Why is the Soapcalc giving this reading??

[Paula]

I made a wonderful bar of soap that is super hard and has a TON of lather. What I don't understand is why the Soapcalc gives a reading of low lather.

This is the reading it gives:

Hardness:35
Cleansing:11
Condition:62
Bubbly:11
Creamy:24

I don't understand why the bubbly part is only 11 because it lathers like crazy to me. Also, is the cleansing number ok? I read it should be at least 14 to 22. I even made the another recipe, and I love that one as well. Here is the Soapcalc reading for the second recipe:

Hardness:39
Cleansing:20
Condition:57
Bubbly:20
Creamy:19

A very nice, very hard bar, and the soapcalc gives a reading of it being even harder than the first one, and to me the first one is even a bit harder. I had a harder time cutting the first one into bars than I did the second one because it was so hard So do you know why or have any idea why the readings are like they are on the Soapcalc? Thank-you for any info you can give me. TIA!

Sincerely,
Paula

 

[Guest]

Can you please let us know what you used and the exact amounts you used?

 

[Paula]

Here is the recipe of the first one:

16 oz. palm oil
14 oz. coconut oil
52 oz. olive oil
6 ounces cocoa butter
32 oz. cold water
12 oz. lye crystals

Add at trace:

1 ounce Bitter Almond fragrance oil2-3 T. cocoa powder blended into about 1/4 of the soap at trace (after pouring 3/4 of it into mold)
Temperature: 95-100 degrees


And here is my second recipe:

12 ounces coconut oil
12 ounces olive oil
9 ounces canola oil
8 ounces palm oil
13 ounces cold water
5.85 ounces lye crystals

At trace I added 1 oz Rosemary Mint FO


Temps 100-120 degrees

 

[FSowers]

Olive Oil is consider to be a hard oil. That's why your first bar came out harder, but it doesn't show on soap calc for some reason.

 

[Guest]

ok to start off I would like to say that what one person considers a lot of lather might not be so much to another person. The reason why I say this is because when I thought my 'recipes' were pretty darn good and they cleaned well and had awesome lather, I realized how to use the soap cal to my advantage. And now that I've learned to tweak my numbers I now know what really good lather is like. So that may have something to do with it.


In the first recipe I agree with FS, olive oil is considered a secondary oil, HOWEVER it is also considered a base oil because it can and does get hard. Having said that you look at the other two oils in your recipe and both are also oils that make a hard bar. So that is where your hard bar is coming from. The lather issue, not sure unless it's considered more of an opinion as I stated above.



In the second recipe, you have to remember that 80% of your recipe are hard oils. So that is where your hardness is coming from. And yes it may indeed be harder because of the high amount of coconut oil and palm oil in comparison to the olive oil.

While olive oil does give you a harder bar of soap than just soybean oil, palm oil and coconut oil will give you a rock hard bar. If you used higher % of coconut oil to make a bar of soap if you didn't cut it early (very early) on you wouldn't be able to cut it because it gets that hard.


So i hope that helps you understand a little bit about why you ended up with a hard bar of soap with the oils you used. And what one person considers a lot of lather might not be so much to another person.

 

[Guest]

That's a lot of cocoa butter too in the first recipe - which will harden your soap in smaller amounts.

You're right though - even by soap calc standards the first soap should show as a harder bar as soapcalc has always underestimated the hardness of Olive. Maybe that has changed recently but I don't think so.

I have noticed that if I change/tweak a recipe too much within soapcalc without refreshing the browser that soap calc can get wonky. If I refresh my browser and start out clean - I get different results. Especially when using ounces instead of percentages. The only reason I noticed it was because I was getting DRASTICALLY different numbers for a recipe I had used before. When in doubt - refresh your browser. and remember that soap calc is just a guide and not the end all and be all of soap properties.

Faithy is right about lather. Not only do people have different ideas as to what great lather is but people can have varying results with the same bar of soap. Hard water vs soft. Greasy oily skin vs dry. Ph levels would probably effect it too.

 

[Paula]

ok to start off I would like to say that what one person considers a lot of lather might not be so much to another person. The reason why I say this is because when I thought my 'recipes' were pretty darn good and they cleaned well and had awesome lather, I realized how to use the soap cal to my advantage. And now that I've learned to tweak my numbers I now know what really good lather is like. So that may have something to do with it.


In the first recipe I agree with FS, olive oil is considered a secondary oil, HOWEVER it is also considered a base oil because it can and does get hard. Having said that you look at the other two oils in your recipe and both are also oils that make a hard bar. So that is where your hard bar is coming from. The lather issue, not sure unless it's considered more of an opinion as I stated above.



In the second recipe, you have to remember that 80% of your recipe are hard oils. So that is where your hardness is coming from. And yes it may indeed be harder because of the high amount of coconut oil and palm oil in comparison to the olive oil.

While olive oil does give you a harder bar of soap than just soybean oil, palm oil and coconut oil will give you a rock hard bar. If you used higher % of coconut oil to make a bar of soap if you didn't cut it early (very early) on you wouldn't be able to cut it because it gets that hard.


So i hope that helps you understand a little bit about why you ended up with a hard bar of soap with the oils you used. And what one person considers a lot of lather might not be so much to another person.

What I don't get though is why the first recipe I posted is harder than the second. It was extremely hard from the get go!~ Also, what about the cleansing part? Is this bar not going to clean me?...lol...