theginkgohouse
New Member
Hi All -
I would love a second set of eyes on this formulation before I go ahead with it. I have never made cold process soap before, and I am very pasture raised pork lard from a local farmer. He actually wants me to wholesale him soap from his own animals. I figured I should learn how to make soap first
I do feel very well prepared to make my first batch. I've watched a **** ton of videos, know all the terms, have ready roughly 1.2 trillion articles and recipes, etc.
I am very experienced with lotion batch calculators and other calculators like that. I've been making balms, chapsticks, etc. for years so I just wanted to give you that background to prove that I know math. However... why don't any of the lye calculators START with the finished batch size based on a general guideline of water to oil ratio? I feel that I must be missing something. This confuses me beyond.
1) I am using the brambleberry 5lb wooden mold with the silicone liner. I called brambleberry and they said that the silicone liner results in 76oz of soap. I was surprised that it only takes 4oz away from the 5lb mold, but they must be right, right? Does anyone have experience with this specific product and can confirm 76oz?
2) I read in another post here that water weight is roughly 1/3rd of the formula. So 76oz x 2/3 = about 51oz of oils and therefore 25oz of water. Can anyone confirm that this is reasonable? This is where I get confused or expect this soap calculator to do more. If it knows water is roughly 1/3rd, why doesn't the calculator do this?
3) Soap Calc asks for % of water, so what would that be? I will just use 33% because I think I read that somewhere as being "medium" firmness. I was actually hoping to water discount for a harder bar, what is the water % for a harder bar?
4) I read that when using a silicone mold, it is recommended to use sodium lactate at 3%. Can anyone confirm that this is reasonable for easy release?
5) Where do I add that in Soap Calc? Or do I just do 3% of the water ... so after "View/print" my recipe, water is
16.83% so I would do 3% of that?
6) I want to superfat at 8% because I hear that makes a really luxurious bar that is nourishing. This is obviously not a bar of cleaning dishes or doing laundry. Many experienced soapers on this forum say they never superfat below 8%. Is there any way you could just confirm that its not an idiotic thing to do?
7) No fragrances here to worry about, I'm an au naturale kinda girl
8) See my attached formula. I was surprised to see that on the scales of the different characteristics, soap calc says its a 1 for cleansing and a 1 for bubbly. I thought lard and castor oil and sodium lactate all have bubbly properties? Am I making a huge mistake here?
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ANY ASSISTANCE HERE. I am basically using all my beautiful rendered lard to make this 5lb batch, so I want to make sure I am at least starting off with a good formula.
I would love a second set of eyes on this formulation before I go ahead with it. I have never made cold process soap before, and I am very pasture raised pork lard from a local farmer. He actually wants me to wholesale him soap from his own animals. I figured I should learn how to make soap first
I do feel very well prepared to make my first batch. I've watched a **** ton of videos, know all the terms, have ready roughly 1.2 trillion articles and recipes, etc.
I am very experienced with lotion batch calculators and other calculators like that. I've been making balms, chapsticks, etc. for years so I just wanted to give you that background to prove that I know math. However... why don't any of the lye calculators START with the finished batch size based on a general guideline of water to oil ratio? I feel that I must be missing something. This confuses me beyond.
1) I am using the brambleberry 5lb wooden mold with the silicone liner. I called brambleberry and they said that the silicone liner results in 76oz of soap. I was surprised that it only takes 4oz away from the 5lb mold, but they must be right, right? Does anyone have experience with this specific product and can confirm 76oz?
2) I read in another post here that water weight is roughly 1/3rd of the formula. So 76oz x 2/3 = about 51oz of oils and therefore 25oz of water. Can anyone confirm that this is reasonable? This is where I get confused or expect this soap calculator to do more. If it knows water is roughly 1/3rd, why doesn't the calculator do this?
3) Soap Calc asks for % of water, so what would that be? I will just use 33% because I think I read that somewhere as being "medium" firmness. I was actually hoping to water discount for a harder bar, what is the water % for a harder bar?
4) I read that when using a silicone mold, it is recommended to use sodium lactate at 3%. Can anyone confirm that this is reasonable for easy release?
5) Where do I add that in Soap Calc? Or do I just do 3% of the water ... so after "View/print" my recipe, water is
16.83% so I would do 3% of that?
6) I want to superfat at 8% because I hear that makes a really luxurious bar that is nourishing. This is obviously not a bar of cleaning dishes or doing laundry. Many experienced soapers on this forum say they never superfat below 8%. Is there any way you could just confirm that its not an idiotic thing to do?
7) No fragrances here to worry about, I'm an au naturale kinda girl
8) See my attached formula. I was surprised to see that on the scales of the different characteristics, soap calc says its a 1 for cleansing and a 1 for bubbly. I thought lard and castor oil and sodium lactate all have bubbly properties? Am I making a huge mistake here?
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ANY ASSISTANCE HERE. I am basically using all my beautiful rendered lard to make this 5lb batch, so I want to make sure I am at least starting off with a good formula.