GrinningGoblin Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 (edited) Howdy again folks. Getting ready to do my first batch in the next couple of days (still waiting on a few bits and bobs for my toolkit from amazon) and this is what I am considering for a first recipe:Olive Oil 30% Coconut 15% Palm Kernal 15% Lard 40% I am looking for a simple recipe for my first go, but it seems like every source I have looked at has strong and very different opinions on what is the "best beginner mix". This is what I cooked up using my reading and playing around with the soap calculator while taking into consideration what I had easy access to. I am not looking at adding any special purpose oils or additives to begin with beyond a bit of fragrance, just something that will produce a good basic soap base that I can use to tinker with colors and techniques that still produces a good bar. Do the amounts of the various oils look right? Anything out of whack or specific issues I should look out for using a mix like this? Edited May 3, 2012 by GrinningGoblin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 That doesn't look like too bad of a start. Palm Kernel and Coconut are very similar in their fatty acid profile, and used at a total of 30% as in this mix can feel rather drying to some people. Miller Soap has a lot of smart choices for beginners if you haven't read that site yet.A nice first formula, IME, would be 50% olive, 25% coconut or palm kernel and 25% palm or lard with a superfat of between 5% and 8%. This blend moves slowly enough to allow reasonable time to fragrance yet fast enough to keep you from being bored silly. The lather is nice and can be abundant after a nice cure. From this blend you can tweak and adjust very easily to arrive at your dream bar.Good luck! And share your success with us when you've made it through your first batch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrinningGoblin Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 Miller Soap has a lot of smart choices for beginners if you haven't read that site yet.Thanks for the link (I have missed that site so far) and thanks for the feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 A nice first formula, IME, would be 50% olive, 25% coconut or palm kernel and 25% palm or lard with a superfat of between 5% and 8%. This blend moves slowly enough to allow reasonable time to fragrance yet fast enough to keep you from being bored silly. The lather is nice and can be abundant after a nice cure. From this blend you can tweak and adjust very easily to arrive at your dream bar.This is what I used for my 1st batch. Only I added 5% castor oil and my olive oil at 45%. It makes a very nice bar of soap! Very mild and lots of creamy suds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrinningGoblin Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 Thanks for the input. I had to push my first batch back a bit due to real life intruding a bit, but I had to take the time and say this board rocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrinningGoblin Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Does anyone have a good concise guide on what sort of properties that common oils add to soaps, like lather / creaminess / etc.? I have found some stuff on this but it tends to be spread out everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara AL Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Will this help.http://summerbeemeadow.com/content/properties-soapmaking-oils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrinningGoblin Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Thanks, that's perfect. Google tends to just spit up forum results when googling soapmaking and that can be exhausting to dig through and bookmark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara AL Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Here is another one.http://www.soapcalc.net/info/SoapQualities.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquiO Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 That doesn't look like too bad of a start. Palm Kernel and Coconut are very similar in their fatty acid profile, and used at a total of 30% as in this mix can feel rather drying to some people. Miller Soap has a lot of smart choices for beginners if you haven't read that site yet.A nice first formula, IME, would be 50% olive, 25% coconut or palm kernel and 25% palm or lard with a superfat of between 5% and 8%. This blend moves slowly enough to allow reasonable time to fragrance yet fast enough to keep you from being bored silly. The lather is nice and can be abundant after a nice cure. From this blend you can tweak and adjust very easily to arrive at your dream bar.Good luck! And share your success with us when you've made it through your first batch. What struck me funny when I read this is that this is the same exact recipe I use in my basic soap making class. I wanted percentages for really easy class room measurement. I use 50%OO, 25% PKO and 25% Palm. Knowing how certain oils behave I was able to surmise that CO and Lard would make good subs. I also mention crisco in place of palm if students want to stick to an all veggie recipe. This way they can play with local store bought ingredients before going internet crazy (like me). But this simple recipe produces a great bar of soap. Tight small bubbles and a creamy thick lather. And I can see how adding 5% caster could enhance that lather. I don't know if someone posted this link already but I found this posting really helpful when it comes to creating my own recipes: http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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