formulation help needed

[amal]

hiii guy
am amal from Egypt, trying to be a soaper but i need your help actually, first what is the difference between sodium lactate and sodium hydroxide and the best to use in cold process method as my professor told me that they are the same ???
second is this recipe good
olive oil 200mg
distilled water 63.14 mg
NAOH 27.06 mg
and is this enough to start a soap, would it be a good one
3rd, iam about to buy material these day what chemical do you recommend me to have other than NAOH, sodium lactate and oils ,what else????

 

[soap1daze]

Here is a suggestion a good place to start;

For 500 gram batch of soap;
Olive Oil 250 grams, coconut Oil 125 grams, Palm Oil 100 grams and Castor Oil 25 grams, Lye NaOH 69 grams and Water 140 grams. You must have access to a good lye calculator or know the math to do the calculating yourself if you change any of the amounts or oils in this suggestion.

For 1000 gram batch;
Olive Oil 500 grams, Coconut Oil 250 grams, Palm Oil 200 grams and Castor Oil 50 grams, Lye NaOH 139 grams and Water 280 grams. You must have access to a good lye calculator or know the math to do the calculating yourself if you change any of the amounts or oils in this suggestion.

Hope that helps.

 

[IrishLass]

hiii guy
am amal from Egypt, trying to be a soaper but i need your help actually, first what is the difference between sodium lactate and sodium hydroxide and the best to use in cold process method as my professor told me that they are the same ???

Hello Amal- sodium lactate and sodium hydroxide are not the same. They are two very different things. Sodium lactate is basically a humectant, and sodium hydroxide (NaOH, or lye) is a caustic.

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH, or lye) is absolutely essential for making cold process soap- one cannot make soap without it.

Sodium lactate, on the other hand, can be a helpful additive in soap (it helps make a harder bar that's easier to unmold and can lend a nice creamy boost to the lather, etc...), but it is not an absolutely essential ingredient as is NaOH.


IrishLass

 

[earlene]

You do not need sodium lactate at all. You can save money and just not buy it. The main ingredient that helps unmold the soap sooner, is salt. Table salt is a much cheaper ingredient and you probably already have some salt.

Is some countries, SL is so hard to find that some soapers don't use it at all, yet make fine soap.

As for what to buy in addition to NaOH and oils, I highly recommend a good digital scale and a nice stick blender/immersion blender. A 100% Olive Oil soap can take a long time to come to trace when stirred by hand, so a stick blender is quite useful to shorten your time stirring the batter. But don't over-use the SB as short bursts are best so you don't burn out the motor. A SB is not essential, but a good scale is really necessary.

 

[amal]

You do not need sodium lactate at all. You can save money and just not buy it. The main ingredient that helps unmold the soap sooner, is salt. Table salt is a much cheaper ingredient and you probably already have some salt.

Is some countries, SL is so hard to find that some soapers don't use it at all, yet make fine soap.

As for what to buy in addition to NaOH and oils, I highly recommend a good digital scale and a nice stick blender/immersion blender. A 100% Olive Oil soap can take a long time to come to trace when stirred by hand, so a stick blender is quite useful to shorten your time stirring the batter. But don't over-use the SB as short bursts are best so you don't burn out the motor. A SB is not essential, but a good scale is really necessary.

i have bought a digital scale, 500gm NAOH,some equipments and all i need now is the hand blender as you said and the recipe, i have been looking foe a good now, i thought i would start by olive oil soap but then i found it had no cleansing effect, so iam searching for new ones

 

[snappyllama]

Hi, you have to take the soap qualities listed with a grain of salt. No cleansing really should be listed as "no stripping". Even 100% olive oil soap will cleanse. It just has a lot of oleic acid in it which makes a very gentle (not stripping) soap. Those are called castille soap and traditionally have a one year cure time!

A common beginner soap recipe a lot of folks get started with:

20% Coconut Oil (CO has lots of lather, but is very stripping/cleansing so it's best at lower amounts)
50% Palm/Tallow/Lard
30% Olive Oil

Optional:
5% Castor (if you can get it easily - reduce the Olive Oil by this amount)

Superfat between 5% - 7%. (I think this depends on climate. I like a higher superfat in more arid climates).

This makes a nice/balanced bar.

 

[amal]

Hi, you have to take the soap qualities listed with a grain of salt. No cleansing really should be listed as "no stripping". Even 100% olive oil soap will cleanse. It just has a lot of oleic acid in it which makes a very gentle (not stripping) soap. Those are called castille soap and traditionally have a one year cure time!

A common beginner soap recipe a lot of folks get started with:

20% Coconut Oil (CO has lots of lather, but is very stripping/cleansing so it's best at lower amounts)
50% Palm/Tallow/Lard
30% Olive Oil

Optional:
5% Castor (if you can get it easily - reduce the Olive Oil by this amount)

Superfat between 5% - 7%. (I think this depends on climate. I like a higher superfat in more arid climates).

This makes a nice/balanced bar.

i also looking for a bubbly effect, that is why i don't prefer adding OO only, i have a problem in having tallow or lard as i don't need to have these ingredients in my recipe ,so iam looking for a palm oil but is this an essential one??, or would it give me the bubbly and cleansing effect that would be satisfied ???

 

[cmzaha]

Here is another suggestion for a veggie soap:
Coconut Oil, or Palm Kernel Oil or a combination of the two equaling 20%
Liquid oil of choice OO, Avocado Oil, or any High Oleic liquid oil 25%
Palm Oil 45%
Shea Butter or Butter of Choice 10%
Superfat 4%
This recipe is similiar to my vegan soap. If you do not want butter you can add the 10% to your palm or liquid oil.

 

[earlene]

Amal, depending on what is available for a reasonable price where you live (Egypt, I see), choose the oils that you prefer to trial in smaller amounts until you are happy with the resulting soap.

The drawback to a 100% olive oil soap is really the cure time, rather than the bubbliness or cleansing factor. All soap cleans, so that's not an issue with high olive oil. But high olive oil soaps take longer to cure before they are at their optimum best in soap.

Therefore, if you can get your hands on coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter or cocoa butter, in addition to the olive oil, you can formulate a soap that won't take as long to cure. I don't mind a long cure, but I already have a lot of soap I can use while waiting for another to cure, plus I have a enough space for storing soap that requires a longer cure.

 

[amal]

Hi, you have to take the soap qualities listed with a grain of salt. No cleansing really should be listed as "no stripping". Even 100% olive oil soap will cleanse. It just has a lot of oleic acid in it which makes a very gentle (not stripping) soap. Those are called castille soap and traditionally have a one year cure time!

A common beginner soap recipe a lot of folks get started with:

20% Coconut Oil (CO has lots of lather, but is very stripping/cleansing so it's best at lower amounts)
50% Palm/Tallow/Lard
30% Olive Oil

Optional:
5% Castor (if you can get it easily - reduce the Olive Oil by this amount)

Superfat between 5% - 7%. (I think this depends on climate. I like a higher superfat in more arid climates).

This makes a nice/balanced bar.

i think this recipe would work for me , but i don't get the concept of superfat , i mean is there a certain oil works as a superfat what this word means and how we apply it to the recipe ???
and if i do this recipe this soap would be considered a CO or OO soap and what percentage of superfat is needed??

@earlene i think i would look for palm oil beside CO as i consider they would be essential to my recipe as long cure time affect me as it would be my first batch and wouldn't wait a month to see the result, and i need a bubbly effect too, so i will see, hope me the best, and thank you for your help ,all of u actually,this forum helps me alot ))))

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

In cold process, it's better referred to as a lye discount. You use x% less lye than would be needed to saponify all of the oil. So with a 5% superfat/lye discount, you use 5% less lye than would be needed to saponify the oils. This means that 5% of the oils aren't saponified.

Regarding cure, a balanced bar with co and palm will still require a month long cure. A pure oo bar will need much more than that.

You can start testing your first batch at the end of a week, usually, but you can't judge it at all at that point. With experience, you can get a feel for how a recipe might end up after a full cure by using it earlier on, but even then it's not a certain thing.

 

[amal]

In cold process, it's better referred to as a lye discount. You use x% less lye than would be needed to saponify all of the oil. So with a 5% superfat/lye discount, you use 5% less lye than would be needed to saponify the oils. This means that 5% of the oils aren't saponified.

Regarding cure, a balanced bar with co and palm will still require a month long cure. A pure oo bar will need much more than that.

You can start testing your first batch at the end of a week, usually, but you can't judge it at all at that point. With experience, you can get a feel for how a recipe might end up after a full cure by using it earlier on, but even then it's not a certain thing.

You mean if my recipe require 20gm lye I would discount 5% of it (1gm)??
Another thing,superfat ratio fixed for all oils,or what define this ratio??

 

[earlene]

If you are using a lye/soap calculator, which I strongly recommend, the SF is calculated when you plug in the numbers.

Soapcalc: http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp
soapee: http://soapee.com/calculator
MMS the sage: https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/advanced-calculator-solid-cream-or-liquid-soaps
mendrulandia: http://calc.mendrulandia.es/ (available in multiple languages)

The two on top are frequently used by members, here, but I have also used the bottom three myself as well plus another one that was only available on android. More currently, I stick to soapee for ease of use and continuity. I think it's best to stick to the same one if possible.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

For most soaps, 5% is good. Anything with a lot of coconut will usually have up to 20%

 

[amal]

If you are using a lye/soap calculator, which I strongly recommend, the SF is calculated when you plug in the numbers.

Soapcalc: http://soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp
soapee: http://soapee.com/calculator
MMS the sage: https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html
http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/advanced-calculator-solid-cream-or-liquid-soaps
mendrulandia: http://calc.mendrulandia.es/ (available in multiple languages)

The two on top are frequently used by members, here, but I have also used the bottom three myself as well plus another one that was only available on android. More currently, I stick to soapee for ease of use and continuity. I think it's best to stick to the same one if possible.

Fine, I have tried soapcalc once, I will try now soapee, thanks a lot for your help

For most soaps, 5% is good. Anything with a lot of coconut will usually have up to 20%

Fine, I would consider this ratio in my recipe ,thanks

Thank you diapers for your help and I would share my final recipe with you to take your opinions and know if sth go wrong with me, much love ❤❤❤