How to evaluate my recipe?

[kniquy]

I only have a dozen or so batched of soap under my belt but am looking to better assess my soap based on my recipe before I jump in and make it.

I use soapcal. What i'm looking for is a way to better understand the "soap bar quality" and how to make small adjustments to make a hard but creamy and bubbly soap. I guess i'm looking for more resources to know how each oil/butter can really affect the outcome of my soap. I have a few books but I think i am still stumped on percentages of what i should/shouldn't use.

So aside from just making endless batches of soap - does the soapcal recipe really give you a good prediction of what your bar of soap turns out like?

My current recipe that I am going to try is:
5% Superfat
Castor 5%
Cocoa butter 5%
Mango butter 5%
Lard 35%
Coconut Oil 25%
Olive Oil 25%

Hardness 44
Cleansing 17
Conditioning 50
Bubbly 22
Creamy 32
Iodine 52
INS 159

Any think I should change?
Can you predict how this bar of soap will turn out?

 

[YardstickOfCivilization]

There are a million people on here better suited to answer this one, but hopefully this link helps:

https://classicbells.com/soap/soapCalcNumbers.asp
She mentions the numbers are a general guide only.

I've been paying attention to the fatty acid totals instead of watching the Soap Bar Quality numbers but they just two ways of looking at it. I think you are on the right track. I'm comparing your numbers with the numbers from my current, evolved, favourite recipe, and they are very close. I don't work with lard so I'm not sure if it'll make a difference, but it should be a nice, long lasting bar, IMO.

One thing that helps me is looking at a chart of the fatty acid profiles of many of the fats with their qualities in mind. I couldn't find the one I printed off but here is one I found below. Looking at it I'm amazed of the ranges for Avocado oil. 36-80 for Oleic acid is a huge difference.

Hope this helps!

 

[TheGecko]

BrambleBerry has a good guide on Common Soapmaking Oils that I have found to be help. It provides a general shelf life, general usage amounts and a good description of the oil/butter itself. It's not the end-all-be-all, but it's a good start.

Overall your recipe is fine, though I would increase your butters to 10%. I started out with 5% Cocoa and Shea Butters and was advised that such small amounts contributed nothing to the quality of my soap. Of course, increasing your Mango Butter is going to increase your costs. Often times, it is best to leave the more costly ingredients to products that your skin can actually benefit from...like lotions and creams.

 

[Iluminameluna]

This forum "grew" a lye or soap calculator that knocks the socks off most of all other calculators, imho. Soapmakingfriend.com you'll find will let you look at your recipes from a bunch of different angles, save it, copy it, update it, send a link to your friends, all sorts of fun stuff. And you can even keep track of your soaping inventory if you're that organized!
I do use lard and love it! But my budget is rather tight so I don't use anything more exotic than coconut oil and castor. I use cocoa butter and beeswax for my salves, where they'll stay on the skin and do some good.
Where you could use some ingredients for label appeal are as additives, like honey, turmeric, annatto, chamomile (the infusion and the spent flowers, dried and ground up), etc., if you want to stay organic and natural.
The calculator will only give you a rough idea of how your soap will behave. But in the end, only your soap and how it cures in your area will be your only guide.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I think your recipe will produce a perfectly nice bar of soap. If you want to test for the effects of the butters, you could make one small test batch with 45% lard and no butters and a second batch with 35% lard and 5% of each butter, or 10% of one of the them. Based on the composition of each fat, the butters will give the soap some creaminess and contribute denser bubbles, the olive oil will contribute to a soft lather of small “soft” bubbles and the coconut, which helps the soap dissolve, will help to make the bubbles open up a bit, leading to bigger bubbles. Castor is used to help support the bubbles/lather. Lard is almost a perfect soap making fat on it’s own, except that it lacks any lauric and myristic fatty acids to help the soap dissolve so it can make big bubbles.