. 

+1 to your coconut oil probably being 76 deg.


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## lsg (Apr 13, 2015)

You can make bastille soap with Castor, coconut and olive oils.  Castor oil is usually available at a pharmacy.  If you can't get Castor oil, just try upping the coconut oil and the superfat. Soaping101 has a good recipe.

http://search.aol.com/aol/search?s_it=topsearchbox.search&v_t=oneclick-ch&q=soaping101


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## dixiedragon (Apr 13, 2015)

I think it looks good. 

I'm going to argue with june here - while lard is a "hard" oil in that it is a) solid at room temp and b) makes a hard bar of soap, it is actually a slower-tracing oil. If you were using 55% palm then you might have problems with it getting too thick to fast, but not with lard. 

I make almost all of my soaps with lard. I occasionally make an all-veg batch to have available for vegetarians, but lard is frankly the single most important oil in my arsenal. If I could only have one - it would be lard.


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## Susie (Apr 13, 2015)

With all due respect to June, I would not use any butters on a first batch.  Get a good, basic, cheap bar under your belt before adding butters and other complications.  Palm requires extra steps that a newbie is probably not going to want to do.  

I have to second the use olive oil in one batch, then almond oil in the next and compare them.  Then do a price/bar comparison so you know if you are getting your money's worth on it.


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## happyshopper (Apr 13, 2015)

Hi I am a beginner too.

I found this guide to help formulate recipes

60% hard oils
- 30-40% lathering
- 15-30% conditioning

40% soft oils
- 20-30% nourishing
- 5-10% luxury
- 5-10% castor

Hope that helps


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## shunt2011 (Apr 13, 2015)

happyshopper said:


> Hi I am a beginner too.
> 
> I found this guide to help formulate recipes
> 
> ...


 
When calculating make sure your recipe adds up to 100%.  Also, 30-40% lathering oils (CO, PKO, Babassu) would be considered too high for some folks.  I don't go above 25%.  Also, because an oil is hard doesn't mean you wan to use it in a large percentage. I wouldn't use more than 15-20% of Shea or Cocoa Butter etc.  It's certainly a personal choice but be sure to run it through a soap calc. and remember the numbers are just guides.


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## Obsidian (Apr 13, 2015)

ars-moriendi said:


> Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it!
> Does this recipe sound like a good one?:



I think it looks great. I love a high lard recipe and that is one I would be happy using.


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## SoapyWater (Apr 14, 2015)

ars-moriendi said:


> I want to make a batch of cold process soap but I'm very confused on how to formulate a recipe. I've looked at soapcalc (I think that's what it's called) and I don't know how to use it in the slightest. :crazy: I have sweet almond oil, coconut oil, and olive oil. I've heard things about castor oil making a good lather so maybe I should incorporate that as well? I read things about if you use this much of (blank) oil then you need to lower the percentage of (blank) oil. Can someone maybe help break this down and help me formulate a good recipe?
> 
> Also, how do soap makers feel about lard? When I told my mom I was thinking about putting lard in the soap she was grossed out and said people will be put off if they know there's lard in it because people like "organic" things? Someone else I know told me they thought it was gross that I was using olive oil but I KNOW olive oil isn't bad. So, I'm wondering if the bit with the lard is just a misconception as the olive oil.
> 
> Thank you in advance!



Lard makes a great soap  But I am a veggie soap maker.


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## JuneP (Apr 14, 2015)

*Beginners advice*

I was also told to keep it simple for my first soap; but after months of reading and studying, watching videos, making charts on the the oils and fats and their recommended limits, as well as their acids contents, taking printed recipes and running them through soap calc to find some common denominators, as well as all the other safety things, etc. one needs to know before jumping in for their first CP soap, I felt comfortable creating my own first recipe using 7 ingredients, including shea butter and it was a lovely soap with I believe 48% hard oils.

The next soap recipe had lard but no palm, and mango butter. The one after that had both lard and palm. All three recipes had avocado oil, Olive, coconut,  sweet almond, and castor oil in addition to the butters and lard mentioned. 

I wanted a basis to start on a palm free and lard free recipe, as well as one containing both; and my other aim was to have the recipes have between 45 and 48 hard oils only, since 45% was recommended for slow tracing to do all those lovely swirls.  I had read that  I could go as high as 50% using more less hard oils like lard, and omitting or using low amounts of hard  oils like palm , and  avoiding  high butters especially shea and cocoa butter or at least keep them in low numbers. My chart say Mango is less hard than the other butters mentioned, so I'm using that when I want to go a bit higher in the percentage or hard oils. 

So I guess what I'm trying to say in a long winded way, is as others have suggested get to know the oils, the type and amount of acids they contain. This will be a huge help when you sit down with soap calc to create new recipes. And if you feel comfortable in having done a lot of homework, then do what you will feel comfortable doing.

My biggest concern with delving in and making my first CP first soap was, will I recognize trace! Watching videos never gave me a real sense of light trace, since what I saw never seemed to match photos in a book! Then I learned I could just emulsify and trace could as I added other things and mixed some more. 

So, I guess there's beginner and beginner. I had 40 plus years of creating and making glazes for my pottery and was used to weighing out chemicals, clays and oxide  on my very good gram scale. Many of the things used in soap making like titanium and other oxides and clays are also used in ceramic glazes and slips. 

That being said, I see no reason for a beginner who has done their homework to venture out a bit more in their first soap if they feel comfortable doing it.

Good luck! 

PS; Your recipe should work fine, but you might  want to make a slightly different version (say for instance, lower the  lard a bit and up the olive oil a bit ) of it within a day or so, so you  can have a good comparison when they're fully cured .


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