Soap Calc & Recipes

Luckyone80 · Oct 21, 2014

I've been reading and watching everything I can on the internet about CP soap making. I've run across recipes that I want to try and I've always read to run the recipe through a lye calculator to make sure everything is correct. I've done this with about 4 recipes so far and have found that the water amount is always off in each recipe - anyone know why?

Examples:

Pumpkin Soap
16 oz Olive Oil
8 oz Coconut Oil
3 oz Sunflower Oil
3 oz Cocoa Butter
4.19 oz Lye (6% superfat)
8 oz Distilled Water

Basic 3-Oil Soap
16 oz Olive Oil
8oz Coconut Oil
8 oz Palm Oil
4.53 oz Lye
10.5 oz Water
1 oz EO
The water is off by quite a bit in each of these recipes. Is this something the recipe maker is doing in order to achieve something they want?

lpstephy85 · Oct 21, 2014

The water could be off because the recipe the person posted might have used a water discount. Soap calc has a standard water amount when you plug in the numbers at 38%. You can play around with that to see if you can get it to match the amount on the recipe that you found.

Luckyone80 · Oct 21, 2014

So you really can't run a recipe through a lye calc then to check the recipe if you don't know the % of water? Or are you solely checking to make sure the lye is correct?

dixiedragon · Oct 21, 2014

The most important part is making sure the lye is correct.

Technically, you only need a 1:1 water to lye ratio for the lye to dissolve (I think). However, I don't know of anybody who actually soaps with that.

How much is the water off by? Does the author recommend using more or less water?

Hazel · Oct 21, 2014

You're just checking to make sure the lye amount is correct. Water amounts are going to vary because of how the calculator was programmed. A lot of times I don't even use the amount of water which is shown after calculation. It depends on other additives and what fragrance oil I'm using.

BTW, lye amounts may vary slightly in different calculators because the amount is based on an averaged SAP.

eta: Whoops! I just saw you got an answer while I was typing the reply.

I know a couple of soapers who do use 1:1 water/lye ratio but they've been soaping for years and know how their recipes, additives and FOs will behave. This ratio is generally used for high percentage or 100% olive soap.

snappyllama · Oct 21, 2014

With that pumpkin one... I'll bet they are reducing water by the amount of pumpkin puree they want you to add.

Susie · Oct 21, 2014

^What snappyllama said. Because you can't call it "Pumpkin soap" without pumpkin. And that is the other part of the liquid. How much pumpkin did it call for, BTW?