Soap calculators

[squeakycleanuk]

I posted yesterday about how my castille soap recipe didn't match any of the suggested ranges on soap calc and the general consenus seemed to be that soap calc figures are perhaps meaningless because a castille bar is a good / desirable bar of soap. Well, the past couple of weeks I've done a few batches all of which met the criteria suggested by soap calc, so hopefully they'll be good bars. The thing is today I bought some new oils (corn, grapeseed and sunflower) and I been trying for the past hour to get a decent recipe with them but soap calc says that they are outside suggested range especially regarding iodine. The iodine levels are in the 80+ range instead of 41 - 70, is this a problem, how will it affect the soap? If it was ok to ignore these figures for the castille, is it ok to always ignore these guidelines.

 

[melstan775]

Corn, grapeseed, and sunflower oils are soft oils. They also are not reputed to have the shelf life of oils like olive and coconut. I suggest using them in small amounts, 5-10 percent.

 

[misskat22]

It all really depends on what you're looking for your bar to do. The numbers I've been lead to believe are not a "must have" but more of an idea of how your bar may turn out. It also doesn't take into consideration your superfat % in those numbers.

 

[new12soap]

soapcalc figures aren't meaningless, they are excellent guidelines, especially for beginners. while the numbers are not carved in stone about what makes a good and bad bar, they help you learn what those qualities translate to from paper into soap.

Corn oil, sunflower oil (unless it is high oleic) and especially grapeseed oil have a short shelf life and can go rancid quickly. I am not crazy about corn or grapeseed in soap at all, I don't think they add anything except the risk of DOS. It will be a challenge to formulate a good soap using them, but if you really want to include them I would suggest no more than 15%.

You can take a look at some single oil soaps here http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm all 3 of those oils (when used alone, not in combination with other oils) produced a soap that was rancid and unusable within 6 months.

 

[squeakycleanuk]

Corn, grapeseed, and sunflower oils are soft oils. They also are not reputed to have the shelf life of oils like olive and coconut. I suggest using them in small amounts, 5-10 percent.

Sorry I should perhaps have been clearer about my intentions. My usual recipe has olive, coconut, avocado, castor oil, cocoa butter and shea but I wanted to try some batches without the shea, cocoa and avocado and replace them with cheaper ingredients to compare the two to see if it was really necessary to use such expensive ingredients. So I would still be using coconut, olive and castor but changing those 3 ingredients made such a dramatic difference that according to soap calc would make a bad bar but like I say it said that about 100% castille too :crazy:

 

[squeakycleanuk]

You can take a look at some single oil soaps here http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm all 3 of those oils (when used alone, not in combination with other oils) produced a soap that was rancid and unusable within 6 months.

Looks like I got the 3 worst oils available, they all fall into the 'noticeably rancid and disgusting' category. Perhaps I'll stick to my original recipe after all

 

[new12soap]

you may want to try your base recipe but use only one of the luxury oil, avocado OR cocoa butter OR shea butter and see what you think.

 

[soapguy]

That it was the worst oils you could use was my impression too, but decided to keep quiet. Though I did use sunflower once and came up with a nice soap.

 

[Nevada]

If I may suggest start with this and go from there

Olive Oil 50%
Lard or Palm oil 25%
Coconut Oil 20%
Castor Oil 5%
6% SF

 

[melstan775]

Sunflower also helps with lather doesn't it?

 

[squeakycleanuk]

If I may suggest start with this and go from there

Olive Oil 50%
Lard or Palm oil 25%
Coconut Oil 20%
Castor Oil 5%
6% SF

Thanks Nevada for the suggestion but I made a decision not to use either lard or palm oil, just personal preference. I will probably just do as new12soap suggests and try it with just one luxury soap at a time for comparison. I am on the whole happy with my usual recipe, it seems to be working well so far but I was just a little concerned that I might be using a lot of expensive ingredients for no noticeable effect and figured the only way to find out would be to do a cheaper bar and do a comparison.

 

[dagmar88]

. So I would still be using coconut, olive and castor but changing those 3 ingredients made such a dramatic difference that according to soap calc would make a bad bar but like I say it said that about 100% castille too :crazy:

Just coconut, olive and castor will make really nice soap too.

 

[squeakycleanuk]

I might have to experiment with up-ing the levels of coconut oil. I've kept it at around 20 - 25% so far because I'd read so much about it being drying but it might be an idea to try it for myself.

 

[dagmar88]

It is possible to make very nice and non drying soap with a high % of coconut, just experiment with your level of superfat.