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I really love the rustic chunky-looking top for some HP soaps--in an oatmeal soap, the top ends up looking like oatmeal. And with lavender soaps, the top looks a little like rough, uncut amethyst stone. It's appealing in an all-natural, farmhouse kind of way. I've always used a crock pot for HP...

That totally changes the way I'll think about this--thank you! Sodium laurate is covalently bonded, though, right?

Awww, thanks! It's been fascinating to see how profs adapt to the pandemic; mine created a discord server for our class to ask questions, and has a channel in there for chem we run into outside of class. Soapmaking, NaOH, and bath bombs get mentioned a lot in there since I'm in the class...

Q: if I add 2% (of my oil weight) citric acid to my water, and an extra 6.24g NaOH for every 10g citric acid, is the KOH stronger, since K's less electronegative, and will it all react with the citric acid before the NaOH has a chance to? I see that @DeeAnna advises doing it this way on this...

Just unmolded @Zany_in_CO’s No-Slime Castile with 100% Himalayan rhubarb-infused olive oil. Soleseife really does lighten the color

Then I'll use 92%, like you do in your example! Thanks a million for all this information

I'm curious--is this a much better way to harden bars than using lactate? NaOH isn't that cheap

🤯 My world has just expanded.... If my KOH says it's "90-95% pure", I could probably pick any number in that range and be safe, since it's only a small fraction of my lye and my superfat will save me...

Does the vinegar react with the lye? Edit: ignore this question! I just read the KiwiMoose thread on vinegar

SAME HERE. I started making my own deodorant because nothing I bought worked for me. I sweat like crazy and am allergic to everything!

I've been wanting to try using fractionated coconut oil/MCT oil/caprylic acid for awhile. Looks like you use it along with a whole arsenal of odor fighting stuff, @Misschief and @lsg... my dad just smears MCT oil undiluted on his armpits instead of buying deodorants he's allergic to, so it...

You sound like a kinesthetic learner: you have to dive in and try something to get the understanding necessary to digest more reading---that's a valid way to learn. Starting out by making tried and true recipes really helps (I didn't learn how to bake cookies by inventing recipes--that can come...

So this isn't dual-lye wet shave soap... it's for bathing?

Yes!! I love LovelyGreens! I tried those instructions last Sept, and the results were beautiful. So far I’ve done two batches of soap with carrot puree as colorant. I weighed 4tb carrot purée PPO as part of my liquids, then added the rest of the weight in distilled water, then added my lye...

OMG I just bought two of those at Michael’s today! The crazy thing is, I paid $15+tax and shipping for a 4-succulent mold from BrambleBerry (unmolded my first batch of succulents Monday, so happy with the shape), and when I brought one of the soaps to Michaels today to compare their mold, my...

Welp… in the end, it doesn’t matter what they smelled like in the bottle, because all but 3 disappeared pretty quickly in the cure, even though I mixed kaolin clay into my batch. Blueberry, honey, and the sort of floral lemon won, so 3 of my 12 Nature’s Flavors bottles are soapable (Nature’s...

Right?!? I've been eyeing it for awhile... glad no one else realized it was so useful! Then I'll monkey away! Thank you guys for all your help! (I'll start a new thread after this if it goes anywhere)

OK! Picked up a thrift store salad shooter yesterday, and shredded an existing batch today. It's hanging out in a glass container with polyols now, so I'll try a mix of both your techniques. @Zany_in_CO, before I monkey with your recipe--did you use 18.3% castor oil for lather, or is there...

I do have some 190 proof everclear! Whoah... 3 month cure? I'm comfortable making HP in a crock pot, but I really do want to try your cardiac-arrest-microwave technique! OH my goodness--Thank you SO much for sharing your notes and ratios; I've gone through my recipes and found a couple...

😅 I know this is a dead thread, but since @Zany_in_CO's still active, hope it's ok to keep the answers with the original post! Zany, I really want to try your microwave CP translucent soap method. Do you use roughly a 1:2 shredded soap to polyol mix ratio by weight? I'll start with the polyol...