Using the Soap Calculator

I have seen a few recipes that look good, but they are either too simple or do not include the ingredients that I want to use. So I have been researching a bit about how to calculate the amount of lye I have to use for the oils I want to include in my recipe. So I found a bit of info about a soap calculator that allows me to calculate the amount of lye, the water I will be needing and the characteristics that my final soap will have.

So, how do I calculate all these things? Here I leave you an example that I am planning to try soon (it's a small batch since I am only starting). I will use grams in my recipe.

Total oil: 600gr

Types of oil

Olive oil: 80% = 480gr

Coconut oil: 10% = 60gr

Shea butter: 5% = 30gr

Almond oil: 5% = 30gr

Once I decide what oils I will use, I need to calculate the lye amount and concentration. And here is where the calculator is fundamental.

So... go to Soapcalc.net

1. leave it market on NaOH since this is the sodium hydroxide we need to make soap using the cold process.

2. Choose grams and input the total amount of oils (in this case 600gr)

3. Choose lye concentration. Here we can decide how concentrated we want our lye, different proportions will affect the texture of the final bar. For this recipe I am going to try 40% concentration lye.

4. In superfat you can also choose anything up to 20% This also affects the structure of the bar and the oily feeling that it will leave on your skin when using it. I will go with 4% for this recipe but will be experimenting in the future with other porcentages. In the section of fragance you can introduce a value or leave it empty, I will go leave it as it is.

5/6. Here we choose the oils we are going to use and click on "add", plus we are going to input the percentage (once you click on "calculate recipe" it will automatically calculate the grams for each oil, in case you haven't done it before).

And this is what the final recipe looks like. If you want you can print it to save it for the future.

As you can see this recipe includes the exact amount of lye and water we need to use.

Lye: 80.66 grams

Water (distilled): 120.99 grams

And this is how we create our recipes. Remember that sometimes our recipes can vary depending on what we add to them, especially if it's liquid like yogurt, milk, pure, etc.