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  1. MickeyRat

    Why did my soap frosting recipe have a reaction with the TD

    I'm not an expert but, given your description of what happened, I'm going to say that was some really lye heavy stuff. You probably made a measurement mistake somewhere in either the lye or the oil. Perhaps you neglected to put in one of the oils. Was the mica colored from the same soap...
  2. MickeyRat

    Advice for a new soap maker

    Great advice for the new soaper. Good advice for those not so new too. Read the whole thread. https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what-advice-would-you-give-to-your-beginning-soaping-self.62916/ I recently got burned by lye, This thread tells about that experience and what I think is...
  3. MickeyRat

    My first lye burn

    After this experience, here's my 2 cents on safety gear. Wearing long sleeves and long pants won't help you and they could delay you because you have to yank them off to rinse. I think they are a bad idea now. After what that stuff felt like on my legs, I never want to experience it in my...
  4. MickeyRat

    My first lye burn

    Thanks for the link DeeAnna and for confirming I did the right thing. BTW I used your method to make some pine tar soap. It turned out fine. I did it just to see if I could pull it off. Now have a friend that can't get enough. He's a true believer. :) I would think it would be possible to...
  5. MickeyRat

    My first lye burn

    Thanks for the replies folks. It really hasn't been that bad so far. I think I got it rinsed off fast enough to avoid all but a little skin irritation. Something like a sunburn. Hard to say. It felt oily even with water running on it. I'm not sure it was the right thing to do in this...
  6. MickeyRat

    My first lye burn

    I've been making soap a little more than a year and I've had a few accidents but, I wasn't burned. I had mixed the lye and oils in a batch and was working it to trace when I spilled about half the batch in my lap. At first, I thought my pants had saved me. I stripped them off and threw them n...
  7. MickeyRat

    Lard V no Lard

    This is veering off topic but,. very interesting. Soapee http://soapee.com/calculator can do dual lye. The only thing I've used it for is shaving soap but. I will give this a try.
  8. MickeyRat

    To sell, or not to sell...

    I keep toying with the idea of selling. Everyone that gets my soap loves it and says I should. Here's my situation. I'm retired and I can afford to make all the soap I want and give it away. I won't turn it down but, money's not my goal. What I'm missing is interaction with other people...
  9. MickeyRat

    Is Lye supposed to have a static cling to it?

    It may not be static. I'm a hobbyist and I measure out my lye and water in my kitchen then go outside to mix them and get past the fumes. Inside I hardly notice it clinging. It's more humid outside and that's when the lye starts sticking to stuff. As I understand it, lye attracts moisture...
  10. MickeyRat

    My first shaving soap is a success!

    Thanks for the info psfred. I mised the parenthetical soy wax in Soupee. I think most people that have tried making shaving soap go hot process. At least, I did and I doubt I'll change.
  11. MickeyRat

    My first shaving soap is a success!

    Well that sucks. Since I'm the only one using my shaving soap and it seems to be doing the job, I'll probably continue using what I have next year when I need more. That said, is the soybean wax for candle making the right stuff? Somehow I think not. Would you treat it like stearic acid?
  12. MickeyRat

    Lard V no Lard

    Another thumbs up for lard. It's readily available here and cheap. The only time I had trouble with smell was when I messed up and used a catch tray that was propping the over door open a fraction of a inch when I CPOPed the soap. Then it would smell in the morning when I cut it but, the...
  13. MickeyRat

    My first shaving soap is a success!

    I used this product from Amazon for my stearic acid. I don't see anything on either the Amazon listing or the product itself to indicate that it's not plain stearic acid. It worked fine.
  14. MickeyRat

    Coconut Soap smells like mildew

    I'm a noob so I can't speak from experience only from what I've read. I can't say anything about the smell but, I'll bet that soap suds like mad. It'll also be drying. I don't see many recipes that go more than 30 to 35% coconut for that reason. If you must go with 100% coconut, consider...
  15. MickeyRat

    Is there a shampoo bar thread? ... and, regarding conditioner bars

    I've only been making soap for about 8 months and in that time I've made and use shampoo bars. So, remember I'm a noob and this advice could be bad. I'm also a man which makes my advice worse. I do have a full head of hair though. I've read that the PH in soap is bad for the hair so I...
  16. MickeyRat

    It's a hobby but, people want to buy

    Thanks for the info all of you. Zany_in_CO, I'll look into casual sales to try to see where the line is and thanks for the info on the book. However, I'm about to retire (10 more working days!!!) and I intend to do exactly as I like or at least as my wife likes. :) A business is too much like...
  17. MickeyRat

    It's a hobby but, people want to buy

    I've been making soap as a hobby for the last 8 or 9 months. I make more than I can use and give it away. The thing is the people I give it to give it to other people to try and a now I have several people I don't know that want to buy it. I'm not interested in building a business and I...
  18. MickeyRat

    When can I clean out my mixing bowl

    Really, if it's 4 days old, I'd say it's close enough to soap to just soak it and clean it in the sink.
  19. MickeyRat

    Zap Testing and possible massive failure

    I use a double boiler. So, probably not over heating. Out of curiosity, are you doing straight cold process? Hot process? I do CPOP and when I take it out in the morning, if there's a lot of lard in it, there's a smell. After it's cut up and curing a day or two, the smell subsides. If it...
  20. MickeyRat

    Homemade cold process soap and plumbing

    Thinking about it, you don't have to CPOP your soap to do the utensils. You could just toss the utensils in the oven at 170 deg. F for a couple hours, turn the oven off and in the morning take them out to clean. Just don't toss them straight in the dishwasher unless you want suds all over your...
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