Hope everyone had a great weekend! So I am overwhelmed with the options of soap! I want to set a standard of my recipes. But where do I start? I will be using fresh goat milk in a majority of my recipes..99%. I want to have basic one color soaps as well as swirls and textures. I know that trace plays a major role in the technique that I want to accomplish so I'm think that i will need to avoid oils that trace quicker, like palm, when making swirls, correct? I want to use shea, cocoa mango, kokum butters...so do I set a recipe and just substitute different butters. What I'm trying to accomplish is having one or 2 master recipes so that I can master batch and also master the recipes. Any suggestions?
Set recipes??? Overwhelmed
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dixiedragon
Well-Known Member
Butters - shea, cocoa, etc - are very fast tracers. Faster than palm, IMO.
Why don't you just make some soaps and keep track of the recipes you use. You're just starting at making soap. Different recipes do different things as well a different additives do different things to affect the soap. Make small batches. Keep good notes and then evaluate them long term to see how they do. Also, keep in mind that much of what goes into the soap isn't what is in the final product. Enjoy the process of making different soaps. What works for you may not work for others.
Exactly! So those will be my one color soaps. Question is how do I decide my set of standard recipes?
dixiedragon
Well-Known Member
1) What are your ingredient preferences? Vegan? Palm free? Etc.
2) How many base recipes are you envisioning?
I'm in Birmingham, btw. Welcome to the Forum! There is a store in Pelham called Community Candle that sells fragrances, molds, colors, etc. They are mostly candle people, so a lot of their FOs have not stood up in soap for me. But some are good in lotion.
2) How many base recipes are you envisioning?
I'm in Birmingham, btw. Welcome to the Forum! There is a store in Pelham called Community Candle that sells fragrances, molds, colors, etc. They are mostly candle people, so a lot of their FOs have not stood up in soap for me. But some are good in lotion.
cedarstar
Well-Known Member
I use cocoa butter or shea butter in my soap recipes at 10% and my recipes are very slow to trace. I also use lard , oo, co and castor and soap at room temp
dixiedragon
Well-Known Member
Do you have a problem with your current recipes?
There is no "right" way to have your standard recipes. It depends on what you like and what works for you. I would say most people here have 1 non veggie recipe, one veggie recipe, and then maybe one salt recipe.
I have four I make repeatedly. My primary is one with lard. Then I make the same recipe and sub the lard for palm. I don't do that one a lot, I prefer to be palm free. I have a 50% shea butter recipe, b/c I like to have a veggie palm-free recipe. And then I have my salt bar recipe. That one is just 95% coconut, 5% castor with 50% salt.
But there are lots of tweaks in there. Sometimes I use coconut milk. I personally don't use dairy milk, it always smells funny to me. Sometimes I use vinegar to replace some water. Sometimes I replace all of my olive with sunflower.
What problems are you currently having with your recipes?
There is no "right" way to have your standard recipes. It depends on what you like and what works for you. I would say most people here have 1 non veggie recipe, one veggie recipe, and then maybe one salt recipe.
I have four I make repeatedly. My primary is one with lard. Then I make the same recipe and sub the lard for palm. I don't do that one a lot, I prefer to be palm free. I have a 50% shea butter recipe, b/c I like to have a veggie palm-free recipe. And then I have my salt bar recipe. That one is just 95% coconut, 5% castor with 50% salt.
But there are lots of tweaks in there. Sometimes I use coconut milk. I personally don't use dairy milk, it always smells funny to me. Sometimes I use vinegar to replace some water. Sometimes I replace all of my olive with sunflower.
What problems are you currently having with your recipes?
Carly B
Well-Known Member
I'm new to this too, but I'm having fun doing all the research. I made a spreadsheet to decide what formulas to use.
I went to Soapcalc, and one by one plugged in the oils I was considering at 100%. This gave me the characteristics for each oil alone. I then transposed that information to a spreadsheet, so what I have
is a spreadsheet that has the types of oils down the left column, and the properties (hardness, cleansing, etc.) across the top.
Then I started playing.
I went to soap calc and plugged in random oils and and ran the calculations. If, for example, the hardness came up lower than I want, I'd go to my oils spreadsheet, sort by hardness, and add or increase the oils that had a high hardness score. Then I'd run the calculation again. It was fun and I learned a lot, and I played with this for all the properties. I came up with one recipe I want to make today, and another that I want to make when my order of other oils comes in.
I went to Soapcalc, and one by one plugged in the oils I was considering at 100%. This gave me the characteristics for each oil alone. I then transposed that information to a spreadsheet, so what I have
is a spreadsheet that has the types of oils down the left column, and the properties (hardness, cleansing, etc.) across the top.
Then I started playing.
I went to soap calc and plugged in random oils and and ran the calculations. If, for example, the hardness came up lower than I want, I'd go to my oils spreadsheet, sort by hardness, and add or increase the oils that had a high hardness score. Then I'd run the calculation again. It was fun and I learned a lot, and I played with this for all the properties. I came up with one recipe I want to make today, and another that I want to make when my order of other oils comes in.
To start out and set a base recipe I found hard to do. After approx 7 yrs I have my main base combination for vegan and non-vegan but will still vary oils and butters. It takes time. If you are wanting to sell you need to take the year or so to develop recipes that are good, then spend the time tweaking until your recipes are Great. Soaping is a great lesson in patience.
cedarstar
Well-Known Member
Playing is fun! And a great way to learn what you like in your bars of soap. When I started soaping, which hasn't been as long as many of the wonderful and experienced soapers here, I played around with soap calc too. I changed percentages, subbed out some oils, etc and eventually I found a base recipe I really like. While most of my soaps are made with lard, I too also make a few vegan bars. I love using goat milk in my soaps but use coconut for vegan bars. 
I'm not rigid about my recipes either. If I'm short of something, I sub something similar. If I want to try another type of oil (say high oleic sunflower in place of olive), I try it. Sometimes the experiment doesn't work out as well as I'd like, but more often the soap is fine.
To a large degree, the quality of soap isn't controlled by the fats used ... it's controlled by the fatty acids contained within those fats. In general, my goal is to keep the fatty acid profile within reasonable ranges based on my experience with how my soap has performed over time. I'm reasonably flexible about the fats I use to reach that goal.
I would never want to create a "perfect" recipe or set of recipes and adhere rigidly to them. Not my style ... nor do I think that inflexibility is necessary to make good soap. I also think most people, including me, have quite different perceptions about what a good soap is like after a few years of experience. Many beginners, for example, want to use fancy (and expensive) butters or only essential oils, etc. For many people, those expectations do not last long, as they learn more about the costs, availability, and performance of these ingredients. And many beginners do not fully appreciate the importance of cure time on improving the quality of their soap.
Furthermore, I'd say the use of some fats might cause soap batter to trace a little quicker, but honestly how a person makes the soap has a huge influence over the working time as well. So I wouldn't rule out certain fats just because other people say they accelerate trace. Rule them out after you've tried them and learn how they perform for you.
So my advice ... don't get stuck on nailing down every detail at this time. You're a beginner and there's a lot to learn about the general techniques and mechanics of soap making. See how various recipes perform in your shower and hone your preferences based on personal experience. Don't shoot for perfection as you understand it now, because your idea of perfection is going to change as you gain knowledge.
To a large degree, the quality of soap isn't controlled by the fats used ... it's controlled by the fatty acids contained within those fats. In general, my goal is to keep the fatty acid profile within reasonable ranges based on my experience with how my soap has performed over time. I'm reasonably flexible about the fats I use to reach that goal.
I would never want to create a "perfect" recipe or set of recipes and adhere rigidly to them. Not my style ... nor do I think that inflexibility is necessary to make good soap. I also think most people, including me, have quite different perceptions about what a good soap is like after a few years of experience. Many beginners, for example, want to use fancy (and expensive) butters or only essential oils, etc. For many people, those expectations do not last long, as they learn more about the costs, availability, and performance of these ingredients. And many beginners do not fully appreciate the importance of cure time on improving the quality of their soap.
Furthermore, I'd say the use of some fats might cause soap batter to trace a little quicker, but honestly how a person makes the soap has a huge influence over the working time as well. So I wouldn't rule out certain fats just because other people say they accelerate trace. Rule them out after you've tried them and learn how they perform for you.
So my advice ... don't get stuck on nailing down every detail at this time. You're a beginner and there's a lot to learn about the general techniques and mechanics of soap making. See how various recipes perform in your shower and hone your preferences based on personal experience. Don't shoot for perfection as you understand it now, because your idea of perfection is going to change as you gain knowledge.
Carly B
Well-Known Member
What does using vinegar do?
Vinegar, when the proper amount of extra NaOH is added to react it, will from sodium acetate which helps with a harder bar that, in my opinion, lathers better. I use vinegar for all or partial water replacement. If I want to use milks I use powdered. To use vinegar you determine the amount of vinegar you want to include and multiply it by 0.0357 to get the amount of extra NaOH needed to re-act it. If the extra lye is not used you will up your superfat.
DeeAnna has a good explanation on this site. Just scroll down to the Acids and Salts
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapyStuff.asp
DeeAnna has a good explanation on this site. Just scroll down to the Acids and Salts
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapyStuff.asp
Carly B
Well-Known Member
Dawni
Well-Known Member
You decide after you've made the soap.... Which one worked well for you (procedure) and then which one felt good for you and yours (result). It'll take several months of testing I would think.
Yes it helps to know what traces quick, which fats are hardeners, which fats need to be soaped hotter, what causes false trace, which fats are more conditioning, etc.. but you'll still need to test em out. Research will only get you so far but it helps to know stuff lol
There's just no quick way to figuring it out unfortunately. I'm soaping for almost a year now and I still don't have a set of recipes but I have a couple that I've repeated since I noticed family and friends like em. Also, what could work great for us might not for you coz everyone's skin is different.
"...Also, what could work great for us might not for you coz everyone's skin is different...."
Also water hardness and climate play a role in recipe formulation.
If you bathe in hard water, your perception of the skin feel and lathering ability of your soaps will be quite different than if you have soft water.
Dawni lives in a climate that is more consistently warm and humid, I believe, and I live in a temperate climate that swings seasonally from warm and humid to cold and dry. The soap that works for her and her family will likely be different than what works for me and mine.
My friend lives on an island just off the mainland of Belize and the air is always humid and salty. When I visited her, I found the soap I really like in Iowa does not work well on her island. Soap doesn't dry properly between uses due to the humidity and salt. I knew if I lived there and made soap, I would need to reformulate.
Also water hardness and climate play a role in recipe formulation.
If you bathe in hard water, your perception of the skin feel and lathering ability of your soaps will be quite different than if you have soft water.
Dawni lives in a climate that is more consistently warm and humid, I believe, and I live in a temperate climate that swings seasonally from warm and humid to cold and dry. The soap that works for her and her family will likely be different than what works for me and mine.
My friend lives on an island just off the mainland of Belize and the air is always humid and salty. When I visited her, I found the soap I really like in Iowa does not work well on her island. Soap doesn't dry properly between uses due to the humidity and salt. I knew if I lived there and made soap, I would need to reformulate.
Dawni
Well-Known Member
You are right. Always humid, sometimes warm, most of the time hot lol
I found out along the way that climate and current ambient temps also factor in while you're making the soap, and also while curing (in my case I'm struggling with finding recipes that won't sweat as much as some of my current soaps, for example), not only when the soap is done and you're using it. Which is why I mentioned procedure earlier.
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amd
I did small 16oz (oil) batches each month until I found a combination that worked well for my family. I went through about 9 months of trial and error before I settled on a recipe that I used exclusively for my family, but still continued to tinker with various ingredients in other batches, I've made slight tweaks in my recipe as I've gone along the last 5 years, but mostly I use one recipe. I have discovered though that recipes that I "disqualified" after a month cure, were fine soaps after 6 months, or years later. It's a lot of trial and error, but keep your batches small and it becomes an interesting journey.
I've got a folder on my desktop entitled 'Ultimate Recipes'. I built it up over the first few months of soaping, and tested out which ones were good for swirls, and which traced fast, slow etc. I then tweaked recipes according to price, substituting cheaper oils for more expensive ones. I also keep notes on fragrances and which ones accelerate, which ones don't.
I have not looked in that folder for the past 7 months.
I pretty much have one standard recipe now - and it has 'evolved' from all the recipes in that folder. I have it how I like it - balancing price with quality, fatty acid profiles with the types of designs I want to do and so on. I might tweak it now and again if I am a bit short of an ingredient, or want a different quality in a particular batch.
You'll probably end up evolving from your early recipes over time too - once you get a few batches under your belt and figure out what you like.
I have not looked in that folder for the past 7 months.
I pretty much have one standard recipe now - and it has 'evolved' from all the recipes in that folder. I have it how I like it - balancing price with quality, fatty acid profiles with the types of designs I want to do and so on. I might tweak it now and again if I am a bit short of an ingredient, or want a different quality in a particular batch.
You'll probably end up evolving from your early recipes over time too - once you get a few batches under your belt and figure out what you like.
Although I’m very new to soaping, and greatly thank all the generous folks on the Forum for advice, I did spend 3 months reading first. But only making soap teaches. I was lucky my first two batches were a hit with friends and family in SoCal. Something to live up to now lol! Store bought soap didn’t work in Hawaii. Hot, humid. Could cure only with fans blasting but worked ok. No AC there. Need more drying soap or mild hard soap there. Back now in the dry warm air of SoCal,
Soap needs much more conditioning and super fat to keep skin from shriveling. Good news is I can cure soap nicely in garage (can’t do it in house b/c we have parrots), but the garage smells wonderful. “Location, location, location” (Lao Tzu).
Soap needs much more conditioning and super fat to keep skin from shriveling. Good news is I can cure soap nicely in garage (can’t do it in house b/c we have parrots), but the garage smells wonderful. “Location, location, location” (Lao Tzu).
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