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^^^^Here's a classic example of my sense of smell not being that great. I can't smell the potato or bean water in the finished soap. But NO DOUBT I can smell those two ingredients when mixing with the lye initially. Off topic: You really should try the ginger tea + sugar recipe the soaper...

I don't notice the scent in the finished soap. But my sense of smell isn't that great.

I don't know if this has ever been mentioned before but........... I finally remembered where I saw the article written by a soaper discussing ginger tea + a bit of sugar boosting the lathering better than both ingredients do alone. (I have used it and she is right from what I have seen...

That looks GOOD!!! Excellent lather also!!! :thumbup:

Oops. Oh crap, that WAS a typo........I meant lather!!!!!!!!!!!! :nonono: I edited it, thanks for the head's up and sorry for my dumb mistake.

Yup, also in the end potato water in the lye concoction increases lye lather a bit more than sugar I have found anecdotally but certainly not massively by any means. Same for bean water. Regular sugar works fine also IMHO. Same for molasses, honey and maple syrup but the color is much more...

Just soaped with it.........50 bars. Acts just like any other lard I have ever used.

Here's one that looks pretty good IMHO. Link I have made similar stuff and it cleans leather pretty well. (Note: I make turpentine soaps also to get rid of grease and dirt a bit better and have never had it go into flames when mixing with the final concoction. I add about 5 percent to the...

Most definitely THIS! Go for the mashed potatoes look. And it doesn't have to be a real "fluffy" mashed potatoes look either. You'll get the hang of it once you do a few batches. But DeAnna is definitely right IMHO........go for the mashed potatoes look. Vaseline texture is going too far IMHO.

Hey everyone.......what do you think about using boiled pasta water???

You can use ammonia instead of KOH in a hybrid soap recipe and adjust your lye DOWN by 5% for each volume of weight you are using (e.g., 20 grams of ammonia, reduce the NaOH by 1 gram). The reason being that store bought ammonia is 5% strength usually. ETA: Oh, you can mix the lye right into...

I think they used it to make the soap more soluble. (Kinda akin to the hybrid lye soap recipes.)

That's basically how I learned to make soap back in the mid 60's. I'd stay at my grandparents house for a week each summer and I would do the grunt work in making their soap for the year. (I got my yearly supply also.) She used rendered bacon fat (I did all the rendering on that first day)...

Yes I do. (Not massively more but more; I'd say "light to medium more".)

There's a couple of other things I do regularly for the lye water concoction: We boil up potatoes, celery, carrots and onion all together quite a bit and I use that water also for the lye concoction. It works fine. Similar to the potato only water. Also I make big batches of bean/veggie soup...

Ah gotcha......thank you!

Wouldn't the fatty acids in the oils take care of that either way? Plus, we would add more lye to counteract the acid in the vinegar so it all comes back to the same effect wouldn't it? What I am trying to say is I would think the fatty acids, regardless of the vinegar, would make the starches...

That is exactly what you could do. I have only done the boil water part though. It has probably been mentioned over the years here that the residual particles of potato that remain in the water/juice will thicken up the lye water into a semi gel. The more the particles the more the gel. (In...

Hmmm.........maybe I shouldn't be straining the potato water so much!!! LOL Good point though.....I never thought of that. It probably does help.

Maybe but what I like about it is it adds to the lather a bit. I do use it now and then as the lye water and the balance of the liquid is a can of coconut milk. It does help increase the lather. Not massively but still noticeable IMHO. Maybe raw juice might increase the lather more?