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holistichonnies

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Hi every1, iv been making cosmetics for a while now such as body butters, lotion bars etc ... All the easy stuff

I would really like to try cold process soap making. Iv watch many vids on you tube but soon get sucked in by all the beautiful advanced techniques lol

Does anyone have a very simple basic recipe I could start with?
Measurements would be good as well please. I only want to make a very small batch, just to try.

Thank you
Iv failed so many times I'm becoming an expert
 
That's fab thank you. Not got any lye yet.

This is what I have a stock of at the mo,

Shea butter
Cocoa butter
Extra virgin coconut oil
Olive oil
Sweet almond oil
Jojoba oil
Aloe Vera butter (not much left)
Think that's it on butters and oils


Iv failed so many times I'm becoming an expert
 
Any possibility you could lay your hands on some palm oil(not palm kernel oil), tallow, or lard?

Also, you need to get lots of practice on a good lye calculator as you never, ever fail to run every recipe through a lye calculator for yourself. Here is my favorite:

http://soapcalc.net/

Just hover your mouse over each colored number for an explanation on how to do that step. Leave the water amount alone until you get more experience.
 
Yes I can get palm oil, lye etc. that's not a problem.

I have already downloaded a soap calculator onto my iPad super keen to give soap making a try haha


Iv failed so many times I'm becoming an expert
 
This is my(current) favorite proportion for CP bar soap, so you can increase or decrease the size according to your needs. I would not make smaller than a 16 oz oil recipe as errors are magnified in smaller batches. I generally stay between 5-8% superfat.

Coconut Oil 76 degree- 20%
Castor Oil- 5%
Lard/Tallow/Palm oil- 50%
Olive or Sweet Almond Oil- 25%

If you want to substitute out a liquid oil, just subtract some from the Olive or Sweet Almond Oil. If you want to add some butters, just substitute for Coconut Oil or Palm Oil. Be absolutely sure to run any modified recipe through the lye calculator for each and every change.

There are two things that remain the same no matter what soap I am making. They are castor oil- 5%, and no more than 20% coconut oil. I am interested to see what other people consider absolute "rules" for their soap.
 
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Soap Queen guide with recipe

I think a safe bet is starting with large amounts of olive, coconut, and palm or tallow. Start playing with other oils in smaller amounts 5-15% and go from there. 4-7% superfat and make sure you use a soap calculator, at first I punched my recipes in 2 or 3 to be overly cautious.

Good luck, and have fun!
 
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This will probably make everyone crazy - but this was my first soap recipe ever, and you know what? It actually turned out pretty decent - and still held some cocoa butter scent. I still have a bar of it and its very white and hard. I wouldn't make it this way again, its a bit waxy - but it does match what the OP has in their oils collection :)

coconut Oil 5 oz - 31%
almond, sweet 5oz. - 31%
cocoa butter 6oz. - 38%

My other beginner soaps were 70% Olive oil and 30% coconut oil - I need those at about 8-10% superfat
 
There are two things that remain the same no matter what soap I am making. They are castor oil- 5%, and no more than 20% coconut oil. I am interested to see what other people consider absolute "rules" for their soap.
Hey Susie! How are you? :)
I don't have any absolute rules, but 99% of the time I add silk and sugar to my lye water, and use castor oil at 10% and coconut oil at just under 30% with an average SF of 8.
I made a test batch of the 'Villa Convento' soap we were talking about last month with some cute molds I found...my first time using plastic molds. OMG, what a pain!! It took me forever to get the colored batter into the fleur de lis design, so I had air bubbles in the rest of it! And since I didn't have the knowledge/foresight to coat the plastic molds with mineral oil before I poured the soap, they were impossible to unmold without creating a hot mess!! I tried freezing them and then running hot water over the molds...nope, LOL! I'll do better this week. They could have been really cute (adding a pic of the soap in the mold...gotta work faster to avoid those ugly air bubbles) :(

fleur de lis soap.JPG
 
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There are two things that remain the same no matter what soap I am making. They are castor oil- 5%, and no more than 20% coconut oil. I am interested to see what other people consider absolute "rules" for their soap.

I have no rules! But, I micro batch anything too crazy i'm trying. I have only thrown away a few bars. I have a bunch of horrible bars curing in hopes that maybe, just maybe, after a million cure hours they will be awesome! I have tried some pretty crazy combinations and I plan to try many more in the future.

*Edit: I guess I do have one rule, it's never going to be lye heavy!
*I just thought of another rule. If it's something I hope to sell it will be natural derived ingredients (no synthetics).
*I probably have tons of rules, my no rules statement just seemed cool at the time.
 
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I really wish I could understand % my maths dyslexia won't let me lol
Iv failed so many times I'm becoming an expert

I used the % on purpose. If you go to soapcalc.net, you can simply choose the oil, and type in the percentage you like. When you put in all the oils, hit calculate recipe, then view or print recipe. On the graph it gives you, you will see the % in one column. It will then tell you in the next columns how many pounds, ounces, or grams you need. Draw a black box around the measurements(ounces or grams)you are using so you don't accidentally swap them, and highlight each oil in a separate color with the color carried over to the amounts to prevent mixing them up.(my mother, brother, ex-husband, and son are dyslexic)Then, if you like that soap, you can just change the number of ounces or grams you want at the top, and put the same percentage of each, and then it will do all the math for you to make a larger batch.
 
Hey Susie! How are you? :)
I don't have any absolute rules, but 99% of the time I add silk and sugar to my lye water, and use castor oil at 10% and coconut oil at just under 30% with an average SF of 8.
I made a test batch of the 'Villa Convento' soap we were talking about last month with some cute molds I found...my first time using plastic molds. OMG, what a pain!! It took me forever to get the colored batter into the fleur de lis design, so I had air bubbles in the rest of it! And since I didn't have the knowledge/foresight to coat the plastic molds with mineral oil before I poured the soap, they were impossible to unmold without creating a hot mess!! I tried freezing them and then running hot water over the molds...nope, LOL! I'll do better this week. They could have been really cute (adding a pic of the soap in the mold...gotta work faster to avoid those ugly air bubbles) :(

AWESOME soap! Love me some fleur-di-lis! Geaux Saints!
 
If you tell us how big a batch you want to make, I'm sure somebody would be glad to post a recipe using ounces, instead of percentages.

I think there are very few absolute rules:
1) run your recipe through a lye calculator
2) Mix your lye and water in a safe container

I am somewhat concerned about your math dyslexia. An mis-read soap recipe could end up in soap that could be lye heavy and burn you.
 
People who give you a soap recipe in percentages are doing you a favor - because that lets you make any size batch you wish. Plus it ensures that you run it yourself through a lye calculator, which is much safer for you.
 
If you tell us how big a batch you want to make, I'm sure somebody would be glad to post a recipe using ounces, instead of percentages.

I think there are very few absolute rules:
1) run your recipe through a lye calculator
2) Mix your lye and water in a safe container

I am somewhat concerned about your math dyslexia. An mis-read soap recipe could end up in soap that could be lye heavy and burn you.

Yep, when my son was here, and volunteered to help me make soap(me with broken hand in cast and running low on both bar and liquid soaps), I had much the same concern. I worked with him to modify the printed recipe to prevent mis-reading amounts. He came up with the black box outline, and said we needed to color code the oils. He used a ruler to be sure the lines went straight across and not diagonally. He read the oil and amount to me, and I verified on the computer.(he wanted to do these alone, but he is new to soaping, so...) This worked out fine.

Dyslexia is not the curse it used to be. I was my brother's primary tutor at home, so I know how difficult it was in the "good old days" with no modifications to help. With the help of resource teachers over the years with my son, I have now learned that often you just have to modify how information is viewed to prevent errors. Double spacing text information, black boxes to keep vertical information straight, highlighting to help with horizontal tracking...
 
If you tell us how big a batch you want to make, I'm sure somebody would be glad to post a recipe using ounces, instead of percentages.

I think there are very few absolute rules:
1) run your recipe through a lye calculator
2) Mix your lye and water in a safe container

I am somewhat concerned about your math dyslexia. An mis-read soap recipe could end up in soap that could be lye heavy and burn you.

i'd say a 500g batch is quite big enough to start with????

i would never not use a soap calculator. i can add up and 'read' numbers fine, its just things like working out %.

today I had to Google what 3% of 100ml was :crazy: omg i was very embarrassed with myself when the answer came up - felt so stupid :lol:
 
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