Pine Meadows

How To Enter Your Own Soap Recipe

1. Click on your unit of measurement from the drop down menu. Your options are grams, ounces, or pounds. (Ounce refers to a weight measurement, not a fluid measurement).

2. Choose your "solid form lye". Your options are Sodium Hydroxide – (NaOH) used for making bar soaps. Potassium Hydroxide – (KOH) used for making liquid soaps. **Flakes or beads are the most commonly used forms and apply to both potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide.

3. Type in your liquid of choice. Some listed options are milk, water, herbal tea, etc. Try to be specific so that when you want to duplicate this recipe you have not left out any important notes. (Ex – distilled water & goats milk)

4. Enter a # amount next to each oil and/or fat you wish to use in your soap recipe. Remember that the # amount entered corresponds to the unit of measurement that you chose at step 1 . Once you have completed your data entry, click on the Submit button located in the lower left corner of the screen. You will be taken to a page that contains the different oil names, amounts, and % of oil in recipe that you chose in step #3.

5. Print out your recipe, or if you want to change the % of your oils click the back button on your browser and it will take you to step #4. Edit your # amounts and proceed by clicking the Submit button. Now if your new oil % amounts look good, print out the page. (If you are not sure what the % amount should be for an oil, refer back to our online catalog soapmaking supplies/fixed oils section for recommendations.)

6. Reading your recipe:
Start with the Oil Name Column, directly below this is a list of oils you chose for your recipe. The next column is the amount of oil you will use in your soap recipe (this amount will correspond to the unit of measurement chosen in step #1 (grams, ounces, or pounds). The total oil amount will tell you how big your soap batch is (16 ounces= a 1 lb batch). The next column gives you the % in recipe this tells you the % that each oil contributes to your soap recipe. SV refers to each oil's saponification value. The next column gives you the average saponification value of your recipe. Listed at the bottom of the columns you will see total amount of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or potassium hydroxide (KOH) to get 0% excess fat. Directly to the right of the page you will see a Lye Table that contains two columns. One reads % of excess fat and Lye amount – which again will correspond to the unit of measurement chosen in step #1. **We recommend using 5 to 8% excess fat range / lye amount. This allows for a firm bar of soap with just enough excess fat to be safe.