Brat Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Ok, I have a recipe from a soapmaking book that I'd like to try. I have a little list lol. Anyway, I put it in soap calc to see what it came up with, and it was a bit strange compared to the summary of values listed on their site. Here's the info:35% Palm Kernal Oil 35% Coconut Oil 30% Olive Oil Hardness 57Cleansing 45Condition 35Bubbly 45Creamy 12Iodine 35INS 187The ones in red are out of range with their summary of values:Summary of Values:Hardness: 36-50Cleansing: 14-22Condition: 45-80Bubbly Lather: 14-33Creamy Lather: 16-35INS: 145-165 Can anyone tell me what these numbers mean in the sense that they're so far out of what soap calc tells me? Will it make a funky unusable soap? Is this just a ballpark figure to get your numbers to get close to? Or should it be adhered to every time? Please help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mystical_angel1219 Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 It's the high ratio of hard oils. You have 70% in this recipe. This soap would be very drying, and not suited for many skin types. Good thinking on running the recipe thru Soap Calc- it's a MUST do. I am going to go find the link where Bunny gives a tutorial on formulating a soap recipe. It's worth reading. http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3164Oil Properties chart:http://www.soapnuts.com/indexoils.htmlAlso, check out Soo's link for soap qualities, explained:http://www.soapcalc.com/soapqualities.asp There are many good recipes to play with on this board, actually.Michelle B and QuietGirl both posted excellent recipes for CP soap.Here is another good link for soaping:http://www.millersoap.com/Susan Miller Cavitch - The Soapmaker's Companion is a good book. (Amazon)But the web is an incredible tool for soapmaking, IMO. Lots of info out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brat Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 Thank you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 The proof is in the pudding, but it does seem a little heavy on the cleansing oils.I think in terms of three different kinds of oils. Cleansing oils like coconut, palm kernel and babassu contribute mainly hardness and cleansing power. Then there's a second group of "hard oils" that includes palm oil and the various butters. These contribute both hardness and conditioning properties. Finally there are "soft oils" that contribute mainly conditioning properties. One approach to formulating a recipe is to think about the balance of those 3 types of oils to help get the kind of soap you want.So check out what happens to the numbers if you keep the 70% hard oils but make half of it palm oil instead of a cleansing oil. The result looks promising and a lot better balanced according to the numbers.coconut 17.5%palm kernel 17.5%palm 35%olive 30%hardness 48cleansing 23conditioning 47bubbly 23creamy 25iodine 48ins 161Another thing to keep in mind if you're interested in the INS. Cleansing oils raise it the most. Palm and butters raise it to a medium extent. Soft oils raise it to varying degrees but less than the other two types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brat Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 I think I'm confused on which oil does what... it'll take me a bit to figure all this out. I have a book, but it doesn't say much... just how to do it with a recipe, nothing about coming up with one. Maybe I need another book huh? lol Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CareBear Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Brat, on soapcalc.com there is a column on the left that shows the predicted contribution of each of the oils (click on an oil name and you will see the numbers for that oil) next to the column for the recipe overall (combined).Didn't find books much help. Millersoaps.com was a good resource, and here, and soapcalc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Here are a few of the popular oils you could try looking up in SoapCalc.Hardness, Cleansing and Bubbly LatherCoconut OilPalm Kernel OilBabassu Oil (luxury)Monoi de Tahiti (luxury)Hardness, Conditioning and Creamy LatherPalm OilLard & TallowSoybean Oil Hydrogenated (soy wax)Cocoa Butter (luxury)Mango Butter (luxury)Shea Butter (luxury)Soft Conditioning OilsOlive OilSoybean OilRice Bran OilApricot Kernel Oil (luxury)Avocado Oil (luxury)Castor Oil (conditioning & lather) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brat Posted July 27, 2007 Author Share Posted July 27, 2007 Thanks Top, think that's exactly what I needed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Glad to help. I'm pretty new at this myself, but once I had the oils organized this way in my mind it was easier to devise recipes. When you're doing it "by the numbers" in SoapCalc you can vary the proportions between those different categories of oils and the numbers will change predictably for you. Also if you look at the qualities of the different oils in the calculator you'll find the common ones fall pretty neatly into the three categories.You can also think about being in the ballpark of 50/50 between the hard and soft oils. Within the hard oils you can think about the balance between bubbly cleansing oils like coconut or palm kernel versus more creamy conditioning oils like palm oil.There are great recipes that don't follow all the "rules" and don't necessarily look balanced in SoapCalc, but the guidelines can still be a useful starting point. At this point I only have 4 completed batches. Those recipes and the ones on the drawing board are all between 40/60 and 60/40 hard to soft oils, so I haven't really ventured into "break the rules" territory but I can design a great variety of different soaps.As far as the recipe you posted is concerned, many people would predict that all the cleansing oils would make it drying. That might scare me off personally, but what I do sometimes is use a recipe I come across as a starting point to design something new. This one would get me thinking about designing a nice hard bar with 70/30 proportions. I'd plug it into SoapCalc and change it around until it looks like something I'd venture to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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