Any advise on my recipe?

[Annacrazysocks]

Hello everyone, I'm new to soaping, so new in fact I haven't even made anything yet. I was just wondering if any of you would be able to look at my recipe and tell me if I'm going in the right direction or not. I've been researching oils and such for about a week now and I've found this forum to be a lot of help. If anyone is willing to take a look at it, I'd love to post it.

 

[jenneelk]

Welcome to the forum! - Post away.. in fact just so you know.. no reason to ask in the future. People on here are always willing to help out with recipes, it's what the forum is all about.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome, Annacrazysocks (I love your name)! Feel free to post your recipe. We'd love to help!


IrishLass

 

[Annacrazysocks]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. :smile:

So I'd be making a 1 pound block, is what I guess it's called.
Here's what I want to put in and the quantities.

Castor oil @ 4% or .64oz
Cocoa butter @ 10% or 1.6oz
Coconut oil 76 @ 32% or 5.12oz
Milk fat @ 4% or .64oz (I plan on using cream and took the grams of fat per serving to get my total)
Olive oil @ 30% or 4.8oz
Palm oil @ 10% or 1.6oz
Shea butter @ 10% or 1.6oz

Water is 6.08oz and Lye is 2.31oz

I also wanted to put in sodium lactate at 2% and kaolin clay 1 Tbs per pound of soap for some added benefits. I had fragrance set to .5 in the calc and my super fat @ 5%

Does it sound ok, in theory? Is there anything I should change?

 

[kchaystack]

I would lower the coconut to 15% and up the palm to 30 and make up the rest with olive. You might also want to look at your butters, as they can reduce your lather. I would not do more than 10% total.

Other than that, the sodium lactate and kaolin clay is exactly what I use. As for fragrance, it will depend on what you are using. Some have higher usage rates than others.

Welcome aboard

 

[Annacrazysocks]

Ok, thanks for the advice, let me plug that into the calc and see what I come up with. I'm really just trying to find the perfect balance.

 

[snappyllama]

Hi,

I normally replace my water as either milk or aloe water however, you might want to save that for a few batches down the line. It's best to build into that as it can cause issues for a new soaper. Also, most folks do not include milks in their lye calculation... they just use it instead of water and perhaps adjust their SF down by a percent or so. At 5% SF, I'd just leave it as-is.

I find more than 10% total butters in a recipe tends to decrease lather. I'd put the difference back into your palm amount.

Coconut Oil @ 32% is pretty high for most folks. CO is a very cleansing (a.k.a. oil stripping). Most people stick to 20% max. I'd put the difference back into your Palm.

If you don't have a problem with animal fats... a really nice beginner recipe is:

Lard 55%
CO 20%
OO 25%

If you want to throw in some butters, I'd start out with 5% deducted from the lard.

 

[Susie]

Hey Annacrazysocks!

My personal opinion is this- that is just too complicated for a first batch. It is also so small that very tiny errors in weighing can make big differences in the outcome. I think we have all gone through the "must have MORE ingredients" stage. I have gone back to the 4 oils max way of making soaps.

Second issue is that you are accounting for milk fat in your recipe...don't. It goes in as a superfat type agent. Substitute milk for water, either in whole or in part.

Third issue is that that is a LOT of coconut oil for a first batch. Stick to 20% or under until you get your feet wet with other batches and have something to compare it to.

Now, what I would do is something like this:

Castor Oil 5%
Palm Oil 55%
Coconut Oil 20%
Olive Oil 20%

Superfat 5%

This will give you a good "baseline" soap to judge others by. Give it 4-6 weeks cure time before testing.

Then the next batch, I would substitute in 10% of one butter. The following batch, 10% of the other. Then see if you can tell what difference(if any) you detect in the soaps with the butters, and which one you prefer. Then you can play with the amounts of butters.

It may seem slow, but systematic testing will give you personal knowledge of what each change brings to the soap. This will be of inestimable value in the future.

 

[not_ally]

As usual, I agree with Suzy. You should stay really simple w/your first batch. It was only six months ago for me, and I remember how flustered I got, and I was using a fairly simple recipe, I think 3 or 4 oils, no butters/clay, etc. W/the SL, I would pre-measure it and have it ready to put into your lye once it cools down, then you can just proceed without having to think about any additional steps. I would add that keeping it simple at the beginning will not just let you know what you like about adding things, it will be easier to figure what went wrong if something does.

 

[Annacrazysocks]

Thank you all so much! This is why y'all are the experts.

 

[not_ally]

Also, Anna, keep really good notes. People kept telling me this, and I tried to do it, but ended up with bits of paper all over the place, no idea of what went with what, and then when the soap was finally cured, I couldn't figure out how I'd made the ones I liked and the ones I didn't as much.

I ended up donating almost all of the batches from my first three months to a local shelter - about 40 batches, I think, although I kept a few soaps just for the heck of it - and pretty much only saved the batches after that point. This time with super note-taking (I use Evernote and cut/paste the recipe from soap calc into it, include all additives and amounts, colorants, FO, type of swirl, etc.), attach a picture, and and print out a copy which I keep with its matching batch.

It sounds like a pain, but it really isn't, and you will be so glad that you did it. It is kind of fun to go back and look at them as they start to add up, and it makes it really easy to tinker.

 

[Susie]

not_ally is exactly correct! I keep mine in an old fashioned 3 ring binder, but I am going to resume moving recipes over when I finish unpacking from my recent move. It does not matter what you keep it in, just get a system and stick with it. Take really good notes right on the recipe page of your opinion of that recipe while making it, and what you think of it after cure. If you do this from the first batch on, you will thank yourself later.

 

[Annacrazysocks]

Hello everyone!! Sorry it took me so long to post a response. Between the holiday weekend and work I didn't have any time. :/ Anyways I've decided to take everyones advice and do a round of test batches, here are the batches I'll be testing and their quantities. Please let me know if this sounds ok.

Control Batch

Olive Oil 34% or 5.44oz
Coconut Oil 33% or 5.28oz
Palm Oil 33% or 5.28oz
Water 6.08oz
Lye 2.33oz


Test Batch #1

Olive Oil 45% or 7.20oz
Coconut Oil 20% or 3.20oz
Palm Oil 25% or 4.00oz
Shea Butter 10% or 1.60oz
Water 6.08oz
Lye 2.22oz


Test Batch #2

Olive Oil 20% or 3.20oz
Coconut Oil 20% or 3.20oz
Palm Oil 55% or 8.80oz
Castor Oil 5% or 0.80oz
Water 6.08oz
Lye 2.25oz


Test Batch #3

Olive Oil 20% or 3.20oz
Coconut Oil 20% or 3.20oz
Palm Oil 45% or 7.20oz
Shea Butter 10% or 1.60oz
Castor Oil 5% or 0.80oz
Water 6.08oz
Lye 2.23oz


Test Batch #4

Olive Oil 25% or 4.00oz
Coconut Oil 20% or 3.20oz
Palm Oil 40% or 6.40oz
Shea Butter 6% or 0.96oz
Cocoa Butter 4% or 0.64oz
Castor Oil 5% or 0.80oz
Water 6.08oz
Lye 2.23oz


Also I was wondering if I should make all 5 batches without any clay or SL or add them in. I was planning to make them all fragrance and colorant free because I wanted it to not be affected by seizing or accelerated traces.

 

[Susie]

Skip the SL and clay. That can be batches 5, 6, & 7.

 

[Annacrazysocks]

Skip the SL and clay. That can be batches 5, 6, & 7.

So should I find my favorites and then start adding clay and SL? Also when the time comes to experiment with cream how do I go about adding it?

 

[snappyllama]

For milk soaps you've got two options:

1. Reserve a portion of your water out of the lye/water solution. Make sure you have at least 1:1 ratio of water to lye in your pot. Be *very* careful as your lye mixture will be much more concentrated than usual. Add that reserved portion as milk (CM, GM, or whatever milk) to your batter after emulsification. If you're using a powder, you can put in double concentration so that you're still making a full milk soap.

2. Freeze your milk into cubes. Add lye to it a little at a time, stirring until that lye is completely dissolved before adding more. It's nice to have a your lye solution container sitting in an ice bath for this to make sure you don't getting overheating that leads to smells/discoloration. I like to strain my solution when I do it this way so I can catch any undissolved lye flakes since I cannot see them.

ETA: option 2 results in a very thick solution as the milk fats start to saponify.

ETA2: Milk soaps can get very hot. Keep an eye on it to prevent overheating by sticking it in the fridge or just stick it in the fridge to begin with...

 

[not_ally]

I use the split method, #2, have since I started w/milks, on Irish Lass' recommendation. I really like it, it makes it so easy to do them.

 

[Seawolfe]

I think your test batches are very good ideas. Use those to see what you like, maybe use this time to test simple soap friendly non-accelerating scents, like lavender and rosemary. Then once you've narrowed it down to one or two good recipes start playing with clays and alternative liquids.

Are you not planning on trying lard? I would try replacing the palm with lard on some recipes. It turns out Im not as fond of palm as I am of lard and some other things. Didnt expect that.

 

[Annacrazysocks]

Thank you so much Llama! I appreciate your help. I feel like option number two would work best for me because I'm not sure I'd be very confident splitting the portions up into two until later on down the road with more experience.

Seawolfe, I honestly never considered using lard. I might try it at some point.

 

[zolveria]

I create a paste with powder milks. goat, butter or regular and mix this in at trace. I also use the heat of the lye to melt my fats first then add my oils. This is much easier and fun for a beginner.

I use the split method, #2, have since I started w/milks, on Irish Lass' recommendation. I really like it, it makes it so easy to do them.