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I am really bad at gauging temperature while gelling. Can someone please help me learn what to look for while controlling temps? I tried this once, and uncovered when it looked gelled all the way through...ended up with partial gel, which I hate more than crackle! So what should I be looking...

I was away from my computer last night...thanks to everyone for all the kind words about my soap and suggestions to try. I have tried mixing like crazy, premixing ahead of time, dissolving in both oil or water (my TD is from BB and is supposed to be soluble in both, but it seems to dissolve more...

I'm sorry everyone, I know that TD issues are my favorite post topic, but I seriously think I might cry if I don't get this figured out. I get glycerin rivers/crackling nearly every time I use TD. I have tried preventing gel, but I honestly prefer to gel. Here's the soap I unmolded and cut...

I recently ordered a silhouette because I have been hearing rave reviews from friends who are really into scrap booking. I thought it would be great for soap boxes and cute packaging. What kind of label paper can you use in the machine? How is it different than just running a sheet of precut...

I get these on many of my soaps too, and I'm convinced it's my wire cutter. The wire cutter is the only common factor between the soaps...and when I run the face of the bar over a planer they go away.

For fine powder like cocoa or activated charcoal, I stretch a piece of (clean unused) nylon panty hose over the mouth of a shallow jar. It works great and keeps the powder from clumping at all. I have tried the tea steeper thing, but it still got too clumpy at times.

Thanks to everyone for all the info. It doesn't help that I am the world's most indecisive person! I am leaning toward 1 1/8" because that seems like the happy medium and will allow for some shrinkage and/or beveling/planing as needed.

I think their colors are much too vivid to be colored clay. I know I am digressing into a label discussion (sorry, I know this is not that forum), but I thought labeling was all or nothing?

A very large handmade soap company lists these ingredients on their labels: Saponified 100% food grade olive, coconut, palm, and castor oils, in a goat’s milk base, with pure essential oils and mineral pigments. I am wondering about "mineral pigments." What exactly constitutes mineral...

I know I am resurrecting an old thread, but I was searching the topic and have a question about listing colorants on the ingredient list. I understand that most folks here agree that we should list ALL the ingredients. However, I have found several large-scale handmade soaps being sold in...

After admiring it from afar for a while now, I have finally decided to purchase a cutter from Bud (if anyone has any reason why I should NOT buy this cutter, please let me know!) Anyway, I have been using a cheese slicer and I usually cut my bars 1 1/8 inch. Bud will gladly accommodate this...

Will the cure time still be the usual 4-6 weeks? Or will it take longer?

Does freezing the soap all the way through cause problems?

In my ongoing battle with overheated soap, glycerin rivers, and TD woes, I decided to finally give in and try my hand (yet again!) at preventing gel. My last time resulted in a frustrating partial gel. So, I got a nice silicone mold with wire basket from ED, pre-chilled my mold, soaped cool...

So glad to hear I am in good company! I, too, soap in a chilly basement and the scale has been known to shut off on me many times before I have managed to scoop out my CO. For the CO, my solution is just to break up the CO in the bucket a bit with my spoon before I measure, so I can then scoop...

I work at a school and we just returned from four consecutive snow days, immediately following Christmas break. Woo hoo...it was great to just hang out in my sweats, eat yummy comfort foods, and make soap for 4 straight days. It was kind of like a soapy binge! :-)

I use 91% alcohol and it works moderately well. But when it doesn't, I have a little handheld steamer that works absolute wonders! It puts a nice shine on the soaps and gets rid of most ash. I would be lost without it.

Lots of good tips and advice...I will try some of these ideas in the future (I suppose I won't completely swear off TD...yet!). It is reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who has wrestled with TD :-)

I sometimes use Super Pearly White Mica in addition to TD, when I'm worried about using too much TD. Maybe I should just try that by itself and see how it goes. Thanks to everyone for the help and the compliments on the soap. It was fun to make with the little m&p heart embeds on top.

Thank you. Do you add TD to your oils even if you are splitting the batch and adding color to part...or only when you want to lighten the whole batch? I'm assuming my crumbly-edge soap is still okay to use?