Making soap for the first time.....

[Sandi_lea]

Hi ya'll,

This will be my first attempt making soap. It will be for my personal use (I might branch out later). I have been using homemade soap that I have gotten off eBay for the last six months, I even got my mother hooked. I started looking for a better price when I realized I could make it cheaper than buying it. That is how I got to this point. I am planning on making my soap the second week of November with the help of my sister-in-law. And I have a few questions about the recipe I am going to use. Here is the recipe:


Sudsy All-Vegetable (Kathy Miller)

24 ounces coconut oil
24 ounces olive oil
18-20 ounces soybean or canola oil (18 will yield a slightly harder finish)
16 ounces palm oil
24-26 ounces cold water
12 ounces lye crystals


Temps 100-120 degrees (varies according to what you use for fragrance... some fragrance oils work at higher temps)

I plan on using canola oil.

Here are the questions that I have:

1. I don't think this is superfatted. Should I superfat it? If so, with what? I have castor oil and shea. And how much should I add?


2. On the internet, what is a good realiable lye calculator to use?


3. I am going to scent this with Oatmeal Milk & Honey FO from The Soap Dish, how much do I use for this recipe?


4. How do I cut a recipe in half?


5. For the mold, I am going to use those cardboard pop flats (I think). How do I figure out how many I need?



That is all for now. I might have more questions after ya'll reply.


Thanks,
Sandi

[velcromom]

This recipe is superfatted at 5%, no need to add any extra oils to it.

Half the recipe would use these amounts:

12 oz coconut
12 oz olive
10 oz canola
8 oz palm

6 oz lye and
14 oz water

I downloaded the recipe spreadsheet from the Miller soaping site, it's free and easy to use and it calculates all your amounts for you. That worked for me perfectly fine til my dh bought me some software for soapmaking.

Use .7oz of fragrance oil per pound of base oils

To figure out mold volume you multiply: LxWxH(.35) and that will give you the amount of oils you'll need for a recipe to fit that mold.

Your recipe contains 30% coconut which is pretty much at the highest level anyone would want, so if you should find that the bars are too cleansing then you may want to reduce the coconut %. I use 10% most often.

Have fun!

[Sandi_lea]

Hi,

Thank you for the info. Hopefully it all goes well.

Thanks,
Sandi