How does this sound...

[Pug Mom]

I was fiddling around with a lye calculator...how does this sound?


8 oz Coconut Oil
5 oz Olive Oil
4 oz Palm Oil
5 oz vegetable shortening
3.6 oz lye
7.25 oz water

Does this sound like it will create a nice hard bar of soap? :?:

 

[SimplyE]

Hi and welcome to the addiction!!!

Don't ya just love those soap calcs?!! I plugged your numbers into a calc and came up with a bit heavy on the lye. Did you take a discount? That is important.

You would definitely have a hard bar with that amount of coconut and also a VERY cleansing bar, which would not be moisturizing at all at 36% coconut oil. If you are looking for a bar to be ultra cleansing, it might work for you. You would have good bubbles, though! I personally would not like that high of cleansing, and I am finding out that I like my cleansing oils at 16% or below, which does sacrifice the hardness of the soap.

That is the great thing about soaping, though. It is a huge experiment to see what suits you!

HTH and good luck! :wink:

 

[Pug Mom]

OK, now I am confused...what is a lye doscount??

So, coconut makes bubbles? What is a good moisturizer?

 

[SimplyE]

A lye discount basically means a % discount for the oils that you are using so that you don't have excess lye in your finished product. Basically in theory, if you use exactly the amount of lye needed to saponify the oils, you would have no room for error, and may end up with a lye-heavy soap. I would say most use at least a 5% discount, meaning that you would use 5% less lye than is actually needed in order to saponify your oils. It is for safety, as well as leaving some oil in your soap for more moisturizing.

I hope that I explained this okay. It took me a long time to figure out what everybody was talking about with the lye discount or super fatting.

As far as the oils, each oil has a property, meaning that some oils are cleansing, some are conditioning, some are bubbly, etc. Some are softer than others. Coconut is high in cleansing, hardness and bubbles and to some (me) extremely cleansing. Too much coconut or any cleansing oil leaves my skin crawling and itchy. The three basic cleansing oils are Coconut, palm kernel, and Babassu. They are also hard oils.

Olive oil, on the other hand, is extremely moisturizing, and when given cure time, will make a hard bar, but low on bubbles. It does take longer to cure to get the hardness.

This will help you a bit with the oil qualities and is also one of the soapcalcs that I use and gave me tons of insight as to how to figure recipes. http://www.soapcalc.com/soapqualities.asp

Hang in there and as long as your lye is discounted enough to avoid a lye-heavy soap, it is all a big experiment as to what is right for you!

 

[Pug Mom]

Thanks! That was an excellent answer. I checked out that link too and I think I will try the basic 30% Coconut 40% Crisco 30% olive soap first...How can I screw that up right? So I will put that through a lye calculator and then subtract 5%, correct? So you are better off with too little lye than too much? I just don't want to end up with a pile of goop!

 

[SimplyE]

Glad that helped! Sometimes, it is hard to explain the technical babble! The problem with too little lye, though, is that you soap "could" go rancid, which is why 5% is a good start.

That particular calculator should have a lye discount built into it at 5%. It should be at the top right where it says lye discount/super fat.

Forwarn you that the calculators are my "video games" are are way more addicting than you can believe once you get them figured out! Yes, I am obsessed!

Glad to help and let me know if you have other questions! This place ROCKS for that!

Good luck with the recipe and let us know how it works out for you!

 

[Pug Mom]

Hmmm, the calculator did have "5% Superfatted" before it gave me the lye amount. So does that mean I don't take a further discount? When I plugged in 6oz coconut, 6 oz olive and 8 oz crisco, it came back with 2.812 oz lye with 6.6 oz of water... So do I not take a further discount on the lye?? Maybe I will look for another lye calculator and see what I get...

 

[SimplyE]

You would not adjust the 5% again, just leave it at 5% discount. I just plugged in your recipe, and did also get the lye at 2.85 ounces and water at 7.6 ounces. It looks good to me. Since each oil has a different SAP value, taking out the Palm oil adjusted your lye on this new recipe.

The qualities look pretty good to start with, too with

Hardness 39
Cleansing 20
Conditioning 56
Bubbly 20
Creamy 19

 

[Pug Mom]

Thanks, I am a little nervous I am going to blow up my kitchen! I am ordering some oils from brambleberry.com and as soon as they come in I am going to try to make soap! I am so excited....

 

[SimplyE]

I know the feeling! You will do great!!! It is exciting and SO much fun! Just take your necessary precautions, gloves, goggles, long sleeves. I wear a mask because of the fumes. No kitchen blowing up allowed :wink:

You are incredibly patient to wait for an order of oils before soaping! I couldn't wait that long and headed to Wal-Mart. It is a great feeling to watch the science of soaping and to be able to feel good about it and what you are doing for yourself! Can't wait to see pics! There is a whole new world out there you will find out

 

[Pug Mom]

Walmart sells the oils?? I couldn't find anyplace around here that sells the stuff, that's why I ordered on line! DOH!

 

[SimplyE]

Walmart has some...coconut, lard, olive, maybe palm. I have been getting my palm at the local grocery in the Health foods section, under the brand name Spectrum vegetable shortening. It is all palm. If you want to get started before your order, try stuff from Walmart. Paul AKA soapmaker man has a walmart recipe here somewhere, maybe in the recipe section? I can't use regular shortening because I am allergic to soybean oil, but a lot of people have used this recipe, especially for starting out. Your recipe sounds pretty good, too though. Especially for getting the technique down! You have already done REALLY well, though for figuring out the soapcalc. A lot of people don't do that for a while because it can be too daunting, so way to go!

Next time you order oils, try www.soaperschoice.com You will have a great time experimenting with all sorts of oils. They are a good price here.