Newbie! How do I make my own recipe?

[AgentM99]

I have been to one soap making class and made soap myself today, each time with the same recipe provided by the teacher.

What I am wondering is how do I create my own recipe? If for example, I want to make a 1 pound soap what drives how much lye/water/oil needs to go in...?

Thank you!

 

[Fragola]

You need to use a soap calculator, like these ones:

http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/Ca ... CalcWP.asp

Basically, you enter the amounts of oils and it spits out the needed lye.

Probably the easiest way to start is by replacing a small quantity (5-10%) of oil from your teacher's recipe with an equivalent quantity of some other oil.

 

[Hazel]

I have been to one soap making class and made soap myself today, each time with the same recipe provided by the teacher.

What I am wondering is how do I create my own recipe? If for example, I want to make a 1 pound soap what drives how much lye/water/oil needs to go in...?

Thank you!

Welcome to the forum!

What properties would you like your soap to have? Do you prefer it to be more conditioning, more bubbly? You need to know what you want and then decide which oils will help you achieve your goal.

What was the recipe your teacher gave you? Also, one pound isn't very much so you want to make sure your scales is accurate.

I personally like to use soapcalc.net to calculate lye and water.

 

[IrishLass]

Here is a tutorial on creating your own recipe that helped me tremendously when I first got started:

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldp ... recipe.htm


IrishLass

 

[AgentM99]

Thanks for the replies. The recipe we used was a 100% olive oil one. I remember her mentioning that You can't just double the recipe to make a 2 pound soap.

 

[Fragola]

I remember her mentioning that You can't just double the recipe to make a 2 pound soap.

Usually you can do that, but better use a soap calculator, just in case you're increasing certain number rounding errors.

 

[Kim1234]

With soapcalc you can identify the traits that you want in your soap, and modify your recipe to meet those traits. Seems quite nice to work with.

 

[AgentM99]

Hello again,

I have looked at all the posted links - thank you - but continue to be bamboozled by a few things.

The first is what is the ideal water/lye ratio?

I have noticed in some of the calculators that you need to specify this. At this stage I am more about wanting the soap to turn out rather than focusing too much on what to do to make it more creamy, moisturising etc.

The second is that I used my teacher's olive oil recipe below and tried to work back using a couple of different lye calculators to try to figure out what the water/lye ratio and super fat % was.

- olive oil 448g
- lye 56g
- water 168g

I have noticed that the recipe doesn't really fit into any of the calculators so that for example when I use the basic Ozsoapcalc (I am in Australia) 448g of olive oil is giving a water weight which isn't on the scale. The scale goes from 25 - 35% and 35% is the closest at 156.8g. Different calculators are also giving different results.

What to do, what to do?! Help!

Thanks

 

[Hazel]

You want to use less water in 100% olive oil batch because OO takes longer to achieve trace. I've entered the same recipe in different calculators and have always gotten different results. Don't worry about it. Just find a lye calculator that you like and use it.

BTW, I entered your recipe into soapcalc and got a 7% SF and 165 g water. The lye concentration was 25.4% which I think is really low for castile.

There isn't an ideal water/lye ratio. It's going to change depending on what type of soap you're making (castile, salt, etc) and how experienced you are at soapmaking. When I started CP, I used the default settings on soapcalc until I became more comfortable with the process. I personally ignore the "Water:Lye Ratio" and pay more attention to the "Lye Concentration". I generally use a percentage of 30%-33% because I'm not an expert at soapmaking. There are experienced soapmakers who use a 35%-40% lye concentration. I think someone once mentioned she used a 50% lye concentration. The higher the lye concentration, the faster the process. You need to be familiar with your recipes and fragrance oils. If you're using a high lye concentration and a FO which accelerates trace, you could end up with soap on a stick. Actually, you could use a lower concentration and still end up with soap on a stick. Ask me how I know. :roll:

I'm just recommending you start out with default settings for your recipes. What oils do you have? Are you wanting to make something other than castile? If you let us know what you have, we can help you develop a recipe.

 

[AgentM99]

I have been reading about water/lye ratio and lye concentration and I don't think I appreciated that they weren't the same thing.

The oils I have are olive and coconut and my homemade milk carton moulds are 19.5 x 5 x 7 cm.

Thanks for helping me on my way.

 

[judymoody]

Why not try 75% olive oil and 25% coconut at 7% SF?

You could try reducing your water to the following ratio: 1 lye to 2 water. With a high OO soap that will reduce your cure time but still give you time to work.

Enjoy!

 

[Hazel]

You could try reducing your water to the following ratio: 1 lye to 2 water.

Thanks for the input! I just tried this on soapcalc and it makes for a 33.3% lye concentration. This is close to the amount I use for a castile or bastile batch.

@AgentM99

BTW, judymoody is one of the experienced soapmakers. You'll learn a lot if you go back and read her posts.

I have been reading about water/lye ratio and lye concentration and I don't think I appreciated that they weren't the same thing.

I think they're just two different ways of getting the same result. I went back and looked at some old recipes for castile and bastile batches. I had typed in 32% into the "Lye Concentration" box which made the "Water:Lye Ratio" 2.125:1. Close enough.

 

[CFarmerlady]

Bastille? I thought that was a French prison? :shock:

 

[VanessaP]

Bastile is bastardized castile. People call castile soaps that contain other oils than olive oil bastile soaps.

 

[CFarmerlady]

Wow. I should have figured that one out on my own. Thanks, though.

 

[Hazel]

I didn't know a high OO percentage soap combined with a small percentage of another oil or oils was called bastile until I read it somewhere. I thought at the time "I already made a batch of it and didn't even know it."

 

[AgentM99]

I am one of those people that need to know "why" and not just "how" and your replies are so much help - thanks!

I shall be stalking judymoody's posts and will report back on how I go in due course.