16 Pounds of Soap...Need a recipe please~~

[Indian soap princess]

Hello All,

I just purchased a beautiful soap mold and have been dying to use it! Unfortunately I need to make 16 lbs of soap to fill it up!

Can anyone please provide the base recipe so that it will yield 16lbs?

Thank you!!

 

[krissy]

if this is your first batch of soap... step away from the mold!

do you have any experience soaping? do you have a basic recipe that you know thoroughly and have you got your routine down pat?

i have been soaping for a while now and i would never make 16lbs of soap at once in one mold.

 

[PrairieCraft]

If I would have made 16 pounds for my first batch I would have been a very unhappy soaper, might have quit actually, since the whole thing would have been tossed! At 16 pounds it would have been a $60+ waste.

 

[carebear]

I agree, start with a 2# batch!

But to answer your question, just "size" your favorite recipe using soapcalc.com .

If you don't have a recipe to start with, I suggest reading millersoap.com (several times), then trying some there and branch out. And work your way up to the big mold!

Good luck!

 

[Deda]

What's your largest batch size to date?

What Krissy and PraireCraft are telling you is correct. That's alot of oil to waste if you're not sure what you're doing.

FWIW, any combination of oils can be adjusted to fit any mold, it's just math.

 

[Leelalee]

I completely agree with the smaller batch idea; when I first learned how to make soap, I was using recipes that yielded 4-6 pounds and a time. The recipes I got from the class I took weren't all that fantastic but I made 6 of them (totaling 36 pounds of soap) To this day I groan when I think about how many people ended up with lousy soap, and I cringe when I think of how much money I wasted.

I like to start with a small 1-2 pounds batch to work through a recipe. When I'm happy I'll double it or triple it for a bigger amount. (ALWAYS running the new formula through a lye calculator.)

Good luck to you!!

 

[SudsyKat]

Congrats on your mold, but I agree with everyone else - do smaller batches. Aside from the reasons others gave, I also think it's much more fun to be able to make 8 different 2 pound batches (and that would keep me busy for a month or two as well). I've been soaping for several months and I'm nervous about a "big" 4 pound batch I plan to make. It's a lot of soap, believe me. I can't even picture a 16 pound batch. Have fun, though, whatever you make!

 

[paillo]

sorry, but i have to believe you're kidding, trolling or something else. 16 pounds of soap and you don't have experience? sorry, you are barking up the wrong tree imho. and this is your first post on this forum? ummmmm....

as others have said, try smaller batches first. better yet, read all you can about soapmaking before you try even a smaller batch. sorry to sound uncharitable, but something's amiss...

 

[tespring]

Personally, I would start with a much smaller amount, otherwise you might make a mistake and have to throw it all out. 16 pounds of oils is very expensive to throw away as well as the lye that it takes to make it into soap. Then you have to figure your fragrance oil, essential oils and any add ins into that figure and you are looking into a large investment. If you are making 16 lbs, it would take 16 ozs of fragrance oils, at 2+ dollars per ounce (minimum), you are looking at 32+ dollars of fragrance oils alone if you are doing Cold Process, this is not counting the oils and lye cost.

 

[judymoody]

I agree with what everybody else said, start small. Most of my batches are 1-2 lbs. However, you asked for a recipe and I have a suggestion. Go to www.millersoap.com There are wonderful recipes of all sorts there. I have used a number of them and they all worked well. If you find one you like you can enter it into soapcalc.net and size it up or down according to your batch size.

The largest batch I've made was around six pounds; it was my very first batch and was not very good soap. It was OK but I've since made much better. I've got most of that batch left.

For 16 lbs. you would need a very large stainless steel pot or other safe vessel, a stick blender for sure, and a safe way to pour all of that soap.

Safety goggles and gloves are highly recommended.

 

[heartandsoap]

what Krissy said.

The funny thing I noticed about books when I first started was the HUGE recipes they gave. One Book I got every recipe has 86oz of oil in it. It's crazy. If you have a trusted 4lb batch it's easy to multiply.

 

[FloridaSoaper]

It scared me just to make a 1lb batch last April when I started! But it's been fun to go up...the biggest batch Ive made so far is 3lbs. I know that sounds small...but I have a family of 4 and too much soap sitting around is not economical for us. Good luck!

 

[Indian soap princess]

Hello all from Indian Soap Princess

Thank you for all your replies.

Nope! This isn't my first try at soap making. I have already done 7 batches of smaller recipes. Most of the recipes are ones that I concocted from east indian ingrediants to make Ayurvedic soaps and healing soaps. Unfortunately it's hard to measure out some of these spices

That is why I asked if anyone out there can please provide a recipe that yields 16lbs.

Don't know why everyone is discouraging me. If I mess up ..no worries..it's all a learning process. As far as paying for ingredients, it's not an issue since most of the stuff I get from India cheap. I have seen the prices online for coconut oil especially; thats because there is huge shortage in coconuts...in the east as well as the South Pacific.

Thank you again for all your words of wisdom. I truely appreciate it and there were a lot of tips that make me think a bit more.

Have a wonderful day all!

 

[honor435]

Just plug in your oils that you want to use on soap calc. What did you use the other t times? did you like it? I use oo, po, co, castor, shea and am happy with it.

 

[PrairieCraft]

I think people have discouraged you because it seems that anyone who is going to be making such a large amount of soap would know how to do it.

Obviously you know what ingredients you have and want to use. You just went about asking for help in the wrong way.

We don't know you so a little story of 'this is who I am' and 'these are the ingredients I would like to use' would have probably given you better responses.

 

[carebear]

Not discouraging you from soaping, just trying to help. But carry on - just size-up your favorite recipe, then. you can enter the %s into soapcalc.com and then at the top enter your batch size.

you really should learn, if you don't already know, how to use a lye calculator. soapcalc.com is just one option. alternatively you can do the math yourself.

a 16# batch may well perform very differently from your 7 previous smaller batches.

best of luck to you