What Numbers Do you Follow in your Recipe Calculation

[LBussy]

Yes i keep my hardness up high too it a OCD of mine the hardness number has to be high. I fine my self including 1 percent stearic in all my recipes. just started using SL too


How high do you go i have gone to 49 then get nervous of brittle soap

For grins I looked at the reported hardness of my shaving soap - 78. :shock:

It's with 100% KOH though. No wonder it makes a nice puck too.

 

[MorpheusPA]

Yes i keep my hardness up high too it a OCD of mine the hardness number has to be high. I fine my self including 1 percent stearic in all my recipes. just started using SL too


How high do you go i have gone to 49 then get nervous of brittle soap

Last night's soap--one my mother likes that I'll give her for her birthday--was a piddling 39 on the hardness scale and 11 on cleansing.

I've actually gone to around 70 on hardness. At that point, you could pound nails with the stuff, but it still isn't brittle. Although the last little shards of the soap in the shower do break apart, it's when they're so small that you don't really see that as a problem.

For myself, I tend to hit in the 40-60 range on hardness. I do like a solid soap. Cleansing is in the 10-15 range when up that high, however, as otherwise the soap would have very poor lather.

 

[IrishLass]

For me, much depends on the particular fatty acids in my formula and my S/F level. I've found that although SoapCalc's predictive 'quality' numbers are great to work off of as plumb lines, they can only take you so far. If relied upon as the 'be-all/end-all' they can deceive you and lure you into an unnecessary box from which you are afraid to ever leave.

For what it's worth, I have 2 favorite 'main' formulas that I make most out of all my formulas (one tallow/lard based, and one veggie-based), and their numbers aren't very much like each other, but they are still both awesome soaps to me nevertheless (I use and love them both). One has a hardness of 45 and the other has a hardness of 38. One has a cleansing of 21, the other's is 19. One has a conditioning of 51, the other's is 59. One has a bubbly lather of 32, the other's is 28. One has a creamy lather of 34, the other's is 28. One is superfatted @ 8%, the other @ 5%.

In real life (as opposed to being a theoretical formula on paper), both make hard, non-drying bars to me and my family with a good balance of lovely bubbly/creamy lather. There was a time when seeing a cleansing number of 21 on SoapCalc would freak me out, but with the right mix of oils/fats that are able to take to a higher superfat without causing problems, the seemingly impossible becomes quite do-able.


IrishLass