yet another newbie "is my CP recipe ok?" thread

[G.]

Heeeeello! Newbie here

I own a goat farm and I'm opening my cheese dairy and my store this spring/summer. I needed some more things to sell so the place won't look too empty. I thought soap would be nice, and after doing some research, I ended up here.
I have to admit that the whole soap making thing looks a lot more fun than I thought! Looks really interesting.

So I went ahead and bought a big box of used stuff for soap making on eBay. I got about 60 different bottles of scent and lot of other stuff..
Once I got the box, I went shopping for oils as it was the only thing missing, and got the following:
- Organic Canola Oil (Soleil D'Or)
- Organic Sunflower Oil
- Castor Oil (Palma Christi / L'Originelle)
- Coconut Oil (Solid, melts at 76)
- Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)

I've read quite a lot but I'm still confused a little bit. Especially the quantity of scent (fragrance?) to add. Using SoapCalc, it doesn't say, really. Or am I missing something?
I played around with quantities without really knowing what was good and what wasn't. I used the values of another recipe and changed them just a bit and thought i'd try that. Is it ok to substract a few % here and there, and add some here and there... randomly? Can I really miss my batch, or will it just give me an ok soap with just a different level of moisture, hardness, etc?

Also, as I have unlimited access to goat milk, can I just use goat milk and no water at all?

Anyway. This is what I came out with.... kind of... randomly :
For 500g:
Canola oil: 21%
Sunflower oil: 21%
Olive oil: 26%
Castor oil: 6%
Coconut oil: 26%

I ran those settings in both SoapCalc and MMS's lye calculator. MMS's lye calculator says I would use 125 to 188 milliliters of liquid (that'd be GM).
69.64 grams of lye; 6% excess fat.

Looks good for a first try? Or will I come back here in a few months, after several batches, and say 'I can't believe I wrote that' ?

 

[SimplyE]

Hi and welcome! Love to hear from a fellow goaty!

I would say that your recipe is actually not going to make a hard bar at all, from running it through soapcalc. I would say that a lot of people like to have a minimum of 38 on the hardness scale. You have a lot of soft oils with the sunflower and canola. If you add a lot of coconut (hard), though, it is going to be very drying. Of course, it depends on what your skin likes, but coconut can be drying in large amounts for some people. I would up the olive, which is known to be hard, once given the cure time and maybe add another hard oil, palm? Your castor is in a good realm for percentage and gives good bubbles.

For your fragrance, it seems a good percentage can be 0.5 oz to 1 oz per pound of oils to start, depending on the fragrance or essential (forgive me not having the gram amount).

As far as the goatmilk, I am still waiting to get my girls knocked up, so to speak, and have been using canned condensed for the time being. You can use full-strength GM, which is what I will do eventually. Just be careful as the sugar in the GM can burn with adding the lye. Freeze your GM and keep it as cool as you can when adding the lye. Combine GM and lye when the GM is frozen to slushy.

I am still fairly new at this, but this is what I have learned. Hope it helps and makes sense!

Again, welcome! This is a great place. I was originally interested in GM cheese, but became fascinated with soaping. I have a couple of darling Nigerian Dwarfs. Happy to meet a fellow goater

 

[ilovedoxies]

Lard is inexpensive and it makes your bar harder, also there is crisco shortening that is a good agent for a harder bar.

As SimplyE said, be careful when adding the lye to your milk, it will burn, stir constantly and add VERY slowly. Ice bath helps, too. It's not the end of the world if it turns a little tan or yellow, tho. Your soap will still turn out ok.

Best of luck!!

 

[G.]

Minimum of 38 on the hardness scale.. good to know. I will note this down and make sure I take that in consideration everytime I play with SoapCalc.

I have everything ready to mix the lye with the goat milk, plenty of ice cubes especially for that. It's getting cold outside here and should be snowing real soon, perhaps it could be a good idea to fill up the sink with snow and a little bit of water to keep my goat milk cold when adding the lye.
We got a little bit over 4m of snow here last winter, it shouldn't be a problem to find some
I have goat fat that I kept for soap making, maybe I will try adding some to the recipe.

And to answer your signature SimplyE; yes.

Edit: Ahh. My dad threw away the goat fat, but I found Mango Butter.
The SoapCalc website seems to be down quite often..

 

[Haven]

I would go to the beginning of this forum and read read read. You will understand much more and know better what you are doing if you learn about each oil and what qualities it brings. Go here http://www.millersoap.com/ and read some more. There is a wealth of knowledge out there, but you need to take a bit of time to learn it.

 

[SimplyE]

Lard is inexpensive and it makes your bar harder, also there is crisco shortening that is a good agent for a harder bar.

I forgot about lard. My first recipe that I came up with had lard in it, which gave good bubbles, too! Thanx for the reminder doxie!

G. If you go to the oil qualities in the soapcalc, it will give you a reference range for your soap. Again, this is reference and varies by different tastes, so take it only with a grain of salt! Can't wait to hear how it goes! Keep us posted!

And to answer your signature SimplyE; yes.

I will keep your secret! Only those with goats know their antics and humor! :wink:

 

[carebear]

Bad news is that your recipe practically screams DOS! Too many of your oils are prone to rancidity (sunflower & canola totalling 42%). And it's unlikely you'll get a hard bar, but I think that's a secondary issue.

 

[G.]

Yeah. So I changed my recipe and made another one using soapcalc.
I used olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil and mango butter.

The result was not quite was I expected. Since I was using goat milk, I thought I was going to have a bright colored (beige?) soap.

I made sure to add the lye very slowly to the milk and keep the mix cold. The mix came out real white, just like normal milk.
I had my oils mixed together and at room temperature.

The problem I encountered was when I mixed the lye solution with the oils.
It took just a few seconds and it became solid right away. I barely had the time to stir. BEcause it became solid right away, I had to actually push the whole thing in the mold.
Was it because the lye solution was too cold? Maybe my oils shouldn't have been at room temperature either.

Annnnnnd my soap turned out dark brown.

Here's the result:

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Hi and welcome! I also love GM soap, and it is all I make...GM soap and lotions too. Just keep on trying small batches. It took me many trial batches until I just started to get it right. I am 4 years into it, and still learning every batch I make!

Paul :wink:

 

[G.]

For some reason I had this feeling that once my lye solution was made I had to be quick and use it as soon as possible.
Once the lye solution is done, how long is it still good?
Let say I want to make 3 batches on a 3 day period, can I just make the lye solution I'll need for all 3 batches and put what I'm going to use later in the fridge?

Edit: Just did my second batch. Changed the recipe again and this times it looks perfect. It took about 15 minutes to trace. A little long but it's better than the 9 seconds it took for my first batch. And the colour came out like it was supposed to. The scent in the other one did do anything, but in this batch it seems to be good. Well, it smells like green apple all over the place here, good sign I'd say. Yay