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Welcome to a fellow science educator! Hats off to you for teaching 8th graders - a tough age. I teach al the college level. One of the things I really like about soapmaking is that it’s a combination of science and art.

Welcome!

Zing, I am sorry to hear that your dog is doing poorly. Our grief is payment for all the years of love and joy they gave us. I hope the medication works and gives you extra time.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out after the cure. With the soy wax you may have made a terrific shaving soap!

I’ve enjoyed my Alexa this season! It was a gift last year. It’s in the kitchen and I listen to Christmas music when cooking. Rather than a favorite song, I have favorite singers. Johnny Mathis tops the list, but I also like Michael Buble, Bing Crosby, Harry Connick Jr. among others.

Your packaging has to keep the moisture out and the scent in. I’ve seen others use shrink wrap. I used to use plastic jars but switched to foil pouches which work well.

The amount of alcohol has a big effect on whether steamers will swell or be crumbly. Too much and they swell; too little and they are crumbly. I like to add enough to get to a wet sand feel. The other thing I’ve found that affects swelling is humidity. I try to make them on a day when the...

Welcome from another fellow Buckeye!

What type of olive oil do you use? Pomace will speed up trace.

Chemistry in action! Love it!

I just saw a trailer for “Meet Your Maker” with Chrissy Metz and Leann Rimes. An episode is on artesian soap making. Their definition of “artesian” is melt ‘n pour. Uh no, not interested.

Could also be your essential oils. Poor quality essential oils can separate out but then may reabsorb in a few days. What essential oils did you use, and what brand?

Beautiful floors and beautiful soap!

Assuming your soap has some superfat in it I would not recommend using it in your washer. It will either leave oil spots on your clothes or will put kind of a water resistant coating on them.

I aim for 110 - 135 F for both oils and lye water when I mix them. Then I turn the crockpot to low and monitor the temperature with a stainless steel meat thermometer. With my recipe, if the temperature gets above 200 F it will volcano, so that is a starting point for you.

Unrefined has a more cream / yellow color than refined in soap. Other than that, no difference.

I do something similar with my shave soaps but I HP mine for a short while. I recommend getting your oils and lye water nice and hot (around 150 - 160 F) before mixing. Make sure all the stearic acid is melted and mixed in with your oils before adding the lye water, and stick blend only in small...

Humidity can cause dos! I learned the hard way my first year of doing farmers markets in hot and humid Ohio. Punch holes in your shoebox and that will help!

I’ll also add that temperatures of 31-33 degrees C is not too hot. For example I normally soap at 40-50 C. I’ve found that is where my recipe works best. If you soap too cold, you can get false trace which is a sudden thickening caused by your hard oils like palm resolidifying. So when you...

I regularly use salt (about 1 tsp PPO) in my CP soaps. I tried sodium lactate in a few batches and thought it was a little softer too and didn’t see any benefits over plain old salt. Now in HP soaps it’s a different story. Like what’s been mentioned before it’s much more fluid and easier to...