Calculating oils and fats

[misfities]

I'm very much enjoying learning to make soap, but there's one area of the process that still confounds me a bit. I have no problem going by the recipes I find in books, but I don't understand how to determine my own recipes... Let's say I wanted to make a concoction of oilive, palm and sesame oil. How do I know, first of all, if these three are a good fit? Second, how do I know what percentages to use? Maybe because I'm terrible at math, but even if i know the percentages, I'm not sure exactly how to translate that to actual ounces or grams.

I imagine some of you have hit this same wall early on. Do you have any advice that might help me grasp this part of the process?

 

[Susie]

Here is a wonderful tutorial on how to use Soapcalc.net. It will tell you what the qualities should be of any recipe you enter, in addition to how much lye and water to use. Although the numbers are not perfect, they do help you start to understand what qualities each oil brings to the soap.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49627

You need to run every recipe, regardless of where you got it, through a lye calculator for yourself. Typos happen, and this is your safety we are talking about.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

I'm very much enjoying learning to make soap, but there's one area of the process that still confounds me a bit. I have no problem going by the recipes I find in books, but I don't understand how to determine my own recipes... Let's say I wanted to make a concoction of oilive, palm and sesame oil. How do I know, first of all, if these three are a good fit? Second, how do I know what percentages to use? Maybe because I'm terrible at math, but even if i know the percentages, I'm not sure exactly how to translate that to actual ounces or grams.

I imagine some of you have hit this same wall early on. Do you have any advice that might help me grasp this part of the process?

Hi Misfities

formulating your own recipes and soap does not have to be difficult . most if not everyone use a " soap calculator" that takes most of the math out of your hands. the 1st thing to learn is what every individual oil brings to your soap , and once you know and understand that then you view soap making in a whole other light .the percentages that you would use are truly based on the type characteristics you want your soap to have, which just manipulating anyone of those oils you mentioned can give you a different soap profile. if you use palm at the higher percentage then what that translate to is a more cleansing bar - more bubbles - and a harder bar. both OO and sesame oil are conditioners with slightly different fatty acid profiles , but sesame has nice emollient properties as well as minerals .
as far as ounces and grams go it comes down to a comfort level , if you know ounces better then work with that or vice versa / most soap calculators work with both .
soapcalc.net is a good soap calculator to work with.
f.y.i : even if you are using recipes out of a book or someone else recipe it is still good to run it through a soap calculator make sure it is error free.

in the end i would 1st understand what are the carrier oil profile and uses then understand how to use a soap calculator .... once you understand those two things then the percentages will come to you as well as creating you own soap profile.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Look at the recipes for soaps that you have made. You'll maybe see a common theme in them. This can be a good guide for learning from.

As you put every recipe in to soap calc, even the ones you find in the books, it gives you the percentage as well as actual weight - use this to look at how much of what oils your soaps have and look for similarities. If all recipes that are high in oo are ones that you don't like, then when formulating a recipe I would avoid high oo.

Also, I don't know how much of the forum you read in general. A lot of people ask for recipe help and the answers usually come with the reasons behind it. How much castor is too much? It's here, waiting for you to find it. I would read at least 20 pages back in the beginner, cp and the two recipe forums. It'll take time, but through that you will see the advice given to a lot of people.

In general, keep an eye on the forums for threads where people ask for help - learn from their experience and the advice given to them.