Hi Everyone,
I’m new here but not new to soap-making. As a hobby, I’ve been making cold-process soaps for a little over a decade. Still,
lots to learn which makes it all fun. The pressure of work made me drop most hobbies but not any more.
I recently retired and can do fun stuff again.
My work compelled me to spend a lot of time working in Excel, so, I thought this would be a useful tool to help with my hobby. As someone who hates reinventing the wheel, I looked to see what tools were already available. There were a few useful ones out there but nothing that would do all the things I wanted. So, I bit the bullet and decided to build one myself.
Having built it and tested it, I now wonder if anyone else would be interested in using it. As a hobbyist, I can’t justify the costs of commercial software. I’m sure there are others in the same boat. I’m offering this for free (without any liability etc.) It’s just a tool for designing soap recipes and seeing what they would cost. You should, of course, always double-check your oil/lye ratios in another tool like the redoubtable SoapCalc (SoapCalc). I certainly do.
Anyway, I’m not claiming that this is better than any other tool available free. It just suits my needs well - and may work for you too. I welcome any feedback but don’t promise to do anything about it. Life can be uncertain and I don’t intend to spend my dotage looking at a screen when there’s fun stuff I could be doing.
Hopefully, the spreadsheet should be self-explanatory. There are some macros included so you’ll get a warning of that (and an option to disable them) on opening the spreadsheet. It will work fine without them. Of course, the buttons on various screens won’t do anything without macros enabled but they’re there just to cater for my laziness anyway. it’s up to you.
Nothing is password protected so you can make any changes you want. I’ve left some Oils, Lye, Fragrances and Colours listed on their respective sheets so you can see how the whole thing works. You’ll need to change that information to make it accurate for you. Of course, if you're not interested in the pricing functions you can ignore that step. The 'Design Sheet' will still indicate the soap properties.
The ‘Design Sheet’ tab allows you to list different oils for a recipe and the charts will show you the characteristics of the resulting soap. There are 2 charts but they show the same information, just in different formats. Once you have a recipe that you like the look of (if you have macros enabled) hit the blue button to transfer the oils and percentages to the ‘Recipe’ sheet. The same blue button is available on the 'Recipe' sheet itself. You can also copy and paste them if you don’t use the macro-button.
In general, you can type/select information in the ‘pinkish’ cells. The other cells are mostly calculated so it’s best not to type in them. leaving the sheets ‘protected’ is the safest way not to overtype a formula. You’ll need to enter the Container volume in ml, your desired water as a % of oils (I usually use 31%), your preferred Superfat % and how many bars you’ll cut your batch into. All this is in the top left of the ‘Recipe’ tab.
OK, I think that’s enough info and it’s probably not as clear as I’d hoped it would be until you have a look at the Spreadsheet. If you find time to try this I’d be genuinely interested in feedback. As I say, I wouldn’t always be able to act on it but perhaps I’ll find time between batches.
Happy soaping,
Cheers, Grant.
PS. I’ve removed this file. The latest version is available in this later post.
I’m new here but not new to soap-making. As a hobby, I’ve been making cold-process soaps for a little over a decade. Still,
lots to learn which makes it all fun. The pressure of work made me drop most hobbies but not any more.I recently retired and can do fun stuff again.
My work compelled me to spend a lot of time working in Excel, so, I thought this would be a useful tool to help with my hobby. As someone who hates reinventing the wheel, I looked to see what tools were already available. There were a few useful ones out there but nothing that would do all the things I wanted. So, I bit the bullet and decided to build one myself.
Having built it and tested it, I now wonder if anyone else would be interested in using it. As a hobbyist, I can’t justify the costs of commercial software. I’m sure there are others in the same boat. I’m offering this for free (without any liability etc.) It’s just a tool for designing soap recipes and seeing what they would cost. You should, of course, always double-check your oil/lye ratios in another tool like the redoubtable SoapCalc (SoapCalc). I certainly do.
Anyway, I’m not claiming that this is better than any other tool available free. It just suits my needs well - and may work for you too. I welcome any feedback but don’t promise to do anything about it. Life can be uncertain and I don’t intend to spend my dotage looking at a screen when there’s fun stuff I could be doing.
Hopefully, the spreadsheet should be self-explanatory. There are some macros included so you’ll get a warning of that (and an option to disable them) on opening the spreadsheet. It will work fine without them. Of course, the buttons on various screens won’t do anything without macros enabled but they’re there just to cater for my laziness anyway. it’s up to you.
Nothing is password protected so you can make any changes you want. I’ve left some Oils, Lye, Fragrances and Colours listed on their respective sheets so you can see how the whole thing works. You’ll need to change that information to make it accurate for you. Of course, if you're not interested in the pricing functions you can ignore that step. The 'Design Sheet' will still indicate the soap properties.
The ‘Design Sheet’ tab allows you to list different oils for a recipe and the charts will show you the characteristics of the resulting soap. There are 2 charts but they show the same information, just in different formats. Once you have a recipe that you like the look of (if you have macros enabled) hit the blue button to transfer the oils and percentages to the ‘Recipe’ sheet. The same blue button is available on the 'Recipe' sheet itself. You can also copy and paste them if you don’t use the macro-button.
In general, you can type/select information in the ‘pinkish’ cells. The other cells are mostly calculated so it’s best not to type in them. leaving the sheets ‘protected’ is the safest way not to overtype a formula. You’ll need to enter the Container volume in ml, your desired water as a % of oils (I usually use 31%), your preferred Superfat % and how many bars you’ll cut your batch into. All this is in the top left of the ‘Recipe’ tab.
OK, I think that’s enough info and it’s probably not as clear as I’d hoped it would be until you have a look at the Spreadsheet. If you find time to try this I’d be genuinely interested in feedback. As I say, I wouldn’t always be able to act on it but perhaps I’ll find time between batches.
Happy soaping,
Cheers, Grant.
PS. I’ve removed this file. The latest version is available in this later post.
Attachments
Last edited:
