curious about my recipes

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amanda_hughes

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I just read Soap/Lye Calculator: a guide. And now I'm worried about my recipes. Ok not so much worried but curious. For the life of me I CANNOT figure out how to use the soapcalc. I use the MMS The Sage lye calculator. Could someone please run my recipes thru the soapcalc for me? I would greatly appreciate it. I am curious about what soapcalc would say about my 3 recipes.

Recipe #1: coconut oil-10oz (31.25%)
Grapeseed oil- 4oz (12.50%)
Olive oil- 12oz (37.50%)
Sunflower oil- 6oz (18.75%)
I used 4.5oz lye and 9oz of distilled water. I used 1.5oz fo


Recipe #2: shortening- 425g
Olive oil- 441g
Coconut oil- 40g
The shortening is cottonseed and soy so I just used cottonseed on the calculator since it doesn't have one for shortening.
I used 118g lye and 226ml distilled water. I used 2oz fo.

Recipe #3: olive oil- 510g (18oz) (56.25%)
Shortening (under cottonseed oil)- 255g (9oz) (28.12%)
Grapeseed oil- 56g (2oz) (6.25%)
Sunflower oil- 56g (2oz) (6.25%)
Cocoa butter- 28g (1oz) (3.12%)
I used 117g of lye and 237ml of distilled water. With roughly 1oz fo.


I have already made these and so far they are fine. I have yet to unmold #3.

Thank you in advance! I don't know why but I just can't figure out the soapcalc. I like using the sage but I would like to know how my soaps will be.
 
I think its because you use soapcalc to determine your lye and water amounts. You already have them listed and thats not the way soapcalc works. Soapcalc will determine those for you when you load in your oils.

The easiest way to use soapcalc is to let it use the defaults for water/lye %. Just plug in your oil batch weight, then your oils one by one, then let it calculate for you. Don't be afraid to play around with it. After a while you will learn to love plugging in all sorts of recipes. I use it to make up new recipes and tweak old ones.
 
I guess I find myself wondering ... why not stick with the MMS calculator? Is there a reason why you want to switch if you already know and are comfortable using the MMS calc? Many folks use it and I understand it has a good reputation.
 
Just wanted to check the hardness n such. Which I finally figured out how to use soap cal,, first soap is Good.. Second soap not so much haven't checked my this soap yet.. I well still use the sages calculator but will check the quality on soapcalc..
 
I'm about 2 hours north of you, Amanda, in northeast Iowa. Nice to hear you figured out soapcalc....
 
Thanks DeeAnna! I'm glad I finally figured it out... leave it to something so simple to stump me beyond belief lol..

OAN: I unmoolded my #3 soap. VERY disappointed. Extremely soft and still zapping when I touch some soap to my tongue. I ran my recipe thru the sage lye calculator and measured very carefully - or so I thought. I wanted to skip gel so I soaped cold, put my mold in the freezer, left it for a 2 days then moved it to the fridge yesterday. Took it out and put it in mykkkkk little soap nook (a cupboard I took over). But I just couldn't wait any longer and unmolded it and cut it. IT TURNED OUT SO BEAUTIFUL! That's why I am so sad. I attempted the hanger swirl and I got an awesome lookin swirl. But now I'm worried its not going to harden and I'm worried about it still zapping. (Excuse my rambling) I have them sitting in front of a fan right now. My thinking is it might help to harden them just a bit more, more like praying it does.

When I ran it thru soapcalc this is what I got:
Hardness: 20
Cleansing: 0
Conditioning: 78
Bubbly: 0
Creamy: 20
Iodine: 96
INS: 97

Is there anyway I can save this soap? Its just so pretty, light orange and green swirls.. I love experimenting just wish I woulda figured out soapcalc BEFORE I made this one. Sigh... :(
 
You should wait a few days and see what happens. If you suppressed gel, it will also slow saponification and it can take a week or more before the reaction is complete. If you don't gel, your soap will also be softer initially but it should firm up. I didn't run your recipe through a lye calculator but assuming it's balanced, I'd hold off. There is no time limit for rebatching if you need to go that route.

You used almost all liquid oils, so I'm not surprised it's soft. With that % of olive oil and with full water and no gelling, it will take awhile to firm up and your cure time might be extended for a few more weeks.

Hardness, by the way, has to do with how quickly your soap will dissolve, not whether or not you can dent it with your finger.
 
Oooh judymoody you just lifted my soaping spirits! I will just put it in my nook then and wait it out. I was really upset thinking I would have to throw it out. Having used the rest of my lye n oils my hubby, the amazing man he is, gave me a free pass to splurge a little n reup my supplies sooner. but now that I have figured out soapcalc I'm going to mess around with it for a bit before making anymore soap.
 
IMG_20130620_213751_zpscc73d9e1.jpg.html



I'm hoping this works.. if it does, its soap #3..
 
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