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Thanks! I'll know more when I test it, but I'm pleased that they've come out of the molds so well. Here's a photo of sample bars from all three of yesterday's batches... this one taken in natural light. I'm pretty happy with that patchouli/madder root batch, in particular. I know that the red...

Love them! Really nice.

This is a key factor! Not being deterred is huge. Welcome to the soap-making community!

I'm with you, Shelley. I blend the heck out of my soaps, and they rarely get too thick. I had one batch early on, one of my first with scent, that I had to shove into the mold in handfuls, though!

I like the suggestions here, but I also wonder if the person who made the bars in the photos might not have used a bit of gold foil to wrap the bars.

After I made the salt bars, I made a large* batch of my wife's current favorite recipe, splitting it into two sub-batches, one with a light green tint (mica) and bergamot EO, the other a medium red (madder root) and patchouli EO. Pictures to follow once I slice the loaves. This is the first...

It's a lot of water, agreed, but the consistency was nearly that of a thick slurry when I put it into the mold around 10 this morning, and I just checked at 9 p.m. and the bars are hard enough to un-mold! On my next batch, I'll moderate the amount closer to my usual amount, see how that goes.

As always, I look forward to being corrected if I'm misunderstanding something; perhaps one of the other salt bar-makers can validate whether a shorter cure time can work for these bars. It's hard to believe that these will ever harden up; there is so much salt in them that they seem mostly to...

Possibly related... I found myself balancing on the edge of a rabbit hole this weekend, when I found a guy from Arizona who posts videos about how to find 'wild clay,' just walk around, find likely clay-rich soil, refine it, and make pottery from it! I was able to resist because I have no place...

I read through a couple dozen posts on several threads about salt bars, and the trend seemed to lean toward very long cure times. Have I misunderstood the situation?

I made my first batch of salt bars, using oil I infused overnight with rosemary leaves. Here's the oil after straining out the rosemary and two filters through paper towels. ...and here are the bars right after pouring. I'm planning to cure them for one year before testing. Edit to add a...

Boy, do I know this feeling. I've managed to fail to add something sitting right there in the lineup of ingredients...

While laughing at this, I accidentally clicked on an ad in the right rail of this page, and the seller's motto is "Make Your Own Soap at Home with Our Tool." I suppose that could be handy, depending on how much slutty you're dealing with...

I'll pick everyone up in my Leer...

I may finally be rested enough to start some soaping work. I have a lunch date with a friend, but already this morning I've chopped some soap scraps for a future confetti batch, which is a chore that's much easier to do in smaller bits, like this half-quart, rather than waiting until the day-of...

I haven't tried that, but I will!

I can't remember if it was the labeling book I read or threads here on the forum, but I think the 'rule' (rule of thumb?) is that you have to decide and stick with listing either 'what goes into the pot' or 'what comes out of the pot.' Since I have a much better grasp of what's going in, that's...

I bought this 'Peach Street' brand blender and it's been good to me so far; granted, that's only 40 batches, but it should last a while, particularly now that I no longer blend like I'm trying to kill the soap batter... Amazon.com

I was wondering about stearic spots. I've seen them mentioned here on the forum, but haven't researched to learn what they are. One more thing to learn about!

OMG, I almost asked if that was possibly the reason!