How can I make up a recipe?

[hnelbach]

I am new to soap making and I would like to make up a recipe based on my favorite oils/butters. What must I have so the soap will turn out well? I don't really understand and have the basics regarding what must be in the soap. Thnx for your help

 

[marilynmac]

First you must know the properties of the oils you can use for CP soap. The oils are chemically changed during saponification and they change properties completely. You favorite oils for lotion or cooking are not going to be your favorites for soap. Use google.

Start with a basic soap using only 3 oils and no colors or fragrance. Colors and fragrance and other additives will alter how well the soap works, and can make the process more difficult.

After you read about oils, got to www.soapcalc.net. learn how to use it, then make your recipe.

Take a ton of notes and save your recipe. The soap should cure 4 weeks, but you can methodically adjust the recipe (only1 thing at a time) and make another batch as soon as you want. eg. batch 1: 33%CO, 33%lard, 33%OO. Change the %'s a bit for batch 2, maybe 20, 40, 40. After they all cure, compare them.

 

[Dorymae]

Most basic soaps will have a main hard oil. This can be lard, tallow or palm. Then you would want a bit of coconut oil for good lather, however coconut oil as soap can be stripping or very cleansing which can dry out some peoples skin. Therefore keep the coconut oil under 20 percent. (Some people like it even lower, say 10 percent, again this depends on your skin.) The third oil is usually an oil with high conditioning properties. Olive oil is a good choice here, avocado oil is popular also. If you want to add a butter in your first soap keep the percent low. Butters inhibit lather so 5-8 percent is enough. Lastly people like to add castor oil to help stabilize the lather. Castor around 5% is fine.

This is just a guide for you. Soaps can be made with any oil but they all have different properties. I tried to give you a quick overview for a decent soap, that wont give you too many problems for your first soap.

You will want to get familiar with a lye calculator. I know it looks intimidating but really it's not. Follow the directions one by one and I believe there is a tutorial as well.

Good luck to you, and welcome to the forum.

 

[lsg]

If you haven't watched the soapqueen videos, I suggest that you try them. She has great advice and recipes for the newbie.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR6ttCSrLJI[/ame]

 

[ClaraSuds]

I am new to soap making and I would like to make up a recipe based on my favorite oils/butters. What must I have so the soap will turn out well? I don't really understand and have the basics regarding what must be in the soap. Thnx for your help

At it's most basic at least 1 oil/fat, water and lye all in the appropriate amounts. A soap calculator will help you with the amounts. That will make soap. To make one you want to use a good rule of thumb is about 20% or more of a cleansing oil like coconut or palm, and the remainder in a conditioning oil. Good general starting point, the rest is experimentation until you find a combination you like. Have fun.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would also read through at least 10 pages of this section, the cp section and the recipe feedback section - there you see so many working examples of recipe development in action - that gave me an incredible base knowledge of soap recipes.

Sure, it's time - but time VERY well spent

 

[hnelbach]

Okay. Thank you everyone! I've made several recipes that I found online and they turned out great but I have never made my own up and I would like to do so.

 

[lsg]

Here is some info. on formulating from the Soap Queen blog:

http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/formulating-cold-process-recipes/

 

[IrishLass]

What are the favorite oils and butters that you'd like to use? If you list them, perhaps we can help you formulate a good beginning recipe out of them.


IrishLass

 

[nebetmiw]

Keep your first recipe to 3 or 4 oil only. No scent or color or clay or butter,milk nor salt. Reason is you are learning to formulate so need to see how a base works before adding other things to it. Some oils to avoid is soy, corn and canola. They go bad fast and leave DOS. Buy local which you can get many like lard, palm, coconut, safflower, olive and almond. These can be gotten in most food stores. You can get some in health food stores also. But research some if not listed here on my post. I have listed all the safe ones that will not DOS on you or act up bad. They will in any combo make a good base bar of soap. You just will have to play to find your base. Have fun read alot and do not be afraid to ask questions.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would bout local if it makes sense to do so - if it costs a whole lot more, look online!

 

[Susie]

If you look at your favorite recipe that you have made thus far, you will have a good idea of where to start.

What is the "main" oil? How much of that? Start by using that amount of that.

Next, write Coconut Oil 20% and Castor Oil 5%.(You may want to play with these later, but you need to have a place to start.)

What is the next highest amount of oil? Write that down, but don't put an amount yet. Add all the other oils together, and that becomes the amount.

This will give you a good "baseline" soap to compare to the others you have made thus far. Let it cure, and compare it to the others you have made. You need to save a bar or two of each batch you make for those comparisons, and to see how they behave over the long haul.(Do they develop DOS, and how much better do they become down the line?) You may find that you can't live without X ingredient, or that you hate Y amount of that ingredient. But you won't know until you start eliminating some and adding more to others.

Watch the amounts of butters, though, as they can negatively impact your lather.

Also, as tempting as it is right now, no additives like milks, silks, sugars, beer, etc. You need to get the "oils" part of the recipe down before adding those to the mix. Then, once you have a "best" recipe of oils, you can start with those.

 

[Earthen_Step]

I am new to soap making and I would like to make up a recipe based on my favorite oils/butters. What must I have so the soap will turn out well? I don't really understand and have the basics regarding what must be in the soap. Thnx for your help

If you the experimental type try whatever sounds fun! You could take 1 single oil/butter or 10 and see how well it turns out. If it's soft it could have a 6+ month cure time till it works well. But you can break all the rules and just have fun. Make sure you run it through a calculator first, I'm sure you don't want lye heavy soap. Use the web-app below and punch in whatever oils sound fun or that you have around.

For me that's been the most fun, just inventing and seeing what happens. I've had a few duds but it's been worth it to find some of the gems.

http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

+1 to what others have said as well. I have found slight adjustments to my favorites has gotten me where I want on some recipes. But I have made some neat soap by more extreme experimentation.

 

[shunt2011]

I too love running different oils/options through the soapcalc to see the variances in the recipes. If I like it I'll make it. Can always tweak it from there. That's actually how I came up with my current recipes.

 

[dixiedragon]

Also, think about what you want from the soap. Do you want a soap that lathers in salt water? (in that case, 100% coconut) Do you have very dry or sensitive skin? Do you want to do swirls? Do you want to use a tricky scent?

Look for recipes that contain your favorite oils and butters, and you can get a general idea of where to start. For example, you're probably not going to like a 100% cocoa butter bar very much, but a 5 or 10% cocoa butter soap can be very nice.-