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Thanks! I appreciate the reply. Believe it or not, I don't have any "good old table salt"! We got into "fancy" salts a few years ago, so I have Himalayan pink sea salt, Mediterranean gray sea salt, some sort of Peruvian white salt, etc. I know I could go buy some non-iodized table salt...

I've never made salt bars, so this is very interesting to me! One question that came up earlier was about the texture (grind) of the salt. It makes sense that a coarse salt would cut your skin- but can you grind it finely yourself with a salt grinder? Does it not dissolve? I'm trying to...

I freeze my milk (even the powdered stuff I mix water to reconstitute) and use that to mix in the lye. The key is to do the mixing in a pitcher in a bowl of ice, and to stir with your stick blender when stirring the oils and lye together over ice as well. It really makes a nice white milk...

I'm certain that she meant NaOH, sodium hydroxide, and not NaCl, table salt, but I want to post it so that someone new doesn't get confused by that.

I've added my EOs (I don't use fragrance oils) to the superfat oil and add it after the cook.

That's a great point, and what I do. For non-water-added items like body butter, room temperature is fine. But for lotions, I make a tiny bit and use it up quickly or store it in the fridge (or both). Lip balms, with no water added, are fine at room temperature for a long time but I still...

I don't boil off the glycerine, but I am making tooth soap now. It works great, and according to my hygenist, I'm not building up. (I also use a waterpik). I don't use fluoride at all, nor do I have fluoridated water. I stopped fluoride treatments several years ago, before my dentist even...

I gave up fluoride about 4 years ago. My dentists also stopped routine fluoride treatments about that time. Our water is not fluoridated, and there is no natural fluoride in our water. I haven't had a cavity or any issues at all, and haven't had any cavities or fillings or even more than...

Great info, thanks!!!!

Maybe HP could be faster than the CP I did- but I was using it in a couple of days. Since it doesn't have to get rock hard, and I did discount the water, I didn't find that it was an issue using it a couple of days old. I don't have a sweet tooth, so I don't care about sweetening it but I...

My husband used this today for the first time. I put some in a little bottle for him, and have the rest in a bottle under the sink to sit for a bit. He said he loved it. He had tons of rich, thick lather, and it wasn't too drying for him. He said he'll have to remember to use less, as he...

I don't hate in the other hobby! I'm pretty nice about extract brewing. :smile: But I do not buy into M&P being "homemade" or "handmade". It's not. It's decorated, melted, etc at home, perhaps, but it isn't homemade soap. It's purchased base, with other stuff added to it. It may be...

I made a liquid soap today (with water, not glycerine). Even using mostly coconut oil, it took a LONG time to come to trace. I stick blended for a while, stirred for a while, stick blended for a while, etc, and had it at a very warm temperature. It took about 20 minutes of constant...

It came out nice and clear, except for one thing. I decided to add peppermint EO (just a tiny bit) and it immediately congealed. It rose to the top, and I skimmed it off, and it looks fine in the jars now but I definitely took note of that! I knew that about the KOH, but I think the...

I'm using a recipe directly from Catherine Failor's book, but in a much smaller quantity. It's 78% coconut oil, and 22% oo. My husband has oily hair and skin and he's been using my CP soaps with good results, but doesn't like the liquid castile made via the glycerine method, so I thought...

I'm definitely no expert on liquid soap, but I have made a 100% castille soap and it came out very nice. You don't want to superfat a liquid soap. If you're worried about it being lye heavy, use at most 1-2% superfat. Otherwise, it won't "work". Generally, liquid soap is made with a slight...

I have a 14 month old castile that is awesome. It's definitely gentle, and the bar is hard. It really is a great soap, and I like it a lot. Otherwise, I make mostly bastile for the bubbles and the feel of it. I'm a firm believer that castille soap is 100% olive oil for the oils...

I did a 90% OO 10% cocoa butter as described, with peppermint EOs. The soap is young, but I tried it several times. The good: mouth feels clean, doesn't taste bad at all, and no soapy taste The not-so-good: the peppermint EO didn't survive the saponification process and so my husband...

Castor oil at 8% seems to create a little bit of "stick", at least to me.

Yes. Boil it, and then stick it in the freezer and use it cold/slushy in place of the water if you're using a lot of it. Some people condense it and add it at trace, but if it's very cold when you start, it won't burn and it works great in place of the water.