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dianaabuela1

Active Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
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Hi, I did a soap with
Almond oil 2.90%
CO 19.35%
Crisco 58.06%
Castor oil 5.48%
Palm oil 10.97%
And beeswax 3.23%
Water 33%
5% superfat
And .07 oz lemon oil
The soap trace but after taking some time
I cut it but is really oily I just made it yesterday.
The numbers in the soap Cal looks good to me
Any comet will be appreciated
 
I am surprised that this took time to trace - although maybe your definition of time is different than mine. My regular recipe traces at less than a minute, so recipe that traces at two or even three minutes is slow to me (I have a friend whose recipe takes 7 minutes of continuous blending to trace!) so maybe you need to define for us what "took time" really means for us to give accurate assessment if this is normal or not.

I would expect this to trace in the 2-3 minute range because of the high solid oils (CO, Crisco, and palm). I haven't used beeswax in soap before, but if it's similar to stearic I expect that speed things up as well. How warm did you soap? Beeswax usually requires a higher soaping temp to keep the beeswax from solidfying.

It looks like you also included beeswax in the oils calc - maybe someone who has soaped with beeswax will chime in, but I didn't think it was included in the lye calc part of the recipe but used as an additive. I could be wrong.

Is .07 oz lemon oil correct or a typo? If correct, and I'm assuming lemon oil is essential oil, then .07 oz will not be enough to scent the soap unless you are making an extremely tiny batch of soap. Speaking of... how much was your total oils? Was this a large enough batch (500g or more) to minimize measuring errors?

As for the recipe itself, soapcalc is down so I can't look at the soap properties itself, but the Crisco qty is quite high, I would not expect this to keep for a long time. I use crisco/shortening at 25% when I teach soap classes and those soaps keep for about 14 months. I expect a higher qty of shortening type oils will decrease the shelf life. Shortenings are typically made with some amount of soybean oil which is more prone to rancidity (eventually showing itself in the soap as DOS: dreaded orange spots). I would be inclined to use either shortening or palm but not both, at a reduced % (half of the original 68% is where I'd start, so 35%) fill in some of the remainder with almond oil and call it a day with this recipe. Again though, not having a soap calc handy I don't know how my suggested changes look in the calc, but this is where I would start modifying. Calc numbers also don't show everything.

If you just made it yesterday, give it a bit more time, it's probably still saponifying.
 
You do add beeswax to your recipe calculation as part of your oils.
How much lye did you use? Was that 33% lye concentration? What temp did you soap at?
I agree with amd about trace for this recipe and the EO.
I don't use Almond or other oils at less than 10% (except castor oil) because I just can't detect the difference below 10%.
 
I am surprised that this took time to trace - although maybe your definition of time is different than mine. My regular recipe traces at less than a minute, so recipe that traces at two or even three minutes is slow to me (I have a friend whose recipe takes 7 minutes of continuous blending to trace!) so maybe you need to define for us what "took time" really means for us to give accurate assessment if this is normal or not.

I would expect this to trace in the 2-3 minute range because of the high solid oils (CO, Crisco, and palm). I haven't used beeswax in soap before, but if it's similar to stearic I expect that speed things up as well. How warm did you soap? Beeswax usually requires a higher soaping temp to keep the beeswax from solidfying.

It looks like you also included beeswax in the oils calc - maybe someone who has soaped with beeswax will chime in, but I didn't think it was included in the lye calc part of the recipe but used as an additive. I could be wrong.

Is .07 oz lemon oil correct or a typo? If correct, and I'm assuming lemon oil is essential oil, then .07 oz will not be enough to scent the soap unless you are making an extremely tiny batch of soap. Speaking of... how much was your total oils? Was this a large enough batch (500g or more) to minimize measuring errors?

As for the recipe itself, soapcalc is down so I can't look at the soap properties itself, but the Crisco qty is quite high, I would not expect this to keep for a long time. I use crisco/shortening at 25% when I teach soap classes and those soaps keep for about 14 months. I expect a higher qty of shortening type oils will decrease the shelf life. Shortenings are typically made with some amount of soybean oil which is more prone to rancidity (eventually showing itself in the soap as DOS: dreaded orange spots). I would be inclined to use either shortening or palm but not both, at a reduced % (half of the original 68% is where I'd start, so 35%) fill in some of the remainder with almond oil and call it a day with this recipe. Again though, not having a soap calc handy I don't know how my suggested changes look in the calc, but this is where I would start modifying. Calc numbers also don't show everything.

If you just made it yesterday, give it a bit more time, it's probably still saponifying.
Thanks a lot for your time to answer me back I will take notes. Soapcal is still out to try to use again and no luck.
Sorry to ask but did you have a good and simple recipe that can share with me?
I start this week to do soap and I love it!!!
 
Sorry to ask but did you have a good and simple recipe that can share with me?
If you search the forum you'll be able to find several suggestions for beginner recipes. I know on one thread very recently a member shared a nice basic recipe that will perform well as a maker and a user :D Sorry I can't remember the thread name but I would do a search "beginner recipe" and sort by most recent, look for a post in the last 7-10 days from Shunt2011. It's a nice recipe that she shared.
 
You can try https://www.soapmakingfriend.com/, I really like this one and it lets you save your recipes.

I've just used this calc last night and LOVE it! I'm a creature of habit, so it was a little hard for me to finally try it but so glad I did. It even calculated my extra lye for my citric acid and my vinegar!
 
Beeswax in Soap Making Friend is another little glitchy ingredient in my opinion. It is entered as an additive and as an Oil. When I have used it which is very seldom I always used it as an oil. Think I will message Angie about the double entry. What do you all think? Yes, this question was a bit off the main topic. Maybe we should move it to a new topic.
 
Beeswax in Soap Making Friend is another little glitchy ingredient in my opinion. It is entered as an additive and as an Oil. When I have used it which is very seldom I always used it as an oil. Think I will message Angie about the double entry. What do you all think? Yes, this question was a bit off the main topic. Maybe we should move it to a new topic.

I agree, it probably only needs to be in one or the other.
 
Beeswax in Soap Making Friend is another little glitchy ingredient in my opinion. It is entered as an additive and as an Oil. When I have used it which is very seldom I always used it as an oil. Think I will message Angie about the double entry. What do you all think? Yes, this question was a bit off the main topic. Maybe we should move it to a new topic.

I feel like it's nice that it can either calculate the extra lye or not, to be super precise...but also, when using at such a small percentage...I don't know how much of a difference it makes.
 
I feel like it's nice that it can either calculate the extra lye or not, to be super precise...but also, when using at such a small percentage...I don't know how much of a difference it makes.
Don’t underestimate what seems like a small percentage - it makes a big difference to soap - to the temp you have to soap at, to trace and to hardness. It is a very fiddly ingredient. It is also considered an animal product.
 
I cut it but is really oily I just made it yesterday.

Can't really help with the recipe since I don't use Crisco, but I do know that the one time I got 'oily soap' it was because it grossly overheated. Some of it absorbed back in, but when I went to cut into bars, the oil just beaded up on the surface...I tossed it.
 
I've just used this calc last night and LOVE it!

Thank you so much for saying this, I revisited the site and found things I had not seen before. Important things, like adding a photo and saving the file. You are right, this is a great calculator. I would have overlooked it.
 
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