???? Super-Fatting ????

[LisaM]

Hi Ladies, I also had a question about super-fatting. (For hot-process soap)

When you do up a recipe and say you want to superfat at 8% you list in all your oils, and the recipe will calculate how much water and lye and all amounts you need.

Now, in that recipe does the calculator just figure less lye, and you hold out some of those oils you listed to add after trace, and how do you know how much hold out and to figure on adding back in after.

or...

You do up your recipe, the calculator figures it out. Then after trace you decide to add a superfat (that was not calculated into the recipe with the calculator)? and again, how much do you know to put it without ruining your soap or making it too soft or rancid, etc. ????? Thanks

Also, has anyone used sodium lactate? at what point do you add in sodium lactate in the process, before trace? after? at very end?? Thanks again!

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

If you are using the CP method, there is no need to withhold oils and add them at trace. Lye is indiscriminate as to which oils it saponifies, so you may as well add them all up front and use a lye discount (a superfat percentage) so that ___% of your total oils remain unsaponified.

 

[LisaM]

Sorry, should had stated, it is hot process =) but thank you =)

 

[green soap]

The few times I'v done HP I used 1% superfat in soapCalc (mostly as a safety and error margin), and then calculated what 6 or 5% of the total I had to add after the cook. I then added my more expensive - good for your skin fats as the super fat.

So let's say my batch is 900g as I input in soapcalc (using just 1% in the SF box), to add the superfat later, let's say using jojoba oil, it is then 900 x .06 (for 6%-7% superfat) = 54g jojoba oil. So I would add those 54g jojoba to the cook pot that had the 1% SF from the start. This would give you 7% SF total.

Soapcalc is mostly used in CP, where as A&A explains, the lye is indiscriminate and keeps reacting after the pour, so you enter the % superfat in the initial calculation. You can also do it this way for HP, however, one of the advantages of HP is that you can control what oils make up your SF. I have not had my coffee yet, so I hope this is not clear as mud.

 

[LisaM]

=) So I do not add in my superfat oils into the recipe for the soapcalc if I am reading this right.

 

[green soap]

=) So I do not add in my superfat oils into the recipe for the soapcalc if I am reading this right.

In the hot process super fat oils will not get saponified, so the saponification value of these oils is irrelevant. They will remain oils. No need to enter them into soapcalc. Just add them later and calculate on your own. This is what I do anyway.

 

[sistrum]

If you use a soap calculator for your recipe it will be set at 5% if you don't change anything and this will be figured into your lye amount. If you then add, say, 5% more oils after the cook then your superfat will be more like 10%. You would need to change the soapcalc superfat box to zero before your print your recipe or take out 5% of your oils before adding the lye and just add them after the cook. Does that make sense?

 

[VanessaP]

Hi Ladies, I also had a question about super-fatting. (For hot-process soap)

When you do up a recipe and say you want to superfat at 8% you list in all your oils, and the recipe will calculate how much water and lye and all amounts you need.

Now, in that recipe does the calculator just figure less lye, and you hold out some of those oils you listed to add after trace, and how do you know how much hold out and to figure on adding back in after.

or...

You do up your recipe, the calculator figures it out. Then after trace you decide to add a superfat (that was not calculated into the recipe with the calculator)? and again, how much do you know to put it without ruining your soap or making it too soft or rancid, etc. ????? Thanks

Also, has anyone used sodium lactate? at what point do you add in sodium lactate in the process, before trace? after? at very end?? Thanks again!

For the superfatting part, the calculator just figures out the lesser amount of lye for the superfat. I don't bother adding my superfatting oil after the cook because I'm lazy and I've come to the conclusion that my soaps that are superfatted after the cook take a lot longer to harden up. I have HP that is 3 weeks old with an extra lil bit of superfat after the cook, and it is still incredibly soft.

Sodium lactate goes into your lye water before you mix with the oils. Some do it before adding the lye, but I like to add it after mixing in the lye but let it cool down a little bit so the heat helps the SL fully dissipate into the solution. I use 1.5-2%.