Soapmaking Spreadsheet Recipe Tool

[Grantxw8]

This might be my last chance to post for a little while. So, I thought I'd push this out before I take a break. I bought Carrie Seibert's excellent book 'How to make Shaving Soap, Charting Your Course to the Land of Lather'. Having read it I decided to make some shaving soap. Of course, this requires the use of dual lye recipes and so I've added the facility to use both NaOH and KOH in a recipe to this tool.

Hopefully, I haven't stuffed anything up in the process. I did it in a bit of a rush. I also took the opportunity to improve the accuracy of some of the calculations. Consequently, I'd recommend using the latest version and deleting the old versions.

Happy soaping.

Latest version HERE.

 

[Whillow]

This might be my last chance to post for a little while. So, I thought I'd push this out before I take a break.

Sorry to see you go. Will you still check in to see if people "me in particular" have any questions regarding your programme?

 

[Grantxw8]

Sorry to see you go. Will you still check in to see if people "me in particular" have any questions regarding your programme?

Absolutely. Just having a holiday. might not have internet access.

 

[Grantxw8]

Sorry, I had a technical issue at my end that stopped the file uploading correctly - or that's how it looked at this end of my not-so-good connection. I thought it safer to take the file down again in case of a problem. I think all is well at my end now so I'll try uploading again before heading to bed.

I streamlined some things in the back end and found a minor gremlin or two (mostly caused by my rushing the last version out). These should all be addressed now. I also managed to significantly improve the accuracy of the automatic batch resizing. That alone is worth upgrading to this version - after all it's free.

This should be the last change for a while. so hopefully, you'll have a chance to play with it. Any feedback is gratefully received.

Happy soaping.

 

[Grantxw8]

Hey,

It must be Sunday night (it is in Australia) as I'm uploading another tweaked version of the Soap Designer tool. I've improved the batch size calculator and one or 2 other little things that weren't as good as they could have been. There will come a day when I don't find things to improve but that day isn't this day.

I know I say this every time I upload but, this should be the last change for a while. so hopefully, you'll have a chance to play with it. Any feedback is gratefully received.

Happy soaping.

[I've made so many changes to this tool - some of them at the suggestion of this forum - but some of them because I just thought I should. I confess though that I definitely made some because I made mistakes in the calculations. I apologise for that. I'm glad to say that I'm pretty sure none of them would have caused any injuries or even spoiled a batch. They were not what I would have wanted them to be. That, of course, is one reason I ask for feedback. If there is a mistake in there then I want to know about it so I can fix it. I'm pretty sure I've caught the vast majority and that this version should be reliable. However, if you use the tool and find it useful I'd be delighted to hear about it. Any issues you find I'd be grateful to hear about those too.]

As always this is a free tool and is offered without warranty.

@Whillow I hope you are a bit less stressed and can relax doing a little soaping.

 

[Whillow]

@Whillow I hope you are a bit less stressed and can relax doing a little soaping.

Thank you @Grantxw8 Things are calming down a bit for me here. No more people trying to get into my house LOL I have security up the wazoo now. When I had my Neapolitan Mastiff he was enough of a deterrent but now I have a Golden Retriever and a Cocker Spaniel that welcome people with open arms.

I will down load this program on my computer at home and let you know. Thank you very much.

 

[Whillow]

I have tried to get this program to work on my computer. I even purchased Microsoft 365 but it is still a no go. No macros are able to be enabled. Thank you for your work on it @Grantxw8.

 

[Grantxw8]

Hey Whillow, could you send me screenshots of what you see when you open the spreadsheet? I have others using it without issue once they allow macros to be used. It may be something simple like a security setting that's been missed.

 

[Whillow]

Hi @Grantxw8 I will once I get home. Thank you

 

[Grantxw8]

Hi Whillow, The more info you can give me the better I'll be able to help. If you can tell me what operating system you're using (Windows 10 or 11, Mac, Unix) and what you see when you open the file that's a great start. If you could also tell me what you've tried already regarding enabling macros that would be great.

On another note, do you make anything other than soap? I've started making candles recently and will be turning my hand to melts soon. I have, of course , made spreadsheets to facilitate each of these. It's a bit clunky having separate spreadsheets so I'm working on combining them all. It'll be a job and a half but I enjoy it almost as much as making smelly things.

 

[Whillow]

On another note, do you make anything other than soap? I've started making candles recently and will be turning my hand to melts soon. I have, of course , made spreadsheets to facilitate each of these. It's a bit clunky having separate spreadsheets so I'm working on combining them all. It'll be a job and a half but I enjoy it almost as much as making smelly things.

Hi @Grantxw8,

No I do not make candles. I have a parrot that would croak if I ever burned a scented candle, so I don't bother. I love them though.

 

[Harry Potter]

guys what about the herbal ones i cant see any discussing about it

 

[Grantxw8]

guys what about the herbal ones i cant see any discussing about it

Hi Harry Potter, I’m not sure what you mean? This thread is regarding a spreadsheet (Excel) that can be used for designing recipes for CP soap among other things. I have other spreadsheets I use for making candles, melts, bath bombs and shower steamers. My last post was about this and whether it would be of any interest to others if I were to combine them into one tool. Not a great deal of interest from anyone so it’s very much a side project for the time being. I hope this helps.

 

[Iveta Pelá]

Thanks for this great tool, very good job. I appreciate you sharing this with the rest of us. I haven't used it yet, but I think this will save me a lot of time. I can see it being simple enough to be motivated to use it. I am alone with a small child and have very little time left for my soap making hobby, so I either keep my records simple or I don't do it because of lack of time when it takes too much time and is complicated.

Many thanks for your work!
@Grantxw8 I wish you happy retirement days

 

[Grantxw8]

Hi Iveta,

I’m glad you might find it useful. It sounds like you’re busy. If you have any problems please reach out and I’ll do what I can to help.

 

[Grantxw8]

Wow! J'étais à me construire un fichier Excel personnalisé selon mes préférences mais je suis loin d'être aussi compétente que vous avec Excel! Je me demandais aussi comment faire pour obtenir des graphiques visuels pour les propriétés du savon (douceur, mousse, etc.). Votre fichier semble parfait pour quelqu'un de visuel comme moi, j'aimerais beaucoup l'avoir mais je m'y perds dans les posts pour y accéder. Accepteriez-vous de me remettre une copie de votre dernière version? (j'utilise Microsoft365). Merci à l'avance et surtout félicitations c'est énormément d'heures de travail derrière ce type de fichier!

Hi Natcha, I’m glad to hear that this might be useful for you. The latest published version can be found here:
Soapmaking Spreadsheet Recipe Tool

I’m often tweaking the tool to suit my needs. Currently I’m looking into combining several tools used for making soap, candles, bath bombs/shower steamers, wax melts etc. into a single tool. It is far from finished at this point so I haven’t uploaded it.

I’m busy doing some fundraising for a refugee family who have moved to our area currently so I don’t expect to have much time this side of Christmas. Things may change though and having someone show interest is a good motivator.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

[Natcha]

Hi, thank you so much and congratulations for your work (excel sheet and fundraising ).

I have same goals as you with the excel sheet. Mine is far from something to share but eventually I'll will share it with you if you wish. I'm french and from province of Québec, Canada, so my sheet is in french (sorry if my english is so so...). Eventhough I join my project table contents translated, so you will see what I'm working on.

I also begin a Word document with table of contents for my friend's nephew who wants to begin CP soap making. This document is to give access rapidly to useful links, website, precious tips and where to buy. I'm already at 55 pages... so maybe oneday it will become a book LOLLL.

Wish you the best

 

[Saffron]

Dear Grant, thank you for sharing your spreadsheet. Have downloaded it and am looking forward to using it soon. I'm a hobbyist (not a seller) and gift soaps and other skin care products to family and friends. I made a rudimentary spreadsheet years ago to keep track of my ingredients and costs per batch but yours looks much more advanced - and with macros! Very kind of you to share
Happy New Year and Happy Soaping!

 

[Grantxw8]

Dear Grant, thank you for sharing your spreadsheet. Have downloaded it and am looking forward to using it soon. I'm a hobbyist (not a seller) and gift soaps and other skin care products to family and friends. I made a rudimentary spreadsheet years ago to keep track of my ingredients and costs per batch but yours looks much more advanced - and with macros! Very kind of you to share
Happy New Year and Happy Soaping!

Hi Saffron, I hope you like the spreadsheet. In the New Year I plan to consolidate some of my various spreadsheets. Currently I have the soap one that you downloaded. I have others which are not nearly so complicated/comprehensive for Candles, Bath Bombs, Shower Steamers, and wax melts.

Like you I am a hobbyist and don't normally sell my products. I've been doing a little selling recently to raise funds for a charity I'm involved with so I thought it would be worthwhile knowing how much things cost.

There is a fair bit of setting up involved in making use of the spreadsheet. Mostly it is simply putting in the dimensions of moulds, the prices of oils, fragrance etc. Once it is done things should be fairly straightforward. If you run in to any issues please let me know.

Have fun. Grant

 

[jack915]

Hello Grant,
Wow you put in so much work into this spreadsheet. I really wanted to give it a try but I have no clue how to download or if its even still available. When I click the link it just takes me to another thread. It may be because I'm not very tech savvy. Can you direct me to where I need to go to download? Thank you so much and I cant wait to give this a try.