New recipe

lddixon · Jan 18, 2016

Hi! I am just starting out in the world of soap making. I've made two batches and am itching to make more. I had a soap that I really liked and I want to try and duplicate it but I'm not sure of the amounts to use for each ingredient. I have got it down to:
olive oil 7oz.
coconut oil 7oz.
palm oil 10.5oz.
sunflower oil 4.5oz.
hemp seed oil 2.1oz.
shea butter 4.2oz.
orange EO
cedarwood EO
patchouli EO
natural fragrance (what is that?)
iron oxide

Any suggestions on amounts or do these sound okay? Thank you for any advice you can give me. I love reading all of your comments.

IrishLass · Jan 18, 2016

Welcome lddixon!

If it were me, I would reduce the hemp and sunflower a little, because their amounts are kicking your total linoleic acid amount up to 19%, which puts it in the danger zone for coming down with DOS ('dreaded orange spots', aka rancidity). I'm not saying that it's guaranteed to come down with DOS, but just that the high linoleic makes it vulnerable to it, especially if you live in a humid climate. Most of us soapers like to keep our total linoleic from going any higher than 15%, in order to prevent DOS.

This is how I would make it if it were me (this reduces the linoleic to 15%):

9.35 oz. olive oil (26.5%)
10.5 oz. palm oil (29.75%)
7 oz. coconut oil (19.83%)
2.47 oz. sunflower oil (7%)
1.77 oz. hemp oil (5%)
4.21 oz. shea butter (11.92%)

Your oil/fat amount makes a 2.2 lb batch, so the highest I would go on your EO amount is 1.1 oz (in other words, the total weight for your blend of orange/cedarwood/patchouli should not exceed 1.1 oz.)

The 1.1 oz EO amount translates out to be a rate of .5oz. per pound of oil, which is the standard safe usage rate for EOs in soap.

I'm not sure what the 'natural fragrance' component could be. Your guess is as good as mine.

IrishLass

paillo · Jan 18, 2016

Before I would go any further, I would plug those numbers into a good calculator and play around with the numbers. Many of use soapcalc.net. I find it indispensable, and know I'm in a lot of good company. I'd stick with a very simple recipe for starting out, and modify it as your confidence and experience grow.

Irishlass's advice is excellent, if you want to start off with a bang I'd go with her recipe, make notes, let it cure, then make more notes and changes.

Steve85569 · Jan 18, 2016

"natural fragrance (what is that?)"
I get that on hot days. Usually late in the day when I'm all sweaty.
That's what I use soap to get rid of.

Seriously,
Welcome to the forum Iddixon.
There's lot's of great teachers here which I have been learning from since I got here.
Great advice so far on getting started. I would definitely start off with some simpler recipe than the one you posted but that's just my opinion.
Steve

CaraBou · Jan 18, 2016

Welcome to the forum, lddixon.

If you use high oleic (HO) sunflower rather than regular, your recipe as you wrote it will be balanced in the way IrishLass is guiding you. In other words, it will have less linoleic and more oleic acid. You can tell HO from regular oils by the HO showing a lot more monounsaturated fat on the label than either poly or saturated fat. HO might also be labeled as "high heat."

Run your recipe through SoapCalc both ways (one with high oleic sunflower and another with normal), then look at the amount of oleic and linoleic acids in both (bottom right corner of viewed/printed recipe). You will see the difference. The HO recipe will also show a lower iodine level, which is also desirable.

By the way, you should pop into the Introduction forum and drop a note to our membership. People here like to give a friendly welcome

lddixon · Jan 18, 2016

Thank you all for your replies and wonderful advise! I have a lot to learn, especially with all these linoleic and oleic acids and iodine. I didn't, and still don't, know what that was all about. I am anxious to try this out still though. But I may wait a little longer and get some more batches under my belt. But I will definitely use your suggestions.

CaraBou · Jan 18, 2016

I'd rather see a new soaper add a few more oils to their repertoire than funky additives (food purees, and various liquids, fragrance oils, colorants, etc). At least oils are saponifiable. So if you have those oils in hand, I'd say go for it. If you don't, well then, I think it's a matter of budget. If you have it, spend it! Just take good notes along the way so you can try to discern the effect. Get a feel for what the oils do for your soap. Then when the world of additives explodes in front of you, you'll have a basis for troubleshooting :razz: