Questions about recipe

[summerflyy]

I recently went to a CP soapmaking workshop where I made my first batch of CP soaps [still curing, I cannot wait] and during the workshop, when my instructor was teaching me about how to formulate recipes etc, she mentioned one thing.

She said that for soap, it's 70% oil and 30% is the lye water, so if we are making 1kg of soap, 700g would be oil. So I was wondering, could I use lesser water and more oil? Or is this ratio of oil to lyewater fixed ?

And if the ratio could be changed slightly, what would be the changes ?

I hope I expressed myself accurately !

 

[seven]

i don't understand the 70-30 thing. to be more exact, why don't you use a lye calculator like soapcalc or brambleberry. these calculators will do the work for you and will figure out the lye and water amount needed for a particular recipe. you just put in the amount of oils you want to use, and let the program do the rest for you. easy.

have you ever used a lye calculator before?

 

[Lion Of Judah]

hi summerflyy . i'm not fully aware of that way to look at soap making as you were taught , the 70/30 ratio . there is a working method that some soap makers use called "water discounting" where they use less water in their soap making process , which is done to help some soap recipes cure faster as well as firm up : http://www.lovinsoap.com/2010/07/discounting-water-a-cold-process-soapmaking-tutorial/
adding more oil outside of superfatting to me will just give you a soap that is prone to going bad because water discounting does not mean you can increase you oil amount . as stated by me up above in the start of my reply , i never came across that ratio you were taught in my research teaching myself , i am sure one of the other soap makers or you may be able to expound on it a little further .

 

[pamielynn]

Your oil combination should equal 100% (50% is olive oil, 50% is palm oil, for example). You then calculate the amount of lye needed to saponify all that oil, and if you want a superfatted soap, deduct some of that lye -say 5% off of how much lye is needed to saponify your oils. I'm sure there are some variations on this theme out there, but this is the safest way to travel.

 

[dixiedragon]

The purpose of the water is to dissolve the lye. That's it. Part of what is happening as the soap cures is the water evaporating out of the bar. Which is while you will have some shrinkage.

I've been making soap for 10+ years, and honestly I'm not really sure of the math behind the amounts of water that recipes recommend. I use soap calc, and I either use full water, or I bump up the percentage of water from 38 to 40. Now, I have no idea what that is a percentage of.

But if I make a recipe that uses 16 ounces of oil and 6 ounces of water, and you make the same recipe but use 4 ounces of water, your bars are not going to have a higher percentage of oil than mine. Mine will be softer and take longer to cure, but at 6 weeks or so, you won't be able to tell a difference.

ETA: 4 ounces of water, not oil!

 

[DeeAnna]

Speaking very roughly, yes, the amount of oils to water will be a 70:30 ratio when using common choices for oils and water and lye. But the others are absolutely correct -- do NOT adjust your recipe based on this ratio. It is a rough observation based on a bunch of assumptions, not a hard-and-fast rule. The bestand most accurate way to figure a recipe is to use a soap recipe calculator.

 

[summerflyy]

Thank you everyone ! Yeap, I do use the soap calculator as well ! I calculate my own recipe first before running through the soap calculator to make sure it is okay before I start making the soap.

 

[Susie]

Thank you everyone ! Yeap, I do use the soap calculator as well ! I calculate my own recipe first before running through the soap calculator to make sure it is okay before I start making the soap.

That is a great way to do it! Just be sure you write down those recipes and what additives. Every. Single. Time. That will save you from having those frustrating times of trying to reproduce a great soap. I will go one further and tell you also to either get yourself a binder with dividers or make a folder on the computer right now to start organizing on the front end so you don't have a mess a year from now to search through for a recipe. Use the date on each page to help you locate which recipe goes to which batch.

 

[summerflyy]

That is a great way to do it! Just be sure you write down those recipes and what additives. Every. Single. Time. That will save you from having those frustrating times of trying to reproduce a great soap. I will go one further and tell you also to either get yourself a binder with dividers or make a folder on the computer right now to start organizing on the front end so you don't have a mess a year from now to search through for a recipe. Use the date on each page to help you locate which recipe goes to which batch.

Thank you ! That's good advice ! ! I will make sure to do that LOL, wouldn't want to pull my hair out trying to remember an awesome recipe that I forgot to note down !