recipe/soap calc help please.

[Lottee]

Hello,

I have been using a recipe that i got from a soapmaker (and shop) and it seems to work ok - although I have only just started so none of my bars are fully cured. They look good though! The only issue I had was that i never got a proper trace - only very light, but the soap sets ok so think its fine.

The recipe is in the book like this:

930ml (33fl oz) water
295g caustic soda
615g (22oz) coconut oil
800 ml (28fl oz) oliveoil
800 ml (28fl oz) sunflower oil
60ml EO

So, i have been measuring the liquids rather than weighing. I decided to weigh them today just to see how the resipe came out on soap calc. Not sure if I did this properly, but put a jug on the scale, zeroed it, it poured the liquid.
The sunflower oil was 715 gm for 800 ml - I assume the olive oil to be the same. The water was 1000gm for 930ml.

i used just a standard kitchen jug so I appreciate that it was not very accurate!
So I put my recipe into soap calc as follows

OO - 715
SO 715
CO 615
I followed the advice of EO at 50g per kg.

Soap calc then told me that my caustic soda should be 290.616gms so not far off the 295 I have used.
Water - 777.1 gms. !!
This is a lot less than the 1000gm or 930 ml I have been using. Maybe becuase the recipe was for anyone not used to soap making?
I have never used soap calc before so am not sure if I have done it properly. The soap I made first of all are fine. the ones I made this week Iare still a little too soft to turn out of their mouldstoday (friday a.m.) after making them weds lunchtime. Could this be due to the high water content? I will leave them another day and see how they are - one I managed to get out of the mould and slice but the others were a bit sticky though set.

Also, in the soap bar quality, all the values were in the range apart from Iodine which was 70 (instead of 41 - 70) and creamy which was 13 (16 - 48) bubbly was at the lower end of the range. Does it matter about the iodine level? And how can i increase creaminess? And do I need to?

Sorry for the long post and many questions!

 

[Lottee]

Sorry made a typo......iodine was 79.

 

[judymoody]

Congratulations for taking the initiative to check your recipe with soap calc! This is a very important step as errors can happen in books or on the internet. By doing this you have already discovered the answer to some of your questions.

1) yes, the soap is soft because of the high water content.
2) the soap also has a relatively high % of liquid oils (70%). That will contribute to a softer bar.
3) for me, I find the % of sunflower oil on the high side. It is prone to oxidation and can make your soap more likely to spoil over time.
4) the superfat of this recipe (amount of oils in excess of the lye needed to saponify them) is only about 3%. This is likely to produce a soap that is harsher/more drying. Assuming your measurements are correct, it's still safe to use. I'd aim for a superfat of 5-7%. You can change that number in soap calc when inputting your recipe.

There are great beginner recipes at soapqueen.com and at lovinsoap.com which are better balanced than this one. But, as always, run them through that lye calculator!

Hope this helps!

ETA: Also, weight rather than liquid measure is essential! Good for you!

 

[Lottee]

Thanks for your reply. I have found lots of other recipes to try, just so impatient with the cutting times!