I'm almost ready to make my first batch! Eeeee!

[gigisiguenza]

gigi I envy you ,I made my first soap few days back and bought only one or things and made it .You bought every thing like a professional .

umeali - did did your soap come out nice? What recipe did you use? Share a pic I'm eager to get to it so I'm jealous LOL.

As to supplies, thanks for not laughing at my over prepping and ocd planning LOL. I've been researching for months, filling pages with notes, planning and plotting, and grabbing supplies and tools as I come across them super cheap - thrift stores, garage sales, friends tossing things, and super duper sales, like the olive oil on mega sale w a coupon

Do what I did - tell your friends what you need and ask them to keep their eyes open for freebies. A part of my stash is donated by friends who saw someone tossing out this or that and grabbed it, or stuff they didn't need anymore (like my scales). They're all bugging me to hurry up and make soap so they can try some LOL. They all feel like they have a vested interest in my adventure now and are eager to be my test dummies hehehe

Susie - I didn't realize there would be such a big difference between using lard vs shortening. I've seen so many beginners tutorials saying use Crisco that I assumed it was interchangeable. Good to know. As to water, the soapcalc defaults to 38% - I'll leave it set that way instead of changing it to the water ratio settings and manually entering a 3:1 ratio.

TEG - That's an excellent suggestion and I will do that until I can get the castor oil. As to the water discount/cure time... I've read a bunch of posts all over the net in my research, referring to using the water discount as a way of curing faster, that's where I came by the assumption. I obviously misunderstood what I was reading (which doesn't surprise me as it's not the first misunderstanding I've had corrected in the past couple days lol) If it doesn't impact cure times, what does it impact?

Thanks so much for all the time and info you all are giving. It's helping tremendously in converting all the research from abstract concepts in my head into practical, concrete visuals that make more sense and relate to each other.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

You probably read it right, but the internet says many things!

 

[Obsidian]

Check walmart pharmacy for castor. Its reasonable enough to buy a bottle or two until you can get some online. Many recipes you find online aren't very good or are aimed at being very cheap to make so you find a lot of crisco in use. I've used it and it really doesn't make very good soap.

You can get great value shortening at walmart which in a mix of palm and tallow but tallow is beef fat so you probably won't want to use that either. You can also get coconut at walmart, it really is a necessary oil for a nice balanced soap.

May I ask why you want vegan soap? Is it because you are vegan or because the idea of using animal fat in soap is just icky to you?

 

[gigisiguenza]

Check walmart pharmacy for castor. Its reasonable enough to buy a bottle or two until you can get some online. Many recipes you find online aren't very good or are aimed at being very cheap to make so you find a lot of crisco in use. I've used it and it really doesn't make very good soap.

You can get great value shortening at walmart which in a mix of palm and tallow but tallow is beef fat so you probably won't want to use that either. You can also get coconut at walmart, it really is a necessary oil for a nice balanced soap.

May I ask why you want vegan soap? Is it because you are vegan or because the idea of using animal fat in soap is just icky to you?

Obsidian - I'll check WallyWorld for the castor. And I didn't know their Palm shortening had tallow in it, sheesh. As to the why, it's several things. No, I'm not a vegan, I like my steak too much to go vegan lol. But I also don't know if I want to use animal fats on my skin. My skin is so sensitive I'm not sure if it will cause an issue. Another reason is, some of my test dummies (friends hehehe) are indeed vegan and would not be comfy with using a soap with animal products in it. And.... it sounds so ick! LOL. Silly, I know, but it does.

Now, all that being said, I'm game to try it because if I'll eat it, I'll wear it etc. And I want to try em all and see what I like, both in the soap itself, and in the making of it. I like having options. So, I will go find me some lard and Palm and whatever else is suggested and play with soap

My long term end goal down the road is to eventually be good enough and make good enough soap to sell it, and I don't intend to pidgeon hole myself into just one kind of soap. I want anything I make to be quality and as natural as possible, but beyond that, I'm only limited by my skill and my imagination. And, when I get to that point, good labelling, distinctive soap type packaging, and proper branding will make sure people know what they're getting when they buy it.

All that light years away, so right now I'm just saying kick! Pig fat! Hahahahaha.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Then I would go with lard for now. If you like steak, you get more fat on your skin from cooking and eating it than you would from using the soap - the fats in soap are no longer fats, they are saponified in to salts (sodium lardate, for example).

Then there is the 5% sf. Not all fats saponify in the same way, so your superfat is not a straight mix of your oils in the same ratio. So let's take it that ALL of your superfat is lard. So 5% of a bar of your soap is still lard. How much soap is used per use? I'm a heavy user and my soaps last a good month and are 100g. So I use about 3.6g of soap per use, on the outside of the margin for error. So with this extreme allowances, I am putting 0.18g of lard on my skin per use. Now I've just had lunch and most likely have much more than that on me right now!

If you would be happy with animal fats, make it. There will be time enough when you come to start looking at selling for going in other directions, such as vegan, when you also know a lot more about what would work and why.

 

[umeali]

umeali - did did your soap come out nice? What recipe did you use? Share a pic I'm eager to get to it so I'm jealous LOL.

As to supplies, thanks for not laughing at my over prepping and ocd planning LOL. I've been researching for months, filling pages with notes, planning and plotting, and grabbing supplies and tools as I come across them super cheap - thrift stores, garage sales, friends tossing things, and super duper sales, like the olive oil on mega sale w a coupon

Do what I did - tell your friends what you need and ask them to keep their eyes open for freebies. A part of my stash is donated by friends who saw someone tossing out this or that and grabbed it, or stuff they didn't need anymore (like my scales). They're all bugging me to hurry up and make soap so they can try some LOL. They all feel like they have a vested interest in my adventure now and are eager to be my test dummies hehehe

My first soup was not as bad but it was a bit soft but today when I used it ,it gave me a nice result .I am happy but the finishing is not good ,I mean not even and smooth .I used coconut ,almond oil and Naoh for lye .used a local scrubber granules to make it a scrubbing bar . I used a soap calc to measure every ingredient .
I wish I could have such a nice tools like yours .This is my first soap .

 

[Susie]

I can't find straight palm oil anywhere local. You will need to find some on the internet. You can buy the Walmart shortening with Palm and Tallow, though.

Lard makes marvelous conditioning soap, rich and luxurious lather, but small bubbles. Tallow makes good big bubbles. Lard is a LOT cheaper here, and MUCH easier to source.

 

[Obsidian]

I too have sensitive and dry skin, lard has been wonderful for it. Palm is gentle too but lard makes a better feeling bar of soap. If you ever used dial or ivory, you used beef tallow. Using too much coconut is what can irritate your sensitive skin. Do you have a recipe you are planning on making?

Look for spectrum brand shortening, its 100% palm. I found it at target but I think its at whole sale foods too.

 

[not_ally]

I totally agree w/Obsidian (and everyone else), lard feels great on your skin. In soap It is a very conditioning oil, one of the least likely to irritate. I think people think "bacon fat, gross", but as EG pointed out, the saponification process changes all that. If you are not vegan/veg, the biggest problem for most folks is the notion of it, and the smell. I do not find it a big deal, but it does have a fatty odor while warm, that goes away once you add FO/EO (the next day for me, once it has been poured and hardens.) Some people with super sensitive sniffers, a v. few, can smell it afterwards. But I think that is pretty rare.

Umeali, you don't *need* many things to make really good soap, you probably already have them since you have made a batch! Are you using soap calc? If you copy/cut-and-paste the recipe from there we can take a look at your recipe and see if we have any input on getting it smoother/more even/nicer. Where do you live? Can you get palm oil or lard there?

ETA: Gigi, don't know if someone has already noted this, but discounted water doesn't speed the cure per se, it just makes the bar harder faster. The other elements of cure - lathering, mildness - still require the same amount of time. Also, yes, you can get alcohol at the drug store. Just make sure it is the 91% kind if you are using it to spray the soap.

 

[gigisiguenza]

TEG - lard it will be for now. Thanks for all the info!
Umeali - nothing wrong with the soap if it does its job. It might not be pretty, but I doubt mine will win any contests either when I mAke my first batch lol. Chin up, fellow newbie, and try again
Obsidian - I will look for that brand and start reading labels
not_ally - I hadn'tt thought of the potential smell ugh. But if a little FO will fix that, I'm all good. As to alcohol, I didn't know there were different kinds lol.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Look for spectrum brand shortening, its 100% palm. I found it at target but I think its at whole sale foods too.

I've also purchased it at Sprouts and Smart & Final.

 

[gigisiguenza]

I've also purchased it at Sprouts and Smart & Final.

I'm checking to see if any of the stores close to me have it. Thanks!

 

[Saponomancer]

I've seen 100% palm shortening at Ingles!

 

[Deedles]

<snip>

ETA: Gigi, don't know if someone has already noted this, but discounted water doesn't speed the cure per se, it just makes the bar harder faster. The other elements of cure - lathering, mildness - still require the same amount of time. Also, yes, you can get alcohol at the drug store. Just make sure it is the 91% kind if you are using it to spray the soap.

First I want to thank everyone for such great info! I'm also a beginner and am soaking up everything! As with any new venture, the terms and acronyms are like learning a new language!

I do have one question.....what is discounted water? I doubt it means a sale on bottled water at HEB! I've seen reference to it several times for making the bars harden faster, but other than that I have no clue.

TIA
Dee
http://www.soapmakingforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

..................what is discounted water? I doubt it means a sale on bottled water at HEB! I've seen reference to it several times for making the bars harden faster, but other than that I have no clue.
.................

It's where you adjust the amount of water used from the standard amount to a lower amount - it uses the same terminology as lye discount, that is using less of something than is standard.

Anything less than full water (25% lye solution) would be a water discount.

 

[Deedles]

Thanks, Craig...so much to learn!

 

[OliveOil2]

If you end up using the Spectrum Palm Oil they always have good coupons on the Spectrum site, usually $2.00 off, and sometimes Whole Foods has it on sale, or an additional store coupon. It comes in a blue tub and not a bottle, so it won't look like you expect it to.

 

[cmzaha]

I know I am a little late reading this thread, but please be careful with those dollar store mixing bowls / pitchers you have. In my humble opinion they are okay for smallish batches but to flimsy for larger batches. I purchased one once in a soap meet I attended because I needed to remeasure my oils. No way under the sun would I use it for my raw soap batter that contained 63 oz oils. Nice 1 gallon hdpe buckets are much sturdier and can be used for yrs. A few in here will know where I obtained that measuring bowl/ pitcher and probably disagree with me but I do not find them worth the risk of spilling raw batter. KitchenAid and Giada de Laurenties have a 3 set of nice #5 mixing bowl sets with a pour spout. I found my Giada set at goodwill, and the KitchenAid at costco a couple of yrs ago.
I simply do not waste my money on dollar mixing utensils or containers. They will not hold up well enough and you will be re-purchasing soon.
Lard make wonderful gentle soap, although not to bubbly but a creamy lather. Lard mixed with tallow lathers with more bubbles

 

[OliveOil2]

I agree with Carolyn, for larger size batches the $1 pouring bowls are not stable enough for me. I threw mine out after making one large batch and almost spilling it. Plus I am a clutz, and punched a whole in one using the ice pick on frozen goat milk. I know many here use them, but you can get inexpensive or free hdpe buckets. I have saved all of my coconut oil buckets from WSP and have received a few deli containers for free. Thrift shops, Amazon, Ross etc. have nice batter bowl sets with pouring spouts that are very inexpensive.

 

[cmzaha]

I agree with Carolyn, for larger size batches the $1 pouring bowls are not stable enough for me. I threw mine out after making one large batch and almost spilling it. Plus I am a clutz, and punched a whole in one using the ice pick on frozen goat milk. I know many here use them, but you can get inexpensive or free hdpe buckets. I have saved all of my coconut oil buckets from WSP and have received a few deli containers for free. Thrift shops, Amazon, Ross etc. have nice batter bowl sets with pouring spouts that are very inexpensive.

I am also a bucket horder! I mostly use 1-2 gallon buckets for mixing batter. One gallon will hold my 63 oz of oils with plenty of room for additives and lye solution. Don't feel bad OliveOil, I am also a klutz due to old age and arthritic fingers, so I take as little risk as possible. The only time I spilled lye was when using heavier gloves. I use nitrile gloves from Costco. Cheapest place I can find the. Tight fitting heavier gloves are also problematic.