measuring solid oils

[luvtobeamom]

New to the forums and so grateful I found them as I am a new soaper

When measuring solid oils (coconut, palm) do I need them to be in liquid form or can them be in solid form? I'm using a scale of course.

This may be a very dumb question, so please forgive me in advance..lol

 

[dixiedragon]

You can measure them in liquid or solid form. That's the beauty of weighing things - liquid and solid weigh the same!

 

[osso]

In general they can be solid, but for palm oil (unless it is specifically homogenized) you should melt the entire container and stir thoroughly because the stearic acid will settle to the bottom. You will get inconsistent batches if you don't mix.

 

[luvtobeamom]

Thank you for the quick response Osso.

I have a huge white tub of palm oil. Any suggestions on how to melt that?

 

[Cactuslily]

This may be a silly question, but lets say the amount for something is 1.12 ounces, how do you get that exact amount? Do I just use 1.1 or am I doing something wrong with my scale?

 

[IrishLass]

This may be a silly question, but lets say the amount for something is 1.12 ounces, how do you get that exact amount? Do I just use 1.1 or am I doing something wrong with my scale?

Cactuslily- does your scale also weigh in grams? If so, I would switch it to gram mode. It makes weighing out amounts so much easier. In grams, 1.2 oz. is 31.75g, which you can round up to an even 32g, which still weighs 1.2 oz.

IrishLass

 

[osso]

Thank you for the quick response Osso.

I have a huge white tub of palm oil. Any suggestions on how to melt that?

If it can fit in the microwave (sans metal handle), you can do it that way. I usually melt mine down and portion into smaller containers.

If it's bigger than that you can do a hot water bath.

 

[LBussy]

Take a small amount of the solid and melt that if you prefer measuring it as a liquid.

 

[dwolanin]

Hi,
I don't know if this will help as I am also new to soaping. What I do is set the pail in the sink with hot water for a hour or so, then dry it off, holding the lid shake the hell out of it. I do it over the sink. Then when I open it, it is by no means clear, it's still opaque. I take a large stainless steel spoon and stir it from the bottom up to the top and round and round. I haven't had any problems with it since I started doing it this way.
Hope this helps

 

[shunt2011]

Before I bought the homogenized Palm I too would melt the whole bucket or bottle and put them in smaller containers. Way less work than having to remelt all the time. Another way to do it is to melt it and then stir it as it hardens up. Keep it well mixed until it's pretty much solid. Then make sure it doesn't remelt. You want the stearic distributed throughout the oil otherwise it will separate.