steep water discount 2% SF

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Fisher

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Just discovered a mistake in a recipe...It has a steep water discount and the Superfat is 2%. the lye to water is still at about 2:1. question is will this bar be really drying when cured? I am so mad for not triple checking
 
Hi and welcome to the forum! If you post your recipe we would be happy to help. Hard to know if it will be drying without know what is in it. Though the SF is a bit low.
 
olive 24.75 oz
coconut 9.00 oz
shea butter 4.50 oz
cocoa butter 4.50 oz
castor 2.25 oz

lye 6.38 oz
water 12.76 oz

I punched this recipe into my SM3 again as a new recipe and that's how I spotted the difference. also used SoapCalc and MMS Lye Calculator (which I seem to like the best for easy understanding) that's where I discovered that my lye and water run on the 2% sf and on the low end of water range (11-17oz)
 
A water discount won't affect the drying feeling, like a superfat can. My last batch was with a 2:1 ratio, which is also the go-to amount for many people.

Many people soap with a 3% sf as a matter of course. I can't compare the recipe to theirs, because I usually shoot for 5% myself, but it might just mean that you have to cure this for longer than usual in order to get it milder
 
That much olive will likely take a long time to cure - 6 months.

So, I take it you already made this? I would let it cure and see if you like it. Really that is the only way to tell if you will find it drying or not. If you do not like it, then you can grate it up to use as confetti, or rebatch.
 
Welcome Fisher! :wave:

The recipe has a couple of things going for it that might help in regards to any drying from the lower superfat- it's fairly low on the cleansing aspect, plus you have shea in there which has some cushiony unsaponifiables in it. If it were me, I would give it a good cure of at least about 8 weeks or so before making any initial judgments on it.

As for the water amount- a 2:1 ratio is actually a really nice middle-of-the-road discount. I call it my 'Goldilocks' discount because it's not too fast and it's not too slow- it's just right. :)


IrishLass :)
 
Welcome to the forum, Fisher! :wave:

I honestly don't think it's going to be a bad soap. As IrishLass said, you have low cleansing numbers plus the butters which will help. I've recently come to prefer 1.8:1 water/lye ratio with a SF of 3% so your 2:1, 2% SF should be good. After a nice cure, you'll have to see what you think of the results. It should be a very mild & gentle soap though.

DeAnna has spoken several times about not being afraid of lower SF % due to the purity of lye we get & variables in SAP values. I can't find the posts at the moment so hopefully she'll come along with some info that will help.
 
Thank you everyone. Yes I did make this. I typically do 5% sf. I guess I have a lot more to learn about the water lye ratios. I have such a hard time with using SM3 and what Soapcalc recommends.
 
Most of the online soap calculators assume NaOH is 100% pure, which it almost never is in real life. The NaOH that soapers usually use is closer to about 95% pure and it only goes down from there as you open the lye container and let fresh CO2 and moisture into the container.

Your "2% superfat" is probably closer to 7% superfat in reality.

I can't speak about SM3 about whether it accounts for NaOH purity or not. Never used it.
 
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