Soap/Lye Calculators; A guide

[ohsoap]

Besides Soapcalc and Soapmaker, are there any other calculators that give you the values and/or a picture of what your recipe will be like. I would like to run my recipe threw another site other then soapcalc to see how it differs, but haven't found any others that do this.

 

[IanT]

Im not sure but if you dont have soapmaker and need someone to run numbers through there for you just let me know and I would be happy to help! (If there are any sites that have recently popped up I will gladly update this listing)

 

[ohsoap]

Thanks for the offer, I'm just curious at the differences mostly. I tweek my recipes way to often to do that to you though.

 

[IanT]

Thanks for the offer, I'm just curious at the differences mostly. I tweek my recipes way to often to do that to you though.

lol I dont care its all good..Im unemployed so I have NOTHING to do right now...bored out of my everloving mind

 

[Woodi]

In our defense I can tell you that SoapMaker is not just a lye calculator. It also contains an extensive costing and inventory control system, which really comes in handy at tax time each year.

but most of all: we stand behind our product. You know who we are, you can reach us. We talk to users daily. We also created a users forum where you can talk with other SoapMaker owners. Many of them have thought of unique ways to use the program, which even we hadn't thought of!

Why it's not free: Not only the first version, but also the updated version of it took my hubby many many programming hours, days, weeks, months... to create, and SoapMaker 3 includes all the features which customers requested after using the first one for a few years. We have been told by many programmers that as a software program, it is worth much more than what we are asking for it.

As for SAP values and the differences between numbers on the different lye calculators out there, remember that the numbers have to be approximate. Even if your oils supplier is extremely honest with you and gives you exact numbers (if he even knows them - heck, even the oil manufacturers themselves can't be that exact).
It even depends on the plants themselves, from which the oils were extracted: what kind of soil they were grown in, whether the season was dry or wet, how strong the initial seed or vine was.....etc. etc. etc.

Soapmaking is as much an art as a science. What I like most about using Soapmaker, besides its ease of usage, is that I can so easily compare one recipe with another. Once you have a recipe that you've made....you can see what numbers show up for that particular soap batch. If you like the soap, find other recipes that give those same numbers. It's so easy to create new recipes instantly, and see how they compare with one another on the graph. Play, have fun!

We created this program for people who don't like to do math, and would rather be making soap, wrapping soap, selling soap, planning their next batches, keeping on top of wholesalers, keeping in touch with customers etc....!

but if you like to do your own math, kudos to you!

 

[IanT]

I love it its like quickbooks for soapers absolutely essential for someone desiring to run a business..

 

[redmom]

hi everyone!

i'm totally new to soapmaking.

i'm exploring the different soap calculators available online.
i have some questions to get started (and hope it doesn't sound too silly)
- how do i know the weight of oils i'm going to use?
- how do i figure out how many percentage of each type of oil to use?

please help!
i hope someone can point me to the right direction to get going on this.
i feel so clueless seeing all the online calculators.

 

[Deda]

I strenuously agree with Woodi, Soapmaker is way more than a lye calculator. I think the product is well worth the price.

 

[EarthTouched]

soap calculators

I couldn't live without soapmaker ca. Worth every penny. LOVE it!

 

[IanT]

Re: soap calculators

I couldn't live without soapmaker ca. Worth every penny. LOVE it!

Ill drink to that

 

[Tiristia]

I can't find "Canola Olive Oil" on any of the soap calcs. It there another name for this blend?

 

[MiniDonk]

On soap calc. I can see where to add all the oils. Where / how would I add goats milk if I were to use that in a recipe? Or do I just add it instead of water? Also do I have to do anything to account for using essential oils? TIA.

 

[PrairieCraft]

You can just substitute your goats milk for your water portion. The EOs do not count as a base oil. You can plug the EO amount into the Fragrance box. I think most soapers here recommend using EOs at .5 oz PPO.

 

[mokadas]

thanks for this thread

I'm another one to sing soapmakers praises from london. I have been using it for 2 years and i use it 95% for creams and butters and 2.5 for bar soap and the rest even for food calculations .
this thread is great thank you for it as it explains soap cals very well.

 

[gilligan]

confused...

I've read this thread and the links, but I still have a question:

when I plug in a recipe I'd like to try I am NEVER satisfied with the values on the left hand side of soapcalc. I try to get all of the values within the ranges specified, but I never seem to be able to get more than one or two of them to be good.

For instance, I've made 2 batches of 100% olive oil soap to practice. I feel clean after my showers, but it has a cleaning value of 0.

I have also plugged in some recipes into soapcalc that other people have said that they like (and some from books) and soapcalc comes back with odd numbers in the #5 box of soapcalc.

My question is this: Am I worrying about #5 in soapcalc too much or is it actually terribly important?

Thanks!!!!

 

[Woodi]

re the canola-olive oil. I wrote to a manufacturer from whom I bought some, and they told me it was a blend of 60% olive, 40% canola.

So what I do, (I use the soapmaker program of course cuz I am married to the creator of it (although, I DID help write it too)....is to create a new oil in my SoapMaker db, call it CanOlive (or whatever you like)...put in the properties for the 60/40 blend mixture.

If you use SoapMaker, it is all explained under the Help menu. (Choose Frequently Asked Questions, then on the Questions and Answers page, under the Supplies heading, click on "I purchased a blend of oils - how can I determine the properties?"

There ya go!

(Hubby added this feature when I bought my first CanOlive blend.)

 

[LushishLux]

Thank you for making this post. It was super helpful. I hope to soon get soapmaker.ca Just looking at the website made me drool. Everything all in one place.

 

[debbism]

Just one more lye calc...I found an additional one at summerbeemeadow.com which you can plug in your recipe and re-size it to fit your mold which is great for me since I make all my own log molds and round tube molds. But if I run anything thru this calculator, I always run it through MMS to make sure i am on the mark.....

 

[khermsen]

For what it is worth. A few weeks ago I purchased Soapmaker. Although I am still in the learning stage of using the program, so far I can see its potential for helping to do a detailed accurate product cost analysis.

 

[pesikey]

I've used 'soap calc pro' designed for Iphone and Ipad. There are oils qualities on this calc. First I used free version, but the autobalancing option on pro version is great. Try this, I've found it quite usefull.