lye help

[lavender.dreams.candles]

ok.... I can't find a lye calculator that I understand .... but, I'm using a kit that I bought and the recipe with that kit is:

13.43oz. Distilled Water
7.05 oz. Lye

16oz. coconut oil (76degree)
16oz. Palm oil
16oz. Canola Oil


Now my question is ..... I was told to probably use 6.5oz Lye .... So, if I did cut down on the Lye how much of the water would I cut down???

Please don't use % because this is my first batch and I'm not use to the %'s of everything yet.

Please someone help me as I plan on making this with my son this weekend to help him & my cousin get in a better mood since they lost their friend this week to killing himself and they are really taking it hard so we are going to make this a family project.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Guest]

Hi on my Soapmaker program you will need 6.83 oz of lye and 16.93 oz of water. The soap qualities will be - hardness 5.9 - fluffy lather 5.3 - stable lather 5.1 - moisturizing - 5.9.

Hope this helps you out.

Kitn

 

[lavender.dreams.candles]

I found a lye calculator on brambleberry that was easy to read....but, now
that calculator doesn't have all the % of hardness/lather/etc ....

I put in my oils and ounces of them I'm using and got


5% Superfatted Recommended Lye Amount 6.901
Ounces of water recommended 15.84

Now.... what I'm not understanding is what should I have for the "superfatted" % ???

the calculators are still so confusing to me because I don't ever seem to get the total of lye and water I'm suppose to use as it's all different everytime.

Can someone explain to me what Superfatted means?
Also, what % is best for hardness and lather?

 

[Deda]

I'm really sorry about your son's friend. It's wonderful that you are drawing them in with an interesting family project.

This weekend may not be the ideal time to learn, but I highly suggest that you take an afternoon to learn about SAP values and how they relate to the amount of lye needed to saponify different oils.

It's not difficult and will greatly increase your understanding of the whole soapmaking process. Including the superfat "how and why".

Personally, I think understanding how a soaping calculator determines the amounts of lye, water and oils is vital to making great soap. It also makes the numbers churned out by soapcalc and soapmaker mean so much more.

When you have a little time feel free to PM me with any questions I can try to help answer.

 

[IrishLass]

I found a lye calculator on brambleberry that was easy to read....but, now
that calculator doesn't have all the % of hardness/lather/etc ....

Don't worry so much about the hardness, lather, fluffiness, etc.. right now. You've got a kit with a certain amount of ingredients, so lets just start with that for your first batch and use it as a springboard for future learning.

I put in my oils and ounces of them I'm using and got


5% Superfatted Recommended Lye Amount 6.901
Ounces of water recommended 15.84

Those are excellent amounts of lye and water to use for the amount of oils you have in your recipe. I would use those amounts instead of the amounts your kit recommended.

Now.... what I'm not understanding is what should I have for the "superfatted" % ???

the calculators are still so confusing to me because I don't ever seem to get the total of lye and water I'm suppose to use as it's all different everytime.

Can someone explain to me what Superfatted means?
Also, what % is best for hardness and lather?

Like I said- let's not worry so much about being able to understand every single detail about soap qualities right now. We'll be here to help you through subsequent batches in more detail, but you've got the kit and your're planning on using it this weekend, so let's use it and go from there. For future reference, though, here is a good link that explains all the why's and how's of superfatting and how important it is:

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapm ... erfat.htmA

By the way, a good, all around, default superfatting level is 5%. It's what most soapers (including me) use as a general rule. If you use the lye amount that Brambleberry recommended (6.9 ounces)- your soap will be superfatted at around 5.5%- that's a good superfatting level to soap at.

As for hardness and fluffiness, etc..., those #'s are very subjective and should be taken with a grain of salt. You can talk to 50 different soapers about the best numbers to shoot for and end up with 60 different answers! Since each individual's skin has their own personal likes and dislikes, those #'s are going to vary from person to person. The best thing you can do is make a soap and see what you like or dislike about it, and then depending on how it came out, use SoapCalc (a free, online soap calculator) or the SoapMaker program to tweak the ingredients around to get the next batch closer to how you'd like it to act and feel.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions. We are all here to help.

IrishLass

P.S Remember lye safety!!! Proceed with caution and use protection- goggles, gloves, and also face mask (to avoid breathing in lye fumes when initially dissolving the lye into the water).