Royal Goof Up

[Pantseatflyer]

Being a newbie, I was excited to finish my first batch of soap.

I chose the Wal-Mart recipe. I all the ingredients laid out and ready to go. Unfortunately, the battery in my digital scale bit the dust, so I had to head off to of all places, Wal-Mart for a new button battery.

I was not really familiar with this scale that measured in grams and ounces, but I had thought...(remember that word, thought) I had the scale set to grams.

With recipe in hand, I proceeded to measure all the oils I was proud of myself as a started with solids followed by liquids and then rushed the stainless steel pot to the stove to heat. I guess in all this excitement I didn't realize how much five pounds of oil should look like.

I added the Lye to the water while waiting patiently for everything to reach 100 degrees. Something was not right.

Stupid me had set the scale to ounces and not grams. The coconut, olive, safflower, lard, canola and castor were mixed... CRAP!!!

I was trying to figure out how I could fix this mess. I decided to try and calculate ounces to grams and then add the difference. Then I thought if I measured the oil wrong, I measured the water and lye wrong as well!!

Double frustrated, I dumped the entire mess. Back to the drawing board and Wally World for more oils...

Oh well.. it is a learning process.

 

[carebear]

sure you can do the math - it can get complicated, though and once you start second guessing yourself you are screwed so...

sometimes it's best just to chuck it all and start again.

and trust me, there is no mistake you are going to make that *I* at least haven't made a time or two. or three.

 

[Deda]

Mistakes are great. For me at least, it's how I learn. Usually. Sometimes I have to learn again and again.

Did you get the soap made?

 

[ohsoap]

wait till you forget your olive oil!

 

[Pantseatflyer]

Mistakes are great. For me at least, it's how I learn. Usually. Sometimes I have to learn again and again.

Did you get the soap made?

Ufortunately, I didn't get the soap made. I only had about 1/4 bottle of olive oil left and I nearly used the entire bottle of castor oil.

Another lesson.... make sure you have enough oil... I measured my 18 inch mold, did the math and decided I needed approximately a five pound batch.

In my excitement, I never thought I needed to make sure I had enough oil.

I guess my ounces vs. grams mistake sealed the deal on that one.

Oh well....three day weekend coming up. Gonna be ready

 

[Deda]

wait till you forget your olive oil!

My new fav was a total screw up, happy accident. I added the 50/50 lye mix, totally skipped the last bit of water. Hardest soap I've ever made!

 

[honor435]

sad you had to throw 5 lbs of oil? i usually start out with a smaller batch. good luck next time.

 

[Deb]

Ok i hate to ask a silly question...

but does it matter? if everything is measured in grams or ounces, its still units and as long as the unit type is consistently used, it would have been ok.

(aka illustration which is NOT accurate...)
5 oz water = 50%
2 oz lye = 20%
3 oz oils = 30%
= 10 oz = 100%

or
5 gr water =50%
2 gr lye = 20%
3 gr oils. =30%
= 10 gr = 100%

The units are the same, even if the total amount is different.

Or did I misunderstand? You did measure everything in oz instead of grams, right?

 

[krissy]

i do everything in oz instead of grams and i never had a problem.

 

[ycartf]

Ok i hate to ask a silly question...

but does it matter? if everything is measured in grams or ounces, its still units and as long as the unit type is consistently used, it would have been ok.

(aka illustration which is NOT accurate...)
5 oz water = 50%
2 oz lye = 20%
3 oz oils = 30%
= 10 oz = 100%

or
5 gr water =50%
2 gr lye = 20%
3 gr oils. =30%
= 10 gr = 100%

The units are the same, even if the total amount is different.

Or did I misunderstand? You did measure everything in oz instead of grams, right?

Correct, no matter whether you measure in ounces or grams, if you use the same numbers you will be fine (ratio will be the same). That said, one ounce equals about 28 grams, so you should notice if you are pouring out 300oz of coconut oil vs 300g. I always use grams now for everything, because even though my scale has 1/8oz increments, that is still almost 4 grams. Grams gives me more precision, plus no "X oz of coconut oil equals Y lb and Z oz" to have to even think about.

 

[Deb]

True, you should notice the difference - and i'm a strictly come grams person here.

But at the same time, the OP's batch would have probably turned out good.

 

[ycartf]

True, you should notice the difference - and i'm a strictly come grams person here.

But at the same time, the OP's batch would have probably turned out good.

I agree Deb

 

[ewenique]

If the numbers were plugged into Soapcalc.net, adjustments could've been made, if necessary.