cambree
Well-Known Member
Hello. I am interestied in learning more about the INS value of soap recipes.
Does anyone else care about the INS value? Soap making author, Dr. McDaniel suggest 160 as ideal. Anne Watson, another soapmaker, suggest anything between 146-160 as fine.
I did my calculations for my recipes and got between 130 and 140. I am starting to worry that they may not be as ideal now. But am still waiting for it to cure in a few weeks. Also need to test the PH level later too.
Miller's Homemade Soap wrote: "The concept of INS values is borrowed from Dr. Robert McDaniel's book, Essentially Soap. He in turn borrowed it from an unattributed source. In any event, what he says is that an oil's INS value is based on its SAP value and iodine value, and that a soap's INS is the weighted average of the INS values of its constituent oils. What does that mean to you? Probably not much. The important thing is that (as related by Dr. Bob) the 'ideal' INS value to shoot for when formulating a soap recipe is 160. Now remember: 160 is only the ideal. Most recipes, even really excellent ones, won't be at an INS of 160. The majority of the ones I've looked at are in the mid 140's or low 150's. The INS value's real utility is as a sort of rough gauge of how well your recipe is balanced. In other words, if your recipe's INS is much above or way below 160, you might want to take another look at things."
Does anyone else care about the INS value? Soap making author, Dr. McDaniel suggest 160 as ideal. Anne Watson, another soapmaker, suggest anything between 146-160 as fine.
I did my calculations for my recipes and got between 130 and 140. I am starting to worry that they may not be as ideal now. But am still waiting for it to cure in a few weeks. Also need to test the PH level later too.
Miller's Homemade Soap wrote: "The concept of INS values is borrowed from Dr. Robert McDaniel's book, Essentially Soap. He in turn borrowed it from an unattributed source. In any event, what he says is that an oil's INS value is based on its SAP value and iodine value, and that a soap's INS is the weighted average of the INS values of its constituent oils. What does that mean to you? Probably not much. The important thing is that (as related by Dr. Bob) the 'ideal' INS value to shoot for when formulating a soap recipe is 160. Now remember: 160 is only the ideal. Most recipes, even really excellent ones, won't be at an INS of 160. The majority of the ones I've looked at are in the mid 140's or low 150's. The INS value's real utility is as a sort of rough gauge of how well your recipe is balanced. In other words, if your recipe's INS is much above or way below 160, you might want to take another look at things."
