Lye calculator, Soap making oils & create handmade soap recipe
Lye calculator is one of the most important tool for cold process soap making. If you want to create your own handmade soap recipe , the lye calculator will help you to quick calculate with 100% correctly.
These are great lye calculators online I would like to recommend
1. MMS lye calculator
2. Soapcalc
3. Bramble berry lye calculator
4. Summer Bee Meadow lye calculator
**For creating your own soap recipe, firstly , let's read How oil types effect the soap properties.
**And learn more about superfat and water discounting here
List of example oils using in cold process soap making
Apricot Kernel Oil - moisturizing and conditioning properties
Avocado Oil - regenerative and moisturizing properties
Babassu Oil - emollient
Borage Oil - conditioning and produces a stable lather in soap
Calendula Oil - regenerative and anti-inflammatory properties.
Camellia Oil - high in vitamin E (conditioning)
Canola - conditioning
Castor Oil - conditioning
Cocoa Butter - conditioning
Coconut Oil - hard bar, cleansing and full lather.
Corn Oil
Crisco
Emu Oil
Evening Primrose Oil - wonderfully conditioning
Flax (Linseed) Oil
Grapeseed Oil - conditioning
Hazelnut Oil - moisturising
Hemp Seed Oil - moisturising
Jojoba Oil - high in vitamin E (conditioning)
Kokum Butter
Kukui Nut Oil - conditioning
Lanolin
Lard
Macadamia Nut Oil - produces a stable, conditioning lather in soap.
Mango Butter - moisturizing properties
Meadowfoam Oil - wonderful moisturizing and rejuvenating properties.
Mink Oil
Monoi de Tahiti
Mowrah Butter
Neem Oil - anti-bacterial, anti-septic & anti-viral and moisturizing properties.
Olive Oil - conditioning, stable lather.
Palm Kernel Oil - a hard soap bar, cleansing bar with a full lather.
Palm Oil - often used to replace lard & tallow to make all vegetable oil soaps.
produces a hard bar with a stable lather.
Plum Kernel Oil - emollient properties
Pomegranate Oil - moisturize
Pumpkin Seed Oil - skin healing properties.
Red Palm Oil - moisturising and healing properties.
Rice Bran Oil - Rice bran oil is effective for keeping skin smooth.
Rosehip Seed Oil - anti-ageing and skin rejuvenation qualities.
Safflower Oil
Sesame Oil
Shea Butter - promotes skin regeneration.
Sunflower Oil - moisturizing, regenerating, and conditioning.
Sweet Almond Oil - produces a stable and conditioning lather in soap.
Tamanu Oil
Tallow (beef)
Walnut Oil
Wheat Germ Oil - produces a bar with a stable, conditioning lather.
Then you select which oils you like to add to your recipe , after that use lye calculator to calculate how much lye should add to your recipe...finish!!
Properties of oil types effect to cold process soap
There are many oil types come from different sources that we use for making cold process soap. Each oil will effect different properties to the finished soap bar.
Main 4 properties are :
- Hard, stable, long lasting : (palm oil, beef tallow, lard)
- Lathering : (coconut, castor, palm kernel)
- Moisturizing/Conditioning : (olive oil, canola, sunflower, soybean)
- Luxury/Super Moisturizing : (cocoa butter, shea butter, almond oil, hemp oil, jojoba)
(Using a lot of oils in recipe will have multiple characteristics. For example, shea butter result in great moisturizing and the soap bar will be very hard ,too. Coconut oil gives us a lot of lather and also make soap bar super hard. Tallow is normally used as a base oil (hard), but it also gives us creamy and moisturizing lather...)
Good basic soap recipe should contains main 3 properties soap oils including hard bar , lathering and moisturizing.
For example , good basic recipe showing below :
- 25% palm oil
- 25% coconut oil
- 25% olive oil
- 15% canola oil
- 10% sunflower oil
Once you have oil base recipe to make soap , then you go to the lye calculator step and ready to make the handmade soap now.
