Which oils to start with?

Thank you! Since you said the palm replaces lard or tallow I'm assuming that it is a solid. I have seen bottles of palm oil on walmart and it looked like liquid oil.
Where is a good place to look up oil info? If a 30, 30, 30 base is a good recipe than when do you know when and how much others to add such as castor oil, rice bran oil, shea butter...

SOOOOOO much to learn!

Nice job on your first soap!

Thanks so much everyone!

Yes I'm well and truly hooked now and planning my next batches to try different things LOL! it's funny because I wasn't entirely convinced going into it, so it's surprising just how quickly I changed my mind haha

I was a bit impatient and cut my Olive oil soap a bit too early ... never mind now I know that it was too early and that I need to leave it in the mould a bit longer next time. I also took it out of the fridge at 26hrs, it was nice and white then but after 24 hrs at room temp it darkened up a bit. May see if a bit longer in the fridge next time helps avoid that. Still, it doesn't look terrible.

I am wanting to try a batch with vegetable shortening in place of the lard next, as I have some vegetarian friends who wouldn't like the lard soaps. I'd also like to try again with the olive oil recipe, see if I can get the timing right on when to cut it and and keep it whiter (not sure if that's even possible given the colour of Olive oil anyway). And I'd like to try some EO in a batch too. And I've got new silicon moulds to try out! Lol

I can see this easily becoming an addiction

Oops forgot the photos! Here is a photo of the olive oil soap, showing the messy edges as it was still a bit soft when I cut it. And a comparison of the two, showing the colour difference. Quite distinct, though when I pulled them out of the fridge they were exactly the same.

Primrose said:

Thanks so much everyone!

Yes I'm well and truly hooked now and planning my next batches to try different things LOL! it's funny because I wasn't entirely convinced going into it, so it's surprising just how quickly I changed my mind haha

I was a bit impatient and cut my Olive oil soap a bit too early ... never mind now I know that it was too early and that I need to leave it in the mould a bit longer next time. I also took it out of the fridge at 26hrs, it was nice and white then but after 24 hrs at room temp it darkened up a bit. May see if a bit longer in the fridge next time helps avoid that. Still, it doesn't look terrible.

I am wanting to try a batch with vegetable shortening in place of the lard next, as I have some vegetarian friends who wouldn't like the lard soaps. I'd also like to try again with the olive oil recipe, see if I can get the timing right on when to cut it and and keep it whiter (not sure if that's even possible given the colour of Olive oil anyway). And I'd like to try some EO in a batch too. And I've got new silicon moulds to try out! Lol

I can see this easily becoming an addiction

Click to expand...

Mwahaha! Welcome to the soap side!!

My first soap I cut too early as well. I just couldn't wait, I was so excited to see it.

Personally, I think the lard is also worth trying - if only to use at home with the family. But it might be one to try down the line if you're looking to get some vegetarian soap recipes under the belt to begin with

As far as color -
Depending on the type of olive oil, there is also a chance it will lighten again as it cures. I had a soap that was heavy on the Olive start dark, but two weeks into the cure were lighter again. Worse comes to worse, you can start playing with things like Titanium Dioxide (TD) in future batches, to keep a nice white in the soap.

szujus said:

Thank you! Since you said the palm replaces lard or tallow I'm assuming that it is a solid. I have seen bottles of palm oil on walmart and it looked like liquid oil.
Where is a good place to look up oil info? If a 30, 30, 30 base is a good recipe than when do you know when and how much others to add such as castor oil, rice bran oil, shea butter...

SOOOOOO much to learn!

Click to expand...

I get my palm in the baking section, in the same area as Cisco or lard. It comes in a tub. There are four main kinds/ways of getting palm (that I'm aware of):
Palm oil - which has a similar consistency as shortening
Palm flakes,
Palm kernel oil (PKO), and
Red Palm oil - which is red, so I see people recommending against it, unless you want red and shades of red)

I believe palm oil lends to hardness, PKO cleansing (I think?) but I'm not sure.

In regards to starting to play with recipes and oils, Zany_in_CO gave me an excellent mini tutorial when I first started poking around at things like soaping calculators. It gave me a rough idea of what kinds of numbers I was aiming for as I tested different combinations.

I still try to get feedback from more experienced soapers, but she broke it down so I could begin to understand what I was seeing in different oil profiles.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=63064&page=2

I've been playing with the soapee calculator which gives the properties of the recipe and the range you should be aiming for, although some of then that aren't so straight forward I don't really understand (condition, ins, iodine and the fats ratio).

It's hard to get sustainably/ethically sourced palm oil here, which is why I thought the vegetable shortening might be a better option to replace the lard for a vegetarian recipe ... but open to other suggestions too.

And alas, zany didn't think to explain the "why" something was good or not good, which doesn't make it overly good at teaching.

There is a post by DeeAnna where she really breaks down what those numbers mean, not just in general terms, but what they actually mean to us soapers. But I can't find a link at the moment, sorry

Found it!

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=383997&postcount=17

Primrose said:

I've been playing with the soapee calculator which gives the properties of the recipe and the range you should be aiming for, although some of then that aren't so straight forward I don't really understand (condition, ins, iodine and the fats ratio).

It's hard to get sustainably/ethically sourced palm oil here, which is why I thought the vegetable shortening might be a better option to replace the lard for a vegetarian recipe ... but open to other suggestions too.

Click to expand...

Soap Queen has a pretty good starter guide for formulating, she does use palm but has some links to recipes that are palm free.

http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/formulating-cold-process-recipes/

Here is one of the palm free recipes she has, though you would want to run it through a soap calculator just for checking. Plus you can then scale it down for a 1lb/500g size

Ingredients
Olive Oil – 12 oz
Coconut Oil – 8 oz
Rice Bran Oil – 6 oz
Cocoa Butter – 4 oz
Castor Oil – 2 oz
Water – 9 oz
Sodium Hydroxide – 4.4 oz