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Thanks, @Mobjack Bay . I am signed up for Crafty Monkey website. That's where I have learned how to make lotions and creams. It is a very informative one.

Ok. I think I found the answer. This article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8767382/ discusses the refining oils to free fatty acids. Seems like turning oils into soaps and then to fatty acids is a type of chemical refining, which removes such beneficial compounds like tocopherols...

Soaping and lotion making is more of a fun hobby for me. I like experimenting, but also would be good to know the basis of why something is happening. I would like somebody explain the difference between free fatty acids vs oils/butters, is there any difference in skin absorption and benefits...

I know that free fatty acids could be purchased, I have stearic acid in my cupboard. But theoretically, is it better to get less processed from soap?:smallshrug:

I have some 80% shea butter soap with 10% coconut and 10% castor oil, which is very hard and almost doesn't leather. Will try that one first. The questing still stands is it really better to use free fatty acids rather than straight butters and oils? And why.

I was searching how to make a birch tar ointment, which was widely used when I was growing up in Ukraine. In one of the tutorial, as a base, the lady used fatty acid extracted from the home made soap. She diluted grinded soap with tons of lemon juice, then washed resulted fat in water until it...

@basti, appreciate you finding time to answer. I see you don't come her often, glad you did. I don't do melt and pour, but the first soap should be not so difficult to replicate in CP. As for the #29, it is amazing. I have being trying to make something similar without large success. But I was...

Thanks, @Susie . It was a while ago, I think, I still diluted this soap and used it, it was OK. Now, just like you suggested, I don't bother with strips any more. I do zap test and go with that. All the soaps come out Ok.

Powder is a good idea, Didn't think of it. I tried to brush mold with melted bees wax, made it worse. I will try to do it with my wooden molds (I made silicone liners for them too). As for acrylic on the first pic, I broke it while making silicone liner for it 🤕

Yes, the soap is really good. Excellent bubbles, fairly hard, and hand after washing are really soft. I think it is our humidity makes the glycerin sweat. It is around 70% now and it will get worse.

pls let me know. I am sure I am just getting the wrong grade of silicone. The one I get is strong, very flexible, soap comes out of it well, but it doesn't glide out of the mold. It is the type that would be great as a table mat for kids, so that the plate stay in place and the wouldn't push it...

Just to follow up on silicone mold adventure. Got a new silicone, made 3 more molds... after the whole day measuring, cutting, making square boxes that wouldn't leak... the molds came out tacky, just like from the silicone from Amazon. In short - it is not worth it. In a process I also dropped...

How long should I wait for the HP rosin soap to dry? It is looking good, but almost feels like sweating the glycerin at this point. Will get dry to touch?

Good point, @DeeAnna . I really didn't think about it, but now I can imagine what a disaster it could have been. When I got my second batch of rosin mix out of microwave at 300F, I did notice how oddly it was behaving. It wasn't really boiling, but making small bubbles around the silicone...

Today I made Pear's soap with @lsg's recipe. Didn't have a palm oil, so supplemented it with tallow like @lsg have suggested. It turned out great. Was my first HP bar soap try. I ended up melting pine rosin with stearic acid and castor for a little too long. By the time I checked the temp - it...

Nope. I did split the oils and the lye for each layer. But then you mix the lye and oils, get it to a slight trace, add colors and FO, add the soap shreds, and either blend it or just mix it depending on what effect you want, pour the mix. And by the time you are done mixing next batch - the...

That's what my husband says. I am VERY good with excuses :nodding: . But all I was doing - is not letting things go to waste. ;)

That's what I was going for. Another thing which have surprise me - is how easy and fast it is to work with scraps. They trace fast when you want them to, and stay fairly liquid when you need it, just don't beat the hack out of them. But doing layers - it's a breeze.

@basti , I just found your thread. OMJ, #1 and #29 soaps... How in a world did you do it? I will print those out and will try to replicate. Technical question, in #29, how did you get so thin distinct lines? Did you pour at very thing trace??? Is it one pot pour? Looks like you used the tall and...

Wanted to make more soap, but I REALLY don't need any more, and oils are so expensive... Sounds familiar?:cool: Since addiction always wins, I found an excuse to make more. I have tons of soap scraps, so I decided that it would be an honorable thing to use them. Of course, in the process I used...