What is the purpose for adding wax cold process soap ? How would incorporate it and how is it calculated in the recipe? I am new soapy, ready to explore !
Hey, no worries! I was a beginner myself not long ago, I know how confusing it may be.I am trying to understand so please forgive my inexperienced wording . So if I used BW as an additive I would not put it in soap Calc? I would just melt it with my oils. And mix lye and oil at higher temp?
I must respectfully disagree with advice to list beeswax as an additive, rather than an oil. Especially for beginners, it is best to list anything with a SAP value (beeswax, pine tar, etc.) in the oils list. While it is true that nothing terrible is likely to happen, small inconsistencies like this can add up and can result in a much different soap than planned.Or, you can use it from the additives list (so that way it will only add to the total weight of the batch and nothing else) and completely ignore its SAP value - and it will be completely fine.
That's something that can be polished as a person gains more experience. For my first recipe with milk I even counted the fat content within it as part of the total oil weight - ever since I haven't bothered to do that, I just keep my SF low. Same with beeswax. To each their own.I must respectfully disagree with advice to list beeswax as an additive, rather than an oil. Especially for beginners, it is best to list anything with a SAP value (beeswax, pine tar, etc.) in the oils list. While it is true that nothing terrible is likely to happen, small inconsistencies like this can add up and can result in a much different soap than planned.
For instance, if one added 2% beeswax to firm up a 20% pine tar soap (somewhat common), and then used a little extra oil (not from the batch oils) to disperse colorants (also somewhat common), now you have three factors increasing the superfat of the soap and dampening the lather.
These are the types of compound mistakes that end up as a post here on SMF, asking, "What happened to my soap?"
I'm sure someone else said that first - but no-one has come forward so I'll own it.We can agree to disagree.
My philosophy of teaching new soapers is to do things "by the book" until there is enough understanding about the why behind the generally accepted "rules" - using that term loosely given how many versions of soaping "rules" are out there.
Once the soaper has good basic soaping skills, and an understanding of the science behind the rules, then s/he can usually determine whether deviating from standard practice is going to cause problems. I say "usually" because (to quote that wise soap philosopher @KiwiMoose):
Sometimes, soap just do what soap do.
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