Advice please

[DOOSE]

Hello fellow soapmakers
Would anyone be able to tell me how I can make a very very small batch of cp soap.
I am after a 'go to " recipe that I can add other ingredients to such as milk powder..
Thanks in advance. Leanne

 

[artemis]

Have you learned how to use a soap calculator? There are several good ones out there.

 

[lsg]

Use Soapmaking Recipe Builder & Lye Calculator
or
http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp to resize your recipe.

 

[earlene]

Hello fellow soapmakers
Would anyone be able to tell me how I can make a very very small batch of cp soap.
I am after a 'go to " recipe that I can add other ingredients to such as milk powder..
Thanks in advance. Leanne

Have you made soap yet? Do you have a recipe in mind or read one somewhere that you want to try out? What kind of research have you done on soapmaking; what have you read so far? Do you have a book on soapmaking, or have you watched any youtube videos on soapmaking or read any soapmaking blogs?

Just trying to get an idea of where you are in the journey.

 

[dibbles]

When you say 'very, very small batch' - how small are you wanting your batch to be? If you haven't made soap of any kind yet, I wouldn't try to make a batch smaller than 1 pound. If you are trying to make one 4-ounce or so bar at a time, you would need a jeweler's scale (gram scale) as it is very easy to make errors in weights without one when using tiny amounts of oils/additives.

 

[Relle]

As you are in Australia, you can buy scales with 1 gram increments. No need to buy jewellers scales. Aldi sometimes get scales in or try k mart, woolies or coles. The minimum you should try would be 500 grams total oils, although I started with 1 kg. As for a go to recipe just read back in the beginners forum and pick one you like and give it a try. There are plenty to pick from, it's all about reading and gleaning the info you require. As said above, when you have your recipe you put it in the soap calc. and you can make any size you want, it's all adjustable. Getting use to a soap calc. before making soap is a must for a beginner. Also there is a search bar in the top right hand corner for the forum.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I am after a 'go to " recipe that I can add other ingredients to such as milk powder..

Here is a "starter" formula, that once you make the basic recipe successfully, and understand the 3 legs of the formula and what each brings to the final result, you can tweak it to your heart's content -- sub different oils, add color, add fragrance, add milk powder as well as other dry ingredients like oat flour, herbs, spices, activated charcoal -- the choices are endless.

BASIC TRINITY OF OILS

HAPPY SOAPING!

 

[DOOSE]

Here is a "starter" formula, that once you make the basic recipe successfully, and understand the 3 legs of the formula and what each brings to the final result, you can tweak it to your heart's content -- sub different oils, add color, add fragrance, add milk powder as well as other dry ingredients like oat flour, herbs, spices, activated charcoal -- the choices are endless.

BASIC TRINITY OF OILS

HAPPY SOAPING!

Many thanks for great advice x

Thanks for the advice .great to hear from experienced soap makers would you be able to.pls let me know some easy recipes. Kind regards Leanne

Have you made soap yet? Do you have a recipe in mind or read one somewhere that you want to try out? What kind of research have you done on soapmaking; what have you read so far? Do you have a book on soapmaking, or have you watched any youtube videos on soapmaking or read any soapmaking blogs?

Just trying to get an idea of where you are in the journey.

Thanks so much for replying.. I've made a fair bit of cp soap watch lots of tutorials also.. I sometimes just want to make about 4 or so bars to see how they turn out ??? I'm finding if I use rice bran or olive oil with coconut oil and tallow it works well tho when cured can be quite brittle and really y dry to the touch !! A small amount other castor oil seems to help
I was hoping once I have a reliable recipe that I can add other ingredients but am a little hesitant as I don't want to ruin the recipe.
Thanks again for helping kind regards Leanne

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Main troubles with small batches is weighing (depending on what you call “small”, 1 g resolution might well be too inaccurate, 0.1 g is better), and stick-blending (or rather, the inability to SB, or the difficulty to find something with the blending qualities of a SB, but the size of a milk frother).

Weighing will be annoying or even dangerous, since measurement inaccuracies amplify in smaller batch sizes – particularly troublesome with superfat balance. Residues sticking to walls of beakers become an issue (single droplets of lye, e. g.). Heat/temperature management becomes an issue (false trace).

My personal lower limits of comfortable batch size are about 100 g oils for HP (evaporation-limited), and 20 g oils for CP (that's what I personally would call a “small CP batch”, when the granularity of the lye pellets become another limiting factor). [ETA: Don't mistake this as sound advice, or even as an invitation to copy me. I am crazy. My largest batch ever was from 315 g oils, I have no idea at all about “regular” batch sizes and scaling up things.]


One thing you should consider (for various reasons) as a “reliable recipe” is masterbatching. Pre-mix a 35% lye solution, and pre-mix 39% palm + 39% olive and 22% coconut (basic trinity recipe), melted up and quickly cooled/stirred in the fridge to avoid separation. Unless you're doing weird things with this recipe (or your skin behaves very special), it shouldn't give you brittle or drying soap.

You now have consistent composition ensured over dozens of test batches, with only three weighings (lye solution + oil blend + additives) per soap portion.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Thanks for the advice .great to hear from experienced soap makers would you be able to.pls let me know some easy recipes. Kind regards Leanne

"Basic Trinity of Oils", underlined and green is a link. Click on the link in Post #7

 

[KimW]

I sometimes just want to make about 4 or so bars to see how they turn out ???

So, you're wanting to make a 500g (approx 1 pound) batch then? I don't think that's what most would call a very very small batch of soap, unless you mean you want to make four bars, but make them one at a time (?).

Reference link from @Zany_in_CO for your answer of recipe and @ResolvableOwl's reply for some kind cautions about truly small batches (which I agree with, btw though I've never done a batch as small as 20g). And, done.

Hope you share the pics of your tiny soaps with us!