# Citrus Soap Challenge



## Lindy (Feb 12, 2013)

I would like to put out a challenge to choose a citrus fruit and them make soap using it.

We know that soaping 101 tried it using lemon juice as her water replacement so we know that doesn't work.

In another video the soaper was using hot lye water to melt her oils and she added lemon juice after she had everything melted.  It does show her soap setting up and her doing an initial cut a few hours later.  She shows a batch that was pre-made using the same recipe and they looked wonderful.  Of course our first assumption has to be we trust the maker of the video not to be playing games.

I am going to try making it with grapefruit which I'm not allergic to.  I'm going to try to video my process as well as the results.

So who's game?  I'm going to make a small 8 bar batch so I'm not wasting a lot of great ingredients if it doesn't work out.  :eh:


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## Scentapy (Feb 12, 2013)

I'm in!


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## 2lilboots (Feb 12, 2013)

Are we using any FOs or EOs in these or just plain soap with a citrus fruit?  I cannot do anything til my coconut oil arrives, but I would like to try it.  I would use a lime.


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## Scentapy (Feb 12, 2013)

I will try Cranberry Juice.  You think????


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## CaliChan (Feb 12, 2013)

I was actually planning on doing either another OJ soap or trying a Lemon soap this weekend. I think the soaping 101 issue was that she added such a high amount of lemon to the soap (she literally put the whole thing in there)


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## melstan775 (Feb 12, 2013)

I'll play If given a little time. When do you want entries in?


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## Lindy (Feb 12, 2013)

I think we should add complimenting EO's or nothing at all. For instance I will add some grapefruit EO but I am going to add Bergamot as well in order to anchor it.  I think I'm going to add some goat milk powder and pink clay to also help in the anchoring of the EO....  I'm going to be really interested in #1 if it will make soap & #2 what properties it adds to the soap.  I think if we're going to add juice we should keep it down to about 5% and increase lye concentration to 38% so we have room for extra liquid.  I haven't decided about the juice yet and if I do I may very well buy some grapefruit juice to more closely try to imitate the video of the ladies in the south.


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## Lindy (Feb 13, 2013)

I don't think we need to do this as a swap but more of a challenge and sharing the information so we can see what works, what doesn't work and what tweeking we might need.  So I don't know that it needs a time limit and once we get going perhaps we can sticky the results so when others start asking these questions they will have it as a referral....


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## hoegarden (Feb 13, 2013)

Is it necessary to video the whole process?


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## 2lilboots (Feb 13, 2013)

hoegarden said:


> Is it necessary to video the whole process?


 

LOL!  Don't u want to see Lindy make a video????


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## hoegarden (Feb 13, 2013)

2lilboots said:


> LOL! Don't u want to see Lindy make a video????


 
No no.. I mean those who are on for the challenge. Everybody need to submit a video or just the pictures. LOL


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## Lindy (Feb 13, 2013)

Hey! All righty then missus (2lilboots) - you're in trouble now.... LOL

No - video is not necessary.....


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## RocknRoll (Feb 13, 2013)

hmmm, I may be in this one. Just need to think of an intruiging citrus juice! I've been wanting to make a citrusy kitchen soap so this may be a good time to do it!


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## Lindy (Feb 13, 2013)

Okay I'm going to do a list in the OP of citrus fruits and then we can play with them.  More than one person can do a fruit so don't feel you can't do it if someone has already chosen it.


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## CaliChan (Feb 13, 2013)

http://www.foodscience.caes.uga.edu/extension/documents/fdaapproximatephoffoodslacf-phs.pdf
I thought this might be helpful


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## MaitriBB (Feb 13, 2013)

I can try lime although I think it's one of those that can be dangerous if applied to the skin directly.  Will do some research.


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## Genny (Feb 13, 2013)

MaitriBB said:


> I can try lime although I think it's one of those that can be dangerous if applied to the skin directly.  Will do some research.



But since it will be diluted in your soap & then rinsed off, it should be okay.


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## 2lilboots (Feb 13, 2013)

Are we just using the juice?  Are we incorporating more of the fruit?  I was going to make a batch just using 16 ozs of oils.  I have plenty of popcorn ready, looking forward to Lindy's video!!!!!


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## thefarmerdaughter (Feb 13, 2013)

Is anyone planning to use lemon or orange butter? Just curious, I saw some this morning while window shopping on Camden Grey


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## hoegarden (Feb 13, 2013)

I will check out on my side on what juice is available. Then I will take my vote.


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## Lindy (Feb 13, 2013)

CaliChan said:


> http://www.foodscience.caes.uga.edu/extension/documents/fdaapproximatephoffoodslacf-phs.pdf
> I thought this might be helpful



*What a fantastic resource!  Thank you....*



2lilboots said:


> Are we just using the juice?  Are we incorporating more of the fruit?  I was going to make a batch just using 16 ozs of oils.  I have plenty of popcorn ready, looking forward to Lindy's video!!!!!



*I'm going to use the rind and peel as well as "some" of the juice.  I want to keep the juice down to about 10% max. And even with that I am going to put it into clay and powdered milk to offset some of the acid.

Popcorn huh.... :shifty:
* 


thefarmerdaughter said:


> Is anyone planning to use lemon or orange butter? Just curious, I saw some this morning while window shopping on Camden Grey



*I don't think we need to choose our poison by what others are going to make.  If we have more than one person doing, let's say, lemon then we may get more than one result.

I'm actually going to do Grapefruit & Mandarin.
*


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## thefarmerdaughter (Feb 13, 2013)

I wasn't trying to narrow it down for my own choice. I wasn't planning to join, just interested in the results. I thought I would mention the lemon/orange butter b/c i read they have many of the same properties as the rind and peel.


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## Lindy (Feb 13, 2013)

Ahhh - well thank you for that.....


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## Soapsugoii (Feb 13, 2013)

I have a soap with a lot of orange essential oil already in my line. Would it be cheating to use that one? Muahaha. I have less time for experiments than I'd like these days


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## JuliaGulia (Feb 13, 2013)

Lindy said:


> *
> 
> I'm going to use the rind and peel as well as "some" of the juice.  I want to keep the juice down to about 10% max. And even with that I am going to put it into clay and powdered milk to offset some of the acid.
> 
> *



I was actually wondering about that. Would adding cornstarch do the same thing as adding powdered milk or clay? And how do you know how much to add? 
Thanks!


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## Lindy (Feb 14, 2013)

When I use clay I usually add 1%.  I don't know what corn starch would do in soap.  Always worth a try.....


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## SpellboundSoaps (Feb 14, 2013)

I'd love to try with the lemon! My grams has a lemon tree and whenever it's full she dumps them off one me because I LOVE Lemonade. So I have a ton that I wanted to experiment with but as someone mentioned earlier the Soaping 101 video showed that wasn't going to work out.

I'd love to try it with both CP & HP to see what works in each one because if we can figure out the soaping conundrum that would be fantastic!


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## Lindy (Feb 14, 2013)

I was just reading the other thread and it touched on something I was already thinking about.  What if you dropped your SF down to 3% so you have enough extra lye in there to handle the citrus juice and still turn into soap.....  Oh yeah, getting excited about this experiment....


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## 2lilboots (Feb 14, 2013)

I read that cornstarch is the vegan substitute for tussah silk.  I haven't tried it so I don't know, but perhaps that will be in my near future.


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## Lindy (Feb 14, 2013)

Interesting.  I use Tussah Silk and LOVE it to death....


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## 2lilboots (Feb 14, 2013)

Lindy said:


> Interesting.  I use Tussah Silk and LOVE it to death....


 
The first time I used tussah silk, I used too much.  It didn't all disolve in my lye/water mixture and I wasn't happy with how my soap turned out(looked like it had hair in it).  I love it now and use it in every batch I make. 

Ok, so now you are upping the juice to 10% instead of 5%, and lowering your superfat to 3%.  I won't be able to work on mine until Monday.  I will put some of the lime zest and maybe some pulp, but I am not putting the seeds in. I am still figuring out how much of the juice I am planning on using.


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## Lion Of Judah (Feb 14, 2013)

2lilboots said:


> I read that cornstarch is the vegan substitute for tussah silk.  I haven't tried it so I don't know, but perhaps that will be in my near future.



my last soap batch i used cornstarch for two reasons and this was one of them, they are still drying out some more so i have not gotten around to trying them as yet....but i will be sure to let you know.
the other reason was to anchor my citrus in the soap.


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## Lindy (Feb 15, 2013)

2lilboots said:


> The first time I used tussah silk, I used too much.  It didn't all disolve in my lye/water mixture and I wasn't happy with how my soap turned out(looked like it had hair in it).  I love it now and use it in every batch I make.
> 
> Ok, so now you are upping the juice to 10% instead of 5%, and lowering your superfat to 3%.  I won't be able to work on mine until Monday.  I will put some of the lime zest and maybe some pulp, but I am not putting the seeds in. I am still figuring out how much of the juice I am planning on using.



*You must have used a huge amount of silk to get that to happen!  :lolno:

I haven't had time yet either.  I'm not going to use the seeds either.  What I'm going to do is use the juice of half a grapefruit, the zest and the rind. I haven't decided whether I'm going with 5 or 10% juice but yeah I'm lowering my SF to 3% to give it the room it needs.*



Lion Of Judah said:


> my last soap batch i used cornstarch for two reasons and this was one of them, they are still drying out some more so i have not gotten around to trying them as yet....but i will be sure to let you know.
> the other reason was to anchor my citrus in the soap.



*Looking forward to seeing your soap and hearing your thoughts on it.*


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## CaliChan (Feb 17, 2013)

When is the dead line for the soap making challenge?


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## Scentapy (Feb 17, 2013)

Scentapy said:


> I will try Cranberry Juice. You think????


 


I totally read this wrong.  For some reason I saw citrus and was just thinking fruit (I don't know why).  Not CITRUS.  

Anyway... hope everyone is doing good... I can't wait to read / see the results.  I am not going to participate afterall.


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## Lindy (Feb 17, 2013)

CaliChan we have a couple of weeks because people get busy.  I haven't had time to get mine made yet either.... :lolno:


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## hoegarden (Feb 18, 2013)

I will most probably to testing out next week too. I have to wait for my current soaps to be out of the tray before the next batch can move in.


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## Badger (Feb 18, 2013)

This challenge sounds great and I would like to try out making something with lemon, but I have not made any soap yet, so it would likely be a bit too soon for me to try.  Maybe in a couple months I can try a challenge (maybe sooner if I have the money and can get practice in!).


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## 2lilboots (Feb 18, 2013)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBogNZ7BjoE&list=UU6NFc1XyVdzuyQw-f9HG42g&index=46[/ame]


This was what I have been looking for.  When I watched her video on the lemon soap, I watched this one immediatly afterwards and it explained how to make soap using lemon juice.  I knew i would find it and wanted to share it.


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## melstan775 (Feb 18, 2013)

This is a good one cuz she explains how to neutralize lemons. But to be fair the other one she was just making a point. She used the whole lemon - overkill. She even says in the end of that one to use citrus sparingly.


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## 2lilboots (Feb 18, 2013)

That is why I like her videos she explains a lot of things that sometime may not even seem important at the time.


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## lizflowers42 (Feb 18, 2013)

Curious...I used citric acid in my shampoo bars (3 more weeks to cure) as this was mentioned to help lower the ph of the bar. That in mind, I would be curious what the ph level of these experiments brings...if anyone is testing that


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## Lindy (Feb 18, 2013)

To test pH in soap you need to grate off a bit of soap and add it to a little hot water and mix until the soap is dissolved.  You don't want to use too much water as it will skew your results so use only enough to dissolve the soap, you can always add more if needed.  This will let you use the paper testers to see what your pH is.  This is not terribly accurate, the better way is to use the pH meters which can be applied directly to wet soap.


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## Lindy (Mar 28, 2013)

So my back was finally good enough today to let me get some soap made and I made my citrus soap.

I decided to go with mandarin so I pureed 3 mandarins and then separated the juice out by forcing it through cheese cloth.  So I had to add a couple of ounces of water to get enough liquid for the lye.  Mixed it and it mixed beautifully including melting my silk.  I dropped my SF to 2%.  I decided that I would use Red & White Kaolin Clays plus Coconut Milk powder & Pineapple extract powder.  I did an essential oil blend of Juniper Berry, 5x Orange, Sweet Orange, Grapefruit & Bergamot.  This came to trace nicely and smells amazing!!!  I put mustard & poppy seeds on top as decoration....

This will be cut on Friday so I'll post cut pictures then.

Has anyone else tried this yet?


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## melstan775 (Mar 28, 2013)

That looks amazing lindy! Can't wait to see the cuts. And glad your back is better!


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## Badger (Mar 28, 2013)

Wow, Lindy, that looks incredible!  I haven't tried the citrus challenge yet, but I am thinking about it now   I have been loving lemon scents lately, will have to see if I can figure something out!


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## AngelMomma (Mar 28, 2013)

Lindy, that looks fantastic!!


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## Lindy (Mar 28, 2013)

Thank you ladies - I am so impatient - I want to see it cut too....


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## Mommysoaper (Mar 28, 2013)

Looks beautiful!  Haven't thought about trying any citrus in my soaps.  May need to give it a try!


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## green soap (Mar 28, 2013)

The EO blend sounds awesome.  Such nice warm color.  Is it from the mandarine?  did you blend the skin in too?


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## Lindy (Mar 28, 2013)

Thank you both!

Green Soap I did add the peel in too.  Here is the cut picture.  The colour comes from using Red Kaolin as well as white to create the colour.  The smell is so amazing!


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## Badger (Mar 28, 2013)

Lindy, beautiful soap and beautiful pictures   Looks so yummy!


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## Lindy (Mar 28, 2013)

Thank you Badger


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## hlee (Mar 29, 2013)

ooooh. looks great!


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## melstan775 (Mar 29, 2013)

That is beautiful Lindy!


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## cerelife (Mar 29, 2013)

lindy, I was just thinking about making a lemon soap today!! I have a bag of meyer lemons on the counter and they smell soo good, so I was like "Hmm...wonder if I could make soap with those?"
Well, I guess I'll find out  Sign me up for Meyer Lemon Soap!
I need to order some lemon EO, so I most likely won't get to soap this until next week. At least that will give me some time to figure out how to do it!!


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## Lindy (Mar 29, 2013)

Yay!!!!  Just remember to reduce your superfat to allow for the acid....  I want to do one with lemon & lime juice....  love those scents....

So when are you going to do it?  This weekend?????

Thank you all for your kind words....


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## cerelife (Apr 2, 2013)

lindy, I ordered Lemon EO and Litsea Cubeba EO from WSP and some yellow and black oxide from Peak (along with the FO sample pack that was on sale which I soooo didn't need) on my phone at work Friday night! Which made me think of Lemon Pepper soap...arghhh!
Anyway, once I get this stuff, I'm gonna recreate soap101's recipe with the frozen lemon puree/pulp/juice as half my water amount in my lye mixture and attempt to retard gel.
I think I might try a second recipe with 1/4 fresh lemon juice and 3/4 distilled water in my lye mixture and add the lemon pulp (no pureed rinds) and zest to my warm oils and gel as usual. 
I'll keep my superfat to 3% for both and add kaolin as usual. I can't wait to see what happens, LOL!


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## Lindy (Apr 2, 2013)

Oh I am so excited to see what you come up with.  Soaping 101 may not be scientific but she is such an inspiration!


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## 2lilboots (Apr 2, 2013)

I don't really think my soap fits the challenge, but I will post it anyway.  I made this on 3/07/13.  I put the lime in the coconut and stirred it all up....lol!  Actually I only used the juice and pulp of one lime(for a 5 lb batch).  Which gave me 1.1 ozs of liquid....lol!  So I didn't lower my superfat.  I put coconut milk in it.  I used tussah silk, hydrated chromium green oxide, ground grapefruit peel for the top, and citrus mist FO from ED.  The scent seems a little masculine to me.  The little sample piece I used lathered nicely.


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## Lindy (Apr 2, 2013)

Yup it qualifies and that is a nice looking soap!  I love the scent of lime, it is one of my favourites!


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## 2lilboots (Apr 2, 2013)

Ok that is cool!


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## Badger (Apr 2, 2013)

Very nice looking soap!  And now I have that song in my head ;-)


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## cerelife (May 3, 2013)

I FINALLY got around to making a meyer lemon soap!
I zested two lemons and set that aside to add at trace. Then I juiced the lemons and the juice + pulp came to about 100g so I just added distilled water up to the 344g I needed for a 2-lb batch. Added my lye and watched the lye-water turn bright orange...then I realized that I was making my regular recipe...with an 8% superfat instead of the 3% that I had intended (yep, I was dancing)! I guess I could have run to the computer and reworked my oil values to get a 3% SF, but the music was calling my name, so I figured WTH...let's see what happens.
The batter took a little longer than usual to trace, but no big deal. I scented this batch with Lemon EO and Litsea Cubeba EO and colored it with yellow oxide. I added the lemon zest at light trace. Since I was using my regular recipe, I decided to treat it like I would any other batch, so I went ahead and insulated the log mold and gelled it.
I cut it yesterday and it was a little soft, but not anything crazy. It smells wonderful...the DH came in as I was cutting it and commented on how fresh and "lemony" it smelled! It's not very pretty...I've really gotta do better getting micas/oxides blended into my oils...but it is interesting 
I checked it tonight and it's firming up nicely. I'll add a pic next week, since I'll be out of pocket from tomorrow until Monday...silly how my job gets in the way of my soapmaking


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## three_little_fishes (May 3, 2013)

Lindy, that is a beautiful soap! 

Cerelife, very interesting! I have a meyer lemon tree that has probably 50 or more little buds on it. I may have to try a soap similar to yours this summer when I have so many lemons that I don't know what to do! I like it.....when life hands you lemons, make soap!


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## kazmi (May 4, 2013)

cerelife said:


> I FINALLY got around to making a meyer lemon soap!
> I zested two lemons and set that aside to add at trace. Then I juiced the lemons and the juice + pulp came to about 100g so I just added distilled water up to the 344g I needed for a 2-lb batch. Added my lye and watched the lye-water turn bright orange...then I realized that I was making my regular recipe...with an 8% superfat instead of the 3% that I had intended (yep, I was dancing)! I guess I could have run to the computer and reworked my oil values to get a 3% SF, but the music was calling my name, so I figured WTH...let's see what happens.
> The batter took a little longer than usual to trace, but no big deal. I scented this batch with Lemon EO and Litsea Cubeba EO and colored it with yellow oxide. I added the lemon zest at light trace. Since I was using my regular recipe, I decided to treat it like I would any other batch, so I went ahead and insulated the log mold and gelled it.
> I cut it yesterday and it was a little soft, but not anything crazy. It smells wonderful...the DH came in as I was cutting it and commented on how fresh and "lemony" it smelled! It's not very pretty...I've really gotta do better getting micas/oxides blended into my oils...but it is interesting
> I checked it tonight and it's firming up nicely. I'll add a pic next week, since I'll be out of pocket from tomorrow until Monday...silly how my job gets in the way of my soapmaking


 
Can't wait to see the Dancing Lemon soap


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## Lindy (May 4, 2013)

Thank you three_little_fish - it has proven to be a really popular soap....

Cerelife I can't wait to see it.  Did you reduce your SF at all?


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## cerelife (May 8, 2013)

OK, here's a pic...like I said, its not pretty but it smells great!
Lindy, I didn't reduce my superfat at all - I MEANT to SF at 3%, but forgot!! I'm a little surprised it worked, but so far so good.
Three little fishes, I just bought a meyer lemon tree last week and it's covered in blooms  Maybe I'll get a few lemons this year! Now I'm on the hunt for a kaffir lime tree and a satsuma tree!


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## hoegarden (May 8, 2013)

i have a little confession~~~ I opt to do the pineapple juice... but I realise that my juice went missing and replace with orange juice instead at trace..

But the soap did not turn out really well. Not sure where I went wrong. But I will try again. with real pineapple juice this time.


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## mel z (May 8, 2013)

Just saw this thread. Made a batch a while back, after watching the Making Soap at Marsha's or whatever it was called. This soap was just for testing and laundry use. I simply used one large can of Crisco and added 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice at trace to see how the lemon would react. It was fine, not a great soap since it was made of Crisco, but worked for laundry. There was no lemon scent either. YMMV.


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## BotanicalWitch (May 8, 2013)

Ive been wanting for the last month to do a Orange EO soap because Camden Grey had such a good deal on it I bought way to much (the hoarder in me lol  ) But haven't figured out a good combination yet, as I heard Orange EO doesn't work very well on its own


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## Paintguru (May 8, 2013)

Just stumbled across this thread.  Anyone tried just using baking soda to neutralize the acid of the citrus?  Perhaps I missed that in the discussion.


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## Lindy (May 9, 2013)

hoegarden said:


> i have a little confession~~~ I opt to do the pineapple juice... but I realise that my juice went missing and replace with orange juice instead at trace..
> 
> But the soap did not turn out really well. Not sure where I went wrong. But I will try again. with real pineapple juice this time.



What is the soap doing to you?  Did you reduce your SF at all?



mel z said:


> Just saw this thread. Made a batch a while back, after watching the Making Soap at Marsha's or whatever it was called. This soap was just for testing and laundry use. I simply used one large can of Crisco and added 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice at trace to see how the lemon would react. It was fine, not a great soap since it was made of Crisco, but worked for laundry. There was no lemon scent either. YMMV.



That won't change much in the soap. What we're referring to here is actually changing out all of your liquid for one of the citrus juices.  I added citrus essential oils for scent... 



Paintguru said:


> Just stumbled across this thread.  Anyone tried just using baking soda to neutralize the acid of the citrus?  Perhaps I missed that in the discussion.



I didn't think that Baking Soda was alkaline....


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## Paintguru (May 9, 2013)

Lindy said:


> I didn't think that Baking Soda was alkaline....



It is slightly basic when dissolved in water.  pH of a baking soda/water solution runs between 8-9.  Hence the baking soda/vinegar reaction that we all know and love to make CO2 for homemade rockets, volcanoes, and baking.


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## hoegarden (May 9, 2013)

Lindy said:


> What is the soap doing to you?  Did you reduce your SF at all?
> 
> The oil gt separated after 1 day...  so I will be re-looking at what went wrong... I made this with a 5% SF.. could be abit too high I suppose..


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