Soap Calculators and Hot Process

[DaleF]

I have looked around and I can't find where this has been discussed before.

When using a soap/lye calculator and formulating a HP soap, should you set the Superfats at 0%? Also, for the superfats that you add after it has cooked through the gel phase, do you add those into the original calculations or should I calculate without the superfats and just add the approximate 5% of superfats at the end.

I have a feeling I'm making this much harder than it needs to be.

Here is an example.

If I did a soap batch of 20 oz of EVOO, 9 oz of Coconut Oil and 1 oz of Castor oil with 1.5 oz of fragrance oil and i want to superfat with 1 oz of Shea butter, would I calculate the recipe with all four fats or since I'm adding the Shea Butter after the gel phase, leave it out since it won't effect the working of the lye and oil mixture?

 

[seven]

I would leave out the shea from the calculation. that's how i usually does it with superfatting HP. also, i dont know if you already know this or not, but put the FO after the cook after the gel phase finished. make sure you know the flashpoint of your FO and check the temp of your soap before adding the FO.

edited: just to be safe, i put my SF at 1% with the calculator. i just dont feel confident with 0% SF. but that's just me. SAP values are only average, and there are other issues such as the accuracy of scale, etc. so, just to be on the safe side that is

 

[DaleF]

Thanks for the info! I'll set the SF at 1% on the calculator and run it without the superfats I'll add.

I did know about adding the FO after the gel phase was complete but thanks for the reminder and the reminder about the flashpoint too.

 

[pamielynn]

So much easier (and accurate) if you just take a lye discount instead of "superfats".

 

[DaleF]

explain that please. I don't understand.

 

[songwind]

You don't need to add your superfats after the cook, unless you want a different "profile" of oils than what you used in your soap. The temperatures (< 200F, usually) are nowhere near high enough to burn the oil, so you can just superfat/lye discount the same way you would with cold process.

 

[seven]

to explain it quickly, by putting all of your oils into the calculation and setting your SF to 5% for example, then you'll get a SF consisting of a mixed of all the oils.
this is fine if you dont want a specific oil as your SF. in your case, you wanted shea butter specifically as your SF, thus leaving it out of the calculation and adding it after the cook will give you a SF consisting of only shea butter (plus a tiny bit of all the other oils if you set your SF to 1% for example).

 

[pamielynn]

Well, as I said before, I'm in the camp of "you can't specifically superfat any one oil". If the lye isn't doing anything to the oils "after the cook", then why don't you end up with an oily bar? I believe taking the lye discount is the safest way to look at superfatting.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Pam, in HP the lye has reacted with the oil in the gel phase - you then have soap. If you had it set to 0% SF and were 100% spot on, you'd have soap, no oils and no lye - all the oil and lye is combined to make soap. Then if you add in more oil, say 5% of the total weight, you are then superfatted with just that 1 type of oil.

In CP, the cook happens in the mold, which makes it impossible to selectively superfat with CP. With CP, you can just use more oil (or less lye, if you look at it that way) and then a % of all the oils will be left over once all the lye is gone, but you cannot choose which ones.