bummed 3 oz of lye

[friendlyMOM]

okay I now have a little over 3 oz of lye well close to 4, safflower oil, canola oil, crisco,and I bought some 100% cocoa butter sticks and hoping I can use them, now I guess I pick me a good recipe, but the cocoa butter are the little 1oz sticks, will they work? I am so nervous, but I still have found no mold for my soap, the one I bought has teflon so its out, now what??? I am so excited:yay: :rolleyes2

[friendlyMOM]

my main question was what can I use around the house as a temporary mold? Sry got off track, too excited:rolleyes2

[jwahlton]

okay I now have a little over 3 oz of lye well close to 4, safflower oil, canola oil, crisco,and I bought some 100% cocoa butter sticks and hoping I can use them, now I guess I pick me a good recipe, but the cocoa butter are the little 1oz sticks, will they work? I am so nervous, but I still have found no mold for my soap, the one I bought has teflon so its out, now what??? I am so excited:yay: :rolleyes2

OK, first you need to figure out your recipe that doesn't call for more lye than you have! I'd maybe do

crisco 50%

safflower 20%

canola 20%

cocoa butter 10% or again you need to use whatever amount that you've got in this recipe

I haven't run this thru a calculator, just off the top of my head.

Use a box, a shoebox, a priority box, a pringles can, pretty much anything like that. Use freezer paper to line and then have fun

[friendlyMOM]

are there any other lye calculators out there to use

[friendlyMOM]

and thanks gonna try the recipe you made for me, soon as i figure out the lye calculator

[friendlyMOM]

on the mms calculator it does not show shortning on it is there one that does or does it make a difference, where would i put in my oz of shortning?

[shutterbugg]

It says on there that if your shortening is 100% soybean then you can use the soybean space.

Is it 100% soybean?

[friendlyMOM]

yes it is and the lye calculater gives me a total of 10 oz total so i look over to the 10 right and it says 1.23 so do i multiply that by 10 or is that the amount I use?

[hewells]

Try using this calc it actually has Crisco as an option

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalc.asp

for a 1# recipe it shows the following:

6.08 oz water

2.06 oz lye

1.6 oz cocoa butter

8 oz Crisco

3.2oz Canola

3.2 oz Safflower

Though it also shows that this recipe has no bubbly lather qualities or cleansing qualities.

HTH

[jwahlton]

Try using this calc it actually has Crisco as an option

http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalc.asp

for a 1# recipe it shows the following:

6.08 oz water

2.06 oz lye

1.6 oz cocoa butter

8 oz Crisco

3.2oz Canola

3.2 oz Safflower

Though it also shows that this recipe has no bubbly lather qualities or cleansing qualities.

HTH

To get lather you'd need coconut, babassu, castor or something like that. Or add 1 tbsp of sugar to your lye water (add the sugar to the water, make sure it's dissolved before adding the lye) and that will help with the bubbles

[friendlyMOM]

so i can just substitute canola for coconut, ill run that trought the lye calculater and thanks all gonna try my luck this evening

[Mnhorsemom]

One thing I was told when I first started soaping is if you are making small batches (like 1 pound) you should have a good scale and make sure your lye measurement is very accurate. Small batches are pretty unforgiving as far as measurements are concerned, you don't want your soap to ZAP ya

[friendlyMOM]

I have a postal scale the digital one, I hope that will work, I use it with my candles. plus if I subsitute one oil for another do I always need to recalculate or will it be the same as long as weight in ozs is the same

[hewells]

You should always run any substitutions through the calc. It never hurts to be sure.