What percent is good in a batch?

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jodym

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Is there somewhere i can look to see what percent of oils is good in a batch of soap? Like coconut, palm, olive, ect... Thank you!!
 
Bear in mind that any chart you find will be subjectively based on the personal likes/dislikes/particular skin-type of one who made the chart. lol

For example, if our Susie made the chart, she would probably mark down to use a range of 15%- 20% coconut oil. But if I made the chart (muahahaha), I would mark down 25% to 30%.....because 15%-20% is way too low for the likes of me and mine.

In other words, the only good chart is the one you make for yourself, based on your own trial and error experiments with your personal skin-type being the judge ....because our skin-types are all so different from each other.....as well as the quality of our water, too (i.e., hard or soft). What works for one person may be absolutely horrible for another person.


IrishLass :)
 
^Yup.

What works for me, does not necessarily work for anyone else. Learning what works for you is one of the best parts of making soap. If you want to learn what works, start with a good, basic recipe and make that. The next batch, use 5% less of one oil, and 5% more of another. Then change the recipe by 5% on each subsequent batch. Then you will figure out what you like.
 
Alternatively you could always plug in different fats/oils into "soapcalc.net" and see the general qualities of the bar you could make. :)
 
Alternatively you could always plug in different fats/oils into "soapcalc.net" and see the general qualities of the bar you could make. :)

You can, but those numbers do not tell you how the soap feels. You need actual soaping experience to be able to convert those numbers into skin feeling. No one can tell you whether you will like this more than that. You must make the soap and try it.
 
First, I would suggest learning about the properties of the oils and butter that we use to make soap. If you google it, and you would find something like this... http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/properties-soapmaking-oils As far as the percentages, as stated above, we all use different amounts depending on our own preferences. Trial and error is part of soapmaking. If you make soap and find that its too drying, or doesn't produce the kind of lather that you like, tweak that recipe in the direction that you want it to go, by using the oils or butters that will give you that result. Your skin will tell you what it wants.
 
I started with this basic recipe:
44% olive oil
33% coconut oil
23% palm oil
(Works well when working in grams - makes 1 kilogram of oils)

This makes a good, hard basic bar.

From there I tried another basic recipe - 30% each of olive, coconut and palm + 10% something special such as cocoa butter or shea butter.

It really helped me to start with something basic before I moved on to experimenting for myself.

Good luck with it all, jodym, and have fun! :)
 
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