help with a first time recipe :)

[scrinch]

hello, can someone please help me out and just let me know what you think of this recipe..
22 oz olive oil
10 oz cocnut oil
8oz palm oil
4oz shea butter
4 oz cocoa butter

i want to use this as a base recipe that i can interchange scents with, for example how much sweet orange essential oil would you suggest and then say i wanted to use this same recipe with a lavender essential oil? does that affect the lye and water percentages?

thanks!!!!

 

[melstan775]

I suggest putting your recipe through soap calc ad making sure it is cohesive and brings the properties you want in a soap. As foe essential oils, this forum often recommends
No more then 3% of EO usage for the oil weight. EOs are not natural fragrences, they are
Liquid plant matter, so care should be taken when using them.

 

[Genny]

Your recipe looks pretty good. What do you plan on superfatting it at?

Your fragrance or essential oil does not affect your lye solution usage.

For Sweet Orange eo, I'd use about 1.44 oz for your 48 oz oils. Also, I'd anchor the sweet orange eo with a litsea cubeba eo since sweet orange is a fader.
For Lavender eo, I'd use about 1.20 oz for your 48 oz oils.

Brambleberry & The Sage have fragrance calculators that you might find handy.

 

[scrinch]

i have put it thru the soap calc and this is what came out..
18.24 oz water
6.972 lye

so im just wondering if those numbers can be rounded to 18.2 and 7.1?

i plan on superfatting at 7%

 

[Genny]

Don't round the lye up. If you're going to round it, always round it down.

 

[Badger]

One of the other things to look at with your recipe is how much soap you are making. This is your first recipe and it calls for 4 lbs of oils. That seems a little large for a first batch for me. I would see if you could cut the recipe in half and use only 2 lbs of oils. (I know that for me, my first several batches were all one pound batches). I agree with Melissa about not using more then 3% of EO for the total weight of your oils/butters. This number can vary depending on the EO you are using, as some are known to cause skin sensitivity (like peppermint or cinnamon). The amount of EO or FO you use in a recipe does not effect the amount of water and lye that you use in the recipe.

As Melissa suggested, I would run the recipe through soapcalc. I just ran it through myself and the percentages look fairly good to me, depending on the results that you want on your soap. The only thing on the low side was lather, which you could likely increase by adding some castor oil (I would have to play with the numbers some). That would make a soap with several different ingredients to start with, which may not be the best recipe for a first bar... I would likely take out the shea butter and add the castor if I wanted to make the soap a bit more bubbly.

 

[scrinch]

This is your first recipe and it calls for 4 lbs of oils. That seems a little large for a first batch for me. I would see if you could cut the recipe in half and use only 2 lbs of oils.

its 3 lbs of oil no?

 

[melstan775]

No it's 44 oz, so much it's almost 3 pounds which will render you a four pound batch of soap. Cut your oils to about 21 oz to get a 32 oz soap which is two pounds.

 

[Genny]

Actually, isn't it 48 oz of oils/butters?

 

[scrinch]

yes the recipe is 48oz

 

[Badger]

Wow, I was being brain fried, it is 3 lbs of oils, not four, I would still go with a smaller batch myself, but then again, as I said I was doing mostly one pound batches. I am also poor and the thought of making a mistake on a three or four pound batch is still worrisome to me, because I hate the thought of using that much money on a mistake (yeah, I make mostly one pound batches to feed the habit and learn off from them).

 

[melstan775]

Sue me for a mobile typo.

 

[Genny]

Sue me for a mobile typo.

Oh, I will

 

[lizflowers42]

Sue me for a mobile typo.

Now that's a "news of the weird" story waiting to happen!

 

[scrinch]

great advice, thank you!!

 

[Marilyna]

I also like to make my test batches 1 lb of oils, because like Badger said, it's expensive, plus you're stuck with a bunch of yucky soap if your soap doesn't come out good.