This is how I do it as well but with 2 containers… since I am so small still and yes the scale turning off is so annoying… but I got my first whole sale order… so excited.
Hi. I’m from United Kingdom I have been watching your videos while preparing for my equipments to start making soap. Your videos are so inspiring thank . Buying the book soon
Thank you for this and for all of your videos. I've been making soap for 15 years but didn't have a great system. You've helped me have more consistent methods. I bought your book when it came out and love reading it for ideas.
Hi Simi! I just came on to say I just got your book in the mail today! I flipped through quickly and I can’t wait to sit down and read it! So informative with so many valuable recipes! The overall composition with all the gorgeous photos are a complete bonus. I haven’t started making soap yet and this book is just what i needed. Thank you for pouring your heart into it. It looks like it was a labor of love. I’m so thankful!
Hello! I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your videos / amazing knowledge. I am in the very beginning stages of starting my own small soap business in Oregon. You have helped me and inspired me so much. I just got your book the other day and I can't wait to make some of the recipes in the book and gift them to family for the holidays. Again THANK YOU SO MUCH! XOXO
Good info. BTW, acetone (fingernail polish remover) will take Sharpie ink off plastic with just one easy swipe. Dunno if you have a problem with Post-It notes falling off...
Love listening and learning more from you Simi. Funnily I had made up my oils and butters but in seperate containers ready for my next soaping day enough for 6L or 3x2L moulds. My new containers are a bit smaller than yours but the best I have sourced here in Aus. I have to use a s s stockpot to melt and mix such big qty. I followed your master batch lye and sourced the same container via Amazon it’s working really well. The one thing I hate is adding castor as % is small and easy to err on pour I usually pour into a glass vessel then add to oils container didnt this time and a few grams extra went in. I re did soap calc to see lye needed. Such a small amt needed I might not bother. Any comment? If you have staff working with you they would be lucky to be alongside you. Thanks again Simi.
Thanks for sharing your process and for your comment! Yeah, if it's just a tiny amount more of castor, I wouldn't bother adding more lye. I overweigh my oils often and have never had any issues with the soap. Our superfat is between 5-6% normally, so I don't think a little extra hurts! :)
Haha! Fun fact: I didn't come up with the title, the publisher did. It's probably a good thing, as I would have probably called it something far less authoritative sounding. :)
OMG Simi, thank you for this video! I never knew that there was a function to keep your scale from turning off lol. Where did you get your baker rack from? And what is the shelf spacing? And lastly, where do you store your soaps after curing?
Hi there! I'm so happy to hear this video was helpful! Yes, a scale that doesn't reset is critical to soapmaking (I think). Some of our baker's racks were purchased on Amazon and some on Webstaurant. The ones I like the best have the rails 5" apart and hold 12 trays. After curing, we store our soaps on wire shelving with mats. You can see all of our cured soap shelves on our Studio Tour video here: ua-cam.com/video/UFO-JPrcUzQ/v-deo.htmlsi=R0cPyWOzhSnjkyLg. This was our old studio. We are now in a smaller space. :)
Thank you! 😊 The recipes on our website are for all our soaps, which all sold very well! Our top 4 selling scents were a mix of base recipes and included: Mountain Man, Coconut & Rose, Honey Lemon, and Sea Salt & Kelp.
Hi, from the Four Corners area, little town of Dolores. I love your videos the first I watched was explaining how to use SoapCalc, excellent. Do you use deodorized cocoa butter and coconut oil?
Hi there! I love the four corners area! I'm glad you enjoyed our SoapCalc video. We have a part 2 about recipe formulation coming out tomorrow morning. :) We use natural unrefined cocoa butter in all our soaps, but we do use refined coconut oil. I hope that helps!
Hi Sami! Question: your recipes have the weight for coconut oil. That's not liquid weight is it? If it isn't, whats the conversion for solid to liquid for some of the oils and butters most commonly used? I would love to always have coconut oil aleeady melted!
Hi there! In soapmaking, ingredients are always measured by weight. Whether an ingredient is solid or liquid, the weight is the same. So, as long as you’re using ounces (not fluid ounces!), then you should be good! Your solid coconut oil weighs the same in solid form as it does in liquid form. :)
Hi there! That's a fun idea! Our top ten soaps (including wholesale & retail) for the full year in 2023 were: 1. Honey Lemon 2. Coconut & Rose 3. Mountain Man 4. Calming Lavender 5. Sea Salt & Kelp (recipe coming in December/January) 6. Wild Lavender 7. Rosemary Mint & Juniper 8. Lemongrass & Calendula (recipe coming in December/January) 9. Orange & Bergamot 10. Garden Mint
Hi there! I usually heat the 50/50 lye water solution in one of two ways. I either use a warm water bath, so I will boil water and place the container with the solution in the hot water to warm it up. Or, I simply add distilled water directly to the solution, which reactivates the lye and warms it up. For the latter, you do want to ensure you take this into account for your water to lye ratio and I only ever add water (not any additional liquids). I hope this helps!
How thick do you cut the soap? I am about to purchase the Soap Cutter Pro and was wondering what the best option. And where did you get the mould slab from
Hi Simi :) I've wanted to try soapmaking for years now, but was always too intimidated by the lye, lol. Then, several months ago, I bought your awesome book, dove in, and have been having a blast ever since (with only one failed batch, lol!). In fact, after 30 years of marriage, my husband and I finally found a hobby we can agree on! We're having so much fun that we decided to try our hand at selling it in the new year, but I'm hopelessly confused about the IFRA usage rates with essential oils and don't know where to turn. Any help pointing me in the right direction would be much, much appreciated. Looking forward to checking out some of your videos on here next! :)
Woohoo!! That is awesome! So happy you're enjoying soapmaking! I do talk about IFRA usage rates in the book, quite a bit (check out the Deeper Dive section at the end for more detail), but we will also be doing a video on this soon!
Oh, I've read your book through at least twice, lol. And that section was extremely helpful, but I was still feeling thoroughly overwhelmed. On your suggestion, I checked out New Directions Aromatics (awesome prices on their bulk organic oils 😍), but some of their IFRA documentation is lacking. (Ex. some oils gave a usage rate as simply "< 5%" when I know it's significantly less - spearmint, for example). Eo Calc is helpful... unless you want an oil not on the list. I ended up digging through 650+ pages of IFRA stuff to find my essential oil constituent and then figured it out myself. It took me forever and I was really just hoping for a nice, convenient list somewhere with oils and their percentages 😅 Anyway, my apologies for the long messages, just wish I could sit down with a seasoned soaper for an hour, lol. Keep up the great work, and many thanks for your super book! ❤
@@MelindaAlice74Oh wow! I love that you’re a researcher! I looked up spearmint on new directions and it said < 2% for category 9. That’s confusing, I know, but I’d just do 2% or less in that case. EOcalc is fun to use, but I’d always go directly to the supplier of the essential oil, because it will vary by supplier and batch. This is why I love new directions so much because they always provide usage rates and tons of awesome documentation. But, thanks for bringing this “less than” sign to my attention!
I'm an aromatherapist, so essential oil components aren't exactly foreign to me, lol, which is the only reason I even dared to try and navigate those IRFA docs 😅 As for the spearmint, the organic (which is what I purchased) is at a less than 5% usage rate while the conventional is at 2%. This seems even stranger to me now because the carvone content of the non-organic spearmint is actually higher than that of the organic, but the usage % is greater? 🤔 Also, the usage rate for organic clove is at 4.9% which is way too high as well. Hence, my endless confusion and the reason that I'm currently more inclined to trust the numbers I see on eo calc, but now I'm thinking perhaps I should just figure out percentages on my own! I did contact ND, however, because I just made a large oil purchase and would definitely like clearer numbers. This conversation has been really helpful, though, because you've done amazingly well for yourself without agonizing over oil usage, lol. My only defense is that I'm used to working in tiny drops of essential oil, not grams, and maybe I should just chill out a little bit 😅 Again, thanks so much for your input and time 🙂
Ah yes, that makes perfect sense! Honestly, I wouldn't get too bogged down in the details, although I understand why you would since it's your line of work! I look at IFRA rates when I formulate soap and then I don't really look at them after that, even though they can change. The goal is to make soap that is safe to use, of course, but your overall usage rate in soap will be between 3-6%, so there's already a built-in level of safety. If you are concerned about usage rates, you can err on the low side of the overall usage. In the UK, you can't go over 3% overall usage rate in products, for example. I also find that the usage rate tends to line up with what you'd want to use anyway. For example, I never use much spearmint in soap, as it's really overwhelming. It's good to play around with recipes before you start selling so you can get a feel for your preferred usage rates and make sure they line up with IFRA. One example of a soap we made for a long time was our Lemongrass & Calendula soap. We used the full percentage of lemongrass in our soap because that was in line with recommendations. Later, the IFRA changed their stance on this due to citral content in lemongrass. However, people used our lemongrass soap for years and we sold thousands of bars and never had a single issue with it. The clove example you have is interesting and definitely worth asking new directions about! Perhaps the organic clove has a lower eugenol content for some reason? I notice that the indonesian clove bud has a different usage rate than indian clove bud. The organic seems to go through a separate filtration process, so this may be affecting things? It is possible that it is a typo too! If you tried to use that much clove in soap it would smell SO strong, but it would also completely seize the batter, so in a way, clove ends up regulating itself. Ha! Looking at EOCalc as a backcheck is probably a good idea, but I don't think EOCalc is maintained anymore. It was put together by Kenna at Modern Soapmaking, who I love, and it's a wonderful resource for formulating and reminding people that you can't just go crazy with essential oils. But, I always found their usage rates to be much lower than what new directions shows and new directions does update theirs all the time and they vary by batch. For instance, when I wrote my book, there were limitations on cedarwood atlas, but the latest batch doesn't have any limitations, so I trust new directions more (although you've brought up some interesting anomalies!). If I'm going to go through the trouble of using expensive essential oils, I want the scent to come through as well! Anyway, lots to think about here and I really appreciate this discussion! It's good fodder for our upcoming video.
Hi Simi, Please could you help me? I was binge watching all your videos and decided to finally dive in and make a shampoo bar, mainly because my friend gave me garden-fresh rosemary bunches and I didnt know what else to do with them. So I plunged into making a rosemary shampoo bar. But when I poured the lye mix into the oils, I discovered that quite a lot of the lye had solidified at the bottom of my container, probably because I didnt stir the lye into the water well enough. So now I have a very wet mixture, probably not enough lye to create a chemical reaction with my oils and take me to trace. I've been stick blending on and off for over 4 hours now, but while the mixture that is caked on the blender seems to have thickened slightly, the batter in the bowl is totally liquid. How can I rescue this? I thought about adding some more lye water but I'd have no clue how much now, as there's no way to tell how much lye got wasted. I also put my bowl on a double boiler to heat the oils in the hope that that would help them thicken, but that didnt work either. Please help! I dont want to throw such expensive and precious ingredients away (I wouldnt even know how to safely dispose of them!).
Oh gosh! It sounds like you’re thought it through the same way I would have, but without knowing how much lye is missing, it’s hard to add what is needed. Honestly, I’m not very good at “rescuing” soap. I don’t have the patience for it and when I have tried it, it ended up being a waste of time and materials (I even once destroyed a crockpot trying to rebatch!). The real question is: why did your lye solidify at the bottom? Like you said, you probably didn’t mix long enough. I’d say this was one of those lessons that are part of the journey. If you do want to try to rebatch, try to figure out how much lye is missing (can you weigh what is left in your lye container once the container dries out?) and then you can add more lye or hot process and add more lye there. Good luck!
Hi there! The recipes in the book are brand new and were created especially for yeast book. They are certainly inspired by many of our soaps over the years. The recipes in the book are for 2.5 lb molds, so you’d need to multiply by 3 for your mold. The recipes on our website are our actual proprietary soap recipes that we made and sold for years. We’ve sold thousands of all of these bars both retail and wholesale. They are well loved and sell very well! These recipes are written for a 5 lb mold, do you’d need to multiply them by 1.5. I hope this helps! ❤️
@@muddymintsoap thank you so much. I just bought the recipe for Mountain Man. Can't wait to try it. I LOVE your videos, so much knowledge provided with so much clarity. I have learned so much. THANK YOUUUUU
Hello I have a question I have watched your video on Soap Cal and found in very informative but I Have a question how do you go about measuring your molds. Work a a place where I have gotten a lot of wooden boxes the measurements are 15" long x 6 1/4 wide x 4" height if you could help me in that direction that would be great. I do not have silacone liners for these boxes so I have butcher paper to line them with. I make Candles right now but would like to add soaps to my line. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank-You
Hi there! Great question. There is a formula that you can use that will get you pretty close. Assuming your mold is rectangular, you can multiply the inside dimensions of your mold together (length x width x height) and then multiply that by 0.4 to get an approximate oil weight for your recipe. So, assuming the dimensions you included in your comment are inside dimensions of the mold, then you would use (15 x 6.25 x 4) x 0.4 = 150 oz of oil. I hope that helps!
Good idea! I’ve rarely had to do this as we used to buy wafers and then we put the blocks in our oil tank to melt, so I’m definitely not an expert! I appreciate the suggestion and that does sound much safer! 😂
Hi, I'm from FL, and yesterday I received your book and started reading last night, and it's amazing. ❤❤❤ thanks! God bless you 🙏🏻
So happy to hear you’re enjoying it!
This is how I do it as well but with 2 containers… since I am so small still and yes the scale turning off is so annoying… but I got my first whole sale order… so excited.
Congrats! That's awesome! I definitely recommend getting a scale that doesn't turn off, if you don't have one. It saves so many headaches!
Thank you for listing where you purchase your supplies. You are a fantastic instructor!
Thank you so much!! ❤️
"3 is a magic number", lol!! Schoolhouse Rock! I'm glad that was easy to fix.
Great video as always! ❤
Haha! Yes! That is it! Expect our version was by Blind Melon. :)
Hi. I’m from United Kingdom I have been watching your videos while preparing for my equipments to start making soap. Your videos are so inspiring thank . Buying the book soon
Hi there! Thank you so much for the kind comment and for watching. I'm glad you find our videos inspiring! :)
Thank you for this and for all of your videos. I've been making soap for 15 years but didn't have a great system. You've helped me have more consistent methods. I bought your book when it came out and love reading it for ideas.
Thank you for watching and I’m happy you were able to pick up some tips, even as a seasoned soapmaker! ❤️
Hi Simi! I just came on to say I just got your book in the mail today! I flipped through quickly and I can’t wait to sit down and read it! So informative with so many valuable recipes! The overall composition with all the gorgeous photos are a complete bonus. I haven’t started making soap yet and this book is just what i needed. Thank you for pouring your heart into it. It looks like it was a labor of love. I’m so thankful!
Thank you so much!! I'm so happy you're enjoying it so far. Good luck with your soapmaking journey! I'm honored to be a small part of it... :)
Hi❤ iam from Pakistan 62 year's old know a days i love to make soap i am learning much form your videos Thank u❤❤
Hi there and thank you for watching!! ❤️
❤❤
Thankyou Simi, such good little tips. I like how you've put the avo and castor oils in the jugs 🙏
Thank you! I’m glad you found it helpful. :)
Hello! I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your videos / amazing knowledge. I am in the very beginning stages of starting my own small soap business in Oregon. You have helped me and inspired me so much. I just got your book the other day and I can't wait to make some of the recipes in the book and gift them to family for the holidays. Again THANK YOU SO MUCH! XOXO
Aww.. thank you for this kind comment. I’m so happy to have inspired you a little on your journey. Good luck with your business! ❤️
Thank you for the video Simi! Already waiting for the next one 🤗
It'll be up next week! :)
Good info.
BTW, acetone (fingernail polish remover) will take Sharpie ink off plastic with just one easy swipe.
Dunno if you have a problem with Post-It notes falling off...
Awesome! Thanks for the tip and thanks for watching. Yeah, I don't usually use post it notes. :)
Thank you. Just started making soap and found you.
Thanks for watching! :)
Love your videos. I always learn something.
Thanks for watching! :)
Thank you for your videos. I always learn allot. I look forward to your next one.
Thank you so much! Really appreciate that and thanks for watching❣️
Love listening and learning more from you Simi. Funnily I had made up my oils and butters but in seperate containers ready for my next soaping day enough for 6L or 3x2L moulds. My new containers are a bit smaller than yours but the best I have sourced here in Aus. I have to use a s s stockpot to melt and mix such big qty. I followed your master batch lye and sourced the same container via Amazon it’s working really well. The one thing I hate is adding castor as % is small and easy to err on pour I usually pour into a glass vessel then add to oils container didnt this time and a few grams extra went in. I re did soap calc to see lye needed. Such a small amt needed I might not bother. Any comment?
If you have staff working with you they would be lucky to be alongside you. Thanks again Simi.
Thanks for sharing your process and for your comment! Yeah, if it's just a tiny amount more of castor, I wouldn't bother adding more lye. I overweigh my oils often and have never had any issues with the soap. Our superfat is between 5-6% normally, so I don't think a little extra hurts! :)
I love watching your videos
Thank you!! 🥰
I love your Book!!!!!
Thank you! :)
I do too. So many vastly different techniques and recipes with tons of information for all natural soap.
I love that she calls it a handbook.
Haha! Fun fact: I didn't come up with the title, the publisher did. It's probably a good thing, as I would have probably called it something far less authoritative sounding. :)
Your apron is adorable 🥰
Thank you!! Our friend (and Muddy Mint employee!) made one for everyone one Christmas. Such a thoughtful gift!
@ yes I agree very thoughtful 🥰
Love your videos and book..very insightful
Thank you so much! :)
Loved this vid , great use of common sense,thank youx
So glad to hear you enjoyed it! ❤️
Great video!!
Thanks!!
OMG Simi, thank you for this video! I never knew that there was a function to keep your scale from turning off lol. Where did you get your baker rack from? And what is the shelf spacing? And lastly, where do you store your soaps after curing?
Hi there! I'm so happy to hear this video was helpful! Yes, a scale that doesn't reset is critical to soapmaking (I think). Some of our baker's racks were purchased on Amazon and some on Webstaurant. The ones I like the best have the rails 5" apart and hold 12 trays. After curing, we store our soaps on wire shelving with mats. You can see all of our cured soap shelves on our Studio Tour video here: ua-cam.com/video/UFO-JPrcUzQ/v-deo.htmlsi=R0cPyWOzhSnjkyLg. This was our old studio. We are now in a smaller space. :)
Are these your top selling recepis? I love the cocoa butter ones in your book! Also, your such a positive person and an inspiration 🥰
Thank you! 😊 The recipes on our website are for all our soaps, which all sold very well! Our top 4 selling scents were a mix of base recipes and included: Mountain Man, Coconut & Rose, Honey Lemon, and Sea Salt & Kelp.
Hi, from the Four Corners area, little town of Dolores. I love your videos the first I watched was explaining how to use SoapCalc, excellent.
Do you use deodorized cocoa butter and coconut oil?
Hi there! I love the four corners area! I'm glad you enjoyed our SoapCalc video. We have a part 2 about recipe formulation coming out tomorrow morning. :) We use natural unrefined cocoa butter in all our soaps, but we do use refined coconut oil. I hope that helps!
Hi Simi! Great video as usual. I have the same type buckets, what is your size and brand name of the microwave that these buckets fit into?
I just found it! Here's a link: amzn.to/4fEeeAJ
Thank you for sending the link Simi, you’re a sweetie!😊🤗
Where do you get your avocado oil? Thank you for this video!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching. 😊 Our avocado oil is from Soaper’s Choice.
Hi Sami! Question: your recipes have the weight for coconut oil. That's not liquid weight is it? If it isn't, whats the conversion for solid to liquid for some of the oils and butters most commonly used? I would love to always have coconut oil aleeady melted!
Hi there! In soapmaking, ingredients are always measured by weight. Whether an ingredient is solid or liquid, the weight is the same. So, as long as you’re using ounces (not fluid ounces!), then you should be good! Your solid coconut oil weighs the same in solid form as it does in liquid form. :)
What are your top 10 most sold soaps? I purchased the Mountain Man and would love to buy all the top 10, please. Thank you :)
Hi there! That's a fun idea! Our top ten soaps (including wholesale & retail) for the full year in 2023 were:
1. Honey Lemon
2. Coconut & Rose
3. Mountain Man
4. Calming Lavender
5. Sea Salt & Kelp (recipe coming in December/January)
6. Wild Lavender
7. Rosemary Mint & Juniper
8. Lemongrass & Calendula (recipe coming in December/January)
9. Orange & Bergamot
10. Garden Mint
Hello, can you please link the microwave that you are using, or any microwave that can take the 6QT bucket. Thanks
Yes! I just found it! amzn.to/4fEeeAJ
Thank you so much, by the way, I purchased your book and I love it.
Yay! So happy to hear that, and thank you!
Im still interested in when you prepare your 50/50 lye solution and its at 72 degrees. Do you heat up all your lye solution in a double boiler?
Hi there! I usually heat the 50/50 lye water solution in one of two ways. I either use a warm water bath, so I will boil water and place the container with the solution in the hot water to warm it up. Or, I simply add distilled water directly to the solution, which reactivates the lye and warms it up. For the latter, you do want to ensure you take this into account for your water to lye ratio and I only ever add water (not any additional liquids). I hope this helps!
How thick do you cut the soap? I am about to purchase the Soap Cutter Pro and was wondering what the best option. And where did you get the mould slab from
Hi there! The standard is 1”, but we cut ours a little thicker at 1-1/8”. We made the slab molds ourselves. We get our loaf molds from Nurture Soap!
What is your shelving at the back with the soap on it? are they baker racks?
Yes! These are baker’s racks, which is where we cure our bars. :)
Hi Simi :) I've wanted to try soapmaking for years now, but was always too intimidated by the lye, lol. Then, several months ago, I bought your awesome book, dove in, and have been having a blast ever since (with only one failed batch, lol!). In fact, after 30 years of marriage, my husband and I finally found a hobby we can agree on! We're having so much fun that we decided to try our hand at selling it in the new year, but I'm hopelessly confused about the IFRA usage rates with essential oils and don't know where to turn. Any help pointing me in the right direction would be much, much appreciated. Looking forward to checking out some of your videos on here next! :)
Woohoo!! That is awesome! So happy you're enjoying soapmaking! I do talk about IFRA usage rates in the book, quite a bit (check out the Deeper Dive section at the end for more detail), but we will also be doing a video on this soon!
Oh, I've read your book through at least twice, lol. And that section was extremely helpful, but I was still feeling thoroughly overwhelmed. On your suggestion, I checked out New Directions Aromatics (awesome prices on their bulk organic oils 😍), but some of their IFRA documentation is lacking. (Ex. some oils gave a usage rate as simply "< 5%" when I know it's significantly less - spearmint, for example). Eo Calc is helpful... unless you want an oil not on the list. I ended up digging through 650+ pages of IFRA stuff to find my essential oil constituent and then figured it out myself. It took me forever and I was really just hoping for a nice, convenient list somewhere with oils and their percentages 😅 Anyway, my apologies for the long messages, just wish I could sit down with a seasoned soaper for an hour, lol. Keep up the great work, and many thanks for your super book! ❤
@@MelindaAlice74Oh wow! I love that you’re a researcher! I looked up spearmint on new directions and it said < 2% for category 9. That’s confusing, I know, but I’d just do 2% or less in that case. EOcalc is fun to use, but I’d always go directly to the supplier of the essential oil, because it will vary by supplier and batch. This is why I love new directions so much because they always provide usage rates and tons of awesome documentation. But, thanks for bringing this “less than” sign to my attention!
I'm an aromatherapist, so essential oil components aren't exactly foreign to me, lol, which is the only reason I even dared to try and navigate those IRFA docs 😅 As for the spearmint, the organic (which is what I purchased) is at a less than 5% usage rate while the conventional is at 2%. This seems even stranger to me now because the carvone content of the non-organic spearmint is actually higher than that of the organic, but the usage % is greater? 🤔 Also, the usage rate for organic clove is at 4.9% which is way too high as well. Hence, my endless confusion and the reason that I'm currently more inclined to trust the numbers I see on eo calc, but now I'm thinking perhaps I should just figure out percentages on my own! I did contact ND, however, because I just made a large oil purchase and would definitely like clearer numbers. This conversation has been really helpful, though, because you've done amazingly well for yourself without agonizing over oil usage, lol. My only defense is that I'm used to working in tiny drops of essential oil, not grams, and maybe I should just chill out a little bit 😅 Again, thanks so much for your input and time 🙂
Ah yes, that makes perfect sense! Honestly, I wouldn't get too bogged down in the details, although I understand why you would since it's your line of work! I look at IFRA rates when I formulate soap and then I don't really look at them after that, even though they can change. The goal is to make soap that is safe to use, of course, but your overall usage rate in soap will be between 3-6%, so there's already a built-in level of safety. If you are concerned about usage rates, you can err on the low side of the overall usage. In the UK, you can't go over 3% overall usage rate in products, for example. I also find that the usage rate tends to line up with what you'd want to use anyway. For example, I never use much spearmint in soap, as it's really overwhelming. It's good to play around with recipes before you start selling so you can get a feel for your preferred usage rates and make sure they line up with IFRA. One example of a soap we made for a long time was our Lemongrass & Calendula soap. We used the full percentage of lemongrass in our soap because that was in line with recommendations. Later, the IFRA changed their stance on this due to citral content in lemongrass. However, people used our lemongrass soap for years and we sold thousands of bars and never had a single issue with it. The clove example you have is interesting and definitely worth asking new directions about! Perhaps the organic clove has a lower eugenol content for some reason? I notice that the indonesian clove bud has a different usage rate than indian clove bud. The organic seems to go through a separate filtration process, so this may be affecting things? It is possible that it is a typo too! If you tried to use that much clove in soap it would smell SO strong, but it would also completely seize the batter, so in a way, clove ends up regulating itself. Ha! Looking at EOCalc as a backcheck is probably a good idea, but I don't think EOCalc is maintained anymore. It was put together by Kenna at Modern Soapmaking, who I love, and it's a wonderful resource for formulating and reminding people that you can't just go crazy with essential oils. But, I always found their usage rates to be much lower than what new directions shows and new directions does update theirs all the time and they vary by batch. For instance, when I wrote my book, there were limitations on cedarwood atlas, but the latest batch doesn't have any limitations, so I trust new directions more (although you've brought up some interesting anomalies!). If I'm going to go through the trouble of using expensive essential oils, I want the scent to come through as well! Anyway, lots to think about here and I really appreciate this discussion! It's good fodder for our upcoming video.
Hi Simi, Please could you help me? I was binge watching all your videos and decided to finally dive in and make a shampoo bar, mainly because my friend gave me garden-fresh rosemary bunches and I didnt know what else to do with them. So I plunged into making a rosemary shampoo bar. But when I poured the lye mix into the oils, I discovered that quite a lot of the lye had solidified at the bottom of my container, probably because I didnt stir the lye into the water well enough. So now I have a very wet mixture, probably not enough lye to create a chemical reaction with my oils and take me to trace. I've been stick blending on and off for over 4 hours now, but while the mixture that is caked on the blender seems to have thickened slightly, the batter in the bowl is totally liquid. How can I rescue this? I thought about adding some more lye water but I'd have no clue how much now, as there's no way to tell how much lye got wasted. I also put my bowl on a double boiler to heat the oils in the hope that that would help them thicken, but that didnt work either. Please help! I dont want to throw such expensive and precious ingredients away (I wouldnt even know how to safely dispose of them!).
Oh gosh! It sounds like you’re thought it through the same way I would have, but without knowing how much lye is missing, it’s hard to add what is needed. Honestly, I’m not very good at “rescuing” soap. I don’t have the patience for it and when I have tried it, it ended up being a waste of time and materials (I even once destroyed a crockpot trying to rebatch!). The real question is: why did your lye solidify at the bottom? Like you said, you probably didn’t mix long enough. I’d say this was one of those lessons that are part of the journey. If you do want to try to rebatch, try to figure out how much lye is missing (can you weigh what is left in your lye container once the container dries out?) and then you can add more lye or hot process and add more lye there. Good luck!
What is the difference between the individual recipes and the recipe book? I am trying to make the 7.5 pounds of soap mould
Hi there! The recipes in the book are brand new and were created especially for yeast book. They are certainly inspired by many of our soaps over the years. The recipes in the book are for 2.5 lb molds, so you’d need to multiply by 3 for your mold. The recipes on our website are our actual proprietary soap recipes that we made and sold for years. We’ve sold thousands of all of these bars both retail and wholesale. They are well loved and sell very well! These recipes are written for a 5 lb mold, do you’d need to multiply them by 1.5. I hope this helps! ❤️
@@muddymintsoap thank you so much. I just bought the recipe for Mountain Man. Can't wait to try it. I LOVE your videos, so much knowledge provided with so much clarity. I have learned so much. THANK YOUUUUU
Thank you!! ❤️❤️
Hello I have a question I have watched your video on Soap Cal and found in very informative but I Have a question how do you go about measuring your molds. Work a a place where I have gotten a lot of wooden boxes the measurements are 15" long x 6 1/4 wide x 4" height if you could help me in that direction that would be great. I do not have silacone liners for these boxes so I have butcher paper to line them with. I make Candles right now but would like to add soaps to my line. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank-You
Hi there! Great question. There is a formula that you can use that will get you pretty close. Assuming your mold is rectangular, you can multiply the inside dimensions of your mold together (length x width x height) and then multiply that by 0.4 to get an approximate oil weight for your recipe. So, assuming the dimensions you included in your comment are inside dimensions of the mold, then you would use (15 x 6.25 x 4) x 0.4 = 150 oz of oil. I hope that helps!
@@muddymintsoap yes that doe help and gives me a starting point thank you very much
Where do you buy all your oils and butters
We get most of our oils and butters from Soaper’s Choice, but we’re putting together a free list of suppliers right now, so that’s coming soon!
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Come back soon ! 🍉🫐💙
I use an Ice Chipper to break up my cocoa butter blocks its sooo much easier and safer than the knife.
Good idea! I’ve rarely had to do this as we used to buy wafers and then we put the blocks in our oil tank to melt, so I’m definitely not an expert! I appreciate the suggestion and that does sound much safer! 😂
Tell Troy he can get the sharpie marker off with isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel.
Brilliant! Thank you! :)