Soapmaking

[thunderwagn]

I don't see it mentioned much here, but lard is a great fat to use soaping! It makes a nice, long lasting hard bar as well.
Soapmakingforum is excellent, but sometimes when I just want some quick, and usually accurate pointers and information. I hit up the queens site.
Here's a little on temps if anyone is interested.
https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...cs-how-temperature-affects-cold-process-soap/

Also, I didn't see it mentioned, but some fragrance oils can affect set up of soap. Not sure if that applies here or not.

 

[LBussy]

I'm curious about the lye calculator.
I went the Brambleberry one and it gave a choice for liquid or solid. I punched in liquid thinking olive oil is a liquid as is coconut and shea butter after heating.
The liquid choice gives lye amount of almost 11 oz. The same recipe with solid gives just over 7 oz. That's a huge difference and potential for a big mistake.

Why is there such a difference and why isn't it figured as a liquid?

"Liquid" refers to liquid soap (like hand soap) and uses potassium hydroxide (KOH) not Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH). Making liquid soap is a whole other animal, and you use different amounts of KOH vs NaOH.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

"Liquid" refers to liquid soap (like hand soap) and uses potassium hydroxide (KOH) not Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH). Making liquid soap is a whole other animal, and you use different amounts of KOH vs NaOH.

There ya go...learned something new again...Thanks

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

It turned out pretty good. 24 hours later, still soft but that's expected.
I used Grapefruit and orange essential oil. Smells good. I mixed a yellow and red coloring and it turned out better than expected. Looks real "grapefruity"

*Note my artistic sun pic

 

[aeviaanah]

Can someone point me in the right direction for basic soap making? Need a link or something to get me started

 

[Yooper]

Can someone point me in the right direction for basic soap making? Need a link or something to get me started

I put all I could in the beginning posts of this thread, particularly posts 8, 9, 10. It's a decent tutorial. Is there something else that you're looking for?

 

[aeviaanah]

I put all I could in the beginning posts of this thread, particularly posts 8, 9, 10. It's a decent tutorial. Is there something else that you're looking for?

No I just started at post 500. I'll go take gander at the posts you mentioned. Thanks!

 

[passedpawn]

Can someone point me in the right direction for basic soap making? Need a link or something to get me started

I'm by no means an expert, but I'll submit my 2¢. I took a bunch of pictures in one of my sessions, so might as well post those too.

Here's a recipe that worked out great for me. Makes a very hard bar that's great for the shower. This is the soap I posted above with the red top.

• Crisco 13 oz
• Olive Oil 12 oz
• Coconut Oil 14 oz
• Lye 5.7 oz
• Water 14.8 oz

1. Add lye to water. Set aside. It will get hot - that's normal
2. Heat oils in pan until they just melt. Let cool to 105F.
3. Add essential oils and/or colors to oils now, if desired.
4. Slowly add lye to oils while blending with an immersion blender. Blend well. Saponification should be immediate - it will turn opaque like vanilla pudding. Blend for about 2 minutes, pulsing throughout the mixture.
5. It will begin to set up like jello pretty quickly, so pour into mold (lined with parchment paper).
6. After 24 hours, remove from mold and slice into cakes. Don't use for at least 1 week. It will continue to harden for a month or two.

For the mold, you can use almost anything that will hold its shape. Regardless, you must line with parchment unless you have a silicone mold. Because the soap will get hard, the ideal mold will have sides that fold down or somehow release - this makes it simple to remove the hard loaf of soap. I made one out of wood with wing nuts that allow me to remove the sides. There are sweet ones that don't cost too much on Amazon. They really don't cost much more than the materials to build one yourself, and they have niceties like silicone interiors and cutting dies. Search soap mold on Amazon.

Here's some pictures of a "orange bar" that I made. I added some annatto to make it orange, and orange essential oil for aroma. For the oils, I just emptied out the crap in the back of the cabinet (that lard was 13 yrs old). I measured the pH of the lye solution - 12.5!

 

[LBussy]

I don't want to take away from the discussion here. I would however not be fair to the place a lot of us got our start in soaping if I did not mention it. SoapMakingForum is a great place to meet soapers and discuss the art. There are some VERY nice people there and I never would have been successful with soap if it were not for them.

If you visit, take a moment to read before you ask. There are some very good beginner articles there.

 

[aeviaanah]

I'm by no means an expert, but I'll submit my 2¢. I took a bunch of pictures in one of my sessions, so might as well post those too.

Here's a recipe that worked out great for me. Makes a very hard bar that's great for the shower. This is the soap I posted above with the red top.

• Crisco 13 oz
• Olive Oil 12 oz
• Coconut Oil 14 oz
• Lye 5.7 oz
• Water 14.8 oz

1. Add lye to water. Set aside. It will get hot - that's normal
2. Heat oils in pan until they just melt. Let cool to 105F.
3. Add essential oils and/or colors to oils now, if desired.
4. Slowly add lye to oils while blending with an immersion blender. Blend well. Saponification should be immediate - it will turn opaque like vanilla pudding. Blend for about 2 minutes, pulsing throughout the mixture.
5. It will begin to set up like jello pretty quickly, so pour into mold (lined with parchment paper).
6. After 24 hours, remove from mold and slice into cakes. Don't use for at least 1 week. It will continue to harden for a month or two.

For the mold, you can use almost anything that will hold its shape. Regardless, you must line with parchment unless you have a silicone mold. Because the soap will get hard, the ideal mold will have sides that fold down or somehow release - this makes it simple to remove the hard loaf of soap. I made one out of wood with wing nuts that allow me to remove the sides. There are sweet ones that don't cost too much on Amazon. They really don't cost much more than the materials to build one yourself, and they have niceties like silicone interiors and cutting dies. Search soap mold on Amazon.

Here's some pictures of a "orange bar" that I made. I added some annatto to make it orange, and orange essential oil for aroma. For the oils, I just emptied out the crap in the back of the cabinet (that lard was 13 yrs old). I measured the pH of the lye solution - 12.5!

Perfect, this all makes sense and looks like a great start point! I'll be making soap soon

 

[Yooper]

Perfect, this all makes sense and looks like a great start point! I'll be making soap soon

It's fun, and once you use the good stuff, you won't want to use the grocery store soap ever again.

In addition to the soapmaking forum, there are several good youtube videos by Soap Queen and a couple of others.

It's hard to take good pictures of some of the steps, because it can happen so fast. One minute you're stirring, and the next minute you've got to pour the soap right away.

Make sure you have protective gear- eye protection especially, but long sleeves and rubber/silicone gloves. Lye burns can be very serious and safety is really important here. I say that, and I brew beer in shorts and bare feet most of the time so you know I mean it. I have only spilled soap batter once, but I sure was glad I had on gloves and eye protection. The lye water is very caustic and accidents happen, so that's a big deal. Otherwise, soaping is easy and the supplies are pretty easy to get.

Once you make a regular bar of soap, you can get "fancy" if you choose. I don't use fragrance oils or things as I'm trying to get away from all that stuff so I make my own, but many people love fragrance oils and they are cheaper than essential oils. I have a friend who does a blue/green colored soap with "ocean breeze" scent or something like that and she sells it by the truckload I swear. So once you get the basics down, you can do colored swirls and different decorative things, and pick your own fragrance if you want.

And from there is where I started making body butters, bath bombs, etc- because I had the ingredients on hand from soapmaking and winemaking.

All of this stuff makes great Christmas presents- and really now is the time to start making soap for Christmas.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

The silicone bread forms work awesome. Just peel them back and the soap pops out..I think I got a 2 pack on Amazon pretty cheap

 

[Homercidal]

Built a wooden mold a while back and finally took a little time to try it out. It's roughly half of Passedpawn's recipe in volume.

I had a bit of trouble figuring out how much lye and water to add. Soapcalc didn't seem to show it obviously, so I used another online too, but my math says it's different ratio than Passedpawn's amounts.

In any case, the recipe made just enough to fill the mold just slightly mounded up. I did the hot process and added fragrance after the 1 hour cook. The fragrance was Almond Honey (I think. There were no labels on any of the bottles, and that's our best guess based on a google search of the selections by the supposed company and by the smell of it. But the smell was so strong I'm not sure if we're right!

I'll try to upload pictures when I cut it into bars.

 

[Melana]

Rule of thumb for properly sizing molds is area times 0.40 = the amount in ounces of oil that your mold will hold.

 

[Homercidal]

Rule of thumb for properly sizing molds is area times 0.40 = the amount in ounces of oil that your mold will hold.

That's what I used. It was a good estimate.

Just need to read up some more on the superfatting and calculating the water and lye necessary. I am also not sure how much fragrance to use. The Honey Almond scent was very strong in the house. The bars are very strong too, but they are young. I cut and wrapped them yesterday. Forgot to take pics.

(imagine yellow bars of soap...)

 

[Melana]

Good general rule is 3% for fragrance oils

 

[Homercidal]

Good general rule is 3% for fragrance oils

Oops. Oh well, it will be smelly for a long time, I guess!

 

[LBussy]

Oops. Oh well, it will be smelly for a long time, I guess!

Hot process can "gas off" the fragrance a lot more than cold ... you may be fine. It all depends on the vapor point of the fragrance oil. I use one that needs 6% to keep the fragrance at a decent level.

 

[Homercidal]

Hot process can "gas off" the fragrance a lot more than cold ... you may be fine. It all depends on the vapor point of the fragrance oil. I use one that needs 6% to keep the fragrance at a decent level.

Good to know. I'll have to double check the amount the next batch I make, which should be coming up pretty soon. I have a decent mold that makes about 8-9 bars. I want to make a cutting form to get nice, even cuts. The mold I made isn't great for cutting bars from.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Am I looking at the right fragrance oils?
I'm looking at Brambleberry and wholesale supply and it looks like everything is between $5 to $7 for a 2 OZ bottle BEFORE shipping. Seems expensive... I thought they were a lot cheaper than essential oils. At that price its pushing double the cost of the soap just for scent....is that right?

 

[Melana]

They are still cheaper than essential oils.

 

[passedpawn]

Essential Oils: for those OCD enough, just look around for essential oil distilling equipment. It's mighty awesome. Pricey. You'll drop $300 min to get into it one of these chemistry sets.

But I'm ready to do it. I've got magnolia and gardenia trees. For anyone with these, you know you want that short-lived fragrance around all the time. It's wonderful. I've been lusting over these sets for a while.

 

[thunderwagn]

Hot process can "gas off" the fragrance a lot more than cold ... you may be fine. It all depends on the vapor point of the fragrance oil. I use one that needs 6% to keep the fragrance at a decent level.

This.
I'll add that citrus type scents tend to fade quickly also.

@JOHNNYROTTEN, yeah they get kinda pricey. You'll get a better deal buying at least the 8oz size, and if you know you like the scent, or would like to have "more on hand" I'd even go up to 16. My pockets are shallow most times lol. I've found the 16's allow my collection to build up a bit better, but I can't, or to cheap rather, to buy than one MAYBE 2 at a time.
I do think you pay a premium price for Brambleberry's packaging...all the way around. That said, they tend to have really great products imo.

I've also ordered and been very happy with what I've received from

https://www.naturesgardencandles.com/fragrance-oils

They put on some pretty decent sales from time to time.

 

[LBussy]

Am I looking at the right fragrance oils?
I'm looking at Brambleberry and wholesale supply and it looks like everything is between $5 to $7 for a 2 OZ bottle BEFORE shipping. Seems expensive... I thought they were a lot cheaper than essential oils. At that price its pushing double the cost of the soap just for scent....is that right?

Check out Soapalooza: http://soapalooza.com/ ... the prices are fair and the shipping is not out of control. They have 1oz vials which add up quick but bigger quantities are less expensive.

 

[Homercidal]

Essential Oils: for those OCD enough, just look around for essential oil distilling equipment. It's mighty awesome. Pricey. You'll drop $300 min to get into it one of these chemistry sets.

But I'm ready to do it. I've got magnolia and gardenia trees. For anyone with these, you know you want that short-lived fragrance around all the time. It's wonderful. I've been lusting over these sets for a while.

I hear there are ways to make equipment to do this without breaking the bank. it's a very similar set up to distilling water or spirits. If I had plenty of material around here I'd consider it.

In other news, I found a box of some soap I made a long time back. I'm not sure exactly which scent it was supposed to be, but it ended up smelling exactly like Playdough to me.

 

[jtratcliff]

I want to make a cutting form to get nice, even cuts. The mold I made isn't great for cutting bars from.

Miter box and wavy cutter...

 

[passedpawn]

I hear there are ways to make equipment to do this without breaking the bank. it's a very similar set up to distilling water or spirits. If I had plenty of material around here I'd consider it.

In other news, I found a box of some soap I made a long time back. I'm not sure exactly which scent it was supposed to be, but it ended up smelling exactly like Playdough to me.

I like the Breaking Bad setup tho. Way too cool. I'll post links in a few.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

This.
I'll add that citrus type scents tend to fade quickly also.

@JOHNNYROTTEN, yeah they get kinda pricey. You'll get a better deal buying at least the 8oz size, and if you know you like the scent, or would like to have "more on hand" I'd even go up to 16. My pockets are shallow most times lol. I've found the 16's allow my collection to build up a bit better, but I can't, or to cheap rather, to buy than one MAYBE 2 at a time.
I do think you pay a premium price for Brambleberry's packaging...all the way around. That said, they tend to have really great products imo.

I've also ordered and been very happy with what I've received from

https://www.naturesgardencandles.com/fragrance-oils

They put on some pretty decent sales from time to time.

Thanks for the link. In our cart we have (all 8 oz)

Oatmeal milk and honey
Black cherry bomb
vanilla bean
Coffee
White chocolate
apple orchard

Da bomb dye red yellow blue...I let my wife choose and she went a little nuts

Before I place the order I want to add something to give the soap a marbled look. I thought I'm supposed to used clay??? An help with what to order?

Anything else I should get to give the soap a " cool" look while I'm ordering...I've already broke the bank so why not

There is endless stuff in the "additive" section...its a little overwhelming

 

[Temptd2]

I hear there are ways to make equipment to do this without breaking the bank. it's a very similar set up to distilling water or spirits. If I had plenty of material around here I'd consider it.

In other news, I found a box of some soap I made a long time back. I'm not sure exactly which scent it was supposed to be, but it ended up smelling exactly like Playdough to me.

Ooooo, I think you're onto something here - if Moms could get kids to wash up/shower with your soap that smells like Playdough, you would be a millionaire!

 

[Melana]

Before you order read how the scents 'behave' in soap. You probably don't want any surprises