Kaylors Kreations Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 ok... I've decided to do it.. put on my big girl pants and try a CP... I think I can, I think I can... SO after taking an extra couple hours at a couple extra stores, I finally found all my ingredients... man that castor was a pain, and go figure with freezer paper...So I'm going to make my lye water and melt my oils tomorrow... to soap on Sat evening. I hope... My oldest turns 11 so I have cake and fun stuff to do for birthdays!!i'm planning on using what I could find on the cheap.. lemme know how this sounds...5% Castor35% Crisco20% Coconut Oil30% sunflower10% Stearic to help up the hardness... now a question... when do I add the Stearic? Seems silly I guess, but again... Soap Virgin!!I ran it through lye calc and used the fixed lye like in e's tutorial, which I've printed out and read and reread and will prolly reread a third time before i even break the seal on my lye... looking forward to lining my box tomorrow and getting on with 'making a baby'---- Libby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 I think that much stearic could make your soap trace really fast.Certain oils naturally contain fatty acids like stearic that harden up your soap. However, when you add them in the form of an oil it doesn't accelerate trace the same way.Maybe you could find some lard or palm oil locally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaylors Kreations Posted March 14, 2008 Author Share Posted March 14, 2008 I haven't opened anything I bought yet... was going to wait till later today after I got the house all clean, children settled and the like. It would be easy enough to take my Crisco back and change it for lard. I just wanted to go with the veggie because I know, that once my soap has properly cured, I plan on sharing it with family, and I have a couple no-meat members of the family and wanted to be able to tell em it was meatless. Guess I could just fudge it with them, they aren't vegans, jut not meat EATERS... Or would it be a solid enough soap if I used none or much less Stearic? I know a Castille bar is just OO or OOand some castor, and probably makes an even softer bar than what I would end up with minus the the Stearic.---- Libby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topofmurrayhill Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 You can make castile-type soap using a high-oleic oil, but castile bars don't have that much going for them apart from mildness. I'd start off with a more conventional soap and experiment later. Regular sunflower wouldn't work for that anyway. It would just be mush unless it was the high-oleic sunflower.Problem is, you're trying to use a lot of polyunsaturated linoleic oils with no really hard stuff in there, so you have a ways to go to get the recipe balanced out.I've heard that health food stores often sell palm oil, so maybe you could turn some up and replace the Crisco with that or add even more. Another thing that could help balance the recipe is using olive oil along with the sunflower.If by any chance you make candles and have some straight soy flakes lying around, that could help too. Depending on the melt point of the soy, you could choose something with a similar profile to represent it in SoapCalc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugenia Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Sunflower is one oil that I always use at 10% or less. It's a short shelf oil. Using 30% could make your soap a target for DOS and rancidity. Try subbing olive. I would not worry about the Crisco for now. It will be fine for a first batch.Olive 25%Sunflower 10%Stearic 5%This drops you from a 79 iodine to a 73. The iodine is the indicator for overallhardness. Lower=harder. My typical recipes are in the low 60's.e Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaylors Kreations Posted March 15, 2008 Author Share Posted March 15, 2008 Thanks E, I just looked in my cupboard and found a big bottle of OO I didn't think I had So no problemo with upping my OO content now. For some reason this payday ALWAYS seems like we get shorted on. Soon as I'm finished making dinner and decorating my boy's birthday cake ( I always do something fancy for em), I'll triple check my numbers through soapcalc and be on my hopefully merry way. Will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow after I finally do this thing. ---- Libby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjb31apb Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 I haven't opened anything I bought yet... was going to wait till later today after I got the house all clean, children settled and the like. It would be easy enough to take my Crisco back and change it for lard. I just wanted to go with the veggie because I know, that once my soap has properly cured, I plan on sharing it with family, and I have a couple no-meat members of the family and wanted to be able to tell em it was meatless. Guess I could just fudge it with them, they aren't vegans, jut not meat EATERS... Or would it be a solid enough soap if I used none or much less Stearic? I know a Castille bar is just OO or OOand some castor, and probably makes an even softer bar than what I would end up with minus the the Stearic.----Libby@ Bold...If there is one thing that I am learning about soaping it's that you have to have a budget!!! Even for just a hobbist soaper like myself! I say that if lard is affordable and available, let your veggie family members know that right now, you just can't do vegan. But given some time you can plan for/find more vegan ingredients for them as well. Who knows? They might not even have a problem with lard at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaylors Kreations Posted March 17, 2008 Author Share Posted March 17, 2008 Where I am, theres not much of a price difference between the veggie and the lard.. I think I'm just more comfortable tossing a bucket of veggie in the buggy than a tub of lard because I have never before had a reason to even purchase/use it in the past.. i know sounds kinda lame, probably just like kids who say they don't like broccoli when they've never eaten it, kits new so its scary...OH and I just mixed my lye water and have my oils cooling as I type... I survived the (what to me was) the scary part.. I've made white sauce before and know when that turns from milk, butter n flour to a suce.. so I think I'll recognize trace when I see it... Will definately post a pic when I unwrap the baby tomorrow evening! Thanks everyone for your input!!---- Libby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godiva Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 You can make castile-type soap using a high-oleic oil, but castile bars don't have that much going for them apart from mildness. I'd start off with a more conventional soap and experiment later. Regular sunflower wouldn't work for that anyway. It would just be mush unless it was the high-oleic sunflower.Problem is, you're trying to use a lot of polyunsaturated linoleic oils with no really hard stuff in there, so you have a ways to go to get the recipe balanced out.I've heard that health food stores often sell palm oil, so maybe you could turn some up and replace the Crisco with that or add even more. Another thing that could help balance the recipe is using olive oil along with the sunflower.If by any chance you make candles and have some straight soy flakes lying around, that could help too. Depending on the melt point of the soy, you could choose something with a similar profile to represent it in SoapCalc.Top, is there a book or a website that you would suggest to learn more about oils and their properties and how to balance a recipe out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjb31apb Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Not Top but...http://www.millersoap.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godiva Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Not Top but...http://www.millersoap.com/Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie Posted June 24, 2008 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Many people are suprised to find tallow in store bought "soap". Who looks at ingredients on soap in the store? Many, many of them say sodium tallowate. That's beef fat. Your family has probably been using soaps with animal fats in them most of their lives and never even noticed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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