Tweak and Tinker

[SoapDaddy70]

During my last marathon web surfing session on soap I found a site named Tweak and Tinker. Has anyone out there heard of it or tried any of her recipes? There are quite a few recipes and she does a good job of explaining things. I thought it was a well done site.

 

[AliOop]

Never heard the site before, and just did a quick scan of her beginner soap recipe post, including the comments. I'd say isn't the worst soaping site that I've seen, but she definitely is perpetuating a few myths, and also made a statement about lye that should have been clarified to avoid mistakes.

For instance, she said that the lye and oils should be around 110º and ideally within 10º of each other. That's actually pretty warm for cold-process soap, and of course, is no need at all for the temps to be the same. She uses lye as a % of oils, and bringing the soap to thick trace. All of that may be a good place for people start (except lye as % of oils, which is not useful, IMO), but the post makes it sound like this is how soap is made, period.

She also told one person in the comments that the lye requirements were "14g lye per 100g oil." She did not specify - and should have - that this amount of lye was based on the specific oils that were in the person's recipe. If one didn't know better, one could read that response and come to the false conclusion that 14g lye would be the appropriate amount for any blend of oils.

She also didn't mention that lemongrass EO can be a skin irritant for a fair number of people, or that the amount of EO varies depending on which EO is used.

All of this may sound nit-picky, but failing to explain these kinds of details gets people into all kinds of messes.

 

[SoapDaddy70]

Never heard the site before, and just did a quick scan of her beginner soap recipe post, including the comments. I'd say isn't the worst soaping site that I've seen, but she definitely is perpetuating a few myths, and also made a statement about lye that should have been clarified to avoid mistakes.

For instance, she said that the lye and oils should be around 110º and ideally within 10º of each other. That's actually pretty warm for cold-process soap, and of course, is no need at all for the temps to be the same. She uses lye as a % of oils, and bringing the soap to brought to thick trace. All of that may be a good place for people start (except lye as % of oils, which is not useful, IMO), but the post makes it sound like this is how soap is made, period.

She also told one person in the comments that the lye requirements were "14g lye per 100g oil." She did not specify - and should have - that this amount of lye was based on the specific oils that were in the person's recipe. If one didn't know better, one could read that response and come to the false conclusion that 14g lye would be the appropriate amount for any blend of oils.

She also didn't mention that lemongrass EO can be a skin irritant for a fair number of people, or that the amount of EO varies depending on which EO is used.

All of this may sound nit-picky, but failing to explain these kinds of details gets people into all kinds of messes.

Thanks for taking the time to look at the site. I also knew from reading everything on this forum that her temperature stuff was off base. I thought the recipes were worth taking a look at. Thanks again for responding.

 

[AliOop]

Nothing wrong with running her recipes through a calculator to see if you want to give them a go. Just be sure to run all the EOs through EOCalc.com, as well. I didn't check to see if she was using skin-safe amounts.

I did see that in one of her later recipes, she graduated to using a 38% lye solution. Progress.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

I think the lye temp thing is a holdover from when soap makers used wood ash to make lye. In order for saponification to be achieved in an optimal manner the lye and the fats had to be around the same temp but it was closer to body temperature at least according to my great grandmother who used to test her lye solution on her wrist like you would a baby's milk to make sure it was the right temp.

 

[TheGecko]

During my last marathon web surfing session on soap I found a site named Tweak and Tinker. Has anyone out there heard of it or tried any of her recipes? There are quite a few recipes and she does a good job of explaining things. I thought it was a well done site.

You’ll never know until you try. Just run any and all recipes. Through soap calc.

 

[TheGecko]

I think the lye temp thing is a holdover from when soap makers used wood ash to make lye. In order for saponification to be achieved in an optimal manner the lye and the fats had to be around the same temp but it was closer to body temperature at least according to my great grandmother who used to test her lye solution on her wrist like you would a baby's milk to make sure it was the right temp.

I took a soap class about 5-6 years ago...the instructor said the same thing. It’s not a bad thing for beginners...keeps them safe.