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Simple Beginner Soap Recipe


Crafty1_AJ

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Here's a simple soap recipe with easy measurements. And the best part is, these ingredients are readily available in many grocery stores. I can get them all at my Super Wal-Mart. :)

50% olive oil (no need to get extra virgin; light olive oil is great!)

25% coconut oil (Lou Ana brand at Super Wal-Mart is perfect)

25% lard*

Plug these numbers into a good lye calculator such as the one at Majestic Mountain Sage or soapcalc.com, and you'll get the correct amount of lye and water to use. I'd post them here, but I figure beginning soapers need practice with the lye calculators anyway, since they are an indispensable soaping tool to this soaper! :wink2:

I recommend using grams rather than ounces for your measurements, ESPECIALLY for the lye and ESPECIALLY when you're doing a small batch, since grams are more precise and there's not much wiggle room when soaping small batches. But here's how the measurements would stack up for a 2 pound batch of soap:

16 oz. olive oil

8 oz. coconut oil

8 oz. lard*

*If you are opposed to using animal fats, you can subsitute 25% palm oil for the lard. Be advised, however, that palm oil is not as readily available for many of us. You may have to order it online or get it from a specialty/ethnic grocer.

Hope this helps someone get started. And if you've tried this recipe above and would like to branch out and tweak, here's a lather booster; subtract 5% of the olive oil and substitute with 5% castor. Castor is high in the fatty acids that, once saponified (turned into soap), contribute greatly to your lather. And castor oil can be found in most pharmacies.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is the recipe that you posted before isn't it?? If it is this is an awesome recipe. I have made it and it is easy and gives you a nice bar. I have made some with all veggie, but I have to admit this is an awesome recipe using lard.

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So if I read it correctly there is no lye in this recipe. I have been toying over the idea of making my own soaps. I have been on the fence because of the lye. I can't find it anywhere.

There IS lye in this recipe. She tells you to plug the oils into a lye calculator to get the correct amount.

There are many vendors that sell lye in smaller quantities online, maybe you already buy from them and can add onto your order the next time you order.

BCN, BB, the chemistry store, the soap dish, snow drift farms. Good luck.

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This is the recipe that you posted before isn't it?? If it is this is an awesome recipe. I have made it and it is easy and gives you a nice bar. I have made some with all veggie, but I have to admit this is an awesome recipe using lard.

Yes, it's the same one -- I just thought it would be easier for future generations to find if I put it in the recipe section. LOL

I'm SO glad you tried it and liked it! I made lots of soap with this recipe when I was starting out, and I sure didn't see anything wrong with the soap it made. LOL Thanks for mentioning that you tried it and liked it. I appreciate that. :)

Yes, Rebecca is correct, Boggled. It does take lye; you can't make soap without it. :)

You're welcome, Dixiegal! My pleasure. My mission in life is to be the best soaping enabler that I can be. ROFL

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Glad you decided to post again, i want to try soaping and was looking for something like this that will not require me to order anything online. Thanks a million for sharing this, i just need to get up the courage to work with the lye. I bought some a while back so all i really need to do is get the oils, well the lard and olive oil because i have coconut oil also.

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My favoriute beginner recipe is

90% Olive Oil

10% Casotr Oil

Super mild and great for sensitvie skin. This is a castile soap and a staple in my line. I leave this one uncolored and fragrance free.

I would love to be able to make a super mild soap for my mother and my grandkids, since you dont add any fo what does this soap smell like?

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Plug these numbers into a good lye calculator such as the one at Majestic Mountain Sage or soapcalc.com, and you'll get the correct amount of lye and water to use. I'd post them here, but I figure beginning soapers need practice with the lye calculators anyway, since they are an indispensable soaping tool to this soaper! :wink2:

ROFPMSL you got that one right ;) . Being completely new to soap making i went to soapcalc.com and entered in the figures. That suprisingly was easy enough i went down to "compute recipe" ....Yeah right :laugh2: it did in fact give me a heap of numbers and percentages...lol. quite embarrasing considering im an account but the more i look at them the more confused i become...hehe.

Luckily for me im an extremely determined person. So here i go back to soapcalc.com to sizzle my brain some more. Thanx for the recipe though i'm sure i'll figure it out eventually. More then likely it will be when i'm old and grey and the day before i die. But i will figure it out :D

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ROFPMSL you got that one right ;) . Being completely new to soap making i went to soapcalc.com and entered in the figures. That suprisingly was easy enough i went down to "compute recipe" ....Yeah right :laugh2: it did in fact give me a heap of numbers and percentages...lol. quite embarrasing considering im an account but the more i look at them the more confused i become...hehe.

Luckily for me im an extremely determined person. So here i go back to soapcalc.com to sizzle my brain some more. Thanx for the recipe though i'm sure i'll figure it out eventually. More then likely it will be when i'm old and grey and the day before i die. But i will figure it out :D

Im also new to this,sopacal has 2 calculators, one for a small batch one for large, make sure you use the one for small batches its got a #9 in it, when you go to the site if you look to the top left I think, it'll tell you which if for which. I went to the large batch one first and had the same results you did, but the other one gave me all the info I needed and didnt fry my brain at all :D HTH

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Smells like **nothing** LOL. I sell a lot of this to allergic people who all tolerate it with no problems.

Great! Thats just what I need for my mom. This will be my 2nd batch after I do some reading on this kind of soap. Thanks!

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Dixiegal, just a heads up. Castile soaps take longer than usual to firm up since it's all soft oils and no hard oils. This will be a very soft soap at first. You might want to do a water discount with this one, otherwise, it will take its sweet time firming up for you! :) Just an FYI if you plan to try this one. ;) I made a castile recently and it's still relatively soft.

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Im also new to this,sopacal has 2 calculators, one for a small batch one for large, make sure you use the one for small batches its got a #9 in it, when you go to the site if you look to the top left I think, it'll tell you which if for which. I went to the large batch one first and had the same results you did, but the other one gave me all the info I needed and didnt fry my brain at all :D HTH

Thanx dixiegal I was working with the #18 when I went back to figure it out I tried the #9 and still got the same results. I swear some days i should be blonder, I changed the soapcalc to grams but didn't change the "total oil weight" i actually left that at 1 gram, and i got this recipe saying .00002 grams of this and .00007 grams of that etc. I couldn't figure out how the heck it would make a bar of soap then figured out i had to put in what i wanted my soap to weigh. I figured out soapcalc, but i'm still none the wiser as to what to do with the information now...lol i'll get there though and thank you very much for your help.

edited: to make it, make sense..

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Well, Angel2211, I feel like a kid the first day of school when it comes to that calculator. I did go to #9 then i chose the oils, from there i had no idea what was what. I guess we have a lot to learn. I need a hands on class(lol).

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Dixiegal, just a heads up. Castile soaps take longer than usual to firm up since it's all soft oils and no hard oils. This will be a very soft soap at first. You might want to do a water discount with this one, otherwise, it will take its sweet time firming up for you! :) Just an FYI if you plan to try this one. ;) I made a castile recently and it's still relatively soft.

Thanks crafty, as soon as I read your heads up I did a search on water discounts and came up with one for oatmeal honey soap, they discounted water 5% and lye 5%, when you do a water discount do you always discount lye the same percentage? Im sorry to be asking so many questions

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Well, Angel2211, I feel like a kid the first day of school when it comes to that calculator. I did go to #9 then i choice the oils, from there i had no idea what was what. I guess we have a lot to learn. I need a hands on class(lol).

yes we have a lot to learn, but to me learning is half the fun :) and we will have a wonderful new skill when we finally figure it all out. I think its going to be a lot like making candles, once we get the basics in our mind the most learning will come from hands on experience.

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I think its going to be a lot like making candles, once we get the basics in our mind the most learning will come from hands on experience.

Exactly! That's right -- most of your learning comes from hands-on experience. Do your homework; research your brains out. But then you just have to DO it or it's all theoretical. LOL

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Thanks crafty, as soon as I read your heads up I did a search on water discounts and came up with one for oatmeal honey soap, they discounted water 5% and lye 5%, when you do a water discount do you always discount lye the same percentage? Im sorry to be asking so many questions

Well if you're not adding scent, a water discount should work fine for you. You could try a 33% lye solution (your final mix will be 1/3 lye by weight, and 2/3 water by weight). An easy way to do this is to calculate how much lye you need, then double that amount to give you the water amount you'll need. Example:

1 oz. lye + 2 oz. water = 33% lye solution. Nice discount. HTH :)

Edited to add the question I was answering. LOL

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ED1 I'm with you on this one give me a one on one demonstration and it's with me for life but spend a month reading forums and it's in one side out the other. But i agree with dixiegal on this too we do have a lot to learn or at least i do but to be 100% honest there is no where else i'd rather learn then here at candletech.com everyone here has been fantastic with their advice and generosity in sharing recipes, ideas, sucesses and failures. Hopefully soon i'll be able to add my failures and one day add a success.

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OK ladies Im diving in!

Iv had all my ingredints for over a week and keep putting it off becuase Im still nervous about using lye I have a free afternoon ad Im going to stop being so chicken :D Im following the basic recipe crafty gave us but Im going to do hp cause I dont want to have to wait so long to use it.. wish me luck

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