Salvageable??

[My3monkees]

Last week I was measuring out oils, chatting away at the same time. So it wasn't until I was putting in my last ingredient that it occurred to me that there was way to much in the container!!!
The recipe only called for 28 oz! My son weighed it on the bathroom scale 3.5 lbs!! Ugh!
My scale had gone wonky.
I now have a pretty new scale!
I know approximately what precentage of each oil is in there. I'm thinking if I figure out exactly how much oil weight I have, and percentages as close as I can and use a high superfat as a cushion. Maybe I can salvage the oils? I hate the thought of throwing it all away. It's for personal use not selling. Any thoughts??

 

[SaltedFig]

Last week I was measuring out oils, chatting away at the same time. So it wasn't until I was putting in my last ingredient that it occurred to me that there was way to much in the container!!!
The recipe only called for 28 oz! My son weighed it on the bathroom scale 3.5 lbs!! Ugh!
My scale had gone wonky.
I now have a pretty new scale!
I know approximately what precentage of each oil is in there. I'm thinking if I figure out exactly how much oil weight I have, and percentages as close as I can and use a high superfat as a cushion. Maybe I can salvage the oils? I hate the thought of throwing it all away. It's for personal use not selling. Any thoughts?? ��

If your oils aren't too different from each other (as in their Saponification value isn't wildly different), you could soap using the SAP value of the oil that uses the least amount of lye.

This will potentially lead to a very high superfat if you are using oils with very large differences (such as olive and coconut), but if your oil with the lowest number is close to most of your oil SAP amounts, it shouldn't be too terrible.

What oils did you use?

 

[My3monkees]

Ok here is the original recipe.
Apricot kernal oil 4.2 oz
Cocoa butter 2.8
Coconut oil. 4.2
Olive oil. 5.6
Lard 11.2

The cocoa butter was the last I added. As I was putting it in it finally registered in my head that I was adding way more than 2.8oz.
This is why I should not soap distracted! Lol
Don't worry I would never do that when working with the lye!

 

[SaltedFig]

Ok here is the original recipe.
Apricot kernal oil 4.2 oz
Cocoa butter 2.8
Coconut oil. 4.2
Olive oil. 5.6
Lard 11.2

The cocoa butter was the last I added. As I was putting it in it finally registered in my head that I was adding way more than 2.8oz.
This is why I should not soap distracted! Lol
Don't worry I would never do that when working with the lye!

Ok, so that equates to:

40% Lard (for which SoapCalc has a NaOH Saponification value of 0.141)
20% Olive Oil (SAP 0.135)
15% Apricot Kernal Oil (SAP 0.139)
15% Coconut Oil (SAP 0.183)
10% Cocoa Butter (SAP 0.138 )

If you soap this recipe at 5% superfat you will need 3.88 ounces of Sodium Hydroxide.

If you soap using the lowest sap value (which will give you a superfatted soap), you will use the Olive oil SAP of 0.135 and will use 3.6 ounces of Sodium Hydroxide.

This adjustment will give you an additional superfat of about 6.7%, but will be safe, regardless of whichever of your oils you added at what quantities.

You could reduce your recipes starting superfat a little, depending on what you started at. Eg. If you started with a superfat of 5%, then you could lower it by a percent or two quite safely, so soap with your recipe at 3% superfat instead. Then you would end up with a superfat at 3% + 6.7%, or roughly 10%.

The worst case scenario is that your soap will be heavily superfatted (which will take a while to cure, and could be a little more at risk of rancidity because of the higher fat content). Or, it could be really nice for you.

So, when you get your decent scales (bathroom scales are no good for lye), remeasure your oils, use that weight to put it into soapcalc, but only add that weight of the oil in olive - that will calculate the correct lye amount for you for the above method.

Good luck (there are other alternatives, but this one is one of the safest).

PS. Picture steps in SoapCalc:
Picture 1 is your oils, 5% SF, 33% lye solution, 0% fragrance (gives 3.88oz NaOH)
Picture 2 is the same weight of oils and settings, 100% of oil as Olive (gives 3.60oz NaOH)
Picture 3 is the first (original) recipe and settings, changing the superfat percentage until the NAOH value is reduced to 3.60oz.

 

[Steve85569]

SaltedFig gave the BEST reply.
It is salvageable and the SF won't be too high.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Not wanting to be a worrier, but that is assuming that the problem with the scale was linier in nature - that each weight is changed in the same way. I would test that before I proceed, by putting known weights on the old scale to see what it says. Otherwise that mix of oils might be any combination

 

[SaltedFig]

Thanks Steve, I was feeling a bit flat, you cheered me up! :angel:

Not wanting to be a worrier, but that is assuming that the problem with the scale was linier in nature - that each weight is changed in the same way. I would test that before I proceed, by putting known weights on the old scale to see what it says. Otherwise that mix of oils might be any combination

Valid concern with just about any other fix.

This one (taking the lowest SAP value) ... the worst case scenario would be that it was all coconut (highest SAP value) and you get an interestingly new coconut oil-cleansing method :mrgreen:

PS. On a more serious note, it helps that most of the oils in this recipe (as different oils, but also as percentage of recipe) all hover around the same value, it's only the coconut oil that is a long way from the lowest. So the chance of overly superfatting, even with oils all over the place, are small. For a more widely varying recipe, yes, more careful analysis might be needed.

 

[My3monkees]

Thank you, thank you!
That is what I was thinking!
Usually I could have pulled out the coconut and remeasured. But of course, I did this on our one warm day. So it was partially liqufied.

No worries on using the bathroom scale! That was just to get a rough idea on how far I was off! Lol

I already bought a new digital scale. I did get a refund on the old one, it was new in January!

Side note, I thought there was a mobile version of this website? Or am I thinking of something else? I can barely work with either my phone or tablet.
Thanks!

 

[toxikon]

Thank you, thank you!
That is what I was thinking!
Usually I could have pulled out the coconut and remeasured. But of course, I did this on our one warm day. So it was partially liqufied.

No worries on using the bathroom scale! That was just to get a rough idea on how far I was off! Lol

I already bought a new digital scale. I did get a refund on the old one, it was new in January!

Side note, I thought there was a mobile version of this website? Or am I thinking of something else? I can barely work with either my phone or tablet.
Thanks!

This forum is a pain on mobile. I do a lot of pinching, zooming, and cursing. You're not alone.

 

[kchaystack]

I would personally just average the SAP values of the oils, and make a 500G batch and save the rest to see how that turns out before using the rest.

 

[cmzaha]

I would do as. Kchayshack suggested. Also remember to weight your empty soaping container and write it down, makes it much easier to figure out errors.