newbie - help plss

[dixiedragon]

Obsidian
Toxikon :

wow I have ALOT to learn, thank you! i honestly thought soap queen was a good one to follow... but you guys know better... tenderflake ohhhhh ok , ya ive used it many times before in baking.. AWESOME THANK YOU !!!!
Im gona try Susie's recipe without the fragrance... lets see where it takes me.. again thank you all so much... I was clearly lost before this forum :???:

One more thing... so with susies recipe all I have to do is but the % into the soapcalc.net and it will calculate the water/ lye / oils i need ? the current water % as of oils is 38 ... do I leave that part as is? I dont touch those numbers already inoput right? thxxxxx

I don't think Soap Queen is terrible, though it is true her goal is to sell products. I think that is a good resource b/c she is an experienced, knowledgeable soaper so her recipes are safe. Also, BB offers good support, so if you have a question you can contact them.

Yes, leave that at 38%. You may eventually want to change that, but 38% is a good starting point.

 

[Vidasworld12]

Just FYI, you can also use a milk carton as a mold, without lining it. Wash and dry it, open the top all the way, and pour the soap in. Close the top again, and wrap it in a towel. When it's ready to unmold, just tear away the carton. It's what I used for my first batch of soap, many years ago. This is what it looks like when sliced into bars. Not bad for a free mold.

That soap looks amazing ! thx I will def try this

Dixiedragon:


Thank you , I will leave as is..

(I'm sorry I still have not figured out how to reply to each message .. im such a rookie )

 

[toxikon]

There is sooo much to learn, I totally understand how it can be overwhelming at first.

SoapCalc is a good option, but I prefer Soapee. I think it has a nicer user interface and it can come in handy for tinkering because it shows your recipe results all on the same page.

There are a few different ways to calculate how much water to put in your recipe. The default is "Water as % of oils" and actually most of us don't use that option. We find that we get more consistent results with "Lye Concentration" or "Water:Lye Ratio". I like to use "Lye Concentration". So if you set that to 25%, you will have a 25% lye and 75% water solution. Most of us like to use a Lye Concentration of 30-35% for most balanced recipes.

Your basic goal with using a soap calculator is to a.) determine how much soap batter to make to properly fill your mold and b.) the correct amount of lye to use.

So with Soapee, here is what I'd do.

1. Choose "Solid Soap" - because that's what you're making!

2. Select recipe units of measure - Percentage is your oil recipe. Then you can choose if you want to use grams or ounces - grams are usually more accurate on your kitchen scale. "Adjust oil weights to include water in Oils total" - this feature helps you make sure your final batter amount will be the correct size for your mold. So if your mold holds 500g, check the box and put 500g in your "Oils total".

3. Amount of water in recipe - I'd suggest 30% Lye Concentration as a good starting point.

4. 5% superfat is a good start. It means that you will have some excess oils left over after your soap is done curing to make it a bit more gentle on skin and make sure there is no excess lye in your final product.

5. If you're not using fragrances, leave it blank. Otherwise 3% is fine.

6. Select your oils! Choose from the list and use the small + button to add them to your recipe. Then when "Recipe Oils" pops up, add your percentage. A good starter recipe might be 50% Lard, 25% Olive Oil, 20% Coconut Oil, 5% Castor Oil.

After you've entered all your recipe oil percentages, you can scroll down to see that Soapee has generated your recipe for you! It will tell you, in grams, how much of each oil to use. And how much water and lye to use. Double check the "Total Batch Weight" to make sure its the right amount for your mold. If not, you can tinker with Step 2 more.

Just print off the sheet and bring it into the kitchen with you, and cross off each item as you add it.

Follow some Soap Queen videos on good practices on how to combine your oils and lye solution safely and ideal temperatures. Good luck!

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Just FYI, you can also use a milk carton as a mold, without lining it. Wash and dry it, open the top all the way, and pour the soap in. Close the top again, and wrap it in a towel. When it's ready to unmold, just tear away the carton. It's what I used for my first batch of soap, many years ago. This is what it looks like when sliced into bars. Not bad for a free mold.

Did you miss the Canada part? Her milk comes in bags!

 

[WeaversPort]

Did you miss the Canada part? Her milk comes in bags!

My first soap mold was a potato chip can! Do they have Pringles in Canada?

https://youtu.be/YBwZUAxSPEY

 

[Vidasworld12]

Did you miss the Canada part? Her milk comes in bags!

HAHAHA YES! you are right we have milk in bags lol i can always buy the 2 L chocolate milk .. we suck :neutral:

 

[navigator9]

Did you miss the Canada part? Her milk comes in bags!

Wait! I have a lot of family in Canada, and I remember as a kid, the margarine coming in bags, but not the milk. Is that something new? The margarine was white, and had a little capsule of yellow coloring, and you had to squeeze it, to mix the coloring into the rest of the bag. That was my job as a kid, because I thought it was fun. But I don't remember milk in a bag.

 

[earlene]

Welcome, Vidasworld12! Soap making is so much fun; I'm sure you will really enjoy the adventure.

When I started, I used all kinds of things for soap molds: Buttermilk cartons (the waxed cardboard kind - I don't know if you have those where you live), plastic margarine containers, ice cream containers, mushroom boxes (paperboard), shoe boxes, small plastic food containers, wooden file boxes from the thrift store, silicone cake or cupcake bakeware from the thrift store. I pretty much looked at everything in my recycle bin, my kitchen, everywhere I went with the thought 'maybe I could use this as a soap mold.'

The buttermilk container was perfect because even without lining it, it works fabulously, does not leak and is disposable. If the soap doesn't come out smoothly and easily, you can tear it off of the hardened soap. A paperboard or cardboard box of any desirable size works perfectly when lined with freezer paper. I've used some of them multiple times. Lining oddly shaped plastic food containers doesn't work well and even if you put plastic wrap or a plastic bag inside as a liner, you end up with ugly lines from the bag. It's better to use a non-saponifiable release agent like lanolin or mineral oil on the inside surface (similar to how you oil & dust with flour the inside of a cake pan, but NO flour is used for the soap mold.) Lanolin is my preferred release agent.

For the plastics, I looked for the recycle code on the bottom when determining what to use for soap molds. I prefer a #5, but #2 is also soap safe. For the cardboard/paperboard boxes, I looked for how sturdy/thick they were because once filled, the sides can bow outward, and flimsy is not good. For wooden boxes, I made sure the sides were straight up and down (a lip or overhang make it hard or impossible to get the soap out of the mold), and I prefer a lid because it helps keep the heat inside so the soap gels better.

To ensure gel (I like gel, it's not always necessary), I wrapped up in a wool blanket or towels and kept in a warm place. You can CPOP if you want, but you don't really have to use an oven to force gel in all circumstances. I do now more often than not, but sometimes it's not convenient.

I also used the lye from local sources, once I found one, and still do on occasion, especially when traveling if I didn't bring enough with me. There is a chain in the US that has it where ever I travel, so I don't have to worry about running out. I only buy 100% pure lye when I do that, of course. However, there are cheaper pure NaOH sources available to me online, so I use them whenever I can. If you can find such a source in Canada, I recommend it, but if not the local supplier should be just fine as long as it is pure lye without other additives.

I used cardboard box tops for curing my soaps. At first I lined them with paper towels, then put plastic-coated wire racks inside the boxtop above the paper towels and lined up the soap, turning it daily, allowing enough space for airflow. Then I realized I had something even better than the single plastic coated wire racks, since I only had a couple of those and they are not cheap. We used to have a restaurant, and when we closed it, I kept all the plastic mesh that we lined the shelves with, so I cut that to fit inside the cardboard box lid/tops & it was perfect for curing soap. Rolls of pliable mesh shelf lining material can be found in kitchen areas of department stores all over, at least in the US (I don't know about in Canada). Later I discovered a cheap source for needlepoint/crafter's plastic mesh and I started using that as well. Yesterday, in fact I got a bag of about 20 sheets of needlepoint mesh at the thrift store in town for a great price. So even though I've been tempted to purchase soap curing set-ups sold by soap equipment suppliers, the cost factor has always deterred me from doing so. The cardboard box tops I use are always free at my grocer, so you can see why I use this method.

But when it comes to certain items, quality and reliability is very important, so a good accurate digital scale with the ability to measure grams to the 0.01 g measure (1/100th of a gram) was a purchase I found to be very well worth the cost. They are actually affordable, especially when saving money on other things such as molds and curing systems. I started out with the 0.1 (1/10th accuracy) scale, and still use it for measuring large quantity (oils, for example), but later added a smaller scale for measuring to 0.01g accuracy because for smaller batches, the lye (and some other ingredients) measurement needed to be more accurate.

I am sure you are going to have a great time with your new hobby. I enjoy soap making so very much.

 

[Vidasworld12]

TOXIKON :

YOU are officially MY BEST FRIEND.. Home made soapers ( I need to learn the lingo ) are so kind , you must have taken forever to write that out . I appreciate it! wow ... I did what you said and I printed out my very first recipe! Its going down this weekend! I will do it finally .. its been over a month.. im such a chicken. BUT if I hadn't waited this long I wouldn't have come across all of you and it would have been a disaster! thank you!

 

[Vidasworld12]

Wait! I have a lot of family in Canada, and I remember as a kid, the margarine coming in bags, but not the milk. Is that something new? The margarine was white, and had a little capsule of yellow coloring, and you had to squeeze it, to mix the coloring into the rest of the bag. That was my job as a kid, because I thought it was fun. But I don't remember milk in a bag.

I Have not seen that ever... just the milk in bags - in BC the milk is in jugs, here in ONTARIO - bags . it was weird for me at first cause I was brought up in BC, you get used to it, but the margarine comes in tubs like in the states and the butter is wrapped up in a block with like paper/foil whatever that it... they apparently started the milk in bags years and years ago because it reduced the waste.. lots of people in Ontario.

 

[toxikon]

TOXIKON :

YOU are officially MY BEST FRIEND.. Home made soapers ( I need to learn the lingo ) are so kind , you must have taken forever to write that out . I appreciate it! wow ... I did what you said and I printed out my very first recipe! Its going down this weekend! I will do it finally .. its been over a month.. im such a chicken. BUT if I hadn't waited this long I wouldn't have come across all of you and it would have been a disaster! thank you!

Happy to help! This forum is truly a great place. I've learned so much here, the least I can do is pass it along to others who want to get started too!

 

[Dahila]

Actually we have milk in boxes but not very popular, we have pringles

 

[Vidasworld12]

Earlene :

thank you for the great info, I will be reading it over and over, the curing process is a great idea , thank you so much!

 

[dixiedragon]

I'm sort of stumped by margarine in a bag. Do you squeeze it out like toothpaste? Does butter also come in a bag? Mayonnaise? Ketchup?

IMO we need to return to the days of re-usable glass bottles.

 

[earlene]

I like re-usable glass bottles, but even so, I have run out of room for them. I have TOO many glass jars to fit in my cupboards anymore. And as I get older, they get too heavy & dangerous to carry when full of a heavy product (across my porcelain-tiled kitchen.)

To me it makes more sense to sell things that can be sold in less wasteful packaging. I like the idea of milk in a bag and wish the US would start at least piloting the concept. But I have never seen it anywhere except in the restaurant industry. I was very happy to see a squeezable fold-down type of container for sour cream last month during my travels. I bought it to add to tacos that I made when I was visiting my son in California. Such a convenience, and it seems like less waste, although that may not really be true. Even so, I like how it folds down like a toothpaste tube.

 

[Vidasworld12]

Where I am there is no margarine / butter / ketchup/ mayo in bags .. just normal packaging ..

 

[Vidasworld12]

Earlene:

Hands down the best sour cream I've had .. I had to cross the border to get it though.. I've heard we have it here.. but I have yet to find it.. it's delicious though .. I miss it

 

[dixiedragon]

Earlene:

Hands down the best sour cream I've had .. I had to cross the border to get it though.. I've heard we have it here.. but I have yet to find it.. it's delicious though .. I miss it

That's so strange to me! Daisy is such a staple brand here in the US, I've never thought of it as being "special".

I wish they sold sour cream in smaller quantities too. I just don't use that much! Some restaurants have it in little single-serve packets - they should have those in the store. I'd happily pay $1 for a packet vs $3 for a container I will mostly end up throwing away.

 

[Vidasworld12]

I know I wish we had it here.. I'd stock up .. I like my pasta sauces with sour cream and tacos .. so good .. lucky you

 

[BrewerGeorge]

The best thing about Daisy is that there's nothing in it but cultured cream - as long as you buy the full fat version, that is.

As for throwing it away, whatever for? Sour cream doesn't go bad; it's already "bad." The fridge temps and those lactobaccilli keep the pH low enough that nothing else dangerous can grow in there. Those dates are "Sell by" dates, not "Toss after" dates.