White recipe..UPDATE...2 new recipes.....OPINIONS.

[NMAriel]

I found this online and used it as my white soap recipe. What do you guys think. Is there a whiter recipe, or more conditiong white recipe?

Castor 4.5oz , 15%
Coconut oil 12oz 40%
Olive 1.5oz 5%
Palm oil 12 oz 40%
cold water 4oz
lye 4.35oz


It's qualities are: hardness 52, clean 27, conditioning 42, bubbly 41, creamy 39, INS 181.

Thanks.

 

[Lindy]

I have 2 white recipes:

1- 75% EVOO & 25% CO

2 - 60% EVOO, 30% Beef Tallow & 10% CO

#2 gives me the whitest soap and it is super hard. That's the base recipe I used for my Plumeria Delight. Pictures of it are here - http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi...s=0&postorder=asc&highlight=plumeria&start=15

It is the hardest bar I've ever made and I love it.....I'm going to have more tallow recipes in my line-up....

 

[NMAriel]

Thank you Lindy. Those swirl tops are just stunning. what's Plumeria?

 

[surf girl]

Those swirl tops definitely are great.

Plumeria is the yummiest smelling flower ever.

 

[NMAriel]

SG...Thanks.



Why does this THICK TRACE in seconds....I mean SECONDS. What is wrong with this recipe. Recipe below.

Castor 4.5oz , 15%
Coconut oil 12oz 40%
Olive 1.5oz 5%
Palm oil 12 oz 40%
water 4oz
lye 4.35oz

I just made two more logs (it was so fun yesterday). But it thickens so fast that I don't have time to place soap balls or curls ontop of the middle layer and POUR the White soap ontop of it. I literally have to spoon it on and push it down. I hope my curls are enclosed in soap, I'll have to wait and see.

Also, it did a Volcano effect and oozed out of my mold. Why is it doing this, and tracing to fast?

 

[ChrissyB]

I don't think you have enough water in your recipe. You state in your recipe that you have 4.35oz of lye, but only 4oz of water, you should have an equal amount of liquid to your lye AT LEAST, personally I think you should use more. Did you put this recipe through a lye/soap calculator? And if so, what is the percentage of your lye solution?

 

[Deda]

Are you really using only 4 oz. water? If that's not a typo then that's most of your problem.

According to soapcalc you also have a superfat of only 4%.

You might want to fiddle around with the numbers a bit, using the numbers from soapcalc as a guide you would want a less cleansing bar that was much higher on the conditioning. Also, the level of castor might be a tad high, sometimes it imparts a stickiness to the soap.

For a good white bar try Lard, Crisco or my favorite, PKO, Soybean, Almond with 5 - 10% Castor.

 

[Lindy]

Okay - according SoapMaker you have done a 60.7% Water Discount (water should have been 11 oz) and you're Lye Discount is 8.5%.

So what this means to you is that you had about 1/3 of the water you needed - your Lye discount is okay although I would have recommend that your lye be about 4.5 oz - not much difference there.

The problem is really with your amount of water. I would strongly recommend that you throw this one into a stainless steel pot and put in the oven at about 200 F with the additional water and melt it down. It's going to take you a couple of hours but you'll be happier with the result.

 

[NMAriel]

Where can I read about discounts, becuase this is something I don't understand. I put my recipe through MMS-Lye Calculator and find my lye amount. I didn't want alot of liquid, so I reduced it.....to much from what you're saying. SO, where can I learn how much liquid to put in. I don't understand what you're saying when you say water discount. Sorry for being dense.

Lindy, what will happen if I don't redo it in the oven. Will it be ruined. Not useable?

 

[NMAriel]

Deda, using the MMS Lye calculator it shows that % of excess fat is 8%. How did you calculate 4%. Now I'm really confused.

Oh, and thanks for the oil list.

 

[Lindy]

I expect it will zap and be what they used to call lye soap - much too harsh - I could be wrong of course but I doubt that it will be usable - maybe someone else know for sure????

Go to http://www.soapmaker.com and you can download their program for a 30 day trial and it will help you understand your discounts a bit better. I would never recommend anything over a 10% water discount. I bought the pro version of this software and there is a hobbyist version as well - the only difference is the inventory feature.....this program is my bible......

HTH

 

[NMAriel]

Just reread the normal scales on SoapCalc9, and YOU are right it's to cleaning heavy. should be the range of 14-22, and it's 27. GDT.

I don't know why trying to formulate a good white formula (for contrast) is so d...m hard. GM recipes are suspose to be hard, not basic white with water. SIGH!! :cry:

 

[Lindy]

I'm sorry - it'll get better - really -

 

[NMAriel]

I expect it will zap and be what they used to call lye soap - much too harsh - HTH

Is that because of to little water? Because the amount of lye is correct, but the water isn't.....right? I always thought lye heavy was too much lye compared to the amount of oils.

 

[topcat]

Hi there! You are right about the lye being in proportion to the oils, however I think Lindy may have a point. Because the lye mix is so dense/saturated with the lye you may have some areas in the soap which have a higher concentration of lye and they could be zappy, unless the batter has been perfectly blended. To be safe, rebatching may be a great option....and you get to put more yummy stuff in the mix if you want!

Tanya

 

[NMAriel]

Well I'll unmold it tomorrow and see, I'll probably redo it. WHAT AN IDOT I AM! Let's see what they look like, and taste like tomorrow.

By the way I tasted the ones I cut today that has alittle of the white soap on top. It tasted salty, but not electric shock. What do you mean by ZAP? What's it like, so I'll know.

Well looking on the brighter side, if I have to redo it then it'll give me more practice at rebatching, layering, swirling, curls & balls embedded, and using my new TOG mold.

 

[carebear]

Zap is - tingly. You would know it if you felt it.

Your lye amount seems find so I don't anticipate a problem from that as long as you were able to get it all mixed well before it thickened up.

Forget the "lye discount" thing. You need to know what lye CONCENTRATION you are working with.

Discount is a meaningless term unless everyone knows what your starting point is - what you are discounting OFF of. And I certainly don't. Even if I used SoapMaker (I do, it's on the other computer tho) the term is basically useless.

You used almost a 50% lye solution which is WAY strong and challenging for even seasoned soapers to work with. I'd recommend you work with a 27% (quite dilute, easy, slow) to 33% concentration.

 

[Deda]

According to soapcalc you also have a superfat of only 4%.

My mistake, I misread your amount of lye in your recipe as 4.5 oz. That would have been a 4% superfat. With the 4.35 oz it is 7% (soapcalc)

your Lye discount is okay although I would have recommend that your lye be about 4.5 oz - not much difference there.

Where do you get this number? It's a big difference - 4.5 oz of lye would yield a superfat of 4% - what I mistakenly thought she had added. Just that tiny little bit of lye can through off the whole batch and make dangerously lye heavy soap.

 

[MikeInPdx]

According to soapcalc you also have a superfat of only 4%.

My mistake, I misread your amount of lye in your recipe as 4.5 oz. That would have been a 4% superfat. With the 4.35 oz it is 7% (soapcalc)

your Lye discount is okay although I would have recommend that your lye be about 4.5 oz - not much difference there.

Where do you get this number? It's a big difference - 4.5 oz of lye would yield a superfat of 4% - what I mistakenly thought she had added. Just that tiny little bit of lye can through off the whole batch and make dangerously lye heavy soap.

This is why I weigh in grams, round my oils up to the next gram, and my lye down. Less risk that way.

 

[Deda]

This is why I weigh in grams, round my oils up to the next gram, and my lye down. Less risk that way.

Me too, no other safe way to do it, IMHO.