Soap Calc was wrong? What did I do? HELP

[sophief100]

So here is a soap recipe that I have. I used Soapcalc to calculate the lye and it is waaaayyy too strong. have I inputted something wrong? Below is the recipe and what I put into the calculator

Needless to say I am new to this and it did not pass the zap test. Why do you think it has put a high concentration?

Thanks all

 

[AliOop]

You have a zero% super fat, so you gave yourself no leeway for error. Also, if you just made this by cold process, it may take 72 hours to fully saponify so that it doesn’t zap.

 

[sophief100]

I heard that not including the superfat on your calculator but use 5 percent gives you better control over it? And no it messed up. It traced within a minute
xx

 

[Obsidian]

There are a lot of reasons a soap traces fast. The high amount of palm and coconut could have done it, especially if soaped too warm.

The lye amount looks fine to me, if you got zapped then its probably due to not waiting long enough. No reason to zap test soap that is under a week old. Give it time to finish all the chemical reactions.

You can't control your superfat oil in CP. Set it to 5% for now. You can adjust it later if needed as you gain more experience.

 

[sophief100]

There are a lot of reasons a soap traces fast. The high amount of palm and coconut could have done it, especially if soaped too warm.

The lye amount looks fine to me, if you got zapped then its probably due to not waiting long enough. No reason to zap test soap that is under a week old. Give it time to finish all the chemical reactions.

You can't control your superfat oil in CP. Set it to 5% for now. You can adjust it later if needed as you gain more experience.

Thank you. I think I've maybe just panicked due to this being the first time it's traced so fast (new recipe)

 

[cmzaha]

I regularly soap with 0-2% superfat without any problems. You need to let soap cure and it is not unusual for soap to zap up to 72 hrs. Your quick trace could be due to the high Palm and Coconut especially depending on your oil and lye temps. Higher temps quicker trace.

 

[SeaSuds]

If you want to sell in the future, you are not allowed to have less than 3% superfat according to EU/UK cosmetic regulations

 

[AliOop]

From what I understand from her prior comments, she used 5% SF but added at trace in an attempt to control which oil serves as the SF. According to scientific testing, that doesn’t work in CP soap. So since her main concern was teaching thick trace too quickly - within one minute - it would be better to add her SF oil with the rest of the oils to keep her batter more fluid.

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree with the other advice given.

Don't be in a big rush to zap test if your goal is simply to ensure the soap is skin safe when the soap is cured. I suggest, especially to new soap makers, to wait at least a few days and even up to a week before testing.

***

I don't think a lot of people realize this, but a 5% lye discount (in other words, reducing the NaOH weight by 5%) is not necessarily the same thing as adding an additional 5% weight of fats.

I won't get into the mathematical reasons why at this point, because every time I've tried, I end up confusing people. So I'll just give the bottom line to remember --

Discounting the amount of lye is not the same thing as adding extra fat.​

Don't try to out-think the soap recipe calculator. It's a good way to over-complicate the process and make mistakes.

Just set up your recipe with whatever lye discount you want -- 5% being the usual default -- and let the calc crunch the numbers. (The lye discount setting in Soapcalc is the "Super Fat / Discount" number in the OP's post #1.)

Hold back some of the fat or one particular fat if you want to do that, make soap with the main portion of the fat, and then add the reserved fat later as you think is best.

This can be a useful technique for hot process soap if you add the reserved fat after saponification is done.

This is not a useful technique for cold process soap. Lye is still active at trace, so adding reserved fat at this point does not do anything to "protect" the fat from reacting with the lye.

 

[sophief100]

Thank you everyone for your help

 

[AliOop]

SoapmakingFriend has a separate box to check for adding your SF separately, which can be a handy tool if you are doing HP and want to use a specific oil for a post-cook SF.