Hello from Wales

[R67ADB]

Hello everyone I've recently discovered soaping and it seems like a very cool hobby. I've been doing a lot of reading for the past week and watched plenty of YouTube videos. I'm somewhat confident about making my first batch of soap but do have some questions for you all. I will be making cold process soap with olive oil cocoa butter and coconut oil.

I'm going to be buying all the ingredients and loaf mould stick blender etc monday when I get paid. so hopefully ill be making my first batch next week sometime.

I have been playing around with soap calc and seem to have a pretty good grasp of it now but it did take a few tries. It's surprisingly simple once you get your head around it.



I have decided for no particular reason to make a recipe with 500g olive oil 200g coconut oil and 200g of cocoa butter.

I'm going to be using lemon fragrance oil and the fragrance is recommended to be added at a 10% ratio. so does 90g of fragrance oil seem ok for this batch size?

Is my Lye concentration ok in the above recipe? Should I go less or more ?

I will also be using lemon yellow mica powder to give the soap some colour

This is the mould I will be using-


I take it the above recipe will be more than enough for this mould? I don't mind if I have a little bit left over but I don't want to make way to much either so let me know if I need to adjust the recipe.

Also I could make the recipe with just olive oil and cocoa butter and maybe ditch the coconut oil ? I'm not really fussed

Thanks in advance!

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum. I would probably decrease the cocoa butter to 17% and add 5.22% Castor oil. When first starting out, it is better to go with the preset calculations on SoapCalc. When you have a few batches under your belt, then you can start experimenting. It looks like you will have an almost 4 lb batch of soap. Does the mold description state how many ounces/grams the mold will hold? It might be better to start with a smaller 1 lb. batch. You can use silicone molds with individual cavities, that are not so expensive, for your first few soaps.

 

[R67ADB]

Thanks for the input! I will stick to the default 38% water as of oil. The mould says it holds 1.2 kg but i was thinking of using whats left over in individual moulds.

 

[Megan]

One thing: does it recommend a 10% fragrance load or is 10% the maximum fragrance allowed? 10% is very high.

 

[R67ADB]

I messaged the seller on ebay and he said 10% recommended. I have seen another fragrance that's a lot cheaper and recommends at 7% so i will be buying that instead.

I have made some adjustments to my recipe

Let me know what you think

 

[lsg]

I like it better than the original. A soap high in olive oil will take longer to cure, maybe 2-3 months before they are best for use. True Castile soap may take 6-8 months to fully cure. So don't be alarmed if your soap is not ready to unmold right away. Let it cure for a couple of months and it will be harder and have better lather.

 

[Megan]

It looks pretty nice to me! It might trace pretty fast, but it shouldn't be unmanageable. As a beginner, you will probably use the stick blender a bit much...I think we all do. I recommend switching between a few second pulses and stirring with the stick blender in between until you reach trace. Don't just stick blend for twenty seconds straight! haha! With using a pretty high percentage of cocoa butter, I would recommend soaping a bit warm, around 100 degrees and not room temperature like so many recommend...in my experience soaping too cool (and I use about half the cocoa butter you do) leads to stearic spots.

 

[R67ADB]

Wow 2-3 months to fully cure and I was thinking it would be done curing in 4 weeks. How long do you recommend I leave it in the mould?

 

[Megan]

Wow 2-3 months to fully cure and I was thinking it would be done curing in 4 weeks. How long do you recommend I leave it in the mould?

2-3 months isn't that long when you think about it. I use a higher percentage olive oil and I generally cure 8 ish weeks. That's effectively two months. I am able to unmold in 1 day, sometimes 14 hours. I do gel, which helps. I also use sodium lactate occasionally, but actually don't notice much of a difference when I forget (which has been happening more and more lately).

It's all about experimenting and what works for you though. So I would recommend waiting at least 24 hours with your first batch and you can test to see if it will come out cleanly. If you notice any sticking to the liner, wait another day.

 

[Millie]

All good advice, except that your original lye concentration of 35% in the first recipe is much better than the default setting. Water as % of oils gives inconsistant results - it might be ok in one recipe and not in another. May as well start doing it right from the get go.

Oh and forgot to say, welcome to soap making and to the forum!! Hope you love it.

 

[Megan]

I agree with Millie, but I would personally do a 33% lye concentration as it makes math super easy if you decide to master-batch later on. It's pretty much splitting hairs, but hey, I'm a hair-splitter.

 

[Millie]

Ha, good point. 33% it is

 

[R67ADB]

Thanks for the warm welcome and sound advice everyone. There would be nothing worse than trying to make soap and fail completely the first batch. This is why I decided to join here and bombard you lot with questions haha. Ok I think I will stick with 35% lye concentration and see how it goes!

 

[TheGecko]

Hello everyone I've recently discovered soaping and it seems like a very cool hobby.

Hello. Welcome. Yes it is.

When first starting a new hobby or craft, you're naturally excited and thus it is easy to go overboard. Start small (1 lb/500 g), especially if you aren't using a 'tried and true' recipe; that way, when things fail...and you will have failures...you're only out a small amount of ingredients. A small 1 lb/500 g mold will easily yield four good sized bars of soap.

Cold Process soap takes four to six weeks to cure. You can of course, use your soap once it has fully saponified...18 to 48 hours depending on your recipe...but it will not be a very nice soap. It's the difference between drinking moonshine (fresh from the still) and 10-year old whiskey.

Oh...about stick blenders. If you're watching YouTube videos, you need to remember that a lot of those folks are making LARGE batches of soap...five to ten pounds of soap. The more batter you have, the longer it takes to blend to emulsion and trace. For small batches, it only takes a few short bursts...and longer and you'll be spooning pudding into your mold.

More important than a stick blender is a digital scale because soap making is also science. Every oil and butter has a SAP value...this is the amount of lye (mixed with water based liquid) it takes to turn your oils/butters into 'soap'. Too much lye and your soap with be harsh, too little and your soap will be very soft and oily.

 

[shunt2011]

I messaged the seller on ebay and he said 10% recommended. I have seen another fragrance that's a lot cheaper and recommends at 7% so i will be buying that instead.

You really need to purchase FO's from a reliable source. If you have to use something at more than 6% and have a great smelling soap it's not worth it. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome R67ADB!

I agree with Shunt. The most fragrance I ever use in my batches is 6%, but that's only with a few fragrances that I really, really love the scent, but they are just too weak to last in my soap at a lesser percentage. All my other fragrance oils are strong and able to last when soaped at 5% or less. Using more than 6% is a waste of money, in my opinion. Higher percentages of fragrance than that have been known to leak/seep out of your soap.

Everybody is different, but for what it's worth, all the olive oil soaps I've ever made using 55% olive oil have been perfectly fine for me to start using at the 4 week mark. Of course, they do get even better with more cure time, but they're actually nice enough for me to start using by 4 weeks. I use a 33% lye concentration (i.e., not water as percent of oils, but water as a percent of lye) and I encourage my batches go through the gel stage, and I am able to unmold and cut my soap within 18 hours after pour.


IrishLass

 

[R67ADB]

Ok I will try to avoid the ebay specials fragrance oil as most seem like cheap rubbish. Can anyone recommend a good and reasonably priced UK website for getting oils? Or even a reputable ebay seller ?

I have some accurate digital scales I have one that weighs up to 500g with 0.01g increments and one that weighs up to 5kg at 0.1g.

I will make a 500g batch first like you said as it would be a shame to make a 1.2kg batch and have it fail. If I do succeed with the small batch I will scale it up. Also I will stick blend at a couple seconds at a time.

With mica powder do I just put some in as soon as the oils have reached emulsion and then stir and stick blend ? I have seen people on yt mix it with a small amount of oil before adding it to their recipe.

 

[shunt2011]

With micas you can either add them directly to your soap batter or mixt them in a bit of oil from your batch. I mix my soap to emulsion/light trace then separate into different containers then color. I mix them with wither a spatula then one quick hit with the blender.

There are some posts here for suppliers in the UK as we have several members.

 

[LilyJo]

Try Soap Kitchen, Gracefruit, Just a soap- there are loads in the uk just not cheap and you need to pay postage on top.

 

[R67ADB]

Thanks I've checked out just a soap and will be ordering the fragrance oil from them. I have adjusted my recipe to 60% olive oil 20% coconut oil and 15% cocoa butter and 5% castor oil at 35% lye concentration and will make a 500g batch to start with.