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Different varieties of soap will shift their colors as they dry. For me the soap has to dry 2 weeks minimum in the winter, and 4 weeks in summer, in a special drying rack. Direct sunlight does funky things to soap color (bleaching/lightening is common) especially in south/west facing retail...

For a typical usage, I'd only have to use 3 pounds of fresh turmeric root from the market, steeped in a spaghetti-type pot on low heat, holding about 5 pounds of oil. I'm supposed to use one of various food processors, or just a knife. Chop it up into chunks, not pulp. Steep the chunks for an...

It looks amazing and beautiful, just trim the top a bit. It took a bit of work for me to make a similar pattern in a block mold. I had to use a 'special injection tool' a supersoaker. You never fail: you pick up another attribute, quality, or outcome that goes back into your 'tool...

Bubble wrap I've never used, but it looks thicker than food-service wrap. Food service wrap I now use as the mold-base liner. 2 layers. Soap DOES NOT stick, great, and the thin wrap stands up to high and sustained temperatures. (To think of all the time that I wasted before creasing and...

I have the block molds all together and well insulated for a specific time period. I say, keep the heat in and let the temperature go up, up. Get it hot. I go above 165 deg F on every run. After heating, it will take fans, spacing and more than 20 hours of time just to drive the temp back...

Annatto seed steeped in hot oil will release a beautiful yellowish-orange tint into the oil. Turmeric powder will give a lemon yellow, but the powder is still grainy. Smoother to take fresh turmeric root (from the market) chop it up with a knife or food processor (mind that your finger tips...

A nickle weighs 5 grams. Also, weigh water, 1 fl oz weighs 1 oz. 1 cup weighs 8 oz. A pint a pound the world around. Gallon weighs 8 lbs. (The density of oils almost always less than the density of water. Its most common for a gallon of most oils to weigh about 7 lbs.)

I would immediately suspect one of the essential oils in your recipe to be acting as a catalyst. Bay oil will speed up your working-time-to-trace in an easy-to-see way. But bay oil wouldn't do it immediately, but it's still necessary to pour the bay oil (mix) into your stirring vortex so as to...

I work with the 55 lb block molds, and would not necessarily view the white patterns as unusual. Depends on the type of colorant, temperature, heat. Not necessarily lye-heavy unless you can taste it to be. The block molds will sustain a thermal convection inside the mold during the...

Hi, I'm Chris; found your forum :P I'm the soapmaker for our shop: cold proc; veg; essential oils, emols. We have our veg oil blend, precise mix. Lye in dense water solution, mix must be kept very precise, by weight from solid. Manual mixing of tanks Load the top. Dispense each through...