Main Recipes?

[WanderlustSoaps]

Hi all,  as you know I am new here and to soap making, but I had an idea the other day and wanted to see what the general thought was.  Do most of you have a / a few staple recipes??  Now I am not talking about different scents and colors, but the actual soap recipe itself.  In my mind there are several billion recipes that could be created with the oils out there which could lead to endless experimentations.  What I reckon is that many soapers do is find a few tried and true recipes and then play with scent and color on those for the majority of what they produce.  Again this is not saying that you stop experimenting, I assume that will go on forever haha.

 

I came to this thought after reading somewhere that, and I am sorry I forget where I read this, but the person had said that they found it interesting that Sandy Maine had used only one base recipe in her book "The Soap Book" with something like 42 soaps in it.  I do not have this book just yet but it made sense to me, and led me here for my now very long question.  Thanks for input and suggestions.

 

Ken

[KrazeKelly]

Yes, I have one base recipe that I use for most of my soaps. I change up liquids and other additives depending on what I am making. It took me about a year of playing around to find the recipe I use. 

 

Kelly

[Sponiebr]

 

7 hours ago, WanderlustSoaps said:

Hi all,  as you know I am new here and to soap making, but I had an idea the other day and wanted to see what the general thought was.  Do most of you have a / a few staple recipes??  Now I am not talking about different scents and colors, but the actual soap recipe itself.  In my mind there are several billion recipes that could be created with the oils out there which could lead to endless experimentations.  What I reckon is that many soapers do is find a few tried and true recipes and then play with scent and color on those for the majority of what they produce.  Again this is not saying that you stop experimenting, I assume that will go on forever haha.

 

I came to this thought after reading somewhere that, and I am sorry I forget where I read this, but the person had said that they found it interesting that Sandy Maine had used only one base recipe in her book "The Soap Book" with something like 42 soaps in it.  I do not have this book just yet but it made sense to me, and led me here for my now very long question.  Thanks for input and suggestions.

 

Ken

 

YEP! In fact I "just" (in the last 3 weeks or so) "standardized" my formulation. Right now, (due to prices and convenience) I'm getting my fats from Walmart. I'm using their Great Value Shortening (beef tallow and palm blend) because it is about as cheap as you can find even at wholesale. So GV Shortening, Olive oil, (I need to order pomace from Wholesale Supplies Plus WSP), Lou Anna 76 deg Coconut Oil (The 2 pack of 30 oz jars is cheaper than wholesale under 55 gal.), castor (another one I need to get from WSP). Lye is on order and I'm waiting on delivery (it's another one of those you gotta get it from a wholesales supply. I want to add a hard butter like shea or cocoa butter, and Amazon.com has some pretty splendid deals on natural unprocessed shea butter.   

 

I've tweaked it and fussed it out as much as I dare. I do want to try replacing the OO with canola oil. I've also standardized my batch size. Now If I could masterbatch my fats so I dont' have to weigh each oil out, well... that'd be great! 

 

The neat thing about using a standard is that if something goes tits up you can point to the additives: FO, or pine tar, or turmeric. Now my time is mostly spent making soap and cleaning up the after math of making soap and just generally being creative with the soap. My soaps are super fated to 10% 

 

I hightly recommend setting up a standard for your soaps.  

 

HTH,

Sponie

 

[Sponiebr]

Here's what I'm using: 

 

40% Great value shortening (there are 2 types of GV shortening, you want the blue can that DOES NOT say 100% vegetable.

 35% Distilled water

20 % cocnut 76 deg 

5% castor oil Parmacy stuff. 

 

SF is at 10%// Water 38%/ and Fragrance usually at .5 oz PPO.  

 

I also use soapcalc.net to check my batches. 

 

I made my first wooden hinged sides adjustable loaf mold last night. 18" through 8"L * 3.75"*2.50 Inches. 

 

HTH! 

 

Sponie

 

[Shari]

I too have one standard recipe that I tweak with different additives.  I also make salt bars, shave soap, and a mild unscented bastille.  It took me a couple years of playing with different oils, butters etc and realized that you don't need a bunch of expensive ingredients.

[Candybee]

I have several recipes I must use for particular soaps like shampoo, facial, shaving, castile, etc. But I recently "standardized" my basic bath recipe. So instead of using 4-5 seperate recipes like I used to do I now use one. Helps me save on costs and I am able to masterbatch now.

[TallTayl]

Early on it is very tempting to have a different formula for every scent  For basic bathing soap I forced myself to standardize the forumula and the bar sizes. It made things like preparation, raw materials purchasing, signage, packaging and even selling much simpler. It also reduced the potential for mistakes while making the soap. 

 

Turns out customers were confused by different formulas when trying to choose between different scents for bathing soap. It took a really long time to explain all of the differences and figure out which ones had ingredients someone was allergic or averse to. Since I carry 60+ Rotating scents for most of the year, simpler is better!!

 

One caveat, goat milk soap which people have been asking for again recently is the same formula in limited scent choices with goat milk substituted for the water. And I do offer a facial soap with a slightly different formula, but I is very clear the soap is different by signage. 

[TallTayl]

1 hour ago, Shari said:

I too have one standard recipe that I tweak with different additives.  I also make salt bars, shave soap, and a mild unscented bastille.  It took me a couple years of playing with different oils, butters etc and realized that you don't need a bunch of expensive ingredients.

Reminds me of the Soapers Bell Curve! We all go through it!

 

By my dear friend known elsewhere as Bandicoot from Oz: it is a common phenomenon, known as the soapers bell curve.  if X is your vertical line and represents dollars spent on insane exotic oils and Y is the horizontal line and represents total number of batches made, then you will see the completely predictable modest start-up figures by the newbie soaper as they rustle up some olive oil and shortening at the local grocer and cadge some free lard from their friendly local butcher (who has a secret crush on the soaper, anyway) and knock up a few bars of soap.  soon, they find the forums and the almost insatiable lust for novelty begins, as represented by the horrifically steep rise in the graph in the dollars sector as suddenly co-ops spring up for pure banana oil and extra virgin extra fast hypippamee oil for only fifty million dollars per quarter gram but OMG what it does to your soap......fricking AMAZING, mum........not to mention the concurrent and escalating discoveries at local healthfood shops where they have genuine wango-bango juice, but only in really small bottles and they want your bank statement before you purchase.  this all escalates exponentially.......a near-vertical rise in the graphline, until it tops out when the husband of the soapmaker mistakenly opens the soaper's credit card bill and lets out a scream only fruitbats can hear. crying and arguing and sternness ensues and the forlorn soaper has to agree to use up OLD bars of soap......made with OO and lard and shortening......before buying ANYTHING new.  suddenly the soaper realises with a shock that these humble bars are BLOODY good.....GREAT in fact! how can this be? there is nothing in them!!!  frenzied persual of archives and fatty acid property tables reveal the wonderful truth......when it comes to soapmaking, gentle readers, simple is best.  and cheap is NOT always nasty.  the graphline turns down IMMEDIATELY, the husband is quietened and the reformed soaper starts to think the local butcher is kinda cute...and his lard is FABULOUS in soap.....  and the soap-related spending is back on an even keel, the soap is wonderful, the husband is happy, the butcher is delirious and the laws of soapmaking and nature are satisfied.

[iansmommaya]

Yep, I have one main formula (I also do a castile, just olive oil for the oil) an occasional facial bar. But mostly just one formula. I change out scent, color, herbs and botanicals, etc.

[Shari]

The funny part is that now that I've been making soap for so long that when I go on facebook groups I just laugh when they say they've used these expensive additives, multiple milks, 14 different butters, 8 oils etc....The only thing they've got going is the label appeal.   Doesn't make it an outstanding soap in my opinion.  

 

 

[Jcandleattic]

I have 3 "main" recipes that I masterbatch - My standard every day bathing recipe, my "luxury" recipe that is loaded with butters, higher end oils, that type of thing, and then my castille/bastille recipe. 

 

Sometimes I will switch it up and experiment to see what I might be missing by using only the 3 recipes, but for the most part, I stick with the 3. 

[Chefmom]

Over the years I have narrowed down a handful of recipes.  But I do love to experiment.  I have been known to cook up a huge batch in my crock pot and split it into 10 parts and superfat with different oils just to compare side by side.  I found out this way that my daughter likes shea butter...hates....hates cocoa butter.  Which is funny.  I LOVE cocoa butter.  Also, cocoa butter, when superfatted will bloom in soap, just like when chocolate is stored poorly and that grey fat bloom comes up to the surface.  Cocoa butter forms a crystal looking bloom on the surface after 2-3 months cure, sometimes sooner.

 

I will never make just one recipe.  Every person in my family likes a different recipe, for different reasons.  So I have different recipes available for people to try.  A few times people have come to me to make "this recipe with that scent" because they have found their own preference with my base recipes.  Even though I have narrowed down quite a few bases it won't stop the experiments.  I just like to try newer versions and test them, and my family is very used to 20 questions after a shower and being asked to use two different soaps side by side. 

[Candybee]

If it helps I too have found that too many recipes really confuses the patooties off my customers... however, they do understand bath soap, facial bars, salt bars, shaving soap, shampoo soap and do appreciate and love the specialty soaps. But a dozen different bath soaps leaves them scratching their heads in wonder and a confused look on their faces.

 

This past year I also took another whack at minimizing my oils so I am buying the holy trinity; olive, coconut, palm, and just a small smattering of others I need specific to my specialty bars. I was able to cut out cocoa butter, PKO, and mango butter. I am working on cutting out sweet almond next as soon as I finish off my gallon jug. I love these oils but since I have to have specialty oils for my specialty soaps I had to cut the list somehow.

 

Little by little I am cutting down the number of recipes, oils, molds, and the soaps themselves. I want to make fewer soaps so its easier for me to make bigger batches in a shorter period of time. I am still at that point where I can't make soap fast enough and part of it is I think I still need some trimming to do.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Candybee

[WanderlustSoaps]

Thank you guys for all the replies, come to think of it I should have kinda realized some of this since I know people masterbatch and feel that they probably dont have 50 different masterbatches in storage.  Granted there are probably a few people out there that do this but I doubt it is the majority.

 

TallTayle, I just love the bell curve, and it sounds like for possibly the first time in my life I may actually be ahead of the curve since I caught this before I went out and spent a ton of money buying lots of kinds of oils.  I look at so many recipes and now before I even think of buying oils for it I run it through my excel sheet and compare the missing oils with oils I have on hand.

[Faerywren]

I have my basic favorite recipe. I'll tinker here and there, but after trying all kinds of things in my early years of soaping, I'm sort of over it at this point. :-)

[Sponiebr]

12 hours ago, Sponiebr said:

Here's what I'm using: 

 

40% Great value shortening (there are 2 types of GV shortening, you want the blue can that DOES NOT say 100% vegetable.

 35% Distilled water 

20 % cocnut 76 deg 
5% castor oil Parmacy stuff. 

SF is at 10%// Water 38%/ and Fragrance usually at .5 oz PPO.  

 

I also use soapcalc.net to check my batches. 

 

I made my first wooden hinged sides adjustable loaf mold last night. 18" through 8"L * 3.75"*2.50 Inches. 

 

HTH! 

 

Sponie

 

I SWEAR I wasn't high or drunk when I wrote that... Let's try that again: 

 

40% Great value shortening (there are 2 types of GV shortening, you want the blue can that DOES NOT say 100% vegetable)

35% Olive OIL (I'm using the Great Value Classic Olive Oil in the 101 oz jug.)

20 % Coconut 76 deg (Louanna 2 pack of 30 oz jars) 
5% castor oil Pharmacy stuff (Humco brand I think) 

 

 

That looks MUCH better. 

[heartsong]

  Why is it that errors only appear AFTER we hit the send button?  I thank my stars that we have an edit button here!

 

BTW, one of my 2 main recipes are almost identical to the one you posted!  I love Walmarts GVS!!!!

[Sponiebr]

3 minutes ago, heartsong said:

  Why is it that errors only appear AFTER we hit the send button?  I thank my stars that we have an edit button here!

 

BTW, one of my 2 main recipes are almost identical to the one you posted!  I love Walmarts GVS!!!!

Makes a fantastic soap doesn't it? I've priced out beef tallow and palm individually and with no shipping just priced out in non-bulk the best price I've found for the both combined at 50%50% was $1.575/lb. ( Unless you go into the >50 pound ranges it doesn't get cheaper from there.) The GV Shortening here in Florida prices out to $1.59/lb. out the door. 

 

"Why, yes... Walmart! Please, I'll have 4 buckets of your fine product!" The only way I think I could make my soap for less money is if I replaced the OO in part or completely with canola oil. ( <-------------Sneak peak at an upcoming thread!) 

[heartsong]

 I

16 minutes ago, Sponiebr said:

Makes a fantastic soap doesn't it? I've priced out beef tallow and palm individually and with no shipping just priced out in non-bulk the best price I've found for the both combined at 50%50% was $1.575/lb. ( Unless you go into the >50 pound ranges it doesn't get cheaper from there.) The GV Shortening here in Florida prices out to $1.59/lb. out the door. 

 

BTW, if they ever run short (the Holidays) BakeRite is identical...been swapping back and forth for years.

[WanderlustSoaps]

I stopped by Wally World the other day and picked up some of the GV All Veg Shortening, (anyone use this version?), some GV Olive Oil just the plain stuff not light or virgin nor EVOO.  I currently get the Rooto brand 100% lye from true value hardware, its not the best price, but at $5.19 / pound its good for me while just starting out.  My long long long term plan is if I ever get to the point that I start selling I plan on going all natural and vegan.  I have nothing against animal products or chemically created dyes and fragrances but I know there are people that choose not to use those products so depending on the market at the time will help determine what route I go down.  I do plan on testing some recipes with lard and animal tallows so I know what they are like and how they age over the next year or so.  Any feedback on the GV All Veg Shortening would be appreciated.

[WanderlustSoaps]

1 hour ago, Sponiebr said:

.. if I replaced the OO in part or completely with canola oil...

 

Sponiebr, I have thought of swapping my OO for Canola a couple of times, guess I wont know for sure if I like it until I try, but for comparison here is a screenshot from my version of the Excel File.  Looks like SAP is pretty close, INS is about half, hardness is about half, conditioning is comparable and lather is about a third.

 

 

[puma52]

I have only 3 recipes...love them to pieces and like everyone else tinkers, tinkers, tinkers with ingredients...just nothing BETTER than homemade soap!  

[Sponiebr]

47 minutes ago, WanderlustSoaps said:

I stopped by Wally World the other day and picked up some of the GV All Veg Shortening, (anyone use this version?), some GV Olive Oil just the plain stuff not light or virgin nor EVOO.  I currently get the Rooto brand 100% lye from true value hardware, its not the best price, but at $5.19 / pound its good for me while just starting out.  My long long long term plan is if I ever get to the point that I start selling I plan on going all natural and vegan.  I have nothing against animal products or chemically created dyes and fragrances but I know there are people that choose not to use those products so depending on the market at the time will help determine what route I go down.  I do plan on testing some recipes with lard and animal tallows so I know what they are like and how they age over the next year or so.  Any feedback on the GV All Veg Shortening would be appreciated.

 

Personally, I don't like the partially hydrogenated soybean shortening as much as I like the fully hydrogenated stuff, and I don't really like soybean oil anything in soap. If you could return it for the cheaper GV Shortening I would recommend it. I actually have an untouched tub of the GV all veg... (I may give that to the food pantry.) Soy shortening produces a very soft soap, and it is prone to DOS. Having said that, I used to use Crisco in my pine tar soap formula at 100% Crisco as the fat & 20% pine tar (and a lot of peppermint EO). It was a decent bar of soap as pine tar soaps go, but then again, pine tar is it's own "extra-special" version of soaper's hell.  

 

The GV tallow-palm shortening is MUCH better for our purposes. 

 

YMWV...

[KrazeKelly]

I personally do not like canola oil at all. I don't even cook with it. It's a cheap filler oil. I can almost (almost I said) tell just by looking at it or how it feels if someone uses canola oil in their soaps. It's greasy and feels slimy to me. My soaps don't feel like that. I've visited many soap vendors at various craft fairs and every time I think their soaps feel weird and I check ingredients, there is canola 90% of the time. Just my personal preference. 

 

Kelly

[Candybee]

I've never tried canola oil but I do know a soaper that uses only olive, coconut, and canola oils in all her soapmaking. She makes wonderful soaps. I know because I have used them before. But then she is a very accomplished soapmaker and soaped for decades before she retired this past year.

 

You can use canola or any other unstable oil if you are careful about balancing your oils in your recipe to make them more stable. You can also use something like rosemary oleoresin (ROE) to extend the life of an oil. So you do have options and you can still make some great soaps using it.

 

Having said that I don't think I will be using it except maybe one day just to try it out.

 

Re the GV shortening. I also prefer the animal fats version with palm and tallow. I tried using the all vegetable blend (soy/palm) and I didn't like the way my soaps felt plus they were too soft. The palm/tallow blend is so much nicer IMO.