Glycerin

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mommycarlson

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Hi,
I have a recipe for a soap that calls for glycerin to be added. I had to recalculate the recipe but unfortunately soapcalc does not have a space to recalculate the glycerin. Can anyone advise me on how much to add? I appreciate the help
Thank you
Beth
 
Glycerin is produced when the alkali breaks down the oils. I would not add glycerin to a bar soap recipe. However, it is common to add glycerin to a liquid soap recipe (and it is substituted in for part of the water amount). Which one do you have?

If you could share the recipe, we may be able to help.
 
It's a shampoo/conditioner bar
Castor 4.48 oz
Coconut 8.32 oz
Olive 8.32 oz
Jojoba 2.56 oz
Canola 8.32

And yes, I plan to make this as a CP, it's a recipe from Soap Maker's Workshop by Dr Robert and Katherine McDaniel,
I put it through soapcalc since the recipe is huge.
 
Well, he certainly has credentials and experience. But...

Have you ever used a shampoo bar? You may be glad you've converted to a smaller recipe.

Do you know what percentage your reduced the original recipe by? Then do that with the glycerin.
Or simply leave it out. It won't affect the lye amount.
 
^^^^ this. It's very simple - it might not always seem that way, many people struggle with maths.

But if you are making 1/4 batch size, reduce the glycerine to 1/4 of the amount. If it is not clear how much the reduction was- pick one figure (coconut, say) and divide the original amount by your new amount. Note it down. Now divide the glycerine by that number that you noted and you have your new glycerine amount
 
http://www.summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer

Once you get your recipe entered, just hit "click here when done", then scroll to the bottom and tell it how much you want to make. You can sub in the glycerin for however much of the water you want to.

But, after reading your comment about the recipe being a shampoo/conditioner bar, I am again confused. It is either a shampoo OR a conditioner bar. It can't be both at once. If it is a "conditioner" bar, it would essential be a lotion bar that does not need glycerin.
 
The book says it's a shampoo/conditioner bar. He says in his notes that castor oil and additional glycerin are used to boost and stabilize the lather. It doesn't matter to me if it's in there so I was glad to hear that I could leave it out. I am not good at math, and usually have to ask DH to help me but this time I used soapcalc and instructions from someone on how to recalculate a recipe without doing math :) unfortunately it doesn't recalculate the additional additives. And I have used a shampoo bar on my hair for more than a year now, and 9 months or so of that time has been my own homemade shampoo bars. I appreciate everyone's responses, thank you so much!

update: Susie, I used the recipe resizer in the link you sent, the amounts are different than soapcalc, but I did do lye concentration on soapcalc and I'm assuming the summerbee meadow one is water as percent of oil weight. I have only done two recipes using the lye concentration method so it's new and experimental to me. what method would be better?
 
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I've seen recipes described as shampoo/conditioner. I think it's because they have some extra oils (or glycerin). Kind of like Head n Shoulders is described as shampoo + conditioner.

I see no harm in adding some glycerin. I mix my colors with glycerin - a tip I picked up here that works great!
 
For what it's worth, I always add glycerin to my shaving soap (10% worth) to help sustain the foamy lather from fizzling out too soon.


IrishLass :)
 
Thank you Irishlass. I've also been experimenting with the lye concentration method instead of the water as % of oil weight, so far it works, I've only done it twice :)
 
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