Jo Ann

I have been using soapcalc 9 for bringing together my recipes. today i tried soapsheet cuz i finally got office. my question is this...the lye and water don't match up between the two. for 3 pounds: water ... lye (in ounces) soapcalc .......18.24 .... 6.693 soapsheet ... 20.4 ...... 6.1 and i can't tell what the superfatted is on soapsheet, its 6% on soapcalc (at my choosing) I like the idea of soapsheet, but it has a few confusing features. another one is that the percent of other ingredients stays at 0 cuz i can't see how you would add other ingredients to change it. any opinions on the two or which is better? or maybe you know what I don't understand that makes soapsheet a bit confusing for me.

well a little over a month ago, i put the same ingredients together to make one pound of hot and one pound of cold process soap to compare. today i was getting them out of the box lid i keep them in (open to air) and found the cold process had gone rancid. the hot process is fine. anyone ever see this

mine is solid clear thru no fractures...i think i have a pail with a lid that will hold that gallon....hhooooorah!

carebear....what do you mean about no stir palm????

i'm kinda not crazy about the coconut oil as well

that was my first thought...may just do that.

this link has a pix of a gallon jug http://www.1-800-shaved-ice.com/c-gal-jug.html also its winter here and I am in the northeast quandrant of the usa....so 64-69 degrees in a house is rather chilly. cheers

good plan!

ok. now is palm oil supposed to be melted at room temperature???? we keep it around 64-69 degrees in the house.

what does one do to get palm oil out of a gallon jug with an opening the size of a quarter??

i am making a 4 pound batch of HP soap and would like to add titanium ox but i don't know how much. i know i can add it to the water with the lye...but i have no clue how much i need. any ideas

wow, ya milk your own goats....nice. i would love to have some alpacas, so i could spin and dye my own yarn....alpaca wool has no lanolin so its really nice to use.

hmm interesting. i have goats milk here, but haven't had the nerve to try it yet. i think too, with OO, alot of ppl find have soap with OO in it is more appealing even tho there are other alternatives. like at work, i got a couple of "oooooo, its made with real olive oil!"

after reading saopmakers companion and everything soapmaking, i finally have a much better understanding. for me its hard to search the net only because things can be out of order as i find them, but with books, things are usually in a good order where i can understand better.

i know what you mean...i just made an order for eo, pigments. can't wait till they come!!! it was getting way too expensive to buy from my health store. i am thinking of changing my superfatting to 4% instead of 5% only because i want to make sure the bars have good shelf life.

thats what i had done, didn't realize it needed to be included in the calc, but now i do, won't use grapeseed too much, wanted it for its anti-oxidant properties.

well, canola is too low for ins. so won't be using it, but i found out that it is more healthy to cook with canola than OO, so i decided to use oo for soap and canola for food. now, as for castor oil, what would be the lowest and highest percent that should be used in soap

what about replacing OO with canola? does this make a good soap hmmmm....i just noticed that the INS is not high enough just using canola oil.

well i did add it after without including it in the calculation, but i was told not to do that but to be sure to add it to the calc and then add it after trace.

wow...that is good. does anyone sell soap and put an expiration date on the label?

what percent of canola do you usually use?

great....i also just read that the cheaper grade of OO is better than the virgin and extra-virgin OO.

ok, thanx...i read somewhere, that soap has a shelflife, that canola oil can go rancid easily....but you don't find that is a problem when you use it? cuz i have a big bottle of it. but i quit using it cuz i was worried it would go rancid

as long as one doesn't use something like canola oil, how long does soap usually last before it expires. i also read in several places that using grapefruit seed extract is a preservative, but none of the sources gave the amount. i usually use lard, OO, CO, castor oil as the sap oils, and then super fat with say grapeseed oil or sweet almond or something like that as well as adding aloe vera gel 100% and of course EOs i would hate to sell and give soap away and it turns out that there should have been an expiration date on it somewhere.

my last batch of hp was very smooth and creamy. turned out really nice and doesn't look rustic at all. I used the stick from start to end and it was really easy to pour into the log and pan molds. i was really pleased. my other two hp batches i used a wooden spoon to finish off with. won't ever do that again. with the stick, i got past the apple sauce stage and then it never got to mashed potatoes such as you would put on your plate, but it stayed thick and creamy so it would have been easy to add color at this stage. but i think you would need two people with sticks, one with the colored soap and one with the main batch it would all stay really creamy.