The Soaping Has Begun!

[Kathymzr]

I made three sets of soap, all doing well, for beginning. Like the first one I stirred to long and had to work like the devil to push the soap into the mold. That was ok, but forgot to bang it on the counter so there are lava tube like cavities. Oh and I forgot to add sugar and sodium lactate. But never mind for now. Just having a recipe work seems like a good starting point. The Ocean Breeze fragrance has already faded. Colors became much lighter.

The second batch went well too. I stirred less so got a better batter pour, managed a couple of nice colors, but, OOPS! forgot the fragrance! I managed to remember sugar and sodium lactate. But the soap is wonderful, even if not fully cured. Both batch results just need to be complete prettied up. Colors lightened but look nice.

I knew I would be coming back to Pasadena (to babysit the parrots), while my kids go on vacation. So I wrapped them up and brought them here to cure! No problems with that for the first two batches.

Now the first two batches did not use caster oil or olive oil. Worked great. I made intense color to see how far it would go bright, which happened to turn out like an ugly Christmas sweater. I remembered to put in everything, fragrance was plumeria strong. That hasn't faded! Since it was 24 Oz Batch, I added 1.5 tsp sugar and 1.5 tsp sodium lactate.

So I made the third batch with this recipe:
25% Coconut oil
20% Peach oil
3% Caster oil
20% Olive oil
10% Cocoa Butter, deodorized
10% Mac Nut oil
10% Borage
5% Kokum Butter

SF=5%
Oil:Lye 33%
FO=.75 oz.
Water=6.57 oz
Lye=2.84 oz

Lye Calculator SoapCalc numbers are:
Hardness - 42
Cleansing - 20
Conditioning - 49
Bubbly - 23
Creamy - 25
Iodine - 58
INS- 155

I am hoping the forum will critique this recipe. The soap has cured for a few days in our dry California air. and it is a little harder but it has a lot of glycerine on the outside, not rivers, just an overall clear oiliness, which I assume (?) is glycerine. The forum has been a lifesaver so far, but I humbly ask for HELP!!
Kathy from Hawaii

 

[earlene]

Your percentages don't add up. You have 103% oils. And I don't get those lye amounts at all, no matter how I plug those number into a lye calculator. What lye calculator are you using? I suspect a transcription error or I'm just really having serious trouble figuring this out.

I have never seen wateril ratio, do you mean lye concentration? If so, that is the amount of lye in concentration with water, not with oil. But it looks more like 2.3:1 water to lye ration or approximately 30% lye concentration when I use the lye and water amounts you listed. Even then it would actually be higher water if you count the water in sodium lactate. I don't know how much 1.5 teaspoons of SL weighs, but since it is a liquid, some of it is water. So I think your water to lye ratio is higher (on the water side), but even so, the amount of lye for those oils in that amount, it also looks to me like you have a much higher SF than you planned.

Your superfat looks more like 20% than 5%, except I can't really be sure of that since your oils add up to 103% not 100%.

I think what's on top of your soap is more likely oil than it is glycerine.

BTW, I find that plumeria FO accelerates trace in my soap. Did you experience fast trace? And you don't mention what percentage of FO you used. If it was 3% I don't think it would seep out, but if it was say, 6% it could. I've had some FO's seep when in higher amounts. Not all do, but some do more readily than others. And since you say the fragrance is so super strong, I'm wondering if you used a higher percentage.

Regarding your oils:

I am not sure about Peach Oil. I've never even seen it, let alone used it. I do love peaches, though. Borage oil is better left for leave on products. Price-wise, I expect that's a rather expensive soap with those exotic oils (borage, peach, macadamia nut, kokum butter), which is fine if you love the soap and can afford the oils. For me, I do consider if I love it, I am willing to pay for it, up to a point, of course. Actually, I have only used kokum butter once and only because I got is as a free sample. I didn't notice it did anything special and kind of wish I had used it in a leave-on product.

I looked up peach kernal oil. It seems it would also be great for leave-on products because it absorbs so quickly and has those skin-loving vitamins, which won't really survive the lye solution.

 

[Kathymzr]

Oh thank you for taking the time with this. I expect you are right on all counts. The second soap had peach Kernal oil and worked fine. I have splurged on some oils to try, not that I will buy them all again. I think it’s likely that I simply made mistakes on the third soap in calculating and/or measuring. Especially since the

Oh thank you for taking the time with this. I expect you are right on all counts. The second soap had peach Kernal oil and worked fine. I have splurged on some oils to try, not that I will buy them all again. I think it’s likely that I simply made mistakes on the third soap in calculating and/or measuring. Especially since the

Somehow the rest of the reply got lost. Anyway, I just made mistakes with the 3rd batch.
I am making small batches so as not to be undone by screwing up! I use a quart milk carton for a mold. I like the size. That works fine.
I’m only intending to make a nice little luxury soap for my family and friends. So I don’t mind spending more than if I were in business. I like making about 6 bars a batch so that I can try different recipes, and generate lots of feedback on the variety till I discover the winners. We’ll just forget the third batch, as if it never happened!! Thanks again!

 

[earlene]

Don't worry. I've made some blunders transcribing. I created a soap my black smith brother loves and swears by. It took a few trials & tests to come up with the perfect for him formula and percentages of additives to get blacksmith stains off his hands. Once we got that recipe down pat, I decided to make a huge batch. That's when I made a huge transcription error (not lye, not water, not oils - no one of the important additives that helps get blacksmith stains off his hands). So the soap was fine as soap, but it just didn't do the job. It was a decimal point in the wrong place that was the issue, to the tune of 1o to 1 or something like that. A huge error.

He never told me because he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but when someone here mentioned it, I went back to my original recipe and realized my error. Then I told my brother about the error and he told me that it was not getting the stains off the way the previous soap had.

Errors like that do happen. So I now avoid huge batches. I'd rather have a small fail instead of a huge fail.

 

[Kathymzr]

Thanks Earlene! After my last post I started thinking about it, and I guess I am interested in learning to make natural lotions. It's dry here in California and humid in Hawaii--soap needs are really different. Lotions would be a good go-to for going back and forth. I will do some more reading. I really like the milk quart size, exactly 24 oz, and want to look around for a wood mold about that with silicone liner. Bigger quantities are just unwieldy. Maybe I'll even get some successful soap made in time for the holidays!