Why the discrepancy BB:Soapcalc?

[Mommy]

So I'm working on a small (under 3lb) recipe, and I'm using Salty Mariner FO.
SoapCalc tells me I need 1 oz. Brambleberry tells me I need 1.91 oz. :eh:
Is there a scientific reason for that major discrepancy?

Do you go by SoapCalc for your FO measurements or do you check with your supplier's website? Wouldn't that big a difference affect the overall recipe?

 

[Obsidian]

I generally use .50 oz PPO unless its a very light scent. I've never really even looked at amounts on soapcalc. salty mariner accelerates so be prepared to move quickly and soap cool.

 

[Mommy]

.5 ppo sounds more like what BB is calculating. Thank for the Salty Mariner advice- what do you suggest if it's HP (not cool)?

 

[JBot]

If you're doing HP, and you're adding the FO after the cook (zap-test it!), then things like acceleration, ricing, separating, etc. are non-issues, since there's no longer any active lye to react with the fragrance.

 

[Seawolfe]

HP needs a lot less FO or EO, I usually use half of what I would use in CP - and I put it in after the cook on the cool down before it goes in the mold.

 

[JBot]

HP needs a lot less FO or EO, I usually use half of what I would use in CP - and I put it in after the cook on the cool down before it goes in the mold.

Yes! This is extremely important. The BB fragrance calculator only calculates for CP, not HP. For their fragrances, in HP I typically use about 1 gram of FO per ounce of soap batter.

I've never used soapcalc's fragrance recommendations. There's enough variation among FOs that it makes no sense to me to use a generic calculation.

 

[not_ally]

I only do CP and use the Sage and Soapcalc calculators. That is a huge difference, though, kind of alarming.

Ok, just reread the post, I guess it is b/c of doing HP rather than CP? When I have checked the sage and soapcalc lye totals they are usually pretty close, I guess I have just followed mftr recommendations for FO's and not thought of that so much.

 

[IrishLass]

I've never used soapcalc's fragrance recommendations. There's enough variation among FOs that it makes no sense to me to use a generic calculation.

Ditto^^^. If a supplier has a recommended usage rate for a particular FO, I go with what they recommend and plug that amount into SoapCalc, instead of using the calculator's default. If the supplier does not list a recommended usage rate for my FO, then I read reviews of others who have used the same FO and see what they used, and then I start out on the conservative end of that.


IrishLass

 

[Mommy]

Thank you so much for all your replies and help! I actually never set the BB or Soapcalc to 'hot process'- they were both assuming I was calculating a cold process recipe. I don't normally come across an HP calculator- but lowering the water ratio and upping the superfat a bit on the CP calculations was a suggestion I got once from one of the boards here.

In the end, I soaped in CP, and since it was a seascape soap, I added the FO into each separate pouring container just before the pour- I didn't experience any acceleration that way.

 

[not_ally]

Mommy, haven't done HP yet so my advice is probably useless here. But I will say that water scents (which I really like) seize like the dickens in CP. I guess, from reading posts, that you HP'ers maybe need less of them, so it is maybe not so bad in that medium. I might still go to the low end rather than the high one and edge upward rather than have a seized batched (I am too lazy to rebatch, and it is trickier w/a small batch) so it is a total loss when that happens for me, hate it.

 

[Seawolfe]

One way to get the BB fragrance calculator to a good range for HP soap would be to tell it you are making melt and pour soap. Both HP and M&P are already saponified when you add the EO or FO. Soap Calc only calculates based on the amount of fragrance you want per lb, so you need to input that if you don't want the default 0.5 oz per lb or whatever it is.

 

[JBot]

One way to get the BB fragrance calculator to a good range for HP soap would be to tell it you are making melt and pour soap. Both HP and M&P are already saponified when you add the EO or FO.

That's a good idea, and probably a good starting point for HP, but I'm not sure that HP and MP being fully saponified when the FO is added is the only factor in determining FO amounts. I think you also have to consider how much additional fluid the medium can "take." HP and CP can absorb a lot more liquid than MP, which is probably why the upper limit for MP is rather low. Any more fluid added, and MP starts to break down.

I wonder if pH is a factor, too? I've thought about testing FOs using MP, which is way more convenient to quickly prep, but I've noticed that most FOs develop a bit more in HP/CP, where in MP they seem to stay pretty much the way they smelled out of the bottle.

 

[Cactuslily]

Has anyone used soapcalc 3?