Search results

I adore the smell of linseed oil. It makes me think "oil painting." I'll add it to my neats foot oil soap....

I certainly will.

Soaping can be practical, even if you don't monetize it. For example... I had beeswax hanging around, plus jojoba, from previous hobbies. Bought cocoa butter for soaping. Put them together for a fantastic lip balm. I won't sell it but it saves me money. I get chapped lips easily & this is a...

Thanks, Earlene. I did look it up here (always my first source) and strangely the subject has not come up, or perhaps not strangely... I've never liked most shoe polishes - I will say something more in the thread about soaping as a hobby, which Zany started.

I make my own out of salvaged cardboard. That way I can make them exactly the size I want them, and throw them out. I just cut them open & throw 'em out.

Exactly. And anyway - we all deserve a little fun. I don't begrudge the bucks I spent on my experiments, even when they came out weird. It's all usable, if not beautiful. My first experience re-batching, which blew up in my oven, forced me to clean it for the first time in a year. :)

Re: neats foot oil. I'm not going to try - yet - but I wonder if you can make your own saddle soap with neats foot oil. BTW, I did look it up and in some very old articles and books it says that it does have FAs, esp. oleic acid, but in Soap Calc I tried 100% neats foot oil and got nothing...

Well, how do you like that, I never would have looked up Neatsfoot oil on Soap Calc had we not been joking here about WD40 and such. First, I never realized that it's a natural product. I always thought it was some kind of contrived product. "Neatsfoot oil is a yellow oil rendered and purified...

I stand corrected - there are costs to everything, true. However, I was referring to the people here who slaughter their own beef or pigs, so they can either throw out the tallow or use it. Even with the time involved it's more of a loss to throw it out. Turning it into a usable and maybe...

This one. Looks gray/blue to me. TD = titanium dioxide? (I'm still a noob.)

The top one is my favorite too. How did you get that beautiful pale blue/gray color?

You don't need to spend a lot of money on molds. You can make them out of cardboard & line them with freezer paper, stretch-tite, etc. But face facts: eventually you will fall into the pit and buy things you don't need with money you don't have! Soaping is cheap for those who can render 50...

Joe - I really was joking about that. What I meant by this being one for fragrance chemists is that you should leave it up to them to create a WD40 fragrance. I agree with those who say it would be dangerous!

LOL. Well, try it...but I think this is one for the fragrance chemists! Perhaps you've stumbled on a genius marketing tool to men. I know a lot of guys who feel nostalgic for the smell of neatsfoot oil....(because they used to oil their baseball gloves w/it.)

WD40? In the US that's a lubricant. Hm. Don't know what Fisherman's Friend is. OK I googled it. Hm. I used to be a fragrance snob, only EOs for me, but I've learned my lesson, that fragrance/perfumery is mighty complicated, and the FO people know stuff we don't, so I am going to buy a dedicated...

As I said I don't think they are ugly at all, but then, I'm not a fan of the fancy looking soaps - what's the point? It's soap, it gets washed down the drain... But what are the whitish spots in the middle? I don't think it's unsaponified lye.

I began the batch on February 24th, which I recorded here: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-first-batch-zap.69338/#post-689575 Coconut 30%/Castor 5%/Olive 65% 26% lye (38% water) 8% superfat It was not a success. Too much water, or too little lye, very soft, impatient new soaper...

They look like my first batch. I think they are very cute. I call them my little oat cakes. PS when I first read this thread title I thought you wrote, "Smells like a sweaty Yank". :)

Gave three bars to an old friend who I met on our annual walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to Ikea. She was astonished that anyone could make soap! And she's incredibly bright. This hobby is a bit... recondite. One of the bars developed soda ash, I think. It's a whitish film, but only on one side...

Thank you very much for this clarification. I'm still waiting for my copy of Scientific Soapmaking by K. Dunn, which I assume has a lot of this stuff in it, so now I pick up this and that pearl of wisdom from more exp'd soapmakers.