Measuring Solid & Liquid Fats

[cambree]

Hello everyone. I am new to soapmaking and am looking forward to making my first batch soon.

I am reading "The Handmade Soap Book" by Melinda Coss as well as many others. I am confused about weighing the oils section. From the picture of Melinda's book, it looks like chunks of fats are put in the pot after being weighed.

But in other books I've read, they recommend we melt the fats, then weight the oils before adding to the pot. Does this even make any difference (in weights)? I would like to be really accurate. Which method would you suggest? Thanks for the input

 

[Barb]

here's my order of doing things;

i weigh out my solid oils in my soap pot. melt them on low. while they are melting i measure out my liquid oils ( glass measuring cup, easier to clean then plastic ). when the solids are melted i add the liquid oils and stir it all together. this helps bring the temp of the soap pot down a little faster. at least i think so.

i think the reason she weighs them into a seperate container before adding to the soap pot is so that if you go over what you need it is easier to take out the right amount for the right weight. if you are careful when weighing out your oils this shouldn't be to much of a problem. the liquids could prove a little impossible to remove the correct one if you overpoured & weighed them right into the pot and got to much.

 

[cambree]

Hi Barb, thanks for the advice. You're reasoning makes sense. I ended up with a basic recipe from Anne Watson's book, "Smart Soapmaking". It is pretty simple and easy to follow.

I measured my solid fats (coconut oil & shea butter) and then heat them in the microwave. I also measured out my liquid (olive oil) and add to the soap pot together with the melted solid. It looked like I had more oils (90%) then the lye mixture (10%). I wonder if this ratio is common. But it did trance and I'm just waiting to cut them up.

I hope my first batch will turn out as I expected.

 

[Missjulesdid]

I have a lot more lye/water mixture. for the batch I just made I was one pound of lye, two pounds of water and 8 pounds of oils. so that's 3:8 ratio if you were 1:10 then that does not sound right... but see what happens, maybe your perception was off and it was really more lye/water than you think...if there are pools or chunks of oils on your soap tomorrow, then you'll know it was off!

Here is my order if I'm not working with premixed lye or oils:
turn on crockpot
make my lye water
measure coconut oil into a bowl and dump it in the crockpot (cut up into smaller pieces)
measure tallow or palm oil and put it into the crockpot
measure all liquid oils into the same bowl. If I accidently pour a tenth of an ounce too much on one, I just put one tenth less of a different oil.. since i'm working with a superfat anyway, the difference for saponification values of 1/10 ounce of oil isn't going to matter. I always pour my castor oil last because for me it's the easiest to stop on a dime to get the exact measurement I need. I put the ROE in the liquid oils and mix well

While the lyewater is cooling and the solid oils are heating, I line my mold. Then I mix the colors I'm going to need. I use mostly herbal powders and occasionally oxides and ultramarines so I just mix them with a few tablespoons of the oil out of the liquid oil bowl or a little water depending on what I'm using. If I'm using titanium dioxide, I mix it with a little oil from the liquid bowl. Then I mix up my essential oil blend and make a slury with my coconut milk powder. (I keep it covered until time to pour it in the batter)

Then I surf the net for about 15 minutes, or I get togtether a load of laundry...
when I come back the oils are almost melted. I stir them up to get them going, once the oils are melted, I pour in the liquid oils, if I'm using titanium dioxide I add it now, then I dump the oils into my bucket, then I dump my lyewater into my bucket (no pouring a thin line slowly, I just dump it in) and mix well and stickblend for 10 seconds, then I add my fragrance/coconutmilk slurry and mix until trace...

That's my order, but I think everyone is different

 

[Soapmaker Man]

I mix up 2 to 4 gallons of my recipe at a time. I use a premixed recipe, and a premixed lye solution. I do not heat any of my ingredients in my premixed recipe. I measure out XXX ounces of premixed recipe, depending on which style or size of TOG Mold I'm using. I then measure out, by weight, the correct amount of 50% premixed lye solution needed for my recipe. I slowly add the lye mixture to the base recipe oils. I then add enough goat milk to bring the lye concentration down to about a 30% solution. I stick blend or whisk until very light trace. I then add my scents. I remove 1 to 3 cups of base, then colour the rest of the base, or add a bit of titanium dioxide to the base that was premixed in glycerin. My colours are liquids, so I mix them in the cup of base I removed and stir to get the colour I desire. I then pour the base into the mold and swirl in the colours in the cups. Since everything is at room temperature, I have plenty of play time. The saponification kicks in and everything heats up and I achieve full gel in about an hour to hour-and-a-half, in my solid wood TOG Molds with the top on.
That is about it. My process using goat milk, and the Paul RTCP Method. :wink:


Paul

 

[cambree]

Thanks for the inputs. This was my very 1st batch so I was a bit worried. But I think my next batch will be much less confusing. And yes, maybe my preception of the oils and fats were off. But I think it all turned out OK. I just finished cutting them up this afternoon.

When I peeled off the wax paper, I did noticed two air holes. And when I sliced them, a piece had broken off from 2 of the bars. I wonder if that means it wasn't mixed well enough? Or my cutting was just bad :?

Other then that, I think it looked OK. And the PH test came to 7, which is fine according to my soap book.



Btw, I was thinking of rebatching this after it has cured and adding peppermint essential oil to it. I've already added organic citrus rind powder & dried calendula petals at trace. Do you think this is a good idea? And I just think you can never go wrong with a minty smell. The ultimate "wake me up" smell.

 

[Guest]

When I make HP soap I have to bang it on the floor to get all the air bubbles out and to even out the top. I even squish down the sides as it's drying to prevent uneven sides. Air bubbles aren't too terribly uncommon in HP soap and they usually aren't filled with lye.