hello from Indiana!

[lizflowers42]

I am a new member from South Bend, IN! I have been making melt and pour soaps, lip balms, and lotion bars on and off for at least 10 years now. I recently began researching cold process soap making and I am gathering my supplies (hoping tha Santa helps with the protective equiptment, loaf molds, and thermometers!). I purchased my lye and have lots of oils available already. I was wondering what test recipe you all would suggest? I really love the idea of beer soap, but don't want that to be the first one I attempt.

Thanks!

Liz

 

[Hazel]

Hi Liz,

Welcome to the forum!

You could look through the "Share your favorite soap recipe" thread and see if anything interests you. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=736

There is also a Soap Making Recipes & Tutorials section in which you may find a recipe. Then again, you could just list what oils you have and people could make suggestions.

 

[lizflowers42]

Thanks Hazel!

Currently in my stash I have olive, coconut, vegetable(generic stuff from Aldi), vegetable shortning (another Aldi staple) and jojoba. I also have Shea butter (unrefined) and cocoa butter, beeswax pellets, and countless fragrance and essential oils! I am a vegetarian and really dislike the idea of lard or tallow in my soap...yuck! I know a lot of soapers love it though for its $ and lather qualities, but ewww!

 

[Hazel]

Hmm...don't say ewww until you try it. :wink: I didn't like the idea of lard in soap until other soapers encouraged me to try it. Now my favorite recipe is the lard recipe I used for my Halloween batch. Love it! http://www.soapmakingforum.com/viewtopi ... 16&t=33780

What are the ingredients in the Aldi veggie oil and shortening?

 

[Hazel]

You could make a Bastile batch with the olive, coconut and shea (or cocoa butter if you prefer). The only problem is this takes a longer curing time than a batch with a lower percentage of olive. Perhaps something like

70% Olive Oil
25% Coconut Oil
5% Shea Butter (or Cocoa Butter)

 

[lizflowers42]

I will get back with you on the shortening ingredients. I feel like it is just vegtable oil in the solid form. I bought it for baking, but read that you can use Crisco in soap for a "grocery store" soap recipe.

I will get back with you after Christmas when I have hopefully received all of my protective equipment and give it a whirl! Until then I am reading as much as I can!

 

[Hazel]

The vegetable oil I have is 100% soybean so I wondered if Aldi's is the same. I have used new Crisco (with palm) in soap and it's very conditioning. I posted a recipe along time ago on this forum which had Crisco in it. I'll have to look for it. However, I know some other brands of shortening have different ingredients which would affect the lye amount. There is a "grocery store" recipe in the Soap Making Recipes & Tutorials section. Here's the link if you want to take a look at it. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1902

 

[lizflowers42]

Ok dumb question. How do I calculate ounces from the lye percentages. I am pretty sure there is a basic arithmetic formula, but I havent quite figured that out!

 

[Hazel]

There aren't any dumb questions. However, there are confusing ones. I don't know what you mean by calculating ounces from lye percentages.

Are you asking how to calculate the lye amount based upon the oils in the recipe?

 

[lizflowers42]

Like how do you determine a batch size? My mold says that it holds 5 pounds-so what would I need to do to generate a recipe based an mold size?

 

[Hazel]

Here's the link to the topic. http://soapmakingforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3461

 

[lizflowers42]

Here's the link to the topic. http://soapmakingforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3461

Thank you!!!!! :mrgreen:

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome!

 

[lizflowers42]

Ok I lied! It is Dollar General brand! It says soybean and cottonseed oils in the vegetable shortening. The vegetable oil is 100% soybean. :wink:

 

[Hazel]

Soybean and cottonseed are the ingredients in old Crisco so you could use it for your lye calculation.

BTW, I found the recipe in which I used new Crisco. You have to scroll down a bit to see it.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19306&hilit=diatomaceous&start=30

I looked at it and realized I used coconut oil at 30% with a 7% superfat. I'd recommend using a slightly higher SF or lowering the coconut percentage if you know your skin doesn't handle coconut very well. In most of my recipes, I generally use 25% for batches I make with water and 27%-28% if I'm using buttermilk or cream. Normally, 30% coconut in a batch made with water is too drying for my skin.

 

[Stinkydancer]

You could make a Bastile batch with the olive, coconut and shea (or cocoa butter if you prefer). The only problem is this takes a longer curing time than a batch with a lower percentage of olive. Perhaps something like

70% Olive Oil
25% Coconut Oil
5% Shea Butter (or Cocoa Butter)

This is what I would do for your first batch. It makes a great soap. You can replace that Shea with Castor as well which is also great soap. Easy to make as well.

Welcome to the Dark Side!

 

[lizflowers42]

You could make a Bastile batch with the olive, coconut and shea (or cocoa butter if you prefer). The only problem is this takes a longer curing time than a batch with a lower percentage of olive. Perhaps something like

70% Olive Oil
25% Coconut Oil
5% Shea Butter (or Cocoa Butter)

This is what I would do for your first batch. It makes a great soap. You can replace that Shea with Castor as well which is also great soap. Easy to make as well.

Welcome to the Dark Side!

I know! I checked out like 10 books from the library yesterday and have been reading nonstop! I will certainly make one of these easy ones for my first batch! I love hand made soap! Every craft fair I tend to find the soapers table in seconds!!!!

 

[Stinkydancer]

Good luck! Take it slow- learn all you can which sounds like what your doing. Once you do your first batch- your like- that was it? LOL Then the addiction starts and you make more and more until your soap takes up every square inch of your house- then you have to build a work shop and well you get my point...it's too addictive even after doing it a long time. I never get sick of it.

This forum has amazing info and most importantly people are nice.

 

[lizflowers42]

Good luck! Take it slow- learn all you can which sounds like what your doing. Once you do your first batch- your like- that was it? LOL Then the addiction starts and you make more and more until your soap takes up every square inch of your house- then you have to build a work shop and well you get my point...it's too addictive even after doing it a long time. I never get sick of it.

This forum has amazing info and most importantly people are nice.

I'm almost as addicted to this forum as I am to natural soaps and ingredients, lol! THere are some extremely talented folks on here! So glad that I stumbled upon the forum while running questions through Google!!

 

[lizflowers42]

Good luck! Take it slow- learn all you can which sounds like what your doing. Once you do your first batch- your like- that was it? LOL Then the addiction starts and you make more and more until your soap takes up every square inch of your house- then you have to build a work shop and well you get my point...it's too addictive even after doing it a long time. I never get sick of it.

This forum has amazing info and most importantly people are nice.

I made my first batch last night using just hydrogenated soybean/cottonseed oil (Dollar General Crisco) just to keep it simple for my first batch. I ran it though the lye calculator on brambleberry and did 5% superfatting because I like the idea of having additional fat to ensure all the lye is used!

I'm fairly certain that this will not produce a bubbly soap, but I will certainly still use it. It traced very quickly and my husband was the one that said "that was easy, are we done??"