New soap maker needing some advice

Hello all!
I am about to begin making soap! I've got all my gear together (safety gear, scale, stick blender, mold, ph strips, and measuring stuff) and I've got some oils and lyes (KOH & NaOH) and now I need a reliable 1lb recipe for me to start with.
My wife really wants me to start with a goat milk soap but I can't find any 1lb recipe so I figured I would turn to the people who know best.
While I'm not married to the idea of my first soap being a goat milk soap, I just really want my first soap to be a success. Any help and/or advice would be wonderful.
Here's my stock of stuff (so far):
Olive oil pomace
Avocado oil
Castor oil
Coconut oil
Glycerin
Stearin acid
Palm oil

I can easily get goats milk as we sell it where I work (trader joes)

Thanks for any responses!

Welcome!

Safety gear is number one, glad you have yours set. A good scale is critical.

If you haven't already, spend some time getting familiar with a good lye calculator, I prefer http://www.soapcalc.net/

NaOH is used for bar soap, KOH is used for liquid soaps, and sometimes a blend is used for specialized soaps such as shaving soap or cream soap. I would suggest starting with NaOH and bar soap.

Start with a batch that is 1.5 to 2lbs. That is large enough to give you some cushion in slight measuring errors and small enough to not waste ingredients.

I would NOT advise starting with a goatmilk soap. Those can be tricky. Use distilled water only until you have a few batches under your belt.

A good starter recipe using those oils might be something along the lines of:

40% Olive oil
30% Palm oil
25% Coconut oil
5% Castor oil

Or, use 10% avocado oil in place of some of the olive oil. That might be a little high on cleansing but should give you some nice fluffy bubbles after a good cure. If you or your wife have sensitive skin, cut the coconut oil back to 20% and up the palm.

Use the soapcalc defaults for 38% water to oil weight, and 5% superfat (or lye discount).

Notice I did not give you the water or lye amount! You should ALWAYS run any recipe, no matter where you get it, through a good lye calculator. Typos, mistakes, and bad information do happen.

Cure for a minimum of 4 weeks, 6 is better, I cure for 8 weeks.

Good luck

eta: when you print your recipe from soapcalc, it will give you both ounces and grams. If your scale has the option, always work in grams, it is MUCH more accurate. With oils, if the amount listed is 3 decimal places out, round up to the next gram. With the lye, round down.

^^^^
This is excellent advice for a first time recipe. Should be relatively easy for you to produce a lovely loaf of soap you and your wife will enjoy. Also make sure you superfat at least 5%. Some do higher but this is a great place to start. As recommended play with the soapcalc and it will make more sense than just seeing it in print.

Welcome and have fun!

Hey and welcome!

I agree with all the info above. Use a basic 3 or 4 oil recipe and master that (I've made 15 basic recipes) before moving on. You want to master the basics and not just execute them once (this could be luck). You want to understand what is happening at each phase, as that will allow you to know when to break the rules and maybe apply creativity in the future. This only happens by making many basic batches.

What I would do with your supplies:

1. Make a batch using Coconut, Palm, Olive, and Castor
2. Make a batch using Coconut, Palm, Olive, and Avocado

Use no colors.
Compare the properties of the different "super fats" (though technically you can't choose which will superfat).

After that I would change the ratio of 3 the basic oils (coconut, palm, and olive).
Try something like 25% coconut in batch A, 30% coconut in batch B, etc.
Compare them.

Take mental notes on which you prefer and why. Be very critical of yourself and try to understand where you went wrong (and there will be things wrong with your early batches..always), and see where you can improve next time.

^^ some good advice!

I would change the 'make mental notes' to 'make actual notes' - have a sheet or two for each batch, with the recipe, process, what your thoughts are on anything that didn't go as well as you thought. Then keep it going as you use the soap - what is it like to use? How is it at 4 weeks or at 6 weeks?

It can be very interesting

I have used the advice of making notes about my recipes. I have a small notebook I keep with my soap making supplies and write down the recipes, the percentages and instructions on how I made the batch. I'm waiting on the cures for the first two batches to see how those recipes turned out.

Thanks for all the replies! Very helpful! Hopefully I'll be making it Monday or Tuesday of this week! I'll report back once I do!

I print out my recipes and take notes right on that page. There is even a section for notes on the bottom. I keep all of my recipes in a binder. These recipes and notes will be invaluable as you make more and more batches of soap. Be sure to review what went right or wrong before making the next batch.

Yes, always keep track of your recipes... I've got two full note books of recipes that I've tried, with variations, tweaks, scents...how they behaved etc... I've found it SUPER helpful going back and being able to find things... I also try and date them too. Sometimes I just have a "Month of November" type section and anything I made in November goes in there.

Now that I've got a recipe I really like though, I don't take as much detailed notes for just regular every day batches that I make; if I deviate and recalculate the recipe by adding a new oil - then I totally write that down.

I just started a new notebook, with tried and true recipes and how they behave.... like my master copy - though, that never goes in the soap room, it stays nice and clean in another part of the house where I add to it as I go. (I have a couple notebooks on the go for different things....because I'm like that.)

The only thing I wished, was that I took MUCH better detailed notes when I first started - and I wish I had kept everything in one place. I lost a recipe for a beer shampoo that I tried and LOVED. Tried to duplicate it - and HATED IT. Couldn't remember what the heck I'd done or the proportions... SOO... that's still a sore spot for me...

Yeah, I keep my "original recipes" in page protectors in their own binder that stays away from messy areas now. That keeps it where I can shoot a copy to make now. I especially keep my EO blend recipes safe and secure.

I keep everything on the computer and back up often. I have the recipes in SoapMaker, and notes with pictures on each batch on spreadsheets. I even took the time to type out the notes/recipes from all my old notebooks, from 15 years ago. I pretty much stay with 2 base recipes and a salt bar recipe that I've grown to love. Like Consuela, I don't take a lot of notes on these recipes much anymore. But there are notes on fragrances, colors, techniques. Now throw in shaving soap, hair products and skin cream and I'd be lost without an organized note system.

However it is easiest for you to take notes and keep them organized, do it . You'll thank yourself in the future.

Hello again! I finally did some soaping! This morning I made the 1 lb basic CP recipe from "Everything soapmaking" then I made a 500g recipe based on the recommendation on this thread using palm, olive, coconut, and castor oils. Then I decided to try an hp shaving soap I heard about on a wet shaving forum. All went well but it'll be a while before I know for sure.
The hp shaving soap looked just like the tutorial's pictures and the cp's looked like the cake batter consistency I've seen in a lot of videos.
However; I just realized that while I covered the cp batches in plastic wrap, I completely forgot to insulate them with towels. Is this a problem? I'm still a little fuzzy about whether gel phase is important. Thoughts?
Also, how long should I wait before cutting them into bars? Some places
Say 24 hours while others say 48 hours.
Thanks for your help!

JustBeachy said:

I keep everything on the computer and back up often. I have the recipes in SoapMaker, and notes with pictures on each batch on spreadsheets. I even took the time to type out the notes/recipes from all my old notebooks, from 15 years ago. I pretty much stay with 2 base recipes and a salt bar recipe that I've grown to love. Like Consuela, I don't take a lot of notes on these recipes much anymore. But there are notes on fragrances, colors, techniques. Now throw in shaving soap, hair products and skin cream and I'd be lost without an organized note system.

However it is easiest for you to take notes and keep them organized, do it . You'll thank yourself in the future.

Click to expand...

How is that program soapmaker? I thought about buying it just for what you mention.

I just thought of another question…both the coconut oil and palm oil I got from essential depot and were solid in the bottle. I just put them in the microwave until I could squeeze them out. Is that ok? Or is there some other method I should be using?
Sorry if I'm being annoying or obsessive.

Jackofhearts said:

I just thought of another question…both the coconut oil and palm oil I got from essential depot and were solid in the bottle. I just put them in the microwave until I could squeeze them out. Is that ok? Or is there some other method I should be using?
Sorry if I'm being annoying or obsessive.

Click to expand...

I get those same oils from essential depot, and I just squeeze them upside down. The oil plops out. You can also put them in some warm water on the stove, but I don't like to do that because I fear they'll go rancid quicker.

Jackofhearts said:

I just thought of another question…both the coconut oil and palm oil I got from essential depot and were solid in the bottle. I just put them in the microwave until I could squeeze them out. Is that ok? Or is there some other method I should be using?
Sorry if I'm being annoying or obsessive.

Click to expand...

You can do that, or for the coconut just put it in some warm water or out in the sun depending where you live, it will turn liquid at 76 degrees and you can pour it. The palm I would melt down and transfer to a bucket or something so that you can scoop it out as needed like ice cream.

As for cutting your soap, once you unmold it and you feel like its firm enough to cut without distorting the soap, you can. Some recipes like a salt bar would be cut within an hour of making and others (most) soaps require 24-48 hour cure time. Those with the higher water content of 38% will take longer to unmold and cut. Cutting can be right after unmolding or a few days later it is really a personal preference.

smeetree said:

How is that program soapmaker? I thought about buying it just for what you mention.

Click to expand...

I like it a lot. Tracks my inventory, bar cost, recipes etc. I still use a spread sheet I designed though to make more in depth notes on each soap as it cures. weekly then by the month up to a year. I was using them before I bought soapmaker. I take a lot of notes so I need lots of space to record in.

flavapor said:

...,,, Some recipes like a salt bar would be cut within an hour of making and others (most) soaps require 24-48 hour cure time......

Click to expand...

Just for the sake of clarity, the term cure does not refer to the time that the soap is in the mould like this - soaps (both cp and hp) need a cure of around 4 weeks. Cure is the period when the cut bars are resting and settling.