Is this a good starter soap?

[Wick's End]

I've been studying and purchasing necessary equipment and I now have what I need to start.

I have selected a recipe from a getting started soap book for my basic soap.
It is called Vegetarian's Choice Soap.

Here is the ingredients it gives:
42 oz blended vegetable or olive oil
30 oz. coconut oil
28 oz. vegetable shortening
6 oz of cocoa butter
3 oz castor oil
14 oz lye
41 oz cold water

(I had a difficult time finding blended veg. oil as all but 1 brand was 100% soy bean oil. Don't know if that would have made a difference, but I bought the blended. I am hoping that the ingredients and amounts on the blend doesn't affect the soaping process.)

After making this basic soap and allowing it to cure, I am considering making it into Aloe Vera Bars.

All it calls for in making them is 3/4 cups Aloe Vera Gel or freshly prepared Aloe Vera puree.

Does this sound like a good combination?
What about colorant and scent. It doesn't mention scent at all and suggests a light green dye that is optional.

Is this a good recipe for my 1st?
Any suggestions on scent?
I prefer using EO's but all I have is FO's And my colorants I have an Antique blue mica, and a small bottle of liquid white. Otherwise, I have liquid coloring purchased from Hobby Lobby.

I want this to be successful and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you

 

[BakingNana]

(I had a difficult time finding blended veg. oil as all but 1 brand was 100% soy bean oil. Don't know if that would have made a difference, but I bought the blended. I am hoping that the ingredients and amounts on the blend doesn't affect the soaping process.)

The ingredients and amounts on the blend DO make a difference. I'd advise a simpler recipe for your first batch. This one totals 109 ounces of oils; I'd also do a smaller batch so (heaven forbid!) if you have a problem, you won't be wasting so much. There are a couple of things, also, you should know, and forgive me in advance if you already know this!

All recipes, no matter where they come from, should be run through a soap calculator. A soap calculator determines how much lye and how much liquid you will need for that batch. In order to use a soap calculator, you need to know the answers to these questions...

What kind of "vegetable shortening" are you using? The SAP is different for the new Crisco (contains palm) than for the old Crisco (contains cottonseed). What is the exact make-up of the vegetable oil blend? If it's mainly soybean oil, then you would enter "soybean oil" into Soap Calc. If it's Canola, you'd enter Canola Oil. These things are important because, running your recipe through Soap Calc, the amount of lye needed differs up to 1.5 oz. depending on your ingredients.

Familiarize yourself with one of the free soap calculators on the net. I personally like SoapCalc. You can then plug in the ingredients you want to use specifically and know for sure how much liquid and how much lye you need to use. It also will let you resize your batch so you can use the same recipe if you wish, but make a smaller amount. You may want to read through Kathy Miller's site; she has some simpler beginner recipes.

http://www.millersoap.com/castile.html#FavCastile

For myself, this is the recipe I used for my first batch:

Coconut Oil 7.1 oz.
Olive Oil 15.9 oz.
Palm Oil 5.3 oz.
Castor Oil 1.7 oz.
10.8 oz. distilled water
4.2 oz. lye

In the recipe above, you can substitute new Crisco for the palm with the same amount of water and lye. I have decreased the water only slightly. SoapCalc defaults to 38% water as a percentage of oil weight. I used 36% in this recipe. You can use up to 11.4 oz. water if you wish.

After you're comfortable with a basic soap, you can go on to experiment with aloe, etc. I haven't used anything but the aloe butter, but I know there are others out there who use the plant liquified. They could advise you on the amount to use, etc.

HTH without confusing you too much!

 

[honor435]

I agree, smaller batch! I have been soaping for 2 yrs and still never make over 2lbs, jic it doesnt turn out.
Use at least 10% castor, 3 oz in that big batch wont do much.
Use straight oo, I wouldnt use blended, becuase you dont know how much of each oil is in there. co, oo, crisco, castor will make good soap, I use po instead of crisco, unless you can find the "shortening" blend in a health store that IS palm.

 

[DottieF.]

When you mentioned making the soap into Aloe Vera Bars are you talking about rebatching it? If you are, all I can say is DON'T DO IT!!! I'm sure it's perfectly good soap as is.

On your next batch you can experiment with scent and color. Rebatching is a royal pain in the butt and not necessary. Very few soapmakers do it intentionally. Most of us only do it when we have a botched batch that we can save by rebatching. (Some of us refuse to do it!)

BakingNana had some very good advice. I'd listen to her (and make a much smaller batch next time).

Dottie

 

[xraygrl]

STEP AWAY FROM THE BOOK! LOL!

That sounds like maybe it's Norma Cooney's book. If so, then yes PLEASE step away from the book! She makes it sound like rebatching/hand milling is a required part of soap making, but it's completely untrue. Don't get me wrong, some people like to rebatch, but most avoid it like the plague.

I agree, with your first batch, go small, like 2 lbs total oils. If something goes wrong, then you won't be waisting so much.

those liquid colors from Hobby Lobby are made for melt and pour soap bases, and really don't work well (if at all) in cp soap.

 

[Lindy]

I have that book and she is very good at making rebatching/milling soap sound like the way to go. I also found that her recipes were a little off.

I also recommend a simpler recipe as well as smaller. The millersoap.com site really is the place for you to start.

 

[Wick's End]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! Yes, it is a book by Norma Coney. And yes, I was under the impression that rebatching / milling was what I had to do in order to put any additives at all.

Thank you for some very much needed advice, every one of you. I appreciate it so much!

I will check out everything mentioned here. You are all such wonderful help.

I took a look at a calculator where you plug in information and it gives back information "SoapCalc". Seems I have yet another thing to learn before I consider making my 1st batch. I will use your recipe to try to learn how to use SoapCalc. Thank you. Right now, I don't have Palm oil, or Crisco. I happened to have purchased GV All-Vegetable Shortening which has 2 ingredients, as listed: Partially Hydrogentated Soybean oil, and Fully Hydrogenated Cottenseed Oil, Mono-and-Diglycerides added.

I had the feeling that the Hobby Lobby colorants wasn't what I needed. That is ok. I'm not too concerned about coloring at this time as to me, natural is very appealing anyways. But I would like to add scent and some time or another some botanicals.

Again, thank you all so much.

 

[Chris-2010]

I'll throw in a whole list of pointers that I abide by always. Others may disagree but here goes:

You don't just mix everything together and hope things turn out right.

Suit up with googles, gloves, apron, old shoes.

Warm your base oils by melting the highest-melting point oil first, until it is completely liquid, and then adding the 2nd in the same way, then the 3rd, etc. Warm the entire base oil mix until it reaches clarity, (which, generally, is too hot for soapmaking), then, once achieved, let it cool a bit. I like 105-110 deg F. Do not add your emollient oils yet.

Pre-mix your dry lye with the correct amount of water. It will get hot. Allow it to cool back down to an approximation of room temperature.

Measure out and pre-position your solids, your emollient oils, and your essential oils. Keep all well organized in cups.

Before you commence the soap making, STIR the lye solution. The lye solution is almost super-saturated, and the lye WILL settle to the bottom of your pot. Stir it again right before you are to add it.

Add the lye solution to the oils, the oil pot is bigger; and it's easier to pour water than oil.

Use an electric mixer, powerful enough to generate a nice vortex. Mix the base oils to the lye solution thoroughly.

Solids can be added right away, pour into the vortex.

Wait, before adding emollients, you want the base oils to sapponify by themselves, and, true, the emollients will tend to sapponify over the coming hours. "Waiting" is part of you being in control of your soap making. Wait until early trace. Then add to the vortex while mixing, this will help a lot to prevent any re-crystalization.

Last to mix in are the essential oils; they are precious. Pour them into the speeding vortex to prevent any type of reactive curding. Trace can now do ALL KINDS of interesting or sudden things depending upon what essential oil just went in.

Double check that your prepared-mold is ready and waiting.

When the soap mix is 'ready', then pour. Then scrape the pot and add that too. Waste not.

Seal the mold with plastic to keep out oxygen.

Cover and insulate well your mold. It will become nice and hot.

Leave it alone for 1 day, 2 is better.

Remove the insulated covers and let the mold cool for a day, 2 is better.

Remove your soap from its mold; cut your soap into bars and allow to dry for weeks.

 

[dagmar88]

If it works for you, fine; but newbies are better off keeping it as simple as possible.
I don't know why you add your emollient oils at the end, and I'm not quite sure what you consider te be emollient oils; but your soap will be perfectly fine when heating all of the oils/butters together at once.

I think it's important to know there are loads of different ways, and each of us prefer something else.
For instance, I soap with both my lye solution and oils/butters at room temp (21C) and put my log mold in the fridge to prevent gel.

 

[Wick's End]

Thank you both for your tips.
I do like simple, but whatever works best.

I have made up a lye solution a few moments ago for a recipe that only calls for pure olive oil, lye and water. I don't think I can go wrong with this and I already have everything at hand. the only thing about this recipe is that it said to heat my water to 150 degrees then add lye. That didn't make sense to me since the lye will heat the water on its own, so I added the lye to room temp distilled water. I checked with a therm. and it was just barely over 150 deg. at that point. This whole recipe will make 24 oz.

I was expecting a strong pugnant odor from the lye/water, but I didn't smell a thing. I opened the door to outside, dawned on my gloves and goggles and mixed the 2 so as not to burn my lungs or anything else....... I hope nobody calls the police thinking I am making meth, lol. Wouldn't that be something!

 

[xraygrl]

have made up a lye solution a few moments ago for a recipe that only calls for pure olive oil, lye and water. I don't think I can go wrong with this and I already have everything at hand. the only thing about this recipe is that it said to heat my water to 150 degrees then add lye. That didn't make sense to me since the lye will heat the water on its own, so I added the lye to room temp distilled water.

SMART THINKING! You are right! NEVER heat your water before adding the lye! That would be a DANGEROUS volcano waiting to happen!

let us know how it comes out! a 100% olive soap will take forever to trace...just a heads up on that. And don't forget to always run every recipe you find in a book or on the net through a lye caclulator first to check for errors.