Soap/Lye Calculators; A guide

[Bann51]

Hi Earthmother99. First I would make sure I have entered the information on top correctly, such as whatever measurement unit your using.If you use ounces, it automatically defauts to 16. You can change that. Enter superfat, fragrance, etc. The calculate should come up with a circle filled in on ounces or pounds or whatever measurement you chose. After you select your oil, and press+, you put in your weight measure for that oil. When you complete all the oils: 1) Press Calculate Recipe. That gives you the total in weight of your oils. After that 2) Click on View/Print Recipe. Then look up on your tabs. A new tab will open that says View/Print Recipe. Click on that tab. That's where you find your recipe listed and in pink on the top of that page you will see your water and lye amounts. Hope this helps.

 

[Bann51]

Oops! Didn't realize this was an old thread. I probably answered something that was already posted and answered. Anyway. hope someone can use the info. I use SoapCalc and I have also checked my recipe against other calculators, but I like that one best. Being a new cp soaper I like the exact amounts it gives. Some of them give a range and that's not good for me yet. I'll have to experiment more to understand how to work within a range.

 

[shy]

Hello...

I have a question.. is there any SAP difference between palm oil and fractionated palm oil? I can't find fractionated oil at lye calc..
Please help :-?

 

[sistrum]

I haven't heard of fractionated palm oil in soaping, but yes they would have different sap values. Or do you mean fractionated palm KERNEL oil? In that case palm oil and PKO are from the same tree but totally different things. Palm oil is more like lard and tallow while PKO is more like coconut oil and again would have different sap values.

Does that help?

If you don't get a lot of answers here try posting in the CP soap section. If a mod doesn't switch it for you. Good luck

 

[Basicgrey7]

Can someone do an example? On one of the calcs with a recipe that just asks for ounces?

 

[Bann51]

Here's one from Soap Queen. It's called Lots of Lather. I put it through SoapCalc. The recipe calls for ounces. Don't know if this what you want.

 

[QuanahRose]

The calculator at https://summerbeemeadow.com/ has a resizing feature that I've found very helpful. One you enter your soap recipe and calculate it, you can use the resizing function to size the recipe to whatever mold you want to use.

Once I print out the resized recipe, I still run it through SoapCalc and print that so I have the amounts in ounces and grams and have the "notes" section that the SoapCalc printout provides.

 

[cm4bleenmb]

I use SoapCalc most often. I find it easy to use and in addition to the area for notes and additives, I love that it has those handy little check boxes beside each of the oils. I set my oils up in the order they're listed, then as I weigh them out, I set the container somewhere else and check the box--it makes me feel surer of myself when I have a recipe with a variety of oils. And the snapshot it gives you of your soap's qualities is helpful too.
One thing I do like about the calculator at MMS is that range of SF percentages. As long as I am using a recipe that I plan to keep between 5 and 10 percent, I could print more than one copy and make them all different.
I had never heard of Maplesprings, I thought a calculator that gave recommendations for fragrance and pigments sounded useful so I checked it out. It is very simple to use but there aren't many oils to choose from and since they have no way of knowing if I'm using EOs or FOs for the fragrance, or pigments, micas, oxides, or herbs for the colorant, I really don't find that part useful at all.
I have not looked at the Summerbee Meadow calculator, when I try to go there my computer tells me there is a problem with the site's security certificate.

 

[angelapferr]

Just to add to the list, I have been using "Summer Bee Meadow" lye calculator. I really like this website and it is easy to use. hope this helps
http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer

 

[grayceworks]

I just found this one. Haven't tried it yet...

http://www.tlcsoaps.com/tlcsoapcalc.htm

 

[cm4bleenmb]

I just found this one. Haven't tried it yet...

http://www.tlcsoaps.com/tlcsoapcalc.htm

Either it's really, really slow or it doesn't work. I think that is an old site. But it's also possible I missed something.

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

Hello i am using http://www.soapcalc.net/ and i was wondering why there is basically 3 different soap quality's for hardness?
There is Harness witch is the first one, Then there is the bottom two, Iodine & INS, All 3 refer to hardness.

I made a recipe i liked but only the first one for hardness was good the bottom two were bit out of range and i was wondering What the difference are and how to understand them correct?

Thank You

 

[ilovesoap2]

I also have a question on soapcalc.net.

Item #3 is water and the first option is

'water as a % of oils' and the default is 38
the next option is lye concentration %
and finally water: lye ratio

I know this is probably asking a lot but will
someone please help me to understand what
it's asking me to do and how it helps the soap?
Thank you.

 

[LupitaTX]

Have any of you guys used soap calc app for the iphone? If so what do you guys think of it because so far i love it!! And ive been using it and i want you ladies and gets opinion.

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

I also have a question on soapcalc.net.

Item #3 is water and the first option is

'water as a % of oils' and the default is 38
the next option is lye concentration %
and finally water: lye ratio

I know this is probably asking a lot but will
someone please help me to understand what
it's asking me to do and how it helps the
Thank you.

Hi ilovesoap2 the default value is for beginner to use, If you are not familiar with what you are doing.
Once your recipe is calculated you will want to print it out and the last page it will redirect you to will have a spreadsheet of your recipe in a more arranged and straight forward way of reading.

 

[sherri williams]

I use the bramble berry and majestic mountain sage lye calculator.

 

[Lion Of Judah]

Hello i am using http://www.soapcalc.net/ and i was wondering why there is basically 3 different soap quality's for hardness?
There is Harness witch is the first one, Then there is the bottom two, Iodine & INS, All 3 refer to hardness.

I made a recipe i liked but only the first one for hardness was good the bottom two were bit out of range and i was wondering What the difference are and how to understand them correct?

Thank You

i will start from the bottom 1st : INS is basically the combination of your Iodine value and SAP value , so it is actually the sum of something , being the Iodine [2nd] which is the indication of how much iodine that will react to 100 grams of fats or oils, the harder the bar and the less the conditioning qualities and vice versa. which brings us to "Hardness" , this hardness is that of the soap bar coming out of the mold. // now i will say this your oils and butters used will get you a hard bar of soap as well and even 100% OO will get you a very hard bar after cure. .you can help your hardness as well by using 1 tablespoon of salt per pound of oil and butter combined [ if you are making a three pound batch of soap then you would use 3 tablespoons of salt ] added to your liquid before adding the lye to create your lye water.be sure it is totally dissolved ... this will greatly add to the hardness.
IMHO >< i try to create a long lasting bar , so in the beginning my soap were hard but not long lasting and since adding salt they tend to last a little bit longer than before. someone pointed out to me that using a washcloth as oppose to using the bar of soap directly to the skin helps the life of the bar , which after testing i agree 100%.

 

[ilovesoap2]

Hi ilovesoap2 the default value is for beginner to use, If you are not familiar with what you are doing.
Once your recipe is calculated you will want to print it out and the last page it will redirect you to will have a spreadsheet of your recipe in a more arranged and straight forward way of reading.

Thanks for trying to help me

Unfortunately I did not find the answer. I understood the
default is for noobs like myself and I'm just wondering what happens
and how to adjust the water using the other 2 options. I keep looking
and nothing is clicking in my head.

 

[seven]

Thanks for trying to help me

Unfortunately I did not find the answer. I understood the
default is for noobs like myself and I'm just wondering what happens
and how to adjust the water using the other 2 options. I keep looking
and nothing is clicking in my head.

i found the easiest way to do it is via option 3 (water:lye). i like to do mine at 2:1, what this means is the water is twice the amount of lye, so let's say the recipe tells you 100 grams of lye, then the water would be 100 x 2 = 200 grams.

the minimum amount of water needed to properly dissolve lye is 100% of its weight, so 1:1. i personally would not go this low, except for making mp base, but that's another story. if you just start, i would recommend to go slightly higher than 2:1 to give you more time. perhaps 2.3:1 or up to 2.5:1.

so, if you opt for option 3 and type, for example 2:1, then the calc will automatically calculated the amount of water needed based on that particular option, which is twice the lye weight.

i don't really understand option 2, so i ain't gonna try to explain something i don't know.

hth

 

[ilovesoap2]

Thank you seven. I think I get it now.
When you say "i would recommend to go slightly higher than 2:1 to give you more time." are you talking about the trace?
Sounds like less water means less time to reach trace
and also less time to be dry/cured?
Thanks for this.