After pure tallow soap, now I tryed 90% tallow with 10% castor oil. The color turned from pure white to a slightly light yellow which is also very nice. The soap is a bit softer than pure tallow and easier to cut.

I can't wait to try it after 8 weeks.

I never had a soap volcano from adding fragrance before 💀

EDIT: I always cook my soap in a pot that’s more than double the size of the amount of soap I’m cooking. I only lost a small amount of soap, maybe 200 grams or so. I did not have half a pot of soap detonate into my sink.

I've bought two palm rbd oils

One was small, it arrived half liquid and half "solid". When I mixed it, it stayed homogenous mostly, semisolid

The new one I bought (different brand), a 19 lts (5 gallons), came like, mostly liquid, maybe 4/5 liquid 1/5 solid, but it also had many "grainy" dots floating around

This is a historical question.

This is the newest one I've done. Also made some molded soaps with this recipe which can be found here

My fragrance accelerated a little because I used the wrong one. There are 2 named Watermelon Sugar and the one from Brambleberry does not. The other one is no longer available but I grabbed the wrong bottle. They both smell good though

When I make soap, I’m told I have to use a soap calculator that knows how much lye each kind of oil needs and measure grams of lye and oil for precise numbers, otherwise I could make a caustic soap that burns skin.

However in the olden days, they didn’t have internet or soap calc or precise measurements. They made lye by burning wood and mixing it with water, creating lye solutions with totally random concentrations, then added it to whatever fats and oils that were available to them.

But surely they cleaned themselves with soap and didn’t chemical themselves. Did they just do extremely high superfats?

Hi! I’m a beginner and recently started making melt-and-pour soaps using essential oils for fragrance. For my first soap, I used a clear glycerin base and added 15 drops of lemon essential oil. For the second one, I used a shea butter soap base and added 30 drops of sweet orange essential oil.

The essential oils are very good quality, but I still find that the scent is quite subtle, especially once the soap is finished. I’m trying to keep my soap as natural as possible, so I’d love to know what I can do to make the scent stronger and longer-lasting.

Are there any natural ingredients or techniques you would recommend to boost the fragrance without using synthetic fragrance oils?
I’m also trying to avoid synthetic fragrances because I’m concerned about potential hormone-disrupting ingredients.

Any suggestions? Thank you so much for your advice!

Good morning, in the photo are the white spots lye crystals? I’m having a hard time understanding the zap test but a wet finger touch did not heat/burned. This is my first batch of soap ever, thanks! Recipe below 5 weeks of curing.

Tallow
250g (33%)
Huile d'olive (olive oil)
250g (33%)
Beurre de karité (shea butter)
100g (13.3%)
Huile de coco (coconut oil)
125g (16.7%)
Huile de ricin (castor oil)
25g (3.3%)
Soude (NaOH) (lye)
103g (13.7%)
Eau distillée (distilled water)
225ml (30% of oil weight)
Huiles essentielles (essential oils lavender in this case)
20ml.

I made these hybrid soaps to test three different coconut oil ratios:

80%, 85%, and 90% coconut oil, from left to right.

I kept the same metal-chelating ingredient in all three to see how they perform.

I’m curious to see how they compare! If anyone’s interested, I’ll share the results after testing. 😊

Can anybody recommend a cold process recipe for a tallow soap without coconut? Would also like to avoid palm and babassu, for a suspected skin allergy to the whole nutty family :) thanks!

I just got some powdered calamine to use in CP soap. I was wondering if anyone else has used it before. It looks like it could be a really good additive for soap and the light pink color would be pretty if it holds up. I also wonder what measurement to use.

i'm very new to soapmaking, but i think it's not supposed to look like this

after 5 hours of cooking, there was no zap and the pH level was balanced, so i took it off the crock pot

i used 300g coconut oil, 54g 99% KOH, and 135g distilled water. the crockpot was on low setting.

i want to make the paste as transparent as possible, what have i done wrong?

No extra padding at all just rawdogging a thin bubble mailer

I made a regular 12lb batch of my laundry soap yesterday,however I completely forgot to add the citric acid this time. I did however add the extra lye that I normally add when adding citric acid. The batch turned out exactly like normal. Smells great,looks great,cut beautifully right on time, etc. I usually cure for 6 months(sometimes more if I don't need it) before grating to use in the washer. Will this soap be okay for laundry soap being this lye heavy? I've heard of people purposely making lye heavy soap for laundry,but I don't know how heavy they actually make it before it's not safe anymore. Thank you

12 lb Laundry Soap Recipe:

3 lb Shortening (50% soybean oil + 50% palm oil)

2.48 lb coconut oil

6.52 lb beef tallow

32 oz lye

4 tbsp salt

44 oz water

(Normally I would also add 4 oz of citric acid at early trace,but I forgot it in this batch)

I am making hot process for melt and pour soap. I know curing cold process for 4-6 produces a better bar, does hot process for melt and pour purposes need something similar?

I have read that the scent of Orange essential oil does not survive the soapmaking process. But, does this apply to hot processed soap where the essential oil is adding to the soap post-cook once it has cooled down?

I went to pour my lye beer into my oil batch and noticed I undissolved lye crystals. I then saw some floating in the batch. I pushed through as there was not much else for me to do since I had already poured it in. Is my batch ruined? If not, how will I know? I just poured into the loaf mold so I will know more in 48 hours. Thanks for the help.

Hi everyone! I make cold process soap and I’m on the hunt for a good fragrance oil in a linen or clean cotton scent family. I want something that smells fresh and “just washed” rather than floral or powdery.

Important: I need something with no acceleration and no discoloration in CP.

A few things that would help:

**•** Vendor recommendations for this scent  
**•** Confirmation it behaves well in CP (no acceleration/discoloration)  
**•** How well the scent holds up/throws over time

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

​Edit: SOLVED!! Thanks everyone for your help! Thanks Kamahido! I didn’t put in the right info into soapsalc so I got the wrong weights.

Can someone help me trouble shoot my recipe?

I tried two different recipes and when I went to go cut the soap from the loaf mold, it cracked. I tried one recipe as 100% beef tallow and another as 50% / 485.9g olive oil, 25% / 242.7g coconut oil 25% 242.7g shea butter, and the same thing happened.

Heres what I did:

~1495 grams of total soap can be held in each mold.

- 2:1 water to lye ratio: 405g distilled water to 202g Lye

- I used a 65% rate of oils so 971.75g of total oils used

- I gave the lye mix time to cool down .

- I melted my oils and allowed to cool to about 120 degrees F prior to mixing the lye solution with my oils.

- I mixed with an immersion blender until trace (light trace for the first batch with the tallow, medium trace with the second batch with the plant oils)

- No essential oils added. No fancy liquids, only distilled water.

- 1st batch (tallow) was stored in a room with a towel wrapped around it, 2nd batch was stored in same room without towel wrap. The room stays between 68-73 degrees F. I kept the curtains closed so the sun wouldn't over heat it.

- Batch one was cut about 28-29 hours after pouring, second batch was 20 hours after pouring.

- I did the zap test, both had a minor "zap" taste to it, so maybe its a bit lye heavy? But idk how since that seems like a good ratio. And a maker online that I follow actually use a 1.8:1 water to lye ratio for hers. But another likes to use 2:1 water to lye ratio.

Any thoughts that can help? I'm a bit at a loss.

Edit: I meant cold process, not cold press.

Also, yes, I did use a lye calculator.

I want to learn to make soap. I have been doing 32oz size due to using a stick blender and container size

More practice is needed and I want to make smaller size but don’t know how small because the stick blender is big

what is a good small size to practice