Pinkish soap?

[FragranceGuy]

You guys are cracking me up!! I guess you would see the fireworks before you smelled them

 

[Zany_in_CO]

and Congratulations on making your first batch of soap! Well done!
I like the way your mind works! The so-called "mistakes" sound familiar. Been there, done that! LOL

Since you are new here, you may find the following link helpful:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/hello-very-new-here.79701/#post-832582

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I have been soaping since 2004. To spare you the future agony of having to sort piles of notes that look like this:

I took the liberty of formulating your recipe (using the default settings) here
It now looks like this (See attached):

Just looking at the INS Value of 131 tells me your soap may require longer than the normal 4-6 weeks to cure. An INS of 160 is considered so-called "Perfect Soap". You can adjust the INS up by playing around to raise it. Simply adding another 2% coconut oil or switching out the Crisco for lard may do the trick. Use your mouse to hover over each number to learn that feature and what it is for. PS: You may want to have a snack handy and plan on taking breaks every 20 minutes or so. "Some people" who shall remain nameless, can get lost for hours playing around on the site.

 

[FragranceGuy]

Thank you Zany for taking the time work with my recipe! I didn’t know that INS influenced the rate at which soap cures. When I was making that recipe I was mostly thinking about saturated:unsaturated ratio. I started playing with lard on the calculator as you suggested and it also seems to produce a saturated:unsaturated ratio that’s very similar to what I was aiming for. What other numbers are most important to you when developing a recipe?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Thank you Zany for taking the time work with my recipe! ... What other numbers are most important to you when developing a recipe?

You're welcome!
Nobody has ever asked me that before but here goes...
My DIL recently asked me if I could dupe her father’s favorite soap because they stopped making it. Ingredients: Coconut, Palm and Olive — the “Basic Trinity of Oils”, so-callled because they form the basis for a well balanced soap.

Coconut Oil for lather & hardness - INS 258
Palm for bulk and emollience - INS 145
Olive for conditioning - INS 105
TOTAL INS Values = 508. Divided by 3 = 169

To get INS 160, I started with an equal amount of each and then adjusted the % of each oil and arrived at

Which looked like this:

All good numbers. NOTE: Iodine indicates hardness. I like it around 50
And gave me these values:

They are all within the recommended Range. At this point I can play around with the values to add more Olive for more Conditioning; more Coconut for more Hardness and Lather; and adjust the palm to accommodate the adjustments. But I know from experience that the values suit me just fine where they are.

I hope that answers your question. One other thing I'd like to say. I'm just a soaper and I don't have a head for science. Many of our members do and they tend to use the fatty acid values to design their soaps which I do not. If you hang around here often enough you will learn more by paying attention when the discussion includes the science side of soapmaking and by reading @DeeAnna's Soapy Stuff linked above.

ETA: Basic Trinity of Oils ~ Starter Formula

 

[FragranceGuy]

That is SO helpful! I’ve be playing around with different oils on the calc and I can already see how hours can disappear into thin air I was wondering why I couldn’t reel in my iodine levels and INS when I was working that first recipe. I’m thinking now, after toying with the calc, that it might be the soybean oil in the crisco. I’m also noticing that the closer I get to an INS of 160 and an iodine level of 50, the less conditioning value I have. Still above 44, but I’m not experienced enough to know what works for me. If I increase the superfat from 5 to 8% will that help with the conditioning “feel” of the soap? Superfatting doesn’t seem to change the actual conditioning values in the calc, I’m guessing that’s because the calc is measuring saponification process rather than the subjective feel of a bar. Thanks again for all the guidance

 

[TheGecko]

The yellow is a story. After I posted that my yellow was orange, another poster here said to just wait. And lo and behold it did morph back to yellow. Course I had already added a lot of other stuff to it and should have left well enough alone. But that's why I like this forum -- someone always chimes in with experience and advice.

I love lemon soap. So in the early days I splurged on some Lemon EO and RE’s Lemon Sherbet Mica. It turned orange. I panicked. I add more mica...it get even more orange. I poured it, added a little swirl and put it to bed. I was really sad, didn’t know what I did wrong, but it wasn’t like I was selling it. Okay...I cried a little.

Later that evening when hubby got home, I took him into the garage to show him why I was so sad. My tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy and disbelief...it was yellow!!!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@FragranceGuy You need to add Olive Oil (or something similar) to up the conditioning and lower the cleansing. Working with just 2 legs of the Basic Trinity of Oils won't get you to where you want to be, i.e., cleansing AND conditioning. Play with that combo to see what I mean.

 

[FragranceGuy]

@Zany_in_CO Thanks! I was using lard in place of palm and then experimenting with replacing olive oil with either rice bran oil or soybean oil. I’m trying to use inexpensive oils while I’m learning Olive oil seems to better maintain conditioning while balancing INS and iodine (go figure ) So I think I might just cough up the extra cash.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@FragranceGuy You're welcome!

Haha. Lard is a favorite of mine! Luv, luv, luv my lard soaps! As a matter of fact, there are quite a few of us "Lardinators" on SMF! If you're in the mood for a giggle, use the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the top menu on this page to Search for them.

Sadly, neither RBO nor Soy Oil have the overall beneficial qualities of Olive Oil. It has the unique ability to bring other oils into saponification. Costco Pure Olive Oil is the best price at $25 for 2 Liters. Unlike RBO and Soy Oil, it has a long shelf life (1 year) and doesn't tend to attract DOS (Dreaded Orange Spots) like the others do. Just be sure not to buy EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil). Not only is it more expensive, but more likely to be adulterated. Google "fake olive oil" to learn more.

OO in the USA is graded for taste, not soapmaking, and EVOO has the least acidity which makes it better for eating. Pomace OO has the most acidity, therefore it's cheaper and better for soaping, but its hard to find. I buy Pomace OO at Soapers Choice in the Chicago area. Look for "Pure Olive Oil" (a mix of refined and virgin) on your grocer's shelves.

 

[AliOop]

Restaurant supply stores can be another good source for pomace olive oil, lard, and palm. My local Smart Foods (formerly Cash and Carry) has all of those for good prices. Their EVOO and “regular” OO are both more expensive than Costco’s OO, but if you aren’t soaping yet in big quantities, buying the Costco liter bottles still makes the most sense so that it doesn’t go rancid before you use it up. I personally don’t use OO enough to make it worth buying in the larger quantities.

With shipping costs, no one beats Big Lots for coconut oil that I can pick up locally at ~11 cents/oz.

 

[FragranceGuy]

@Zany_in_CO @AliOop
Excellent information!! Thanks!!!

 

[Nibiru2020]

I find it quite interesting and curious in the fact that hardly anyone on this forum site ever mentions the EXCELLENT soap calculator at the top of this browser webpage on the right-hand tab.
I find it the easiest to use, IMHO for me at least and the bottom right bar graph is a very handy representation of how the recipes will turn out.

Here is a SnagIt shot of my latest recipe I did this morning... and it has come out great! Best CP soap I've done in years. I also included the PDF of the recipe... but it's not graphical as the SnagIt capture is.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I find it quite interesting and curious in the fact that hardly anyone on this forum site ever mentions the EXCELLENT soap calculator at the top of this browser webpage on the right-hand tab.

Au contraire ma chère! LOL The majority of members use the Soapmaking Friend calculator. It was recently developed right here on SMF and many members contributed input and test drives for tweaking. Although I agree that it's an excellent soap calculator, I'm an old lady who has been soaping since 2004. I use the other one, SoapCalc, because I'm used to it, it shows up in tutorials that pre-date Soapmaking Friend and it is easiest for me. You will also note that every time soap calculator is mentioned, it is automatically linked to that calculator.

BTW, although some members may disagree, I think that's a really nice recipe you've got there. Well done!

ETA: My apologies to the OP (Original Poster) for the Hijack (a discussion totally unrelated to the Title supject - aka "don't be rude."). Newbies, please take note. If it's an interesting topic it's best to start a separate thread so others may weigh in.

 

[FragranceGuy]

I’ve been using soapee bc it’s very phone friendly and I like the format. I imagine not all soap calculators are created equally. Does anyone have any gripes or reasons why I shouldn’t use soapee?

@Nibiru2020 Is your name a reference to the ancient cuneiform texts from Sumer or are you a Star Trek fan?

 

[Nibiru2020]

Au contraire ma chère! LOL The majority of members use the Soapmaking Friend calculator. It was recently developed right here on SMF and many members contributed input and test drives for tweaking. Although I agree that it's an excellent soap calculator, I'm an old lady who has been soaping since 2004. I use the other one, SoapCalc, because I'm used to it, it shows up in tutorials that pre-date Soapmaking Friend and it is easiest for me. You will also note that every time soap calculator is mentioned, it is automatically linked to that calculator.

BTW, although some members may disagree, I think that's a really nice recipe you've got there. Well done!

Je me tiens corrigé mon ami! Thanks for the compliment on my recipe.
If desired, I could post some photos during saponification and after being cut into bars.
BTW, the pH this morning tested at a straight up 9.0 with litmus paper test.

 

[SPowers]

I started out using soapcalc but didn't like that I couldn't really save the recipe - at least the way I wanted to. SMF is the BEST calculator in my humble opinion on more than 1 level.... I love it!

 

[Nibiru2020]

I’ve been using soapee bc it’s very phone friendly and I like the format. I imagine not all soap calculators are created equally. Does anyone have any gripes or reasons why I shouldn’t use soapee?

@Nibiru2020 Is your name a reference to the ancient cuneiform texts from Sumer or are you a Star Trek fan?

I started reading Zecharia Sitchin's books back in the early 90's. Quite an eye-opener and certainly makes sense to me. Yes I'm also a big Star Trek fan but I have never heard of the reference to Nibiru in that series until the INTO DARKNESS movie.

Some "wise men" state that Nibiru is all part of a conspiracy theory.
Well... whatever, of course these are the sheeple that believe Oswald was a lone gunman too.

 

[FragranceGuy]

@Nibiru2020 I’ve read the earth chronicles and a few other of Sitchin’s supplementary books and I find them quite interesting. I think people are too quick to laugh the subject off of the table. The “Sitchin is wrong” website does a poor job of providing evidence against his research and that seems to be the holy grail of anti Sitchin resources, soo... If you can’t prove he’s wrong then why say he’s wrong? I think it’s a reflexive “he HAS to be wrong, so he is wrong” I imagine if we want to talk further about this subject we should move it over to the general discussion thread

 

[Zany_in_CO]

If desired, I could post some photos during saponification and after being cut into bars. BTW, the pH this morning tested at a straight up 9.0 with litmus paper test.

Please start a new thread in either the RECIPE FEEDBACK forum or, since you have pics, in the PHOTO GALLERY. Your choice, although I bet you get more comments in the feedback forum. Members love to weigh in -- if you don't get any positive strokes, don't take it personally.