Water in CP soap recipes

[Violetta]

Hello all
I'm very new to soap making. I've made my first CP soap yesterday but feels like I've to much lye in the soap ( I've used lye calculator ) I've created my own recipe in percentages first as follow,

25% Olive Oil
20 % Coconut oil
15% Shea Butter
10% Sunflower Seed Oil
5% Castor
5% Apricot Kernel

I've read that I should leave some space for water i left was 20% - it that correct %?

I was making 600 gr of soap as a test, with 33% lye concentration - amount of lye was 202 gr according to lye calculator ( % excess fat 5) , I've calculated amount of water = 410. Did -4% discount. = 194 gr Lye to 393 gr water.

The only thing I can think of is that I used tap water but I can't imagine that would but the reason for to much lye.

I'm puzzled and really appreciated your help am I missing something very obvious here ? Thanks so much

 

[Obsidian]

When you formulate a recipe, you don't add the water into the total weight. You need 100% of oils, the lye and water will be separate. For a 600gr recipe, use 600 grams of oils.
I have a hard time with math so its difficult for me to follow exactly what you did but I suspect you need to add another 20% of oil. One of our intelligent member will come along and give you a better answer.

 

[seven]

ditto what obsidian said. your recipe was off, you only had 80% of the total oils. you needed another 20%.

which calculator did you use? usually, it won't let you off if you don't have 100% of oils. like soapcalc, it will issue a warning, that you need to add/subtract this or that amount.
so yeah, i'm curious, where did you get the amount for lye if you only had 80% of the total oils? or did you put 100% and then subtracted it manually?

 

[Violetta]

Hi

Thanks so much - feeling , I've used sage - I've calculated grams rather than %, but just inputted all the oils again and there is no Warning in total is 80 which is not right - But the lye is 34.2 gr

I've used the a formula to calculate a water (100 - 33% = 67/33 = 2.03 than 34.2 x 2.03 = 69 gr ) Is that a right thing to do ? sage gives approximately 20 to 30 milliliters of liquid - this bit makes me dizzy from confusion . Thanks again

 

[Obsidian]

an you post your recipe in grams please? you might try http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp its my favorite and has a lot kore options.

 

[Violetta]

Yes I might try new calculator

I was making 600 gr

25% Olive Oil - 150 gr
20 % Coconut oil - 120gr
15% Shea Butter - 90gr
10% Sunflower Seed Oil - 60gr
5% Castor - 30gr
5% Apricot Kernel -30gr

Thanks

 

[Obsidian]

Your recipe is only 480 grams. With the lye concentration at 33% you would need 134.829 of water and 66.409 grams of lye. You batch is quite lye heavy as you used over double the amount of lye you needed. I would probably toss it and try again.

Next time don't include the water as a % of the recipe. for 600 gram recipe, use 600 grams of oil.

 

[Violetta]

Oh got it so wrong, thank you so much for all your help, will start again tomorrow ! :smile:

 

[seven]

you dont need that water formula (my eyes went numb just looking at that formula, lol). the whole reason behind using a lye calculator is to have the program calculate the lye and water amounts for you.

besides soapcalc, brambleberry is also a nice, simple, straightforward one to use. i was using that one in my early days, as that one was the simplest one i can understand the plus point for these 2 calculators, is that you have the option to use percentage (i find this to be the easiest), instead of putting the actual amount of oils you wanna use. the program will then calculate the amount of oils for you.

edited: dont toss that batch just yet. you can still use it to make soap for laundry later on. there's almost always you can do to save a batch, including a lye heavy one

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

Why were you working towards a 600 g batch of soap? Is that your max mold volume? I would hate for you to create a batch using 600 g oils only to find that your mold will not hold the mixed batch of oils/water/lye. For a rectangular mold, volume is calculated by (length * width * desired height) *0.4 = max oil to use. The rest of the area will be filled with the water/lye. Remember to use the interior measurements of the mold. (Some of us learn the hard way and don't feel others need to go through that )

 

[Violetta]

Thanks Kansas

I work on the smallest quantities possible - as my first attempt was a complete failure Don't want to waist any more ingredients
I've made wooden mold ( assuming that each bar is around 100 gr ) so fits fine 600 gram for testing

Made second batch yesterday looks good- definitely less lye but I think I've over worked it a bit, I've noticed few cracks !

I've moved it from very warm kitchen to a very cold utility room - would setting to quickly caused the cracks ?

Thanks

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

If you're working in metric, use 0.7 for the mold volume calculation and NOT 0.4 which is the imperial multiplier.

 

[judymoody]

Made second batch yesterday looks good- definitely less lye but I think I've over worked it a bit, I've noticed few cracks !

I've moved it from very warm kitchen to a very cold utility room - would setting to quickly caused the cracks ?

Thanks

The cracks are probably from overheating. If your soap is uniform in consistency within (no oozy pockets or lye crystals) then the crack is just an aesthetic issue and not to worry.

 

[Violetta]

Thank you so much for all your advice good new is that my second batch is great smells lush Yupi !! not lye heavy, with the small crack but so happy