How much do you vary?

[Hermanam]

I find myself always trying new CP recipes...some I like, others I don't. I am wondering if I am spreading myself too thin (and wasting too much time, supplies, etc.!). I was wondering if most established CP soap makers generally stick with one recipe (altered with fragrance/color/etc) or do you make many different CP recipes? I just feel a little all over the place sometimes...I think I need to find a favorite recipe and create a variety of bars with that one base recipe. Thoughts??? Ann

 

[theath2010]

I have been wondering this also, I too try new recipes all the time and wonder if I should narrow my options.

 

[Ruthie]

I did do that. Felt like I had to try every oil, process and EO. Got burned out and quit soap making for 10 years. Now I tweak but don't feel the need to do it all.

 

[paillo]

I've been at this for four years and haven't yet been able to stick to a plan. Mostly I use my standard CP recipe with varying colors, additives, scents and sometimes carrier oils, but now I have several shampoo varieties, a doggie bar, a pine tar one, and who knows what next week! With my standard recipe I always have 10 tried and true sellers on hand, but playing with new ingredients is just too much fun not to do, at least for me

 

[Hazel]

From what I've seen on websites, soapers seem to have one or two standard recipes which they alter with different additives and fragrances. Quite a few members on this forum have mentioned they have a "go-to" recipe which they prefer to primarily use most of the time.

But there's nothing wrong with trying different recipes. It's the only way to find out what you prefer. When I first started making soap, I had to try as many different oils and butters that I could get without bankrupting myself. I discovered what I liked and got feedback on what family and friends liked. I eventually learned that I didn't need the fancy oils and expensive butters to make soap. Now I prefer to use these in leave on products.

Now I have specific oils that I use all the time but in varying percentages depending on what type of soap I want to make; such as, extra conditioning soap, shower soap, facial soap, etc. I have a few recipes which I consider my basic recipes. I alter the recipes with different additives, liquids and fragrances. Knowing what oils I will consistently use has saved me a lot of money since I stopped buying oils which I found to be unnecessary for my soapmaking. Well, it would have saved me money except now I use the money to buy fragrances. :roll:

To be fair, there are some oils which I would like to buy again. I know I don't need them but I did like them as substitutions in some recipes. I also have some old recipes which used oils other than what I eventually chose to use. They weren't necessarily expensive, they just had shorter shelf lives. I decided to use oils which had longer shelf lives since I buy oils in bulk to reduce cost and it takes me a long time to finish off the containers. However, I won't say I'd never buy these oils again. If I saw a great sale on smaller containers, I might buy them and then make batches to use them quickly.

I like paillo's reply - have your standard recipes but still let yourself have some fun and experiment with new ingredients. You just don't have to experiment with a lot of different ingredients all at once. :wink:

 

[Badger]

I have mostly used the same recipe because I am limited by expense from buying a lot of different oils. I do plan on trying some new ones next month, but I also plan to tweak the general recipe I use now after my testers give me some feedback on it. I will likely then have a couple main recipes that I stick to and vary fragrances and colors for them. I also will eventually have some additives, but not sure how much that will change my base recipe yet.

 

[BananaBee]

I never use the same recipe. For every soap i create a new recipe (i'm sure i did already a recipe twice by chance). But it like to try new things and to vary the amount of oils. I always adapt my recipe to the soap i'm making, when i do the taiwan swirl i need much liquid oils and when i wanna make a layer soap i use much hard fats. It just makes fun to create new recipes .
But i always use pretty much the same oil:
coconut
palm
stearic acid
olive oil
canola oil
lard
soy bean oil
castor oil
No expensive exotic oils .