The "One Recipe" Theory - Question

[Microchick]

I will give it a try. Read so much of Deanna's stuff on Classic Bells about the chelators so would have to decide whether to go with citric acid and deal with adjusting the lye or go the easier route and just use sodium citrate. Seems cheap enough to just buy sodium citrate and have one less calculation to deal with.

The lye calculator on this site, soapmakingfriend, will do the math for you if you select citric acid as an additive.

 

[violets2217]

whether to go with citric acid and deal with adjusting the lye

Most lye calculators I've used adjust the lye for you when citric acid is added to the ingredients... Classic Bells is bookmarked on all my electronic devices!

 

[Arimara]

The lye calculator on this site, soapmakingfriend, will do the math for you if you select citric acid as an additive.

It didn't always do as good a job with that, however. It's good to know how to do the math to double check, even if you suck at math like some of us do.

 

[MickeyRat]

I'm hobbyist not a pro but, I have settled on a few recipes I use for different purposes. I played a little with exotic oils, goat milk powder, etc. I have to be honest. This is just my opinion but, unless it's a very special purpose soap, I don't feel the slight change you get from the exotic ingredients is worth the cost. I do use some exotic oils in my charcoal face soap but, that's a special purpose soap. If I was selling it, they might make sense from a marketing standpoint. The only ingredients I use in most of my soaps that I can't get at the grocery store are castor oil and soy wax and those are relatively cheap.

I always use a lye calculator on a new recipe no matter how I come up with it. I keep recipes in a spreadsheet with notes about what I'd like to tweak next time till I get them where I want them. Once I get there, that's the recipe I use for soap for that purpose. Any changes to the oil weights or lye (sometimes I use mixture of KOH and NOH) go through a lye calculator.

 

[SudsyAmerican]

Have you tried adding things like sugar, salt or sodium lactate, and citric acid to your soaps? For me, sugar and citric acid were like finding a perfect bar of soap. They just add so much - even my plain 100% Castile soaps are so much better with sugar and citric.

Hi! What do you find the sugar and citric acid doing to the soap? How does it make it feel?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Hi! What do you find the sugar and citric acid doing to the soap? How does it make it feel?

Hi @SudsyAmerican and welcome!

@DeeAnna 's "Soapy Stuff" is an excellent source for answers to queries like that.

Citric Acid and Citric Juice in Soap

You can also use the Search feature located in the upper right corner of this page to learn more.

 

[linne1gi]

Hi! What do you find the sugar and citric acid doing to the soap? How does it make it feel?

Sugar increases the bubbles. Citric acid reacts with the lye to become sodium citrate, which is a chelator. Chelators bind with the metal ions in water which reduces soap scum and helps prevent rancidity of the free oils in the soap (DOS).

 

[SudsyAmerican]

Thank you for explaining!

 

[KudzuGoddess]

Outstanding thread Wendy90292! This has been so interesting to read! I also started with AnnMarie recipes and eventually expanded out based on the things that were important to me. My main recipe is 30% Olive oil, 30% Babassu oil, 30% Shea Butter, and 10% Castor Oil.

Taking the lye calculator discussion a step further, could you all weigh in with your thoughts about the differences between the various calculators? I noticed that the Brambleberry Lye Calculator seems to give a slightly (minuscule but detectable for those with very sensitive skin) higher superfat than soapmakerfriend. Has anyone else noticed this? Are there variations within other soap calculators? I know that what we are talking about here is math and math is constant but I swear there is a difference. Am I crazy? (I am, that's obvious, but you get the idea) What other soap calcs are out there?

 

[earlene]

Outstanding thread Wendy90292! This has been so interesting to read! I also started with AnnMarie recipes and eventually expanded out based on the things that were important to me. My main recipe is 30% Olive oil, 30% Babassu oil, 30% Shea Butter, and 10% Castor Oil.

Taking the lye calculator discussion a step further, could you all weigh in with your thoughts about the differences between the various calculators? I noticed that the Brambleberry Lye Calculator seems to give a slightly (minuscule but detectable for those with very sensitive skin) higher superfat than soapmakerfriend. Has anyone else noticed this? Are there variations within other soap calculators? I know that what we are talking about here is math and math is constant but I swear there is a difference. Am I crazy? (I am, that's obvious, but you get the idea) What other soap calcs are out there?

@KudzuGoddess. it would be best if you start a new thread for this subject, rather than hyjack another member's thread of a different topic. Well worth it's own thread.