Soap design question

[candicec003]

Hi people. Wondering if there is a formula to figure out how much soap is needed for certain designs. In particular, the design where you would tilt a rectangular loaf mold on its side to fill up the corner of the mold, for the diagonal corner? I know i could trial and error it but, wondering if there's an easier way. Thanks

 

[DeeAnna]

Use water and measure the weight or volume of the water? The weight of soap in a given volume is about 97% of the weight of water with the same volume, assuming a typical bath soap recipe. In other words, soap is a wee bit lighter than water.

If you want to use a loaf mold and make a design where each bar shows two triangles of soap, then my guess is you'd want to use half the soap batter for each pour. Not sure I'm on the same page as you, however -- pics are always best to make sure people understand.

 

[toxikon]

I like to think in terms of batter percentage.

Here's my usual process:
- Double check my loaf mold volume - it can hold 50oz.
- Input my recipe into Soapee, make sure that my total batter weight (oils, lye solution, fragrance) is close to 50oz.
- Decide on my design. Let's say I want a design with 4 equal layers. That means I will need to divide my batter 4x, each division being 25%. So if I have 50oz of batter, each division should be around 12.5oz.
- I'll get my containers ready: 1 large, 4 smaller ones. In the 4 smaller ones, I will mix my micas with oil.
- I will make my batter using the 1 large container - just stickblending to emulsion - I want lots of working time here.
- I'll put the first small container on the scale, add 12.5oz of batter and mix with a spatula to incorporate the mica.
- Do the same for the other 3 containers.
- Pour!

Now - you can get a lot more complex with this and it can become pretty easy to eyeball the percentages you want, especially in layered/geometric designs. If you want to do a thin layer on the top and bottom and a thick layer in the center, you could divide the batter into 3 portions of 10%, 80%, 10%. For example.

 

[candicec003]

Thats a great idea! I will try the water method!
I just looking for a little bit of each bottom corner, not half of the bar

 

[IrishLass]

I don't know if you'd consider this a formula or not, but if it helps, my 'formula' starts with knowing beforehand how much batter in fluid cups that each of my batches make, and how many cups of batter fit into each of my molds. Knowing those 2 things helps tremendously with me being able to more successfully guestimate how many cups of batter to use for this or that part of my swirl whenever I attempt a certain swirl for the first time. And it ends with me taking notes of how things turned out so that I can adjust things for the next time if need be. After doing that a few times, it's amazing how quickly one gains an intuition to be able to guestimate correctly at the first attempt of any new swirl.


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

Thats a great idea! I will try the water method!
I just looking for a little bit of each bottom corner, not half of the bar

In that case, the water idea might work well for you. Pour the water into the corner of your mold as deep as you think you want the batter to be, pour the water into a measuring cup, and read how many fluid ounces or milliliters is in the cup. That's your answer.