Please help me!! My Soap is not the same what i saw in youtube!

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Ronzkie26

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Please help me!! My Soap is not the same what i saw in youtube! I made soap earlier using my ingredients.. i have the 100% mixture but im not quite sure about this because im not good in mathematical. so please help me guys because i want to do business so that i may help my mom to sustain our daily needs.. so im gonna write up here all the ingredients and procedure.. please help me correcting my mistake and please advice me what is proper and better procedure especially calculating all ingredients.. so here's mine.

My Mixture and Recipe is Papaya Soap.

60% Coconut Oil
35% Lye
5% Additives
total of 100% mixture

Ingredients:
1. Papaya 1.5% (25ml-50ml)
2. Calamansi - 1.2% (25ml)
3. Castor Oil - .5% (5ml)
4. Antibac - .5% (5ml)
5. Sodium Silicate - .5% (5ml)
6. CDEA - .8% (8ml)
7. Coconut Oil - 60% (600ml)
So my Lye is 350g and my water is 36 oz or 1,050ml .

Procedure:
1. First i mix the 350ml Lye into Water of 36oz/1,050ml. then i set aside for 3hrs.
2. Then after 3hrs i pour the Lye into Coconut oil 600ml then i mix it using my blender then after it turn white and mix well. i add then papaya extract 50ml then Castor Oil, Antibac, Sodium Silicate and CDEA.. i blend it but before that the texture looks milk but after i blend about 5-10mins. its turn something that i didn't expect what i saw same in youtube.. so my question is.. DID I MISS SOMETHING?WHAT COULD IT BE WRONG?IS IT MY PROCEDURE IS NOT CORRECT?PLEASE HELP ME! I WANT TO MAKE PAPAYA SOAP BUT MY CHOICE IS MY FRIEND WANT ME TO TAKE SEMINAR ABOUT IT BUT IT COST ME P3,000 pesos or about $80 which is Huge to me.. Please help me guys.. please correcting my mistake and give me advice how to make perfect papaya soap especially my mixture coz i doubt i have something wrong on that.. please.. thanks.. and pardon me my english coz im not good to speak english fluently.. thanks and god bless everythong!

P.S i dont know how to use SoapCalc or any calculator for Lye.. so i want this ingredients to work and come out perfectly.. coz this is the ingredients we want to produce for our business... anyway here's the picture i made earlier soap.. look bad and it has excess oil at the bottom. :(

972937_686086018131508_151712891_n.jpg
 
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Ok again: Newbie but lemme see if I can break this down:

You counted your lye %age as part of your oils?
YOu didnt heat your oils?
You let your lye get to room tempature?

I am going to try to be as nice as I can with this:

If you watched 1 video on youtube and said "I am going to make soap for money" you are already wrong.

Watch lots of videos, READ, Practice, Understand what you are doing BEFORE you try to sell anything you could REALLY hurt someone, or yourself!

That being said.... if I understand your recipe correctly....

I know only 2 of those are oils, so using those 2 as oils: 36 oz of oils with 5% superfat should ONLY be 13.68 ounces of water and 6.25 oz of Lye....

I hate to say this but...I think that its all completely wrong.

I hope that ...someone more knowlageable can help you better than I, but I think you should do a little more research, read the soap calc help files, and DEFINATLY get 6months to a year under your belt before you go selling it to the public :(

Good luck
 
yes thank you! i know its my recipe is wrong. i choose this kind of business because my wife love this.. and its not just all about money. life is so hard and i want to do business because my salary is not enough. again my wife really love to buy different brand of soap so she ask me if we can do business because she want to become as model of our product so i did research about 1month and i admit im not fully knowledge about it sir. but i want to do it coz i know someday i make it right even though im in IT field but i want to have a family business like this. and

You counted your lye %age as part of your oils? - i dont understand sir. please explain it to me.
YOu didnt heat your oils? - Yes i didn't heat the Oil which is my bad.
You let your lye get to room tempature?no actually im here in our sala which is quite very hot due to EL NINO here.
 
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Ok, so.

When you are creating a soap recipe, the OILS, and ONLY THE OILS (and fats) must add up to 100%.

If you are only using one type of oil, the amount you use is already 100% for your recipe. If you are using two, as in your case, coconut and castor, then the percentage of each in your recipe must add up to 100%.

So if you're making a 32oz batch of soap, you might have something like the following:

10% Castor Oil -- 3.2oz
90% Coconut Oil -- 28.8oz

now... Coconut in such a high percentage is usually quite harsh and drying to skin, because it is very very effective at removing oils. Including the natural oils on your skin. Most people don't use more than 20-25% in their recipes.

A better recipe might be:

10% Castor Oil - 3.2oz
20% Coconut Oil - 6.4oz
70% Olive Oil - 22.4oz

Now, once you have a recipe that you think will be nice on your skin, then you go to a calculator like SoapCalc, and you will follow the numbered steps to enter that information.

first since this is a bar soap, you make sure NaOH is selected. Then decide if you prefer to work in oz, grams, or lbs. And enter the total batch size you want into the box.

leave the water setting alone for now, the default is ok for beginners.
Enter a SuperFat amount. This is how much extra oil (or how much less lye) you will have in your recipe, to make sure that it doesn't end up lye-heavy, and that it's not overly drying. 5% - 7% is a good starting SF amount here. The default is 5% and you can just leave it at that if you want.

If you are using an Essential Oil or Fragrance Oil, and you know the recommended usage rate, enter it in that box, otherwise just leave it empty for now.

Then choose an oil from the list, use the + sign to add it to your recipe list. Enter the percent you want of that oil in the % box. Do the same for each oil. then click Calculate. Then click the View/Print button. It will open in a new window, with your whole recipe, showing how much lye, how much water, and how much of each oil.

working in percentages makes it easy when you want to make bigger batches, as you only need to change the batch size in step 2, and recalculate.

Try the sample recipe I posted above, and post what you come up with here! Then we can work on those additives you mentioned. One thing at a time! :)
 
^What everyone else said. Learn to use SoapCalc first. This is NOT optional.

I think you also use a papaya extract? If that has alcohol in it, it is NOT an oil. Do not include that in the oils. The alcohol may also cause it's own set of problems.

Go watch MANY, MANY videos on YouTube. Read every last thread on this forum. Then you will figure out how NOT ready you are to sell that soap. I strongly suggest you find another source of income while you are learning soaping, because not only do you need to support your family, you will need to pay more money to buy oils, lye, colorants, and either fragrance or essential oils to learn how to make soap.
 
Hello Ronzkie26

first i want to ask you, are you a pinoy?

I don't know many of ingredients you use for your first batch. I only know Coconut oil, water, lye, papaya, and castor oil.

You said that is Papaya Soap recipe, with 65% CO, 35% lye, and 5% additives. But in ingredients you add castor oil. I think castor oil is not an additive, that is an oil and oil is the main ingredient. CMIIW.

And then, why you measure all in milliliter?
It should be measured by weight, not volume. Use grams, ounce, or pound.

The most important thing is, please use soap/lye calculator.

don't give up. make it again with the right procedure. and for the first batch please do not add any additive.
 
What was already said.

Come up with a blend of soaping oils: 20% coconut, 30% palm (or lard), and 50% olive oil is a good place to start.

Input the oils at www.soapcalc.net

It will give you your lye and water amounts. Rough guideline - lye is typically around 1/7 of the weight of my soaping oils in my recipes, give or take depending on what oils you use. If you have a recipe like the one you posted where the lye is 50% or more of your oils weight, something is very wrong.

You can get basic beginning recipes that are well balanced on the brambleberry website or at millersoap.com
 
Soap is not difficult to make, but it is a very precise process, and the use of a lye calculator is absolutely necessary. (unless you're going to do your own calculations) Is it possible that you could maybe make something else to supplement your income, like sugar scrubs, lip balms, etc. It might be easier to start out with those while you do more research on making soap. I read about soap making for 2 years before I actually made it. There's a lot of information you should read and be comfortable with before making your first batch, and then, in my opinion, it should be a very simple recipe to start out with, until you're more comfortable with the process. Soap making is not something to jump into, even if youtube videos make it look easy. I wish you luck with your endeavors.
 
There is no reason to use the chemical additives like the sodium silicate, antibac and CDEA. Oils, water and lye are all you really need.

What kind of oils and fats do you have access to? I have to agree that a soap high in coconut oil will be very drying. Adding a animal fat or olive oil will greatly improve your soap.

When adding fruit puree or juice, you want to replace part of your water. Say your recipe calls for 12 oz of water and you want to add 2 oz of fruit juice. Remove 2 oz of water and replace it with the juice. In theory you can use 100% fruit juice in place of your water but its safer to use half water, half fruit when beginning.

I recommend you throw away your failed batch, its going to be lye heavy and unusable. It is absolutely necessary to learn how to use a lye calculator if you are going to make soap, especially if you are planning on selling.
 
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Please please don't assume that something that you don't understand is safe because you saw it on youtube!

Soap making is not like cooking where if something goes wrong the meal just tastes bad or you have to throw it away.
In soap making, if you do something wrong you can hurt yourself or someone else.

Please listen to the smart people who responded to you and their recipe suggestions.

For my contribution I will suggest some videos:
The GingerGreySoaps beginning soap making tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/GingerGreySoaps
Soaping 101 soap webinars: https://www.youtube.com/user/soaping101/videos?sort=da&view=0&flow=grid

And some basic tutorials:
http://www.lovelygreens.com/2013/09/natural-soapmaking-for-beginners.html
http://offbeatandinspired.com/2012/09/14/cold-process-soap-making-for-beginners/

Once you understand the concepts of soap making, and how to use a lye calculator, you will be able to judge for yourself if any recipe will suit your needs and be safe - or even better make your own recipe :)
 
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And I ABSOLUTELY would have business insurance if you are even contemplating selling soap without knowing what you're doing. If you sell dangerous soap and someone has a bad reaction you could be sued for everything you have.

I second the idea of selling other products that are easier and safer than bad soap until you have a LOT of successful batches of soap under your belt. Lip balms, body butters, lotion bars, and melt-and-pour soap to start with.
 
I had a nice long reply here but this app ate it. Sigh.

Had figured out that the posted recipe has a -247 SF.
 
I'd definitely recommend starting with simple, relatively inexpensive projects like lip balm, lotion bars, etc. don't be discouraged though! You just need to do more research before making soap.
 
Hi! Thanks Guys for responding my concern here.. sorry if i got a late reply here due to busy days outing w/ my family because its summer here in our country. So back to topic. i read all the comments and at least 4 users (graceworks,haksaktiawan,Obsidian,AustinStraight) who contributed good comments.. i highly appreciated guys.. i am at now i guess 70% knowledge about making soap.. ok Ms. Judymoody thanks for your recipe u share to me but i can't follow your recommendation of 50% Olive oil due to the fact that its expensive here in philippines.. Coconut Oil is cheaper compare those Olive Oi and Palm Oi. Anyway Now i know how to use SoapCalc. so im trying to make ingredients now then i'll post it here.. Thanks.
 
You could replace some of the olive oil with rice bran (try 50-60% perhaps) to cut the cost as it's similar, just be sure to run it through SoapCalc again. You could also make 100% coconut oil soap with a 20% superfat if coconut oil is what's most available to you and you don't find it bothers your skin.
 
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so here's the results of my ingredients using SoapCalc..
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ok as i my first post about ingredients.. i'll disregard the following 3 chemicals.
Sodium Silicate, CDEA, and Antibac (benzalkonium chloride) since i'm making and promoting herbal soap which is my mistake due to fact that im so excited making soap especially my wife.. so the reason why i put only 5% olive oil, palm oil, canola oil, lauric acid because they are all expensive here.. i double the castor oil to 10% because i want to make my soap moisture and conditioning.

So i want to ask you guys... is this good now?i mean is this better than the old one?or still i need to add more or change?please tell me if this is good or not.. anway i understand 60% of my OIL weight should be the 100% of all OIL that i would mix, right?hehehe! So little more step then i ready to make again soap and correcting all my mistakes from previous try.. my friend told me don't give up.. keep trying coz our life is like Trial and Error.. so i'll push this through until i get perfect papaya soap..

I am not quite sure the price of my soap after i made it using those ingredients but i definitely find a good supplier which can give me cheaper price so that i can price it cheaper into market if possible..
 
Too much castor oil will mess up your soap. It's too soft and can go rancid
 
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