New ti CP
Like you, I made M&P soaps for many months before trying CP. Your customers can certainly use those M&P soaps....not just look at them sitting pretty on a table! If you used good bases, they will be very nice indeed.
The Walmart soap is a good beginner's soap and you can get everything you need at a grocery store. After it cures out 4-6 weeks, you will have hard soap. I suggest that you go to an excellent web site : millersoap.com
You can learn so much for that site. It has helped so many of us to learn the ropes. The soapcalc can be very very confusing at first. Don't get discouraged. Click on all their links and read everything. You are right to check out the calculations on the soapcalc. I have found that most recipes in soaping books use too much lye . Always check calculations yourself before soaping. Get a good scale in grams and fractions of an ounce. Also, for your very first batches, stick to a size around 2 lbs. If something goes wrong, you won't have wasted large quantities of your oils. I suggest using distilled water until you have a few batches under your belt. I have superhard well water so I always used distilled. Water loaded with minerals can play havoc with the lye. Good luck...keep on asking questions! We are here to help!
