A few questions

[smartinoff]

Okay so I am pretty darn new to making soaps. I've made my first batch and it turned out perfect even though I darn near threw it against the wall because hand stirring is for the birds! I'm ready to try something more adventurous but I have a couple of questions.

1. The oil I choose should be based on what? Do I choose based on things like the lather the oil provides and the hardening qualities? I'm not sure why all the recipes I see seem so random with the oils or if there really is a method to that madness. Do they add much scent to the bar, are there some that just shouldn't be mixed because they turn out funky?!

2. I have seen recipes using coconut and goats milk in two different ways. Where the milk was frozen/slushy and the lye was added to that and I have also seen it where you just use less water in the lye reaction and add in the milk after the lye solution and oils have been combined. Which is the best way to go?

3. The essential oils and dried herbs I have are probably 10yrs old (my sister gave them to me from her venture into bodycare items) I'm sure the oils seem fine but I'm not 100% on how long the dried herbs are good for. How do I know to throw something like that out? Should I just give it a shot in a recipe and hope for the best?

Okay so those are my questions. I thank you all so much for taking the time to help me out!
Samantha

 

[IrishLass]

Okay so I am pretty darn new to making soaps. I've made my first batch and it turned out perfect even though I darn near threw it against the wall because hand stirring is for the birds! I'm ready to try something more adventurous but I have a couple of questions.

Hello and welcome! I would invest in a stickblender for your next try. A stickblender is a soapmaker's best friend.

1. The oil I choose should be based on what? Do I choose based on things like the lather the oil provides and the hardening qualities? I'm not sure why all the recipes I see seem so random with the oils or if there really is a method to that madness. Do they add much scent to the bar, are there some that just shouldn't be mixed because they turn out funky?!

Yes, there is actually a method to the percieved madness. To me, a good soap is one that exhibits a fair amount of hardness, has good lathering abilities, and provides a good enough cleansing level that gets the job done, but doesn't overdo it by stripping too many natural oils from my skin and drying me out.

Re scent: This can be very subjective based on the strength of an individual's olfactory nerves. In my own experience, soaping oils have not leant scent to the bars of my soap, except maybe natural cocoa butter, but it's barely discernable and doesn't last very long at all. Some people swear they can smell lard in soap, but I use lard all the time and cannot smell it in my soap. It all depends on ones sniffer.

The reason why you see so many different recipes is because there are so many different skin needs and/or likes and dislikes among individual people.

Also, the different oil/fat/butter choices that soapers make rest heavily on how easily availabile and/or affordabile those different oils/fats/butters are to them. When you take both of those things into consideration as well as the fact that many oils/fats/butters can (thankfully) be interchanged or substituted for each other, I can see how it would make quite a seemingly confusing and tangled mess to someone just learning the ropes.

2. I have seen recipes using coconut and goats milk in two different ways. Where the milk was frozen/slushy and the lye was added to that and I have also seen it where you just use less water in the lye reaction and add in the milk after the lye solution and oils have been combined. Which is the best way to go?

It truly depends on individual preference. Both ways work, but it all depends on which method works best for you , and/or which method you are more comfortable using. Only through experimentaion will you be able to tell which method you end up liking best. I prefer adding the milk to my oils instead of mixing it with my lye, but that's what works best for me and my formulations.

3. The essential oils and dried herbs I have are probably 10yrs old (my sister gave them to me from her venture into bodycare items) I'm sure the oils seem fine but I'm not 100% on how long the dried herbs are good for. How do I know to throw something like that out? Should I just give it a shot in a recipe and hope for the best?

Ten years is a long time. If it were me, I would toss them and start afresh with all new oils and herbs. It would be a shame to invest your hard-earned money on soaping oils and lye (as well as your time and effort in making your soap) only to have a passed-its-prime EO or herb ruin your whole batch.

Okay so those are my questions. I thank you all so much for taking the time to help me out!
Samantha

You're welcome! I hope that helps. Hopefully others will chime in, too.

IrishLass

 

[apurwa]

Hi Samantha,

to decide which oils to try in your soap you can do some online reading about what are the properties of different oils. this way you will get a fair idea of why and when should an oil be added to your soap.

i too am a newbie to saop making and this is what i prefer whenever i am confused about certain oils.

ohh and hand mixie will help you a lot. it will be like a dream come true. so get one before you try your next batch.

hope thats useful!
thanks,
Apurwa.

 

[Overthemoon]

Irishlass is the word.

Many people have different preferences with oils. Do some research on what each oil brings to a soap bar and experiment with quantities to decide what you like best.

Unlike Irishlass, I hate lard but I know others swear by it. I like 20-30% of coconut oil in every bar, even more occasionally, and it isn't drying for me.

 

[madartist]

I found these links on one of the soap forums (they may very well be from THIS forum, t'was a while ago when I committed them to my resources page)

THIS one has the physical soaping characteristics of variious oils.

THIS one gives more theraputic characteristics of the oils.

I choose my oils from the first chart and plug them into SoapCalc. Then I play with the percentages until the numbers (soap qualities and fatty acids - soapcalc section #5) come out where I want them. Hovering over the soapcalc qualities will be a guide as to where you want the numbers to fall. I read in another forum that the two most important numbers are Iodine and INS. The author said she keeps those numbers at 60 & 150. (soapcalc says the ideal INS number is 160.) I thought her soaps were great so I keep mine about the same, giving a little latitude to the INS number, and try for a value between 150-160.

The nice thing about soapcalc is that you can print out the sheet, punch holes in it and store the recipe for each batch in a binder. Always handy to figure out what you did to a particular batch. I have a template I copy/paste into the notes section so I don't forget to put down a particular piece of info.

 

[honor435]

Welcome.
I adore soap calc, i like my soap very bubbly, so above 25, I like a combo of oo, po, co, castor and shea or cocoa, most of my soaps are some combo of these oils.
Are you opposed to using fos? there are many great places to get sampler packages, like natures garden( buy 10- 1 ouncers for 20$), or peak same deal( my fav place) bertsheavenscent, i could go on and on!