Newbie Question, thanks in advance

[Poppy]

Hi, I have been exploring and doing alot of research on making soap. I have a natural soap making book for beginners I have been using. My question is : if I omit the essential oils or additives or add different ones will I need to change the oil,lye,,water ratios? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Ruthiemae]

No if it is something "extra" being added you wouldn't need to adjust your lye or water or oils.

 

[shunt2011]

All recipes should be run through a lye calculator just for safety purposes. However, if you aren't changing any of the oils/butters in the recipe you don't have to refigure it. Additives like clays, EO, FO do not play into the lye calculation.

Since this is your first post, please go to the introduction forum and tell us a bit about yourself. Welcome to the forum!!!

 

[amd]

Depending how much additives you are taking out and how large your batch size is, you may find that it no longer fills your mold perfectly. I have this problem with my larger batches if I make an unscented soap, the mold doesn't fill as full as the scented batch will. Of course this is a small difference that most people won't notice or don't care (like 1/16" to 1/8") and usually isn't worth the hassle of resizing your batch volume.

 

[BattleGnome]

Additives I would consider recalculating are things like milk, vinegar, or citric acid. They bring good stuff to the table but do interact with lye.