Questions

[brandi]

I made 3 batches of soap last night and every recipe went through the soapcalc. The first recipe was half hemp oil and half olive oil. It took a long time to trace. I put it in a silicone mold and it wasnt heating up or anything so I tried to hot process it. It is still not hardening.

My question is what happens if you do not reach full trace? Will the soap still turn into soap? I also made castile soap that didnt really have a thick trace but I put it in the silicone mold maybe too soon.

How long does the castile soap need to wait before I can cut it into bars? I know it takes months but I would hate to not be able to use my mold for a long time.

I experimented and put a tbsp of colloidal oatmeal in my castile soap and I also infused the olive oil with chamomile just to experiment. I wasnt sure how to measure any additions to the soap...

I also made palm/olive soap from a recipe from a book. All of her recipes always trace fine and I do not gel them. They harden in a few hrs. They also get very hot in the molds. My very first batch from her book turned out perfect...and somehow very white in color.

What is her secret? Here is the first recipe I made from her book..

18 oz olive oil
12 oz palm kernel oil
9 oz water
4.1 oz lye

Here is another recipe that turned out really well:

10.5 oz coconut oil
10.5 oz olive oil
9 oz shea butter
8 oz water
4.2 oz lye

Do you see a certain ratio she is using in these recipes?

 

[brandi]

SoapCalc © Recipe Name: Print Recipe Total oil weight1 Water as percent of oil weight38 % Super Fat/Discount7 % Lye Concentration24.9 %Water : Lye Ratio3.016:1 Sat : Unsat Ratio17 : 83 Iodine 85 INS 105 Fragrance Ratio0 Fragrance Weight 0 Oz IngredientPoundsOuncesGrams Water0.386.08172.365Lye - NaOH0.1262.01657.148 #√Oil/Fat%PoundsOuncesGrams 1Olive Oil100116453.592 Totals100116453.592 Soap Bar Quality Suggested Range Your Recipe Hardness 29 - 54 17 Cleansing 12 - 22 0 Conditioning 44 - 69 82 Bubbly 14 - 46 0 Creamy 16 - 48 17 Iodine 41 - 70 85 INS 136 - 165 105 Lauric 0 Myristic 0 Palmitic 14 Stearic 3 Ricinoleic 0 Oleic 69 Linoleic 12 Linolenic 1 AdditivesNotes

that was the castile soap

 

[DeeAnna]

"...What is her secret?..."

Not really a secret, IMO, just paying attention to the details. First off, compare your castile recipe to the other two. Do you see that your recipe is all liquid fats and the other two recipes have a large percentage of solid fats? That makes a big difference, Brandi.

If you want a soap recipe that will trace in a reasonable time and harden up in the mold in a reasonable time, ya gotta pay attention to your recipe. Solid fats add hardness to the soap recipe, among other things.

"The numbers" give you that information as well. The INS for your recipe is 105. Compare that to soapcalc's "reasonable" INS range of 136 - 165. Your soapcalc INS is way outside that range.

Also the fatty acid breakdown shows 69% of your recipe is oleic (monosaturated) fat, with another 12% of linoleic (polyunsaturated) fat. The only solid (saturated) fats are 14% palmitic and 3% stearic. That information shows your recipe does not have much in the way of saturated fat to balance the unsaturated fats.

What the INS number and fatty acid profile are telling you is that there is a high percentage of unsaturated fats (liquid fats) in your recipe. It may trace and harden more slowly than a recipe that is more in the recommended INS range. That's not to say your recipe won't make fine soap, but it does have some "issues" to keep in mind when you make it.

The hemp-olive soap probably has a profile similar to the castile -- with a low INS and very high monosaturated and polyunsaturated fat levels.

Just a learning experience.

 

[brandi]

Thanks Deeanna! Castile soap is supposed to be 100% Olive oil so how would you create your Castile soap? I wasnt sure what the Water as percent of oil weight 38% meant.

 

[MaitriBB]

Hi Brandi, I have a blog post about Superfatting that may help although it doesn't address the water discount itself (/makes note to write that water discount article...)

 

[DeeAnna]

Castile is 100% olive, so that will automatically put it outside the "normal" soapcalc zone. That's okay -- castile has been made or centuries, so obviously it works as a soap recipe and makes fine soap.

To answer your question about the 38% water as a percentage of oil weight --

If you have a recipe with 500 grams of oil in it, then this percentage means the amount of water you need for your recipe will weigh 38% of 500 grams --

0.38 x 500 = 190 grams water

To be honest, I don't really pay too much attention to that percentage. The more important thing that I want to know is how strong my lye solution should be. I would look at this part of your castile recipe instead:

Water:Lye Ratio 3.016:1

What this ratio means is this -- For every ounce of lye you use in your recipe, you will need to mix it with 3.016 ounces of water. If the recipe calls for 4.0 ounces of lye, here is how you would figure the amount of water to use --

3.016 x 4.0 = 12.064 ounces of water.

Round that number to 12.1 ounces to make it practical to weigh.

This works for grams too. If your recipe calls for 210 grams of lye, then the amount of water you would need is --

3.016 x 210 = 633.36 grams of water

Round that number to 633 or 634 grams to make it practical to weigh.

Hope this helps!

 

[Serenity]

Hi Brandi

I wouldn't worry about reaching trace with your olive oil/hemp oil soap because with a high percentage of olive oil it can take a long time, assuming you're using a stick blender. As long as it's mixed well for a few minutes, I don't think you need to worry. It will still turn into soap.

If you're using a silicone mould I understand you need to add some sodium lactate to help the soap harden and be easier to unmould. Salt may do the same thing but I'm not sure.

I've also heard that hemp oil makes quite a soft soap so as you did half your recipe with hemp it may take a while to harden. And if you used full water that will also make the soap take longer to harden. Just check it each day and be patient with it. It will eventually harden and be a very nice soap.