Help with formulations

[larry1ma]

Please excuse if ive posted in the wrong forum, but y'all look friendly enough to help anyways!

In a formulation that for example has 20% beeswax, 50% shea butter, 30% almond oil the beeswax and the shea butter are solids and the almond oil is a liquid

So is it beeswax and shea butter by melted volume or almond oil by weight when calculating the percentages?

Please direct me to a source of help on this.

Many thanks in advanvce,

Soapy bubbles

 

[judymoody]

Please excuse if ive posted in the wrong forum, but y'all look friendly enough to help anyways!

In a formulation that for example has 20% beeswax, 50% shea butter, 30% almond oil the beeswax and the shea butter are solids and the almond oil is a liquid

So is it beeswax and shea butter by melted volume or almond oil by weight when calculating the percentages?

Please direct me to a source of help on this.

Many thanks in advanvce,

Soapy bubbles

For soaping, all ingredients should be calculated by weight rather than volume, regardless of whether or not they are solid or liquid at room temperature.

BTW, 20% beeswax is pretty high and is likely to make a waxy soap that might drag on the skin. Personally I find it messy and a pain to work with so I don't bother any more. If you do use it, I'd keep it at 3% or less.

 

[heartsong]

howdy! we'll give you a hand getting you off the ground with a soap recipe, but mercy heavens why all the beeswax? the most I've seen is 3-5% of total oils. have you been soaping long?

oh, and to answer your question, we always use weights not volume, whether liquid or solid.

do you have any coconut oil? olive, maybe? I fear your soap won't be very bubbly and all that beeswax will make it sticky and tacky.

a nice way to begin is by looking here: is www.soap-making-essentials.com

 

[sistrum]

Everything is by weight never volume.

I don't think this is soap recipe, it looks more like a lotion bar.

 

[savonierre]

I agree sistrum.. A solid lotion bar is usually made with 1/3 wax, 1/3 butter and 1/3 oils.

 

[DeeAnna]

Yeah, I was also thinking the OP was asking about a lip balm or lotion bar, except the post is in the soap making section.

In any case, I agree with the others -- always measure by weight, not volume, whether soaps, balms, or lotions.

 

[larry1ma]

This was only an example for illustration, im not planning to make soap from this but thank you all for answering my question

 

[Robert]

You could measure some or all of the oils by volume, multiplying a measured volume by its weight density (at that temperature) to get the weight, or dividing a required weight by density to get required volume -- but as long as you've got the scale out to weigh at least the lye, why would you want to? The only way I would proceed volumetrically would be if I were using a standard solution of caustic and measuring everything by volume, because then I wouldn't need both weight & volume tools.