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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, January 5, 2012

New Year's Soapmaking

Over the past year I have been reading a lot about soapmaking. I have discovered quite a bit and while I like my first soaps that I made in December 2010 I can do better. First I discovered SoapCalc. They have an awesome lye calculator in which you plug in your oils, how much you want it superfatted or not and it will tell you the amount of lye and water to use. It will also tell you the properties of your soap. Different oils have different properties that they bring to the soap...things like hardness, conditioning, etc. While all soap cleans some oils produce a soap that cleans better. So I have been changing and tweaking some of my recipes. Here is what I made yesterday:

Laundry Soap #1
16 oz. coconut oil
16 oz. vegetable shortening
12.16 oz. water
5.191 oz. lye

This has a 0% superfat since I am using it for laundry and dishes and need it to attract oil rather than give it. This produced a very hard bar with very high cleansing properties.

Laundry Soap #2
16. oz. coconut oil
17 oz. lard
10 oz. tallow
16.34 oz. water
6.758 oz. lye

This made a hard soap with high cleansing properties also. Properties aren't as high as the previous soap, but they are high enough. It also is 0% superfatted.

Bath Soap
10 oz. coconut oil
20 oz. lard
7 oz. olive oil
8 oz. tallow
17.1 oz. water
6.408 oz. lye

This soap was calculated to give a 5% superfat. It is a moderately hard bar with good cleansing properties as well as conditioning properties. It gives a good bubbly lather also.

Goat milk Soap
8 oz. coconut oil
1 oz. cocoa butter
18 oz.lard
10 oz. olive oil
5 oz. shortening
5 oz. tallow
15.96 oz. goat milk
5.896 oz. lye

This was also 5% superfatted. It gives more of a creamy lather than bubbly. It is a moderately hard bar with good cleansing properties and high conditioning properties. I really like this one for use on the face, but it will work well as a bath soap also.

Again I used the hot process so that my soap cures while it cooks. This means that my bars are ready to use when they are dry. The laundry soaps dry quickly, but the goat milk soap takes awhile. I have found that you need to cut your soaps while they are still slightly warm to the touch and they cut much easier than waiting until they are cool. You get better bars and fewer bars that fall apart. Save all those chips and soak them in hot water then when they gel you have a liquid soap. I highly recommend using soap calc. I really think I have much better soap because of using the lye calculator and it is fun to play around with different oils and what properties they will bring to your soap. Blessings, Kat

4 comments:

annie said...

Is there a mail order source you prefer to use for supplies? I have never made it but would like to. Thank you!

Kat said...

Most of my supplies were purchased at the grocery store with the exception of my crockpot, which I got at the dollar store. The lye I purchase at Tractor Supply. The brand name is Roebic. Don't use Red Devil anymore because they changed the formula and it is no longer 100% sodium hydroxide. Blessings, Kat

Janice said...

Could you recommend a good scale? I think I have all the supplies to do this expect for a good scale to weigh the ingredients. I don't know why, but I find soapmaking to be very intimidating. I guess I just need to bite the bullet and get to work at it. Thanks for a great post!

Kat said...

Janice, I purchase my scale at the grocery store. It works for my needs and can us ounces or grams. Sorry it was just the store generic brand. Blessings, Kat