New to cold process, please help!

[LunaLe]

I've been making melt and pour soaps for a few years now and I've finally worked up the courage to try out cold process. I ordered ingredients last night, and I've been watching a lot of videos and reading articles, but I have questions.

1. Can anybody recommend a good video, website, or even a book that really gets into the details of cold process. Like the details of the math. I understand the basic gist of mixing oils and lye, but I don't really understand the math of it. I want to be able to figure out how much essential oil I can add and how much oil I can use to mix colors without compromising the soap. Plus I want to make my own recipes with ingredients that I want (eventually)

2. Could somebody give me tips for this recipe I want to use? I used brambleberry's lye calculator and their basic rule of 30,30,30,10 for oils and additives, but I want to use rice bran oil instead of coconut oil and I want to make a small batch since it will be my first attempt. Anyways the recipe I came up with is:
A Solid soap, measured in Ounces with superfat of 5%.

LYE & LIQUID	AMOUNT
Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)	3.76 oz
Ounces of liquid	8.40 oz
Total	12.16 oz

OIL & FATS	AMOUNT	%
Palm Oil	8.00 oz	30.08%
Rice Bran Oil	8.00 oz	30.08%
Coconut Oil	8.00 oz	30.08%
Shea Butter	2.60 oz	9.77%
Total	26.60 oz	100.00 %

TOTALS	AMOUNT
Lye & Liquid	12.16 oz
Oils & Fats	26.60 oz
TOTAL BATCH YIELD	38.76 oz

Is this okay? Does anybody have a recipe with these ingredients I could follow instead until I figure this all out better? Should I try this recipe, but a smaller amount? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[lsg]

Here are some you tutorials


Soaping101 YouTube videos

SoapQueen YouTube videos and Blog

You won't have a well balanced bar of soap if you don't use some coconut oil or palm kernel oils. You will have a softer bar of soap with hardly any bubbles.

Here is an example recipe I came up with using SoapCalc

.8 oz Castor oil
4.8 oz Rice Bran oil
4.8 oz Palm oil
2.4 oz Shea butter
3.2 Coconut oil

6 oz water
2.2 oz sodium hydroxide
This uses 16 oz of oils. I usually use about .5 oz EO for every pound of oils. If you use FOs read the recommendations given by the supplier.

IMO, you should watch the Soaping101 and SoapQueen beginner tutuorials before proceeding.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I would plug this recipe into soapmakingfriend.com calculator. It gives more detail regarding properties of a recipe. I really like it compared to other calculators. It’s just more user friendly imo. The recipe as you have it will be very cleansing and not very conditioning which could translate into drying/stripping for some skin types. It will make a hard bar of soap!

 

[LunaLe]

Here are some you tutorials


Soaping101 YouTube videos

SoapQueen YouTube videos and Blog

You won't have a well balanced bar of soap if you don't use some coconut oil or palm kernel oils. You will have a softer bar of soap with hardly any bubbles.

Here is an example recipe I came up with using SoapCalc

.8 oz Castor oil
4.8 oz Rice Bran oil
4.8 oz Palm oil
2.4 oz Shea butter
3.2 Coconut oil

6 oz water
2.2 oz sodium hydroxide
This uses 16 oz of oils. I usually use about .5 oz EO for every pound of oils. If you use FOs read the recommendations given by the supplier.

IMO, you should watch the Soaping101 and SoapQueen beginner tutuorials before proceeding.

Thank you! I will definitely watch those videos! I watched the 4 part series that Anne Marie did, I think it was on brambleberry and a few random ones I found online. My supplies won't be here for a few weeks, so I'm definitely going be watching and reading more in the mean time.

I would plug this recipe into soapmakingfriend.com calculator. It gives more detail regarding properties of a recipe. I really like it compared to other calculators. It’s just more user friendly imo. The recipe as you have it will be very cleansing and not very conditioning which could translate into drying/stripping for some skin types. It will make a hard bar of soap!

Thank you! I will try that calculator out for sure. As for the soap, I knew shea butter made the soap hard, but I thought it was moisturizing. That's the only reason I wanted to put in the soap. I picked rice bran oil because it was said to be a good substitute for olive oil (plus I like the antioxidants), so I thought it was softer. Should I follow the recipe lsg posted and use less coconut oil than the other oils to help soften it? I want a somewhat hard bar, but I also want it to be moisturizing.

 

[TheGecko]

Any videos by Soap Queen and Soaping 101. Watch them all at least twice.

For my first batch of soap I purchased the Beginner's Cold Process Soap Kit from Bramble Berry (currently out of stock). You get a tried and true recipe, detailed instructions, ingredients for two batches of soap and a 10" Silicone Loaf Mold (10-1" wide bars). It's one I recommend for the very reasons I bought it...I didn't know if I would like soap making or if I was any good at it, the recipe, the instructions, the ingredients and the mold. It was a good way to get started without a lot of investment and confusion and if I didn't like it, I was only out $60 and could donate all the stuff on FB Marketplace or Craigslist. But if I did like it, I had a foundation to work upon.

 

[Susie]

I've been making melt and pour soaps for a few years now and I've finally worked up the courage to try out cold process. I ordered ingredients last night, and I've been watching a lot of videos and reading articles, but I have questions.

1. Can anybody recommend a good video, website, or even a book that really gets into the details of cold process. Like the details of the math. I understand the basic gist of mixing oils and lye, but I don't really understand the math of it. I want to be able to figure out how much essential oil I can add and how much oil I can use to mix colors without compromising the soap. Plus I want to make my own recipes with ingredients that I want (eventually)

What information exactly are you really looking for? Each oil/butter has its own saponification value. That can be found on most soap calculators. If you want a spreadsheet, there's one on here somewhere, but I don't recall where as it was a few years ago. There are some on the web, but you will have to be careful of which site you use. Best to use SMF, soapcalc, or Soapee.com, as these are tried and true numbers. And there is a thread with beginner recipe suggestions that we have given. Start with one and go from there.

You take part of the oil amount to mix with colorants. You don't add additional oil. I don't even do that, I just mix the mica straight into the batter.

Essential oil amounts that are safe to use will be located on the website of the place you order it from. Using a better soap calculator gives you a default for fragrance/essential oils. Use that until you can find the information.

2. Could somebody give me tips for this recipe I want to use? I used brambleberry's lye calculator and their basic rule of 30,30,30,10 for oils and additives, but I want to use rice bran oil instead of coconut oil and I want to make a small batch since it will be my first attempt. Anyways the recipe I came up with is:
A Solid soap, measured in Ounces with superfat of 5%.

LYE & LIQUID	AMOUNT
Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)	3.76 oz
Ounces of liquid	8.40 oz
Total	12.16 oz

OIL & FATS	AMOUNT	%
Palm Oil	8.00 oz	30.08%
Rice Bran Oil	8.00 oz	30.08%
Coconut Oil	8.00 oz	30.08%
Shea Butter	2.60 oz	9.77%
Total	26.60 oz	100.00 %

TOTALS	AMOUNT
Lye & Liquid	12.16 oz
Oils & Fats	26.60 oz
TOTAL BATCH YIELD	38.76 oz

Is this okay? Does anybody have a recipe with these ingredients I could follow instead until I figure this all out better? Should I try this recipe, but a smaller amount? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Not a good recipe. That amount of coconut oil will turn you off CP forever. Go take a look in the recipe feedback forum for tons of suggestions.

 

[LunaLe]

Not a good recipe. That amount of coconut oil will turn you off CP forever. Go take a look in the recipe feedback forum for tons of suggestions.

I will go do that. Thank you!

Any videos by Soap Queen and Soaping 101. Watch them all at least twice.

For my first batch of soap I purchased the Beginner's Cold Process Soap Kit from Bramble Berry (currently out of stock). You get a tried and true recipe, detailed instructions, ingredients for two batches of soap and a 10" Silicone Loaf Mold (10-1" wide bars). It's one I recommend for the very reasons I bought it...I didn't know if I would like soap making or if I was any good at it, the recipe, the instructions, the ingredients and the mold. It was a good way to get started without a lot of investment and confusion and if I didn't like it, I was only out $60 and could donate all the stuff on FB Marketplace or Craigslist. But if I did like it, I had a foundation to work upon.

Thanks for the tip! I already have all kinds of molds from doing melt and pour. I just needed ingredients. =)

 

[DeeAnna]

I get the impression you might be thinking soap has the same properties of the fat from which the soap is made. When fat is turned into soap, the first thing that happens is the fat is broken apart into fatty acids, so the fat is no longer fat. The soap is made from those fatty acids. It's more accurate to look at how the fatty acids in your recipe affect the properties of the soap.

You can make a milder cleansing soap or you can make a stronger cleansing soap, but I have yet to make a soap that honestly moisturizes. I know people use "moisturize" in a pretty loose way, but IMO "mild" or "gentle" are more accurate words. I use a lotion if I want real moisturization.

If you want to learn about the calculations for creating a soap recipe, Auntie Clara has a good tutorial -- Lye Calculation Using a Saponification Chart - Tutorial Once you read it, I think you will understand why people usually use a soap recipe calculator to do all the number crunching rather than do it by hand. But you can certainly do the work with just pencil and paper, as Clara shows.

 

[LunaLe]

I get the impression you might be thinking soap has the same properties of the fat from which the soap is made. When fat is turned into soap, the first thing that happens is the fat is broken apart into fatty acids, so the fat is no longer fat. The soap is made from those fatty acids. It's more accurate to look at how the fatty acids in your recipe affect the properties of the soap.

You can make a milder cleansing soap or you can make a stronger cleansing soap, but I have yet to make a soap that honestly moisturizes. I know people use "moisturize" in a pretty loose way, but IMO "mild" or "gentle" are more accurate words. I use a lotion if I want real moisturization.

If you want to learn about the calculations for creating a soap recipe, Auntie Clara has a good tutorial -- Lye Calculation Using a Saponification Chart - Tutorial Once you read it, I think you will understand why people usually use a soap recipe calculator to do all the number crunching rather than do it by hand. But you can certainly do the work with just pencil and paper, as Clara shows.

I think you're right. I want the bar to be more hard than soft, but a creamy lather. I'll have plenty of time to play with recipes once I get some experience. Right now I just bought the cheapest things I could find. I really want to practice the process and didn't want to lose out on too much money when I mess up, but I would like a usable soap in the end.

As for calculations, I will definitely check out the turtorial. I will always use a calculator because my math skills aren't the best, I just want to try to learn the math so I understand the process better (not sure if that makes sense).

 

[DeeAnna]

It makes complete sense to me. That's how I started too. Once I understood the calculations, I created my own spreadsheet to crunch the math. Because I realize most people aren't quite that geeky, it's good there are online calcs to steer people toward using.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

There's not much that I can add, except this. Plan out your steps and go through them in your head at least a few times. My mistake in the beginning was not being organized, both physically and mentally. Now I walk myself through the steps before each batch. Also read as much as you can about what to look for after you pour soap into your mold. Read about gel phase, ricing, seizing, braining, volcano. Make the decision ahead of time if you want to put your soap through the gel phase and what you need to do. Good luck and ask questions.

 

[cmzaha]

Check your messages.

 

[LunaLe]

There's not much that I can add, except this. Plan out your steps and go through them in your head at least a few times. My mistake in the beginning was not being organized, both physically and mentally. Now I walk myself through the steps before each batch. Also read as much as you can about what to look for after you pour soap into your mold. Read about gel phase, ricing, seizing, braining, volcano. Make the decision ahead of time if you want to put your soap through the gel phase and what you need to do. Good luck and ask questions.

Thank you for the advice! I've definitely been reading a lot and watching a lot of videos. I know for a fact that I want to put my soap through gel phase and honestly, I'm so scared to do it. I've seen videos where only part of the soap goes through it and I'm worried that will happen to me. The only place where I can make my soap and leave it to cool is on my dining table and there's a fan above it. Do you think I should turn the fan off while the soap cools or will a towel be enough to insulate it?

 

[Arimara]

I think you're right. I want the bar to be more hard than soft, but a creamy lather. I'll have plenty of time to play with recipes once I get some experience. Right now I just bought the cheapest things I could find. I really want to practice the process and didn't want to lose out on too much money when I mess up, but I would like a usable soap in the end.

As for calculations, I will definitely check out the turtorial. I will always use a calculator because my math skills aren't the best, I just want to try to learn the math so I understand the process better (not sure if that makes sense).

You can get a decent starter bar from the ingredients you listed but if it is a creamy lather you want, You may want to bump the palm up to 30%, shea to 20%, keep the rice bran at 30% but bump down the coconut oil to 20%. Oh, and for the record, take care when formulating soap with butters. I've used only 3 types- mango, shea and cocoa. Cocoa butter made the hardest bar to me, followed by mango butter. Shea can actually lead to a softer soap (with 4-6 cure) depending on the type you use so it's best to take care and note what type you use.

 

[TheGecko]

I already have all kinds of molds from doing melt and pour. I just needed ingredients. =)

Wasn't sure what kind of molds you are using. As for ingredients, keep it simple...start with the 'holy trinity' of soap making...equal amounts of Coconut, Olive and Palm Oils. As you have no doubt seen already, there are tons of recipes online (another reason I went with a kit). Just make sure to run each recipe through a soap calculator to double-check the lye/water numbers.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I know for a fact that I want to put my soap through gel phase and honestly, I'm so scared to do it. ..."

Whoa there, Nellie. No need to be scared. This isn't brain surgery. When you learned to ride a bicycle or drive a car or [insert other life skill here], did you do it perfectly right off the bat?

If you don't achieve perfection on the first batch, welcome to the club. Most of us don't. Sometimes my soap doesn't gel or doesn't gel completely. There are fixes for that, including just being patient.

If things don't work the way you wanted them to, figure out what didn't go quite right and try again. As a friend says, "Practice makes better!"

 

[LunaLe]

You can get a decent starter bar from the ingredients you listed but if it is a creamy lather you want, You may want to bump the palm up to 30%, shea to 20%, keep the rice bran at 30% but bump down the coconut oil to 20%. Oh, and for the record, take care when formulating soap with butters. I've used only 3 types- mango, shea and cocoa. Cocoa butter made the hardest bar to me, followed by mango butter. Shea can actually lead to a softer soap (with 4-6 cure) depending on the type you use so it's best to take care and note what type you use.

I will try this out, thank you!

Wasn't sure what kind of molds you are using. As for ingredients, keep it simple...start with the 'holy trinity' of soap making...equal amounts of Coconut, Olive and Palm Oils. As you have no doubt seen already, there are tons of recipes online (another reason I went with a kit). Just make sure to run each recipe through a soap calculator to double-check the lye/water numbers.

I was debating whether I should just put the rice bran oil to the side and go with olive oil. I just might for the first few batches until I get used to the process. There are so many options! I've been driving myself crazy with all the videos I've been watching. There are so many techniques I want to try, but I know I need to go slow and learn the basics first.

"...I know for a fact that I want to put my soap through gel phase and honestly, I'm so scared to do it. ..."

Whoa there, Nellie. No need to be scared. This isn't brain surgery. When you learned to ride a bicycle or drive a car or [insert other life skill here], did you do it perfectly right off the bat?

If you don't achieve perfection on the first batch, welcome to the club. Most of us don't. Sometimes my soap doesn't gel or doesn't gel completely. There are fixes for that, including just being patient.

If things don't work the way you wanted them to, figure out what didn't go quite right and try again. As a friend says, "Practice makes better!"

I shouldn't be scared, but I can't help it. I know that I will mess up and probably more than once, I just don't want to. LOL

Thank you all so much for the tips and advice! I truly appreciate it!

 

[Arimara]

I was debating whether I should just put the rice bran oil to the side and go with olive oil. I just might for the first few batches until I get used to the process. There are so many options! I've been driving myself crazy with all the videos I've been watching. There are so many techniques I want to try, but I know I need to go slow and learn the basics first.

Rice bran's fine, especially if you don't have olive oil. If you do have olive oil, make two separate batches of soap, one with olive and the other with rice bran. It's a nice way to see if you like the latter.

 

[LunaLe]

Rice bran's fine, especially if you don't have olive oil. If you do have olive oil, make two separate batches of soap, one with olive and the other with rice bran. It's a nice way to see if you like the latter.

That is a good idea. I'm going to do that. Thank you!

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Thank you for the advice! I've definitely been reading a lot and watching a lot of videos. I know for a fact that I want to put my soap through gel phase and honestly, I'm so scared to do it. I've seen videos where only part of the soap goes through it and I'm worried that will happen to me. The only place where I can make my soap and leave it to cool is on my dining table and there's a fan above it. Do you think I should turn the fan off while the soap cools or will a towel be enough to insulate it?

Not a problem. Just wrap it up in towels and every 30 minutes check to make sure that it is not getting to hot. I like for mine to get around 120°F for 1-2 hours. Get yourself a infra-red thermometer or IR thermometer for short because that's the only way to check your soap temperature during gel phase. You can get a reliable one from Amazon for around $20. It is great for checking your oil, lye temperatures also. I would say it is a necessity but that's my opinion only.