New Guy in South Florida

[Sixfooter]

Howdy Folks
New guy here, not new to soap making or forums though
Been making soap on and off a couple years, dozen or so batches so far. Getting busy making soap for christmas now.
I am sure I'll have lots of questions so thanks in advance for your help.

Danny

 

[Hazel]

Hi Danny,

Welcome to the forum!

 

[dieSpinne]

Hi Danny.

I lived in So Fla for a long time... I miss it lots (especially in the neverending winter that sets in up here in Buffalo).

This is definitely the place to get help for anything that crops up... or sometimes just sympathy and advice on how to save what seems like irreparable disaster.

 

[hushnel]

Hey Danny, "o) Deb and I are making up a batch of old fashion oatmeal soap tomorrow. Some time around the crack of noon.

I hope you don't mind, I linked a picture of your genius soap mold in another thread.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome to the forum, Danny!

IrishLass

 

[Sixfooter]

Hey Danny, "o) Deb and I are making up a batch of old fashion oatmeal soap tomorrow. Some time around the crack of noon.

I hope you don't mind, I linked a picture of your genius soap mold in another thread.

LOL, Hey Mike. No, I don't mind at all.
Made a batch of Rosemary last week and a batch of Patchouli today. Tomorrow is Castille and maybe a fat batch of coconut oil soap just to see what it does
Danny

 

[hushnel]

I'm still learning the lingo. I kind of understand that it's a common practice to add a little extra fat or a little less lye to achieve a fat biased balance in the soap formula and this is represented as a percentage. The purpose being to avoid an aggressive lye soap, I think. I'm not sure exactly how it is applied to the recipe though.

 

[soapbuddy]

I'm still learning the lingo. I kind of understand that it's a common practice to add a little extra fat or a little less lye to achieve a fat biased balance in the soap formula and this is represented as a percentage. The purpose being to avoid an aggressive lye soap, I think. I'm not sure exactly how it is applied to the recipe though.

Superfat and lye discount are the same thing. There is an old wife's tale about adding your superfat oils or butters at trace, but lye is still very active at trace. There is no guarantee that those oils or butters will end up as your superfat. Lye will take whatever it wants. So calculate all your oils and butters right up front and add them to your sop pot together.

 

[hushnel]

Thanks, that's pretty much what we've done so far. I did add the fragrance at trace on the one batch, then instead of getting stiffer it got softer and the trace consistency vanished. I just dumped it into a plastic container figuring that I would do something with it in the morning. I was surprised to find that it solidified over night. Then I ran the recipe through the lye calculator and found there was way too much water and a good bit less lye in the recipe than the calculator recommended at 5%. I have read on this forum to alway do that, lesson learned "o)