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SAP will vary with source on any oil or fat, and sometimes with season, phases of the moon, or whatever. A batch number will be more accurate than any calculator with average values, of course, but unless you are trying to make near zero superfat and don't want to age your soap, it won't matter...

Lol, I'm a scientist by training. Believe me, I've not seen more than a post or two here that was anything like presenting my first research. Every question I've had here was answered nicely. I've seen lots of "beginner" questions answered very nicely and with good, if occasionally blunt...

I made a soap with 80% used vegetable oil, assumed it was 50/50 canola and soy. The rest was soy wax and some coconut. Bar is fairly soft, but slowly hardening like a castile. Quite high in oleic and linoleic fatty acids. I gave some to a friend, along with a bar of 80% lard/15% CO/5% HO...

Less PKO plus coconut may help (replace with palm I think), but you may just have skin that doesn't like hard water and "high cleansing" soap. Add sodium citrate or EDTA -- either will help with the hard water issue. Hard water makes soap scum, and many people find that "tacky" on their...

iwannasoap, I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of soap calculators. They exist as a convenient way to calculate lye amounts per oil amount to make a soap of a specified superfat, nothing more. It is not "deceptive" for the initial weight of the batter to vary with changes in water...

The ratio of oil to lye does not change, and that's what I use a soap calculator for. Changing the water amount will change the initial weight and volume of the soap, but has no effect at all on oil to lye ratio UNLESS YOU CHANGE THE AMOUNT OF OIL when you change the amount of water. The...

If your emulsion holds well, there really isn't a need to get the soap to trace before pouring it, but if you think you have a problematic FO or have had ricing or separation in the past with a simllar recipe, I'd get it thicker first. If you are doing swirls or other "decorative" effects, you...

Soap is a mixture of crystaline fatty acids, semicrystaline fatty acids, and water and glycerine surrounds those partially crystalized particles. This means that things can migrate around and re-arrange into more stable "assocciations". The result is that the soap become less soluble in bulk...

Sense of smell is as variable as any other sense, so you need to take that into consideration if you are selling soap. No matte what level of scent you use, someone will want it different, so you have to choose and go. I personally seem to have a very keen sense of smell -- with HP soap 0.5...

Some thoughts here and sharing my experiences: There is a secret to the "countertop hot process" that is not usually mentioned, and that is you need more heat than standard water content lye solution will give you. To get it to rip and roar like the demos, I had to reduce the water content to...

Try this: 45% HO safflower 20% shea butter 20% soy wax 145 10% coconut oil 5% Castor oil. Should end up very close to 40:60 saturated:unsaturated, cure quickly, and make a nice hard shower bar. I've made a soap with 80% veg oil (half soybean and half canola) which worked well, although it's...

I have some castile aging, but she was thinking Thanksgiving.... Will make a couple batches in the next week or so I think. I can get a Castile going for next year, too, I have plenty of olive oil at the moment.

My niece got excited when I gave her some soap yesterday, and has asked me to make some "natural" soap for her to use on her two children, ages 4 and 2. I'm thinking something like 30% HO safflower oil, 60% lard, and 10% CO with 5% superfat, very low scent with lavender or my 'special mix' of...

Castor oil initially produced soap with collapsing lather for me, but after a few months it works fine. Still leaves my skin a bit sticky feeling after the shave, but so does Col. Conk soap, so it may just be me. I find that I prefer tallow soaps -- something like 50% SA, 30% tallow, 10% CO...

Think of it this way: Linseed oil, which has high amounts of triple unsaturated fatty acids, is used as wood finish. It will oxidize and polymerize into a waxy, water resistance gummy substance, and with the addition of some metal salts to speed up the oxidation and some filler, makes...

If you are not keeping the pot closely covered, the "standard" amount of water will result in very dry soap, and you won't see it gel (it does, but it never looks like vaseline). I have been using a very warm method -- heat the oils to around 200F, dissolve the lye, and add it as soon as it's...

The lard will help a lot. The sticky/waxy feel is a result of too little water in the lather -- it takes a LOT of water to overload a good home made shaving soap! I've never shaved anything but my face, so I don't know how much lather it would take to shave legs, but it should be very wet and...

Looks very similar to several of my recipes that work very well. Will take a few weeks for the lather to work really well with the castor oil in there, it tends to make the lather collapse a bit when the soap is fresh. Definitely make the second "repair" batch separate and melt the old one...

I would have swapped the coconut and tallow amounts, but I don't see anything that would produce "soap on a stick", especially with that much water (I usually use 190 grams for 500 grams of oils). Should also be quite soft, too. Double check your weights, and check your balance in case...

Soaperwoman had the water container sitting on her small scale when she added the lye, it just doesn't show in the video -- watch when she moves the container without touching it after she starts mixing. I've done that a lot, both for soap and at work for various things, but I've found that I...