soap makers? i need advice

[Jilly]

I have been making soap, using the cold process.

So, anyway, yesterday morning I started using the last bar an remembered that all of my supplies and equipment was lost in the big move recently.

So, anyway (hah-hah) after seeing clients I stopped at the market for oils and the hardware store for lye and a couple of drywall mudding trays to use for molds

Go to make the stuff today and, damn, no scale. Went online to look for a recipe that would give instructions for using easy measurements instead of needing to weight the ingredients.

No luck, unless I want to make my own lye from woodashes, which I eventually want to do, just not right now whilst living in this flat.

I did find a fairly complicated, at least to me, formula for determining oil/fats amounts for, and I suppose that I could trying eyeballing the lye by dividing several times, but my preference is to avoid wasting ingredients.

Two queries.

Does anyone have a recipe using measuring cup ounces with which they have had success?

My second question is unrelated to measuring, but I did find a method of cold process where the fats are added directly to the lye mixture without melting them first and bringing them to temperature before adding to the lye mix, and then taking it to trace?

[Jilly]

I forgot to include the information related to my second question. Here it is :
http://simplysandras.blogspot.com/2012/02/easy-soap-making-tutorial.html?m=1

[Tussiemussies]

Here is a recipe I've tried and really liked. There are two items in grams, but I think you can find a gram to our measurement system on the Internet...before I type out the recipe, can you see if you can find a measurement converter?

Thanks:)

[Jilly]

Got one. Will this work?
http://www.worldwidemetric.com/measurements.html

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Jilly that will work great! Here is the recipe, I have made these and they came out great...
I know you said you had oils, do you have cocoa butter too?

This recipe calls for: olive oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, palm oil, grapefruit seed extract( an optional preservative)

Let me know what you have and I will try and find a recipe for that although I haven't tried it yet, the book I use, "The Soapmaker's Companion" by Susan Miller Cavitch is a great book.
Let me know! : )

[Jilly]

I have been making soap for a long time and my recipe is something I never thought to mention.

Olive oil and coconut oil to have it lather. I guess I am a minimalist, not using scents or other materials. The only exception is a kitchen soap with salt and freshly ground coffee for odors and stuff like that.

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Jilly, this is the only recipe that has the least amount of ingredients. It does require palm oil and is in grams, but you could use the gram converter to figure it out?

16.8 grams sodium hydroxide
45.4. Grams distilled water
42.2 grams olive oil
36.2 grams coconut oil
42.2 grams palm oil.

They say it is a tiny batch and make take longer to trace. They recommend using a wire whisk to keep it in constant motion. She says to use 120degrees F for this combination of fats and oils and that curdling is a risk. It sounds like this does not trace fast... Maybe there is something you could improvise for the palm oil? Also the other recipes all have a multitude of different oils in them even though part of them are in cups and oz.

Hope this helps...:)

[Jilly]

Thank you so much! I will use that formula to figure out how to trade off the palm oil for more olive and coconut.

Or, if it causes undue amounts of hair pulling I will cut down on the martini budget and just buy a scale, which would probably cost less than more oils or those pesky olives. :)

[Tussiemussies]

Thank you so much! I will use that formula to figure out how to trade off the palm oil for more olive and coconut.

Or, if it causes undue amounts of hair pulling I will cut down on the martini budget and just buy a scale, which would probably cost less than more oils or those pesky olives. :)

LOL! :)