Hello,
I am brand new to soaping.
Hello and welcome, Hyperhounds!
My question is what is a good beginner recipe (with exact measurements). I have olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil, almond oil, shea butter and cocoa butter.
Another good beginner recipe (besides the one that Susie provided) is famously referred to as The Basic Trinity:
50% Olive
25% palm
25% coconut
As the others mentioned, though, unless we know your mold-size, we can't we can't properly size the recipe for you(i.e., give the exact weight measurements).
And what temperature should I soap at to start with?
The temp really depends on which kind of fats you're soaping (i.e., lots of hard fats need a higher temp), but for what it's worth, I've never gone wrong with a general soaping temp of 110F no matter what kind of fats I'm using.
Do I insulate and try and gel it or start by placing it in the fridge, or leave it on the counter without insulating?
That all depends on what kind of mold you have,....and whether or not you want to gel your soap, of course. What kind of mold will you be using?
For what it's worth, gelled soap sets up quicker and therefore can be unmolded quicker. Un-gelled soaps are typically softer at first and may need to spend an extra 12 to 24 hours in the mold before de-molding/cutting, but they eventually catch up to their gelled siblings. It just takes them a few weeks longer. I usually cure my ungelled batches 2 weeks longer than my gelled batches (which get a 4 to 6 week cure, btw).
And as Notapantsday mentioned- gelled soaps can look a bit translucent compared to their un-gelled siblings, especially if using 100% coconut and no colorants (lots of CO will do that to gelled soaps), but that can be completely overcome by the types of fats and/or colorants you use. For example, little TD will knock out all translucency in a heartbeat...and using lard and tallow too. Also- many colorants 'pop' when gelled (become more vivid and vibrant). That's one of the reasons why I personally prefer gelled soap over ungelled (and for other reasons, too).
I recommend making a batch of each- gelled and un-gelled- to see what you prefer.
I also have a few EO's (lavender, lemongrass, vanilla, orange, anise, clove). What is a good starter EO? and how much should be added?
When it comes to soaping with EOs, the generally accepted safe usage rate is to not exceed .5 oz per pound of the soaping oils in your recipe (ppo), although as Snappy said, clove should be used at a lower rate than that because it is a known sensitizer, and also because it doesn't play nice in soap (causes acceleration). If it were me, I would use the lavender for your first recipe, and I would add it at .5 oz. ppo.
What else should I know when starting out?
Safety first:
Treat the lye with respect- wear goggles and gloves, and don't breathe in the lye fumes when you are mixing your lye solution.
Don't mix lye in glass, not even Pyrex. Don't mix it in aluminum or tin either. Instead, use plastic with a recycle code of PP#5, or quality stainless steel, or Nalgene.
Use only stainless steel, plastic or silicone utensils (i.e., spoons, whisks, etc..)
Make sure your soaping area is clear of all children and pets and that there are no other distractions.
I'm sure others will chime in with more.
IrishLass
