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I use a fairly tall pitcher and I submerge the SB (up about 1/2 way up the rod) in the melted oils and give them a few pulses before adding my lye solution. That seems to keep the air bubbles from sticking around.

Hahaha! Glad it worked out. It amazes me how money-grubby some folks are.

OMG, amd! That would have me fuming for sure. I agree that leaving it alone this one time is probably best - take it as a lesson learned. Next time you have some soap to off-load, just keep it at your desk and let your coworkers come take a bar or two if they like.

Welcome Jake!!! :)

Here is my super-fast trace soaps that I had to mush into the mold like play-doh. I'm glad I managed to work a bit of activated charcoal into it, I think they look kinda neat. These are the nicest looking ones.

I'll post mine in the Soap Fail thread tonight. I didn't even have time to ATTEMPT a hidden heart swirl, let alone add a colour, so it's probably not relevant in this one. BUT - silver lining - I did manage to mush some of my activated charcoal into the loaf and it came out in a cool marble...

One thing to keep in mind... lye-based soap does not work for every skin type. True soap will always be highly cleansing and have a much higher pH than our skin's pH. Some people need to stick to pH-balanced cleansers like Cetaphil, Cerave, etc. But there's definitely no harm in trying a small...

This recipe is brand new to me, actually my first venture away from lard/tallow-heavy recipes! So I have no base of comparison yet. If I try it again sans vinegar I will let you know!

Thanks earlene! I went ahead with my experimental batch last night and it was quite interesting. First off... it traced suuuper quick! I'm not sure what to chalk it up to, there were a few new factors at play. Lots of butters, high lye concentration, vinegar, new FO... So I'll have to try the...

I totally agree with you, everyone has their own personal preferences. :)

They look very nice, but still quite rustic compared to CP, in my opinion. Here are some of my CP soaps, I think it'd be impossible to recreate them with HP!

I usually use my FOs at 5-6% of oil weight. So if my recipe had 11oz of oil, I'd use .55oz - .66oz of FO.

Welcome welcome! Check out the Soapmaking 101 videos on Youtube to get an idea of the lye-soap process. It's really not that scary if you treat lye carefully. :)

That looks so good! I love cream cheese. I really need to get into this dairy-making thing! My household loves yogurt, cheese, cream cheese...

I'm going to have a good addition to this thread soon...

Well that was a total and utter failure. In 15 seconds flat my batter went from liquid to play-doh. Didn't even have time to mix in a colour. :( I don't know if it was the vinegar, 20% butters or FO but I am so disappointed! I'll have to try again with a basic Castile or something.

I was thinking of trying some new things for this month's challenge, including a new high-oleic recipe and a vinegar replacement. So I have a couple questions for the seasoned vinegar soapers. 1. Does using a full vinegar replacement effect trace at all? 2. Any long-term benefits for...

I have a base recipe I use for almost everything, just making small tweaks here and there. Then a few specialized recipes like: a salt bar recipe, shaving soap recipe, liquid soap recipe.

I'm glad my advice was useful to you. :lol:

Very pretty!