When you first started soaping......

[Navaria]

So wait, she wants to formulate a recipe that basically rips off the consumer?? That would tick me off too! Oh well, let her do it! Her customers know how long the soap should last. When it starts dissolving in a week they'll stop buying. But they already know it shouldn't do that, so they'll find another (honest) crafter!

 

[LisaAnne]

How this all started was early i learned 7 to 8 superfat.
It has always bugged me that for bubbles I will strip the natural oils off my body and replace them with other oils.
I've made lots of soap, I've read I've listened and I think now what I am going for is leaving as much of my oils as possible. Basically I feel I have tried it all and now I am going for my goal. I was simply asking if anyone drops much under 10 on cleansing. In fact since I posted that I've dropped cleansing further. Was really just asking if any others have that preference.

 

[KristaY]

How this all started was early i learned 7 to 8 superfat.
It has always bugged me that for bubbles I will strip the natural oils off my body and replace them with other oils.
I've made lots of soap, I've read I've listened and I think now what I am going for is leaving as much of my oils as possible. Basically I feel I have tried it all and now I am going for my goal. I was simply asking if anyone drops much under 10 on cleansing. In fact since I posted that I've dropped cleansing further. Was really just asking if any others have that preference.

My normal cleansing numbers are 12-15 depending on my CO% and I normally SF at 3%. But my bastile has a cleansing # of zero (and conditioning at 82) and I SF that at 4%. I really like experimenting with SF.

Also, DeeAnna has commented many times on how our SF is actually higher than we think it is (I believe she said by a couple %) based on the actual purity of our lye and what the soap calcs assume our purity is. I thought I saved the info in a doc but I can't find it right now. Hopefully she'll come along and give more insight into the slippery area of SF.

 

[Beans]

But my bastile has a cleansing # of zero (and conditioning at 82) and I SF that at 4%.

Nice to know, I have been wanting to make a Avocado Oil only soap and I was wondering about the zero cleansing.

 

[KristaY]

Nice to know, I have been wanting to make a Avocado Oil only soap and I was wondering about the zero cleansing.

That's a bit misleading when looking at soap calc. Zero cleansing doesn't mean it won't get you clean. Look at castile for example. Based only on the numbers it looks like it shouldn't even be soap but it certainly is!

Many people have been doing single oil experiments here and around the web but there's nothing like seeing, feeling, doing it all for yourself!

 

[penelopejane]

Nice to know, I have been wanting to make a Avocado Oil only soap and I was wondering about the zero cleansing.

It is the olive oil in Bastille that throws the numbers for soap calc out. All my soaps have high OO so the soap calc numbers are pretty useless for my recipes. It takes time for OO to produce a CP soap with great numbers.

 

[LisaAnne]

Thanks KristaY, yeah, I'm going in a different direction for a while. Not much out there about what I have in mind but it should be fun trying to prove it can be done.

 

[Beans]

It is the olive oil in Bastille that throws the numbers for soap calc out. All my soaps have high OO so the soap calc numbers are pretty useless for my recipes. It takes time for OO to produce a CP soap with great numbers.

My sisters favorite soap is an Avocado Oil only soap from Bellavado an olive oil producer in So Cal. I'll give it a go an post my results.

 

[galaxyMLP]

How this all started was early i learned 7 to 8 superfat.
It has always bugged me that for bubbles I will strip the natural oils off my body and replace them with other oils.
I've made lots of soap, I've read I've listened and I think now what I am going for is leaving as much of my oils as possible. Basically I feel I have tried it all and now I am going for my goal. I was simply asking if anyone drops much under 10 on cleansing. In fact since I posted that I've dropped cleansing further. Was really just asking if any others have that preference.

I make a soap with a 5% CO as my typical soap. I also have a soap with no coconut/cleansing oils that is not a Bastille/Castile. My limit for coconut/high cleansing oils is 8% for higher stearic (Palm, lard tallow) recipes or 15% for all liquid oil soaps. Otherwise my skin goes itchy and flaky. I've established this from trying other people's soaps SF at different levels as well as my own.

My soap with 5% coconut has 5% SF. I don't typically play with SF except when I'm doing particularly high coconut levels (like my 80% CO salt bar). My Castile has 5% SF as well.

 

[LisaAnne]

I make a soap with a 5% CO as my typical soap. I also have a soap with no coconut/cleansing oils that is not a Bastille/Castile. My limit for coconut/high cleansing oils is 8% for higher stearic (Palm, lard tallow) recipes or 15% for all liquid oil soaps. Otherwise my skin goes itchy and flaky. I've established this from trying other people's soaps SF at different levels as well as my own.

My soap with 5% coconut has 5% SF. I don't typically play with SF except when I'm doing particularly high coconut levels (like my 80% CO salt bar). My Castile has 5% SF as well.

Thank Galaxy, I appreciate it!

 

[Steve85569]

Cleansing # from 0 to 12. Been doing a lot of 6 to 9's lately. I do still add sugar and others to help with lather, hardness and long lasting soaps. Cure time has also been extended from the 4 to 6 weeks to 2 months plus.

I have come to feel that the cleansing number is just a guide to help me not make a soap that could double as a paint remover. I do have some CO soap that I use when I have been playing in the grease pit, but that also doubles as a sink cleaner and whitener. Not good on the hide but it do remove grease.

 

[SuzieOz]

I used full water for all of my batches until I'd been soaping for quite a while. ..... Now I only use full water in a few select recipes.

Could someone please just clarify for me what % of water is considered "full water"?

Also - is 40% soft oils considered high?

(Just trying to trouble-shoot some soap issues I'm having)

Thanks in advance

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

The soapcalc default - 38% of oil weight, if I recall

 

[rainycityjen]

Some habits I've ditched that haven't been mentioned yet:

**Using ice baths to cool lyewater. My plastic bowl likes to float and skid. Now I take a recess or put it on the porch if I have to. Or just soap at 120 instead of 85 like I used to.

**Tweaking an oil percentage less than 5% and thinking I'm making a difference.

**Using TD except when really needed. Raw batter color is fine by me.

**Making a mise en place with bowls for every little thing so I felt like Rachael Ray or something. Nope, now it all goes direct into the pot ... tare and weigh and tare and weigh.

**Feeling guilt for not having pour funnel pitchers, milk frothers, swizzle sticks, or whatever else I see on YouTube. I have definitely used some very strange implements. Improv!

 

[Susie]

Yes except it is way easier to learn a few lessons by others mistakes rather than try and reinvent the wheel every single time.

The biggest problem is everyone's skin is different. And everyone's sense of smell is different too.

Of course you need to learn from everyone's mistakes that you can. I never said differently.

But no matter how many mistakes you avoid making, you must make lots of soap to learn your skin preferences as well as whomever you make soap for. That takes lots of trial and error. My perfect soap parameters are not necessarily your perfect soap parameters.

It also takes lots of trial and error to learn what each oil brings to soap, and in what percentages. That experience is invaluable in being able to read a recipe and know how it is going to feel on your skin, and how it is going to lather in your water. Nothing but personal experience can teach you that.

 

[penelopejane]

But no matter how many mistakes you avoid making, you must make lots of soap to learn your skin preferences as well as whomever you make soap for.

I totally agree with this.

I must be one of the few on this forum who still soap the way I learnt.
I measure everything accurately. I use a thermometer on my lye water and to test the oven before I put my soap in the oven. I print out a recipe everytime and I write everything down.

I started out not want to use as many "natural" ingredients as I could and I still try and do that. I have learnt so much from everyone on this forum and am grateful to all the gurus who are so generous with their time. I hope to keep learning and perfecting (I have a very long way to get to that point!) the craft.

 

[Susie]

I still did everything I started doing for a long time. I only stopped printing my recipes each time this last couple of months. I would still print a "new" recipe so that I have somewhere to write notes on. I still measure everything separately so that I can re-do the recipe on the lye calculator if I run out of something. I change to CP or CPOP for what I need for that particular batch. There are steps that I take that are necessary, and I keep those. The steps that I took that were unnecessary (temperature does not matter if you are not doing swirls), that I have eliminated.

The best thing about this thread, IMHO, is that we can share with others what we found unnecessary. That does not mean that you find it unnecessary, because what is right for me, who does no swirls, is not right for anyone who wants to swirl their soap.

 

[penelopejane]

I still did everything I started doing for a long time. The steps that I took that were unnecessary (temperature does not matter if you are not doing swirls), that I have eliminated.

The best thing about this thread, IMHO, is that we can share with others what we found unnecessary. That does not mean that you find it unnecessary, because what is right for me, who does no swirls, is not right for anyone who wants to swirl their soap.

Temperature also matters if you have hard oils and butters if you want to prevent those spots that sometimes occur. Having worked out what works for me, I am probably still at the stage of not being experienced enough to identify which of those steps are unnecessary for me. I am too scared to drop any step that might lead to yet another candidate for confetti soap! :mrgreen:

 

[Dana89]

These are good things to know, I'm not selling, I'm just making soap but I really hate running for goatsmilk, coconut milk and I like the cream in my coffee. In fact my high lard soap was very basic, water four oils and I'm loving it. A year ago the list of junk I was putting in my soap is now almost embarrassing. It is much more fun soaping basic. I'm going to quit using milk and see how it goes.
Thanks

DITTO! My god I had this huge thing of silk fibers that I would add to my lye water. I never noticed a difference, I used to have to have Silk, Kaolin clay, many colors, sugar.
I had so many additives that I didn't know which one did what and the soap wasnt much better than a basic CP bar.
Now Don,t get me wrong. I love to try new things.
My advice for beginners is to first play with the oils and find a good basic recipe or two that you love and then try one additive at a time to see if it makes a difference that you like.

I still consider myself a beginner with only 3 years under my belt and I have countless things to learn and ingredients to experiment with. That is the fun of soaping. There will always be things to learn.

 

[Susie]

Temperature also matters if you have hard oils and butters if you want to prevent those spots that sometimes occur. Having worked out what works for me, I am probably still at the stage of not being experienced enough to identify which of those steps are unnecessary for me. I am too scared to drop any step that might lead to yet another candidate for confetti soap! :mrgreen:

I soap hot, which is why I don't pay attention to temperature. Mix the lye with the water, and just as soon as it is all mixed, dump it into the oils. Let the heat melt the hard oils if the house is warm enough. If it isn't, melt the oils first.

You WILL figure out what is unnecessary, you just need enough batches under your belt. I also went through this huge, "What can I do without, and still have good soap?" stage. It helped me pare down my ingredient list and my processes.