What factors do you look for

[Lorrie]

when you are looking for a recipe for soap? I have been digging threw site after site today looking at recipes to try.

I know when I arrived on my for different types of soap batches I currently have. Well I looked for cure time, and the way that it made my skin feel when using. I am looking at maybe getting a couple of more to try.

And what type of additives do you like in your soaps. Looking for some creative imput on other things to add..

TIA

[ChrisR]

I make my own recipes and use: http://www.soapmaker.ca/SMhome.htm

I LOVE this program!!

I make a few different recipes for various reasons. I make my son one with neem oil and dead sea mud cause working in the heat as a carpenter, his back breaks out and this clears it up.

Another I make for a friend's daughter that has excema has neem oil, kokum butter, emu oil and carrot juice, tea tree and lavender EO's.

All my soaps are made with fresh goat's milk and I don't use coconut oil, just babassu and palm kernel. You need to just do a lot of research of what various oils and additives can do for your skin, make a recipe and test out the soap. Good luck and just remember to have fun!!

[Scent Cellar]

Many times I find it is not so much each individual oil property that I look at but the synergy in how the oils/butters work together. You will have to try different recipes/combinations to find out what will work for you.

[SoapInTheCity]

For me, I decide whether it's a FO or EO soap I want to make and go from there. When it's EO I try to go as all natural as I can, even with the colorants. I'm trying to venture into adding fresh fruits/vegetables such as cucumber, carrots, ginger etc. to my soap.

[Sara]

It depends if we are talking a base recipe or a specialty bar.

Are you willing to try animal fats or are you wanting to stick with veggie? That will narrow it down a bit.

[MsDammit]

Hmmm well I do know that I made a batch with the cleansing # 21 (according to the soapcalc) and I didn't like the way my skin felt after using it-almost sticky but with the cleansing @ 17 my skin felt nice and soft.

[Scented]

Well see I think I like my recipe, but I wanted to learn how to make one to get foamy lather lol. So when I look for something out of a recipe, I need it to have bubbly, bubbly lather and not be drying. I'm not terribly particular beyond that, except now I want to get the same results by subtracting some of the oils that I use, which are nine. <insert screaming smiley>

[Crafty1_AJ]

I use soapcalc. When developing a recipe, and I look for relatively high conditioning numbers (my skin is dry) and decent lather numbers, because customers often associate lather with soap doing its job. Even though we all know better, they tend to think that low lather = poor soap.

I also watch for bar hardness numbers ... don't want the finished soap to be too soft. Then I check the fatty acid profile to make sure the soap doesn't have too many unstable fatty acids that might promote DOS. HTH!

[sawyer's moon]

I just recently got hooked on Soap Calc and trying to make my numbers look better. I love the soap I make but hey...there's always room for improvement...right?

Anyway - I decided on three recipes to test.

One had pretty poor soap calc numbers (imo) but I had gotten the recipe from a very experienced soapmaker along with a bar and it had the hugest bubbliest lather that turned into the richest, thickest, creamiest lather I've ever seen. Again...this has poor soap calc numbers! Keep that in mind!

The next one had amazing bubbly and creamy numbers but not so great on the hardness. This one bubbles like a dud. I can barely work up a lather of any sort and the bar is way too soft. I will reserve final judgement and try the bar again in a couple of months.

The last one had pretty great bubbly and creamy numbers and I was able to up the hardness. This one definitely bubbles better than the second but near as well as the first.

I test all of these against what I consider my base recipe. I love my base. Don't get me wrong. The numbers on the first are slightly less than my base. My base does not look awesome in soap calc...but I love it. I have rich, creamy, bubbly lather in a very moisturizing and hard bar.

Anyway...the first one above with the poorest numbers...is kicking every other soap's butt! I mean it! So I'm a firm believer in the synergy of the oils that a soap calc cannot capture. I obsessed with soap calc numbers for about a week and then moved on to obsessing over other things once I figured out that the soap calc numbers represent only a guideline and not the finished product.

Just my long 2 cents!

Jen

[Carriegsxr6]

Good starting point is to start with olive oil as your soft oil, palm as your hard oil and coconut for bubbles. or go with olive and palm kernal (can be used as a hard oil and for bubbles)

Keep it simple at first then try adding additional oils to get more conditioning or silky feel from your soap.

[azure68]

I've been plugging in various percentages of oils I have in soapcalc until I come up with numbers that I'm happy with. Most important thing to me is conditioning. When I come up with a number I'm happy with, then I start tweaking with hardness and lather. Of course, the type of additives can also affect your final outcome. My last batch, I used a can of coconut milk for my liquids, so I'm pretty sure that should add more creaminess to the soap.