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Increase your olive oil. The soap calcs don’t work for olive oil - it gets very hard. Reduce your coconut oil to 10% it makes soap dissolve really quickly and a lot of people find it really drying on the skin. Reduce your castor oil to 5% any higher and it can cause sticky soap. Castor is one of...

I find 10% Shea makes a difference. It also has great label appeal. It’s cheaper (for me) than cocoa butter which I don’t use.

Sodium gluconate is phenomenally expensive in Australia. So I use ctric acid which is AU$7 (US$4) a kilo (35oz).

Can you try it at 10%? The smell might not be noticeable but the Shea butter properties will work in your soaps at 10%.

3mm is too much of a bevel for me.

I got it on etsy but they don't seem to sell them there anymore. I was hoping someone would come along and say if they'd seen there somewhere. You could choose the depth of cut that you bought. They are great because they don't take much off and you can adjust the amount further by putting a...

The wooden planer/beveler isn't any good because it is a metal blade and it could contaminate the soap. The blade is not stainless steel. You need a beveler with a 45* attachment so you can lean the soap on it and get a 45* cut everytime. You need full acrylic. I got this online for <$20 but...

Yes, stainless steel.

I agree with Dibbles. If the silicone mats aren't big enough for you individual cavity molds you can cut them down until they have an even border around them which might work well. Or sacrifice every second frond so you have a full mat to fit in your molds.

You have 110% of oils in your recipe. I don't make HP soap but I am pretty sure the SF oil% comes out of the 100% of oils. No need to calculate extra percentages of oils for super fat. Just choose which oils you want and add them at the end of the cook. It is all debatable if this actually...

I wouldn’t rebatch this soap. It will be fine for home use. Rebatching is time consuming and messy and makes a soap that is nowhere near as nice as the original soap. Rebatching isn’t necessary for this soap.

There aren’t many of us on the forum that like OO soaps but I do and I use it in every soap at different percentages. Before you decide against OO in soap please try using real 100% OO. I use EVOO only and it it hugely different to mixed OO or pomace. I think there is/has been a huge problem...

Early soap (olive oil 100%) was often made with sea water. Sea water actually has 35g salt per litre. I buy pure sea salt and add it at that rate to the water in my mix. I masterbatch my sodium hydroxide mix (50/50 water lye) so add the salt to the remaining water in my recipe (rather than...

I’ve had trouble with lavender EO in soaps causing DOS. I tried over and over with the same result. I wouldn’t use cloudy infused oil. Sorry. I’ve infused lots of things in oil and they’ve always been clear.

I add the oat milk to the oils and ensure it’s well mixed before adding the lye water. Yes I make my own oat milk. No need to freeze it. I make my own oat milk. I rinse 1 cup of oats in a sieve with filtered water. Then add 1 cup rolled oats to 1 and 1/2 cups water. I let these sit for 30 mins...

Pavlova is so easy. Cover it with cream and fresh berries and drizzle it with passion fruit juice and seeds and it is fabulous and gluten free.

Avoiding soda ash can be prevented in some environments by raising the Lye concentration. But someone just down the street from you might not find this effective. You really have to work out a system that works for your soaping and soap storage environment. I did it by soaping at 31-32% lye...

Replace the water in the recipe with oatmilk. Or, what I do is, mix the Sodium hydroxide with an equal amount of water and replace the rest of the water with oatmilk. You can easily mix iny additives into the oatmilk.

I use the same rate that others have mentioned but I find it easier to work it out as 5% of the weight of my oils. So 500g (1lb) oils x 5/100 = 25g FO

I personally wouldn’t make any of those adjustments. Why? I never use less than 10% for any oil except castor. It just makes no difference at lower percentages. I use maximum 10% coconut oil even in salt soaps. If you use more than 20% the soap will be harsh on your skin and just dissolve away...