Need a good recipe

[BakingNana]

I have to second BSN--The first several batches I made when learning were from The Everything Soapmaking Book, Alicia Grosso. Follow her directions and recipes exactly and you'll have guaranteed success. After a few, you'll really understand the whole process and be ready to branch out some. The soap calcs will make a lot more sense to you then. And just keep reading a little bit every day...it all adds up!

 

[honor435]

I give out recipes to newbies, cause I used to be one! but, I always encourage them to use soap calc, its not that difficult. You can do it!!

 

[cwarren]

After you've made some soap and satisfied the craving...
Check out soap calc, and click on all the tabs-- you'll learn so much about soapmaking-- your eyes will start to glaze over... but you can come back to it later.
Another useful helper for me was "The Everything Soapmaking Book" by Alicia Grosso. She has really nice, easy recipes, basic explanations-- a little bit about everything. It's a good introduction.

I have that book --- Very good

 

[cwarren]

Sometimes I wonder if newbies just don't understand that when you tell them for example...

olive oil 50%
coconut oil 20%
palm oil 25%
castor oil 5 %

YOU ARE RIGHT 1

 

[Soaplady22]

This is truly the best place to be when starting out - I learned everything through this site and links, and lots of trial and error because I never believe everything I'm told!!!

So, 6 years later here I am!! A Happy Soaper!!

I had to change my user name because I have forgotten my old one. But I've been around here for years, except for the past two due to illness. But I'm back and raring to go!!

*waves to friends here*

Ann T.
The Soap Lady

 

[scouter139]

Hmmm...let's see if this makes any more sense.

Let's say I want a total of 10 oz of oils. 50% would be 5 oz of olive oil, 20% is 2 oz of coconut oil, 25 % is 2.5 oz of palm oil and 5 % is .5 oz of castor oil...that's a total of 10 oz of oils. Now, I go to soap calc..which is here http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp I fill in the blanks... box 1 is either NaOh or KOH, default is NaOh, then I am in the US so I use ounces, so in the 2nd box I check ounces, for a normal batch keep the 38% and 5 % superfatting which are the defaults, those are boxes 3 and 4. Box 5 will change depending on the oils you choose...so the column next to the #5 column has alot of different oils in there. If you double click on olive oil, it will add it to your soap recipe column, add all 4 of the oils in the recipe one at a time. Now, you should have % and oz. in box 7, add 5 for olive, 2 for coconut, 2.5 for palm and .5 for castor. Down at the bottom of that column is a box with 8 in it. Hit the calculate recipe button, it will automatically calculate the amount of oils you put in and give you the amount of liquid and lye for the amount of oils you chose. Then hit view or print recipe and another page will pop up and give you the information you need.

The second set of boxes on the popped up recipe page in purple will tell you how much lye and how much liquid. At the bottom it will give you the hardness, bubbliness, cleansing and conditioning etc of the recipe you just chose. You can save this or print it.

So, approx, how much soap would the 10 oz of oils make? The recipe tells me to use 3.8 oz of liquid and 1.39 oz of lye, if I added lets say .7 oz of fragrance, you are probably talking approx 15- 16 oz of finished product.

Hope this helps.