my soap is thicker than pumpkin puree

[clownking99]

not_alley if u have a problem with my thread feel free just to skip it bro.
yes - i know people have been kind

 

[Obsidian]

Make this but stay away from scents for now and only make 1 lb batches until you get the hang of things, less to waste if something goes wrong. I set my SF a 8%, if you have oily skin, you can change it to 5%


http://www.evernote.com/l/ANiTh0q4oF9NdoKoP02aIAeiH1fg9f08uMg/

 

[TeresaT]

clownking, everyone has been giving you wonderful advice. I watched the video you posted and was impressed with the patience she had with taking that long to mix her lye with her milk. I have made buttermilk soap, once mixing it with the lye (dump lye in frozen buttermilk, watch it turn brown and stink to high heaven). The next time I added it at trace...and watched it turn brown and stink a little bit. I'll have to try the ice bath/take-an-hour-to-mix-it method. Or, not so much. Anyway. Here's my starter recipe. I've had wonderful luck with this and have slowly buildt up from it. I've played with percentages and added "extras" and different oils. AFTER the soap has cured long enough for me to use it a while and get a feel for it. Run the numbers through SoapCalc first and post it. Don't use any additives or FOs. Just make a pure soap with lye and distilled water. Don't run before you can walk. Ready?

60% lard
30% olive oil
10% coconut oil.

That's it. Your local grocery store has all three oils and the distilled water. Make a two pound batch and see how you like it. Then, after it has cured for SIX WHOLE LONG BORING WEEKS, give it to family and friends and see how they like it. Then, based on the feedback, tweak it a little bit. Maybe 50% lard, 40% olive & 10% coconut; and start your whole process again. Soaping is not for the impatient.

Good luck. Please plug in the numbers and post your screenshot. I want to make sure you understand how to use it.

ETA: Obsidian has a good point. Made one pound batches. I have a two-pound mold so that's my go-to size. But you can make smaller batches and almost use anything for a mold.

 

[not_ally]

Great, I am a bro! Not sure why that is good, but it seems so somehow. Clownking, threads have a life of their own, I'm afraid that you don't own them once they are posted. Also, being defensive about soaping advice is somewhat ill-advised. Mine not be to your taste, but really, it might be best to have an open mind.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...not_alley if u have a problem with my thread feel free just to skip it bro...."

That was rather rude of you to say this. Not_ally has not said a word to you that deserves this kind of response. She and many others have been bending over backwards to help you simply because you asked, nothing more. The quickest way to dry up this kindness is to say stuff like this.

 

[clownking99]

Teresa i did my lye milk the same way - turned out exactly the same ;-0
thought it was going to be a home run :\

 

[TeresaT]

Teresa i did my lye milk the same way - turned out exactly the same ;-0
thought it was going to be a home run :\

Cool! Maybe I will give it a shot. I have the goat milk in the fridge. I just haven't gotten up the courage to give it a go yet after the buttermilk episodes. The funky smell kinda put me off milk soaps. Did the GM smell bad when you did it?

Now apologize to NA (she says threateningly shaking her rolling pin at your head.)

 

[cmzaha]

(1) you didn't run your recipe through SoapCalc?
(2) you used far too much FO
(3) this would have been fine if you used the correct amount if FO?
With the amount/rate of FO/kg I don't believ you can save it.


ETA: I had to play with SoapCalc for a while to come up with the 250 gm goat milk and the 42 gm FO. 30.25% WATER TO OIL (not lye to water like I had) ratio is not common. Neither is a 51 fragrance ratio. WHERE did you get those numbers/this recipe? What lye calculator did you use?

Not sure how you came up with to much fo, but what Clownking used was half the amount of fo I would use, and a 32% Lye Concentration which is 30.1% of Water as % of Oil, is not uncommon. But I would recommend going with the recommended "full water" of 38% Water as % of Oil or a 27.2% Lye Concentration.

When using soap calc you have 3 choices under the #3 section. Number 1 being Water as percent of oil, (38 is the default) #2 Lye Concentration, #3 Water:Lye Ratio. Hopefully I did not add confusion

As mentioned stay away from fo's from hobby stores, they just are not manufactured for cold process soap. Even some that are made for cp can be troublesome

 

[clownking99]

sorry for being immature and making too many threads NA :-(
this isnt the first forum ive been that btw :-0 i have many hobbies

 

[clownking99]

my first melt and poor a few weeks ago
i moved the mold as it was setting so it has a nice rippled effect :-\

 

[not_ally]

D and T, thank you for being kind. King, I am sorry if I was cranky. I just want you to make good soap out of the bat. It is so fun to do, and it is not hard if you stay simple. You can get fancy pretty quick, but at the beginning it just is so much easier - and beautiful, you might come back to the simple ones after all the tricks - to just go forward in a basic way. Simple is really, really good.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It's not that you make too many threads, per se, rather that they are all very similar to one another - I lost count of how many times I saw you post that recipe, to the point that I started to think it was the oddest spam attack ever!

It doesn't take long to get used to this forum and the preferred styles of things, though.

 

[TeresaT]

Not sure how you came up with to much fo, but what Clownking used was half the amount of fo I would use, and a 32% Lye Concentration which is 30.1% of Water as % of Oil, is not uncommon. But I would recommend going with the recommended "full water" of 38% Water as % of Oil or a 27.2% Lye Concentration.

When using soap calc you have 3 choices under the #3 section. Number 1 being Water as percent of oil, (38 is the default) #2 Lye Concentration, #3 Water:Lye Ratio. Hopefully I did not add confusion

As mentioned stay away from fo's from hobby stores, they just are not manufactured for cold process soap. Even some that are made for cp can be troublesome

You are right. There are multiple ways of looking at the figures on SoapCalc. I usually use oz, not gm, so I was having to convert. You've seen my other posts, you know I'm not good with math. (Face palm). Every mathematically challenged person should hand out free advice, donchaknow. However, in my defense, this guy is new to making soap. He followed a recipe from a YouTube video. He did not run the numbers through any lye calculator himself. He had approximately 29 oz oils and used 1.5 oz FO. The default on SoapCalc is set at .5 oz ppo. If he had used the calculator at the default settings he would have used significantly less FO and significantly more GM. That video was a good tutorial (even though she talks waaaaaay too much); however, I do not think it was a good enough for someone that has not made multiple batches of soap before (and has obviously not done any significant research on how to make soap). Perhaps I was out of line for trying to help a fellow-newbie, and for that I am terribly sorry. But I still believe my statements and advice are dead-on accurate for someone that is not experienced in making soap, which is why I only gave him percentages and asked him to run them through the calculator for me before he did anything. I've been making soap for only 4 months. I've only had one complete failure. I've had to rebatch several (as we ALL know) and I've made a few with buttermilk. Although I like the way the BM soap feels, I don't like the way it smelled when I made it or used it. It's put me off milk soaps. I'm glad I saw this post. I watched the video and learned something. But I'm not sure I'm going to grab the can of GM out of the fridge and pour it into the ice trays just yet. (I'm sorry this is so long, or if anyone finds it rude or insulting. I don't mean for it to be. I'm just honest and kind of blunt.)

 

[clownking99]

i went to walmart to get distilled water and they didnt have any - go figure
can i just use bottled dasani water? it has 025 tds

 

[TeresaT]

I would not use anything but distilled water. However, maybe someone else can give you better advice.

 

[not_ally]

That you need to run through a lye calculator for yourself.

My standard recipe to tell newbies to try is this:

Palm/Lard/Tallow 60%
Olive Oil 20%
Coconut Oil 15%
Castor Oil 5%

Superfat 5%

Use essential oil or fragrance oil intended for use in cold processed soap. Or better yet, go unscented and uncolored so you limit what can go wrong.

I know you are going to dismiss this, coming from me, but this is a a really good recipe to start with, almost no fail, and a **** good bar of soap. If you add an FO, make sure it is well behaved.

 

[clownking99]

do you mix the lard/OO/CO/castor oil all in a pan and warm it up to 127* , then stir it for a little bit and let it set until room temp?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Not Theresa, but you can melt them all together, or just heat the solid oils until melted and then add the liquid fats.

Some people use heat transfer- your lye solution starts off hot and we need heat to melt those oils......so we pour the freshly made lye solution over our solid fats to melt them, then add in the liquid fats

 

[clownking99]

Btw could my soap have gone wrong and super clumpy if i blended it up 2 much?

 

[Susie]

It would not have gone clumpy. That was the giveaway clue to the FO being your problem. Some FOs just behave badly, and need special handling. When I read it was from Michael's, I knew instantly it was for MP soap because I just went there the other day and that was all they had.(You will soon find yourself unable to resist checking out soaping supplies in any store you go into. And almost everything can be used for soaping in some capacity.)