Hi from South West London

[Antonia Nogales]

Hi all,

I am new in soap making world and I am loving it! so much that I am even thinking to start selling it although for the time being, this is a great way for me to create personalised presents while having fun.

I would love to meet people in my area who are into Soap making so that we can meet up and chat about soap making as well as make friends through this site and learn from those of you who have been doing it for a long time.

Cheers,
Antonia

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Hawksquill]

Welcome, Antonia! I lived in the UK but unfortunately no longer do, otherwise I'd be happy to meet up and chat about soap.

 

[Zgrumpyoldman]

Hello Antonia, and best of luck on your adventure in soap making.

 

[sirtim100]

A very warm welcome, Antonia!

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome, Antonia!


IrishLass

 

[Relle]

Welcome Antonia .

 

[Kiti Williams]

Welcome from NW Philly, PA, USA! We have a lot of fun here, so grab a chair and let's talk!

 

[LilyJo]

Hi Antonia, uk soaper here. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Antonia Nogales]

Thank you all for your warm welcomes and good wishes.
Happy 2020!! to all

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hola Antonia! I too used to live in London ( NW) - Ealing area but now I am back in my homeland of New Zealand. Welcome to our addiction. Looking forward to hearing about your soaps.

 

[Antonia Nogales]

Kia Ora, KiwiMoose! and thank you Where in NZ are you? I have been to mostly South Island, though I did go to a couple of places in the North Island too beautiful country and reminded me a lot of Europe

I will definitely share some of my successes as well as my failures, which will happen sooner or later .... actually, I should have said which has already happened since I just made a soap with a recipe I tried to develop and which contains too many oils & butters (I know) but some were new for me and couldn't wait to try one new addition at a time so I decided to combine them all in one soap bar and now, my final product is too soft as well as seeping oil .....
I can only assume is from using too much oil that doesn't fully get saponified (like Shea or Cocoa butter) or not enough lye :'( but according to the Lye calculator I used, the bar should have been hard enough as some of the oils I used helped get a harder soap bar. It is possible I made a mistake in my measurements but I think I did use the correct amounts.
Here is what I have:
Oil/Fat %
Castor Oil 9
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 17
Olive Oil 18
Cocoa Butter 5
Babassu Oil 10
Shea Butter 15
Avocado Oil 8
Mango Seed Butter 6
Neem Seed Oil 7.5
Jojoba Oil a Liquid Wax Ester 4.5

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Kia Ora, KiwiMoose! and thank you Where in NZ are you? I have been to mostly South Island, though I did go to a couple of places in the North Island too beautiful country and reminded me a lot of Europe


Oil/Fat %
Castor Oil 9
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 17
Olive Oil 18
Cocoa Butter 5
Babassu Oil 10
Shea Butter 15
Avocado Oil 8
Mango Seed Butter 6
Neem Seed Oil 7.5
Jojoba Oil a Liquid Wax Ester 4.5

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I'm in the North Island - in a non-tourist town that you probably never saw
How much lye and water did you use in that recipe?

 

[Antonia Nogales]

hi again, and thank you for responding so quickly.
I used 32% of water as % of oils so, my actual water was 352gr and 149.09 gr of lye. I also had 5% superfat.

 

[KiwiMoose]

hi again, and thank you for responding so quickly.
I used 32% of water as % of oils so, my actual water was 352gr and 149.09 gr of lye. I also had 5% superfat.

Were you making a batch of 1 kilo oils? Sounds about right. We don't usually suggest that you use the water as a percent of oils setting in soap calc - better to set it using 'lye concentration' and aim for about 33 - 35% if you are starting out.
Perhaps you should move these questions over to the recipe feedback forum so that you can get some of the big guns on the job - I'm sure they'll have some good advice. I'm not sure how that jojoba oil works - but I do know that the combined neem oil and castor oil will make a softer soap and you may have to cure longer. But you have plenty of other hard oils in there so not sure what's happened. Maybe it wasn't mixed to trace?

 

[Antonia Nogales]

yes, I was trying to make 1k of oils
and yes, I will my questions to the recipe feedback forum and thanks for the advice thus far.
I am getting to learn my way around the forum too and I wasn't aware there was a recipe one, thanks for this advice.
thank you again, for such nice welcoming and help

 

[Antonia Nogales]

Ah, and I think it did get to trace. It actually riced on me
I am trying to learn all these new terms and connect them to how they visually look, so I am not sure if when a soap rices, it means that has gone too far in the tracing and one needs to be fast in pouring it to the mould

 

[KiwiMoose]

No worries : )
I just put your recipe into Soap Making Friend - which is this forum's own calculator and I see that your bar is LOW on longevity. Hardness does not equal longevity - your soap can be hard but not last long if that takes sense.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Ah, and I think it did get to trace. It actually riced on me
I am trying to learn all these new terms and connect them to how they visually look, so I am not sure if when a soap rices, it means that has gone too far in the tracing and one needs to be fast in pouring it to the mould

have a look in the Beginners Forum and there are pictures of various fails, so that you know what they look like. near the top of the beginners section there is a sticky called "a picture of Ricing, Volcanoes..." or similar.