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I've mentioned in other threads that I have the common variety* red-green color blindness, and for me one of the side-effects is that I rarely notice color; I generally have to consciously decide to focus on colors. Anyway, in soap making, one of the results is that I haven't noticed if I have...

I had a bayberry candle when I was a boy, and loooooooooved it! I was hoping to come up with a bayberry scented soap, but my first batch smelled nothing at all like the candle I remember from so long ago, and I'm wondering now if this might be a way for me to get my scent fix.

Given your and ScentimentallyYours' feedback I'm thinking of giving this concoction a second chance this weekend... sans stearic acid!

Missus Jorah is named Myrriah. She has exceptional color vision and also has aspirations to learn the basics of perfumery. So she helps me with any color decisions and also with scents, which I don't care about in the least. We started dating 40 years ago this past May, married 35 years ago...

The ones I get from Amazon are called ' Sheets Laundry Club' I just put one sheet in each load, or 1.5 sheets for really heavy, dirty clothes. So far, after two months, I haven't seen any change from the liquid Tide Free I was using. My wife tends to have very sensitive skin, and she hasn't had...

I run a bunch of sites on WordPress but it seems to attract attackers, so for my soap site I'm going with tools with a lower overhead. If you don't have a hosted site with its own domain name, I don't know that LiteCart will work for you; my hope is built around the recommendation of my...

I used Tide Free for many years and was surprised when the little 'laundry sheets' turned out to do just as good a job. Have you tried them yet?

Same. I have to learn something called 'LiteCart,' which my provider recommended. The thing is, after 9 hours of site work at work, when I get done for the day I don't have the energy to work on the web any more.

Hey, @ScentimentallyYours it's still far too early to tell if these will be usable bars, but the hot process rebatching seems to have been at least potentially successful! The color change from light brown (the color of my first two batches of honey soap) to these various shades of coffee* is...

We're getting our first Costco within 20 miles, and it will be about half a mile from my house. I'm hoping that the prices of base oils help make up for the huge traffic increase bound to come with it.

Welcome. I'm a rank newb to soaping & struggling with my usual 'run in all directions' approach to a new obsession. The folks here have been wonderful guides for me.

Very useful, thanks for that tip about the stearic acid! So, I'm messing around with high-sugar recipes, and the ones I've made so far tend toward the mushy side, so I thought I'd try to move everything else toward the hard end of the spectrum, it's that simple... See, that's smart, that...

Thanks, Ali I don't think I had the hard oils hot enough; I got them to 122°f. Here's the recipe. I mixed the honey with the oil, as I did on my previous batch, then started adding the lye water. I added if slowly, stirring a bit between dollops. When I had about 1/3 of it mixed in, I paused...

Thanks! I'll look into this... (sounds like an opportunity to buy my first slow cooker)* -=- *yes, retail therapy...

huh. I have so much to learn! My second batch of the madder root-colored cubes looks like it's going to be many shades lighter in color than the rich tones I got in the first batch. Clearly I need to record more details of my technique, because however I mixed the first batch must have been...

I look forward to trying this out, thank you, Grant! I'm hoping to join you in retirement in a couple of years!

Hubris, to be sure. I thought... I need a hard bar. I'll use all hard oils (not thinking... why are nearly all recipes 50% or less hard oils?). I ended up with 20 ounces of something that looked like clay & gravel mud, with the lye water not able to fully blend with the fats. There's no way that...

On the good side of the day, I did another batch of the 72% soap with madder root, and that went very well. Even after increasing the batch size by 50% I still didn't have enough to fill all 9 cells of the mold, so that gives me an excuse to make more soon, right?! And I know this time to leave...

Please chuckle in my general direction as I'm using this afternoon's soap disaster as a chance to experience a very light case of hubris-correcting failure. Thankfully, not much money lost, but yeah... humbling failure. Thankfully, I know enough to learn from the experience, not just sit here...

Getting off my chair and mixing more of Zany's Faux Seawater, as one does...