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Hmmm...that is interesting. Do you add it after the lye water has cooled a bit, or while it's still warm? I know some people also add TD to their oils...but what if you don't want the whole batch white?

Yep, crackling is what I usually get with TD (and sometimes with oxides in general...I've got the glycerin river blues). Even when I am very careful about amount and gelling temps, I don't seem to have good luck. Hoping I eventually get better :-)

I don't think I exceeded 1 tsp ppo, but I have been known to go overboard with the TD when I am not getting the white I am looking for. It's been a few weeks so I can't say for sure (shame on me for not keeping better notes...lesson learned!). Given that everything else about my recipe was the...

I am very close to swearing off TD forever, because every time I use it, it does not like to cooperate. Recently, I made a pretty Valentines day soap...white with pink swirls. It is entirely possible that I went too heavy on the TD, and now the corners and edges of my bars are pretty crumbly (in...

Cold may indeed be a factor, as my soaping area is in my basement. These days, it's pretty chilly down there. Will this cause problems with the quality of a materbatched lye solution? If I do masterbatch, I will definitely weigh it afterward and add any water back in to account for...

DeeAnna, thanks for the explanation and advice. I get the "floaters" pretty consistently when I mix a 50% lye solution. When I stir them in, tiny little bits just seem to float around in the solution. I would eventually like to masterbatch a 50% lye solution in a recycled laundry soap jug...

Forgot to ask...if I dump this solution and start over, how do I dispose of it? Is it okay to pour down the kitchen drain with running water?

When mixing a 50:50 lye solution, I often get a thin crystallized film on top of the solution. Generally, I stir it back in and things seem okay. Last night, I was preparing to make a small batch of soap when something came up. I had already mixed my 50:50 lye solution (I had planned on...

Thanks, I'll give it a try with the mp stabilizer I have on hand. Just wanted to make sure that was ok to use.

I know that vanilla will turn soap brown, but I have been reading mixed reviews about its effect on bath bombs. I would love to hear others' experience with this. For example, I would love to make a Pink Sugar bath bomb. I have read some whose bath bombs have turned brown with this FO, but...

Can someone please clarify which vanilla stabilizer is needed for use in bath bombs? I am assuming it is the one for lotions and body washes (not m&p or cp soap). When used at a 1:1 ratio, it seems this would cause issues with the amount of liquid in the bath bomb recipe? Thanks for the help.

Yes, it was a hanger swirl with a thin wire hanger.

Thanks...it was a fun soap to make and turned out really nice. I will try leaving the lid off again and see how things go (holding my breath in fear of the dreaded partial gel). Ughh...so many variables!

Thanks for the feedback and the kind words. It isn't too bad, but the crackled effect was disappointing. That seems to be my biggest obstacle lately...lots of my oxides seem to cause glycerin rivers/crackling. Anything else I can do besides prevent gel? I'm still wondering if the wooden...

I used the CM straight out of the can again, but this time I warmed it ever so slightly first, which made it a lot runnier. I think the first can was very cool (in my cold basement) which made it pretty thick. As soon as I nuked it for about 10 seconds, it was room temp and much thinner. The...

Forgot to mention...it is fragranced with BB's White Tea and Ginger, which seemed to behave really well while I was soaping. The white soap has a little dispersed TD, and the tan has a little of BB's honey beige mica.

Not sure if I attached the photo correctly, but hopefully I have attached a photo of my first CM soap that I just cut this morning. This was my 2nd attempt this weekend, and things went really well while I was soaping this time...nice consistency, plenty of time for FO and colors. BUT...it...

Thanks to everyone for all the help...second attempt went beautifully! :-) I followed a CM recipe I found online...haven't tried this one before, hope it turns out okay... 10% sweet almond oil 10% castor oil 20% CO 30% OO 30% PO I mixed the lye with half the water, then stick blended other...

judymoody, thanks for the explanation...it goes along with the thread I started yesterday about my first CM soap. Now it makes sense. So, as long as my initial water:lye ratio is at least 1:1 (btw I always SF at 5-8% and full water anyway), then I really don't need to worry about how much...

Seven, thanks for the link, it was very helpful...I must have missed that in my search. Either way, if I do it as you do ( half the water with the lye, half the water to thin the coconut milk), then it seems I don't need to be worried about the SF percentage, right? I mean, I may have a high SF...