Additives

[GIGITOM]

I have been using soap Calc but have never used additives . I see that people are saying put additives in your calculations however I only see the additives at the bottom as a note basically. So if you are using the additives as a percent of oils and putting it in the lye water what other calculations are needed. Things can be confusing one says this and one says that. I am a new soapy. Thanks guys !

 

[AliOop]

I use soapmaking friend and it has a place to include additives from a list (as well as custom additives you create). You can click the dropdown to decide whether to include it as a percent of oils, percent of water, or percent of batch weight. You can select master-batched lye or dual lye. There is even a box to check that will calculate the extra lye or the liquid discount, as applicable for things like citric acid, vinegar, water replacements, etc.

All that to say, I find it worth the annual subscription fee, because I use a lot of those features. I don't use their inventory/batch feature, although I should. Maybe someday.

 

[Kcryss]

I use soapmaking friend and it has a place to include additives from a list (as well as custom additives you create).

I use soapmaking friend as well, and I agree it's worth the annual fee. There is a free account option as well and it let's you save 5 recipes I think.

 

[Ekuzo]

Another SMF user here. Last when I used the free version it let you save 2 recipes, earlier it was only 1. The yearly sub was a gift from a friend - and it was with a sweet discount ‐ so to me, it was worth it

 

[Kcryss]

Another SMF user here. Last when I used the free version it let you save 2 recipes, earlier it was only 1. The yearly sub was a gift from a friend - and it was with a sweet discount ‐ so to me, it was worth it

Oh no, I thought it was 5. Thanks for correcting.

 

[Ekuzo]

Oh no, I thought it was 5. Thanks for correcting.

Well, it's been 2 months since ‐ could be more now, let's be positive

 

[Kcryss]

Well, it's been 2 months since ‐ could be more now, let's be positive

Lol, I was actually thinking back a couple of years to when they first went to paid subscriptions.

 

[Ekuzo]

Lol, I was actually thinking back a couple of years to when they first went to paid subscriptions.

Was it very different back then? Or did it have more or less the same features it has now?

 

[artemis]

It was 5, then they whittled it down to one free one and now it's bumped up to 2.

As a hobby soaper, I don't use enough features to warrant the cost. I print my recipes and keep notes on them. If I want to experiment, I edit an existing recipe and print it out. That way, I don't lose the original recipe while experimenting. As you go along, you'll learn wether you need the other features.

 

[AliOop]

Was it very different back then? Or did it have more or less the same features it has now?

They have added a lot of features over time. For instance, I asked them to add the ability to select "percent of water" for the additive section, and they did. That helps for things like soleseif bars, or making Zany's No-Slime Castile (so you don't have to make a separate batch of the faux sea water).

The mods are fairly responsive over there if you post something on their forum, which is separate from this one.

 

[Ekuzo]

They have added a lot of features over time. For instance, I asked them to add the ability to select "percent of water" for the additive section, and they did. That helps for things like soleseif bars, or making Zany's No-Slime Castile (so you don't have to make a separate batch of the faux sea water).

The mods are fairly responsive over there if you post something on their forum, which is separate from this one.

Another application for the '% of liquid' feature would be when you're using milk powder and you want to mimic the content of fresh milk more closely without extra math, so it's actually fairly useful. Thanks for that!

I wish I had your luck when getting in touch with those guys

 

[AliOop]

Another application for the '% of liquid' feature would be when you're using milk powder and you want to mimic the content of fresh milk more closely without extra math, so it's actually fairly useful. Thanks for that!

I wish I had your luck when getting in touch with those guys

Truth be told, it was more the result of nagging than luck, IYKWIM.

 

[Ekuzo]

Truth be told, it was more the result of nagging than luck, IYKWIM.

As long as it works

 

[LidiaG]

I see that people are saying put additives in your calculations however I only see the additives at the bottom as a note basically.

Hi @GIGITOM!
I also use soapmaking friend, It's very use friendly in my opinion.
The reason why it's nice to take notes and use additives as % of oil it's too replicate a recipe. And make diferent size batches.

In the beginning we are just to excited making soap. And whatever comes out it's awesome.

As you get more experience and you make a nice bar and you wish to replicate it. You will feel really bad if you didn't take any notes.

Things can be confusing

Yes! Soapmaking friend let's you see what most additives are used for
And usage recommended rates.
Like this:

You can also use that list to Google them like this: Oatmeal in soapmaking . You can learn a lot this way

 

[Nona'sFarm]

They have added a lot of features over time. For instance, I asked them to add the ability to select "percent of water" for the additive section, and they did. That helps for things like soleseif bars, or making Zany's No-Slime Castile (so you don't have to make a separate batch of the faux sea water).

The mods are fairly responsive over there if you post something on their forum, which is separate from this one.

So, I was curious about the "percent of water" feature and tried it. Just FYI, if you use it. The calculation only takes in consideration the liquid that is reflected in the "Liquid" row. If you Master Batch Lye, it does not count the water in the Master Batch.

So for example if you use a 50/50 Master Batch, 25% salt as percent of liquid and the required Liquid is 4 oz and the required Master Batch is 14 oz, it tells you the salt required is 1 oz.
If you formulate with no Master Batch, the same recipe reflects Liquid 11 oz, Lye 7 oz, and Salt 2.75 oz.

Because I use lye master batch, I will probably continue to manually calculate the salt Or calculate both ways to get the salt amount for the total amount of liquid and correct salt on the printout reflecting the MB amount.

 

[Kcryss]

Was it very different back then? Or did it have more or less the same features it has now?

It looks pretty much the same, but as mentioned above there have been lots of new features added. If you report issues in their forum they respond pretty quickly.

 

[Ekuzo]

So, I was curious about the "percent of water" feature and tried it. Just FYI, if you use it. The calculation only takes in consideration the liquid that is reflected in the "Liquid" row. If you Master Batch Lye, it does not count the water in the Master Batch.

So for example if you use a 50/50 Master Batch, 25% salt as percent of liquid and the required Liquid is 4 oz and the required Master Batch is 14 oz, it tells you the salt required is 1 oz.
If you formulate with no Master Batch, the same recipe reflects Liquid 11 oz, Lye 7 oz, and Salt 2.75 oz.

Because I use lye master batch, I will probably continue to manually calculate the salt Or calculate both ways to get the salt amount for the total amount of liquid and correct salt on the printout reflecting the MB amount.

I also noticed if you resize your recipe by total weight size, it doesn't count the additives and gives you a different number. So I always adjust the batch size by changing the total weight instead

It looks pretty much the same, but as mentioned above there have been lots of new features added. If you report issues in their forum they respond pretty quickly.

Thanks!