Which sounds like a better formula to you?

I'm making coconut milk soap this weekend and found two different recipes. Could you have a look and offer your advice?

One (more milk, less lye) - recipe calculated by soapcalc, me simply substituting water with the milk
24 oz olive oil
9.12 oz coconut milk
3.089 oz lye

and

Two (less milk, more lye -- recipe found online
24.4 oz olive oil
6.83 oz coconut milk
3.14 oz lye

Which looks like the more-likely-to-succeed formula? I can't tell, I'm too new.

Because liquid discounts can be tricky,I would chose #1. But thats just me talkin. Hopefully a more experienced soaper will jump in here....

That second option is a really steep liquid discount. I like water/liquid discounts with my olive oil recipes, but if you're using milk I would not do that steep discount. I think you'd have a hard time keeping the lye from scorching the milk.

So you could try a few things:

Soap at cooler temps, like around 100 degrees F. Some soapers use a room temperature method, not heating the oils (or letting them cool completely) and letting the lye solution to return to room temps before adding it to the oils. This helps when working with water discounts or accelerants. I prefer the 100 degree method, but that's just personal preference.

Use a 35% Water Discount (water to oil ratio) and use a split method - mix your lye with half the required water, add to oils, then add half the required water as coconut milk at trace. (My preference)

Use a 33% Water Discount, using frozen coconut milk and add small amounts of lye at a time letting it cool in between so as not to scorch the milk.

If you are new to soap making, I would try full water recipes without milk until you get the hang of it. Milk recipes are notorious for overheating in the mold. Water discounts can be tricky, especially if you're using fragrance oils or any accelerating essential oils. Discounting water can speed up trace and you'll need to recognize trace and move quickly to get it in the mold.

Hm.

So this is the recipe with a 33% water discount (according to soapcalc):

24 oz olive oil
7.92 oz frozen coconut milk, careful not to scorch
3.089 oz lye

How's that?

If you only want a 5% superfat, that looks fine to me. I wouldn't insulate it too heavily, and keep an eye on it to prevent overheating.
Good luck! Let us know how it turns out

YES! I'm so excited to try it. Although -- how would you superfat it?

I like to superfat around 7-8% as a general rule...I find women usually like a higher superfat, and men prefer lower. I have dry skin, so I need the higher superfat to counteract the higher alkalinity of handmade soap.

Okay, one more question!! I've recalculated with a 33% water discount and a 7% superfat, and the recipe is now as follows -- does it look right?

24 oz olive oil
7.92 oz frozen coconut milk, careful not to scorch!
3.024 oz lye

Presto?

Presto! Go for it!

I so totally will, lol. This forum is heaven sent. Thank you for your opinion. Thank you, thank you!

Any idea of what I can expect? Hard soap? Soft soap? Slimy or no?

edited to say: I just looked at your FB page -- your products are GORGEOUS. Sigh. So much to learn.

Well, it should be pretty hard after a long cure...as in a couple months with it being just Olive Oil. I would consider this a Bastille formula (as opposed to Castille) since you are using Coconut Milk. It will be super gentle and the milk should help with the creaminess. Your lather may be a little slimy like a lot of Castille soaps, and you probably won't get much lather. The numbers on SoapCalcPro for this formula aren't entirely accurate since it doesn't account for the milk. It also never gives "high scores" for Castille soaps, but they cure out to be super hard bars.
Here's what I got:
Hardness : 17 (Range 29-54)
Cleansing : 0 (Range 12-22)
Conditioning : 82 (Range 44-69)
Bubbly : 0 (Range 14-46)
Creamy : 17 (Range 16-48)
Iodine : 85 (Range 41-70)
INS : 105 (Range 136-165)
Score : 187 (Best is 0)

Can't wait. Thanks again. :mrgreen:

Depending on the coconut milk you use, about half of its weight might be fat. So 8 ounces of coconut milk = 4 ounces of liquid and 4 ounces of coconut oil. Depends on the brand. You can calculate it from the nutrition information on the can.

I would round up for oils and water and round down for lye. You will also get better accuracy if you calculate your recipe in grams, assuming your scale is set up for that.

Let us know how it turns out!

I'll let you know fo sho. I'm a baker, so I have an electronic scale that converts to all measurement units. I'll give the grams a try!!