soap recipe but no percentages,what to do?

[sabnazzy]

Hello everybody. I have a list of ingredients from watching a ytube video and the soap batter seemed to flow nicely,but dont know the percentages. Can you use the soap calc without percentages and if so what do i need to do? thanks so much Andrea

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Did it give ingredients in weight or volume? If by weight, then the percentages will be easy to calculate. If by volume, then you can calculate ballpark percentages, test and then adjust based on outcomes. If no percentage, weight, or volume, then it is a total experiment. Somewhere I read that a good rule of thumb was 60% hard or solid oils and 40% soft or liquid oils as a starting point.
That being said, other things can affect pourability, particularly the trace. If you don't want a thick trace, soap when your oils and lye mixture are in the 90 - 100 F range and don't use fragrances that accelerate trace. For me, those are the 2 most common causes of accelerating trace.

Oh, one more thought, don't over mix as that will also accelerate trace - i. e. mix for 5 seconds, stir, check trace. If not at desired trace, just do quick 1-2 second bursts, stir manually, check trace. Repeat until reach desired trace.

 

[SoapMedic]

you can calculate the percentages yourself. Take your measurements (I hope they aren't in cup/teaspoons etc, they should be by weight), first, what is the total amount of oils/butters? You will then take the weight of each oil/butter you used and calculate the percentage.
Here's an example:
I have 32 oz total of oils/butters, the breakdown is:
8 oz of coconut, 7 oz of palm oil, 9 oz of olive oil, 6 oz of shea butter, 2 oz sunflower oil. Do your math: 8/32 (8 divided by 32) = 0.25, or 25% 7/32 = 0.218 or lets call it 22%,9/32 =0.28 or 28% and 6/32 =0.187 or 19%, 2/32=.06 or 6% Check your math, the percentages will add up to 100%
remember you are determining the 'part of the whole', so the smaller number is divided by the large (total) number.
now you can plug your numbers into soapcalc to get your water/lye/fragrance info and to make your formula larger or smaller

 

[Misschief]

you can calculate the percentages yourself. Take your measurements (I hope they aren't in cup/teaspoons etc, they should be by weight), first, what is the total amount of oils/butters? You will then take the weight of each oil/butter you used and calculate the percentage.
Here's an example:
I have 32 oz total of oils/butters, the breakdown is:
8 oz of coconut, 7 oz of palm oil, 9 oz of olive oil, 6 oz of shea butter, 2 oz sunflower oil. Do your math: 8/32 (8 divided by 32) = 0.25, or 25% 7/32 = 0.218 or lets call it 22%,9/32 =0.28 or 28% and 6/32 =0.187 or 19%, 2/32=.06 or 6% Check your math, the percentages will add up to 100%
remember you are determining the 'part of the whole', so the smaller number is divided by the large (total) number.
now you can plug your numbers into soapcalc to get your water/lye/fragrance info and to make your formula larger or smaller

And if all of that is really confusing, let me know. I made a recipe percentage calculator in Excel. All you need to do is input the total weight of the recipe, then the amount of each ingredient and it will do the calculations for you.

I may set it up in Google Docs; that might make it easier for anyone who doesn't have Excel. Just let me know.

 

[AliOop]

Most soap calculators allow you to switch the entry column from percentage to whatever units of measure were used in the recipe. See pic below from SoapmakingFriend for how to select grams instead of percentages, for instance. The OP could select ounces if that's what the target recipe used.

After making the change shown above, then the rows where you enter your soapmaking oils will allow you to enter the weight of each oil, rather than the percentage. Edited: the calculator will automatically show the final percentages for each oil. The pic below shows what I entered in grams, with the % to the right.

 

[earlene]

I think the OP was saying that the youtube soapmaker did not give the recipe, but only the oils used without exact amounts. If that is the case, then it would take some trial and error to come up with a recipe using those oils to get the result you want. If I misunderstood and the video did include amounts, then just enter that into the calculator & it will tell you the percentages.

Hello everybody. I have a list of ingredients from watching a ytube video and the soap batter seemed to flow nicely,but dont know the percentages. Can you use the soap calc without percentages and if so what do i need to do? thanks so much Andrea

Here is a thread that shows how to use soapcalc: How To Use Soap Calc Tutorial