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soxysarah

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This is my first post so hi every one i need some adive this is my recipe
100g shea butter, 500g sunflower oil, 400g coconut oil, 250ml water, 145g lye, 10ml lemongrass essential oil, 10g dry herbs
this is my very fist soap making venture my question is cp or hp? tks from sarah
ps, i'm leaning more towards Cp and do i need to line my plastic mould
 
Hi and welcome!

Run your recipe through a lye calculator like www.soapcalc.net to make sure your lye amount is correct. It defaults to 38% water WRT oil weight and 5% superfat which are appropriate for new soapers. Do this for ANY recipe you find, in a book or on the internet. There is a lot of misinformation out there and it would be a shame to have lye-heavy soap the first time around.

Sunflower oil can have a short shelf life and can lead potentially to rancid soaps. There are two kinds - one is high oleic and if you look at the label on your oil, if it's higher in monounsaturated fats then it's the high oleic kind. The regular kind is high in linoleic acids which is more prone to spoilage. Generally, sunflower oil is best used in lower quantities - say 20% of your recipe.

You might want to consider using olive oil instead of sunflower - where I live there isn't much difference in price. Regular olive oil (not virgin or extra virgin) is fine and even preferable in soap. You could also try pomace olive oil which is cheaper still. Some soapers find that it speeds up trace but that hasn't been my experience.

Finally, your recipe calls for fragrance at 1% of your oil weight. That's likely to be pretty faint in the final product. Lemongrass is pretty potent and it sticks well. You might want to up your ratio to 30 grams or 3%.

I think CP is easier than HP but everybody has their own opinion on that.

Finally, a good site for beginners is www.millersoap.com Her recipes are large so they'd need to be scaled down and run through a lye calculator as you would do with any recipe. There is a lot of helpful information there.

Good luck - hope this isn't overwhelming!
 
tks so much for the reply next tima around i'll try your ideas but this is a kit i bought
 
Hi and welcome to soap making!

I think you need to check soap calc first - http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcWP.asp
I've checked your recipe and it appears to have discounted the water by quite a bit, which is risky when you're a newbie and still not confident with trace, light trace, mid trace and heavy trace.

If you choose not to adjust the amount of sunflower oil with olive oil ... this soap will have a limited life after it's cured.

Also the amount of lemongrass EO is 1% ... very low and may mean that there will be little to no smell when the soap has cured.

Good luck with soaping ... it can be challenging getting a good recipe together, but asking for advice on this forum is always a good start!
 
I only used such a small amount of water once, and I was so disappointed that (even after making soap for years) it just went way too fast for me. So if it's your first batch, I think it's not a good idea and borderline dangerous... I think you need at least a 2:1 ratio and even still I think more is better for you since it's your first time (suppose you forget a spoon and have to leave for ten seconds... it matters)

I agree you should include olive oil... and I suggest picking up a pound of lard too.. thin out some of that large sunflower amount... where did you get this kit? It's kinda weird to me that a vendor would sell that..

Eveything said above sounds great too.. the scent may not be impressive. I don't know what herbs you plan on using, but keep in mind that they turn brown over time (and have been given the affectionate nickname of 'rat poo')

Heres another link for ya http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm
 
Hello soxyarah and welcome! :)

I hope this doesn't come off as being persnickety since I certainly don't mean it in that way (and please just humor me and nod your head kindly if you already know the following that I am about to say :wink: ): Since you are new to soaping, my first big concern is where you purchased the kit and whether or not it came with directions on how to handle lye safely and properly? Lye is very caustic and can harm you if the proper safety precautions are not followed. Make sure no children and pets are around to get in your way or underfoot, and make sure to wear goggles and gloves and don't breathe in the lye fumes when pouring and mixing the lye into the water.

The lye amount, which would be my next biggest concern, seems a pretty safe and standard amount for the oils/fats in the recipe, so no worries there.

My next concern is the water amount. I agree with DragonKaz and Healinya in that the water amount is pretty low for someone who has never made soap before. It comes out to a 39%-40% lye concentration on SoapCalc (an online lye calculator), which is pretty steep for a first time venture. Kit or no kit, though, you can always add more water. I personally would use at least 300 mL (10 oz) of water total, and even more than that if I were going to HP it (400 mL or 13 oz).

After making sure all safety precautions are in place, I personally would go with the CP method the first time out. I've done both and I find CP to be much easier.

If you have any question, please don't hesitate to ask!


IrishLass :)
 
after months of research i discided to give soap making ago looked on line for a kit with shea butter in it as i love the stuff i got it from The Natural Store i was so scared about the lye and went over bord with safety two long sleeved shirt, two sets of glove, goggles and face mask. well i did it its now sitting safe and sound NO touching! for 48hrs lol i used CP next time i'll not need the kit i'm gonna do some easyer ones for beginners i will take onboard all the comments and thank you all got my fingers crossed for my first soap :D should i use this book for my nexted batch The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soaps? thank you all
 
I would probably go with the Everything Soapmaking Book and loads of online research.

Don't be scared of Lye- respect it. It won't jump out and bite you but you do have to handle it safely.

And for the love of Pete (whoever Pete is) don't discount your water the first batches out. Get comfortable with the process and then slowly start discounting if you want. Soap will be soap as long as it's measured correctly and it will all cure in time.

I would soap with full water for at least a year. You never know what can happen with fragrance and other outside factors when you are making soap.
With full water- your lye solution is weaker so it should in theory be easier to soap. I would make your soap after you study all safety precautions and what to do if lye accidentally pops onto your skin, etc...

Good luck! :)
 
soxysarah said:
after months of research i discided to give soap making ago looked on line for a kit with shea butter in it as i love the stuff i got it from The Natural Store i was so scared about the lye and went over bord with safety two long sleeved shirt, two sets of glove, goggles and face mask. well i did it its now sitting safe and sound NO touching! for 48hrs lol i used CP next time i'll not need the kit i'm gonna do some easyer ones for beginners i will take onboard all the comments and thank you all got my fingers crossed for my first soap :D should i use this book for my nexted batch The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soaps? thank you all

you DID it!!!!
 
soxysarah said:
after months of research i discided to give soap making ago looked on line for a kit with shea butter in it as i love the stuff i got it from The Natural Store i was so scared about the lye and went over bord with safety two long sleeved shirt, two sets of glove, goggles and face mask. well i did it its now sitting safe and sound NO touching! for 48hrs lol i used CP next time i'll not need the kit i'm gonna do some easyer ones for beginners i will take onboard all the comments and thank you all got my fingers crossed for my first soap :D should i use this book for my nexted batch The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soaps? thank you all

I have that book and think it answers most questions for a new soaper and its not expensive. Not sure if anyone answered your question about lining and the answer is - yes, line it.
Stinkydancer - for the love of Pete (whoever Pete is),he's my dh LOL.
 
It's great you've made your first batch of soap!

I never bought any books before making soap, but gathered information by watch youtube and following a number blogs like Soap Queen and soap suppliers like Bramble Berry.

This forum is an excellent resource and I love the 'search' tool, for when I'm looking up how to do something or find out more about something.

Enjoy soapmaking!
 
thanks for all your help i've just bought candle and soap making for dummies just to start me off to Dragonkaz i've done all that and more as i love doing research many months have past since i started looking at soap making as a hobby. i can't wait to do my nexted batch well only 24hrs to go god this waiting is hard i'll let you all know how it looks ohh and question should i air the soap on a cardboard box or whats the best thing to use? many many thanks too all of you xxx
 
hello again well I'm back the soap kit i brought was awesome and the soap i made was wicked and smelled great. I've made my next batch and use colour and fragrance using my own recipe it made 3 bars of soap and they were good but needed to be more lathery but hay it was only my second go and a small batch one scared me as it curdled so that went in the bin. so any way i have a beautiful rose mould now it holds 3.9oz of water but I'm unshore of how to measure the thing. can i use the 3.9oz and times it by 6 (23.40oz) and use that and the weight of oils? :?
 
soxysarah said:
hello again well I'm back the soap kit i brought was awesome and the soap i made was wicked and smelled great. I've made my next batch and use colour and fragrance using my own recipe it made 3 bars of soap and they were good but needed to be more lathery but hay it was only my second go and a small batch one scared me as it curdled so that went in the bin. so any way i have a beautiful rose mould now it holds 3.9oz of water but I'm unshore of how to measure the thing. can i use the 3.9oz and times it by 6 (23.40oz) and use that and the weight of oils? :?
i've just looked dose this sound right
l 3inc
w 3inh
d 1.5 inch

3 inch x 3inch =9
9 x 1.5= 13.5= 5.4
5.4x 6= 32.4
 

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