Lye calculation with goat or coconut milk

[Mango5]

How do i figure how much lye you use if you want to use milk in some of your cold process soap? On the bramble lye calculater i don't see a place to say that your using milk just oils. How do i figure it out? I am also still confused about in the lye calculater where it says superfatting percentage. What do i put there? Can someone help clear up that for me and what is considered a godd superfat amount? I have so far made 6 different batches of soap so i am still a beginner but trying hard to learn. Thanks for all your input and patience for a beginner like me!!!!

 

[Susie]

You just count it as a little extra superfat, and don't add it to the calculator. Substitute it for part or all of the water.

I use anywhere from 5-8% superfat. If I were using milk, I would probably use 5%, and without, I use 8% for winter. However, you need to adjust your superfat to your needs and likes. 5% is a good place to start for most soaps.

Also, we were all beginners once. Don't ever think that any of us were born with this knowledge and experience. I learned from others, I share with you, and you will soon be teaching others. Its a pay it forward kind of situation here.

 

[SilverMaple]

I use 5-6% superfat for milk soaps, and simply use the same amount of milk as the recipe calls for with water. If you are a little short on milk, you can simply make up the difference with water.

If you are using a milk powder, you can either mix that into your water before you add your lye, or stir the powder in at trace (I usually add it at trace, but reserve a small amount of liquid to make a slurry as that seems to dissolve better).

As to regular superfat percentages, that depends a lot on your recipe and personal preference or goals for the soap. I usually use 7-9% for non-milk soaps, but will go higher for certain recipes.

 

[IrishLass]

If you use SoapCalc, it has a milk fat option.

If you want to be really precise with your superfat level when using milks or creams (for consistency sake), here are some links that will help:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=51437

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=385568&postcount=7

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/b...ilk-Soap-With-Heavy-Whipping-Cream.htm#step15


IrishLass

 

[dixiedragon]

Superfat can be a bit of a confusing term, b/c we tend to use it two ways around here:
1) The percentage of oil over what the amount of lye in the recipe will consume and saponify. 5% is "standard". By "standard" I mean that's a good starting point and it's probably the most common amount. Some people go as low as 0 and some go as high as 20. I don't recall anybody here regularly using more than 20%. (and to complicate it further, some people actually go under 0 percent, meaning there is un-used lye in their soap. Then they age the soap for a long time - a year, I think? - and the extra lye combines with elements in the air to form a new substance. Not recommended for newbies at all!)
2) The oil you add at the end of your cook if you are doing HP. For example, you want to use Sweet Almond Oil and have it not consumed by the lye monster. So you make hot process soap, and after the soap has cooked and most of the lye is consumed, you add in your Sweet Almond so it remains free in the soap. (Really, this needs a new term.)

Using the first definition, IMO, anywhere from 5 to 20 percent is a fine place for a newbie to start.

 

[Nevada]

if you want to do it accurately
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showpost.php?p=430979&postcount=22

How do i figure how much lye you use if you want to use milk in some of your cold process soap? On the bramble lye calculater i don't see a place to say that your using milk just oils. How do i figure it out? I am also still confused about in the lye calculater where it says superfatting percentage. What do i put there? Can someone help clear up that for me and what is considered a godd superfat amount? I have so far made 6 different batches of soap so i am still a beginner but trying hard to learn. Thanks for all your input and patience for a beginner like me!!!!

 

[Geaux Soap]

I need to understand how something works or why? I think it’s the nurse and teacher in me. It’s difficult to do something without understanding the why I do it. This is what I figured out. It reduced the amount of time for making a soap recipe considerably and made it accurate.

Find a chart that gives the saponification values (SAP). Then when you get it I’d decide how much soap I wanted to make and divide it into 70% oils and 30% lye and H2O. Next choose which soaps you want to use and what percentage. An example is below:

30% OLIVE OIL {42 oz. X 70% (oils)}= 29.4 oz.
29.4 oz.x 30%= 8.82 oz. The SAP for olive oil=0.1353 so
8.82 oz x 0.1353=1.19 oz. Of lye needed to saponify the olive oil.

Next decide how much of next oil you’ll use. Then multiply number of ounces by the SAP value for that oil. Do that until you find the SAP # for each oil. Add all those numbers together. For example, 1.19 oz of lye from olive oil + ______oz of lye from palm oil, etc.

Hope this makes sense. Now the 30% of lye + H2O makes sense. It all works out perfectly. Maybe you already understand this. I just couldn’t make my own recipe until I understood it.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

 

[DeeAnna]

I need to understand how something works or why? I think it’s the nurse and teacher in me. It’s difficult to do something without understanding the why I do it. This is what I figured out. It reduced the amount of time for making a soap recipe considerably and made it accurate.

Find a chart that gives the saponification values (SAP). Then when you get it I’d decide how much soap I wanted to make and divide it into 70% oils and 30% lye and H2O. Next choose which soaps you want to use and what percentage. An example is below:

30% OLIVE OIL {42 oz. X 70% (oils)}= 29.4 oz.
29.4 oz.x 30%= 8.82 oz. The SAP for olive oil=0.1353 so
8.82 oz x 0.1353=1.19 oz. Of lye needed to saponify the olive oil.

Next decide how much of next oil you’ll use. Then multiply number of ounces by the SAP value for that oil. Do that until you find the SAP # for each oil. Add all those numbers together. For example, 1.19 oz of lye from olive oil + ______oz of lye from palm oil, etc.

Hope this makes sense. Now the 30% of lye + H2O makes sense. It all works out perfectly. Maybe you already understand this. I just couldn’t make my own recipe until I understood it.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

In essence, you're basing your water content on the fat weight. I don't think that's the best way to design a recipe, even though it's certainly an easy method. This method is used in soap recipe calculators when you specify the "water as % of oils". But this is not the best way.

You'll get more consistency in your soap making if you base the water weight on the alkali (NaOH) weight, not the fat weight. With this approach, decide on the blend of fats you want, calculate the NaOH needed to saponify each of those those fats, and then calculate the water weight based on the total NaOH weight. That's the method used in soap recipe calculators when you specify "lye concentration" or "water:lye ratio".

If you want to do these calculations by hand, the most commonly used way of calculating a soap recipe is shown in this tutorial by Auntie Clara's (Clara Lindberg): Lye Calculation Using a Saponification Chart - Tutorial