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Oooh, that looks warmish to me!! We‘re so cold to the east of you, @Misschief, that we were on emergency alert yesterday for several hours and were requested to turn off all appliances, lights, other electrical draws to avoid rolling power blackouts. Dangerous when the temps were in the -40...

I’m waiting for my boiled down red wine to freeze so I can try out a red wine soap. Contemplating what recipe to conjure up for a first attempt at hot process. I scored a free slow cooker from my neighbourhood buy nothing group (I’m testing it out now to see how hot it gets at its 3 temperature...

@Catscankim i don’t know how I missed seeing your response! (Or how I came to find it today when looking for something else 😂) - anyway, belated thanks! I have learned that for some reason, using this wire cutter often gives a bumpy looking cut. It’s really annoying but I’ve learned just to...

@Dan9250 I’m just researching how best to use wine in soap and came across your post. Very interesting! I boiled down my wine once and was ready to soap, but now will follow your process. (It’s -36C Here today so I won’t have a problem chilling it after the second reduction!🥶)

@Mobjack Bay you are describing my experience exactly! I hadn’t thought to try keeping the smaller quantities of coloured batter warmer. That’s brilliant! I’ll try it. (Just as soon as I get out of the house! It’s still miserably cold here and I’m staying home until the Arctic front dissipates...

Sign-up List for SMF January 2024 Challenge: Mini Drop {Mini Drip} Swirl. To sign up, please copy and paste these instructions and the list below into a new message. Then add your name and the next number for the next person: 1. AliOop - Great way to "drop" into 2024! ;) 2. katili - Why not...

Isn’t soaping FUN?? So many surprises…

I just pulled my last precious jar of deer tallow out of the freezer - I’ll have enough for 2 smallish batches of soap. my husband and I dry render tallow and lard; we grind the fat, heat low and slow in the oven, and filter it very well when pouring into containers. The odd time i cut off a...

In my experience, becoming a grandmother is a WONDERFUL reason to stop doing things that don’t/no longer add value and joy to life. Making soap for family and friends sounds perfect! congratulations on your upcoming new status, and enjoy the quilting as well as the babe!

@dcmcgee5034 thanks! I am happy with the colours, swirls, and the shade of the uncoloured batter 🙂. It’s always so much fun to play with the colours. Endless variables to keep my “possibilities” nature happy!

@KiwiMoose, good idea! I could mix the shreds with some zero SF dish soap shreds I have hanging around - maybe the two will cancel each other out! 😂 @Mobjack Bay I did use sodium citrate for a while - went back to CA because of the lower cost - and because I’m SO CAREFUL when soaping that I’d...

ball game

I had to hide my individual cavity bars in the basement yesterday to try to keep my itchy fingers away from them; I ALWAYS want to unmold those when experience has told me to wait…

Please don’t lick your soap! I’ve learned that a safe and reliable zap test is to put on your gloves, wet your soap, get a good lather, and gently, timidly touch your tongue to the bubbles on your glove. If it’s zappy, you’ll feel it. If it’s REALLY lye heavy, you won’t hurt your tongue this way

The learning is so interesting! It’s what keeps me soaping 😄

Thank you for your guidance, @AliOop , @katili , @dibbles - I will go ahead and cure them, and see how I like them. I worry about the high SF making the soap prone to DOS and clogging my pipes. I can deal with sinks full of soap scum for a while 😄 - and I can always give them away to rellies...

Happy New Year! I’ve nowhere to go this new year but up, after making my first soap of 2024.! Yesterday’s attempt was a BUST. Somehow I forgot to account for my citric acid in my NaOH calculations (I wish soapcalc.com would make that adjustment!) and after wondering why my batter was taking so...

@katili thanks for commiserating with me 🤗! It was 1000g oils and I added 20g citric acid, so the lye should have been increased from 137.24 to 149.74 (I didn't even get the right amount of extra lye in my post above! 🤯). I usually SF AT 3% but this time pushed it up to 4%. I have hard water...

Waaahh! 😢😢 I was so happy to get back to soaping today after about 6 weeks away from it. Finally got a new jug of NaOH and away I went. Maybe my brain was frozen (it’s -34C with the wind chill today 🥶) - but I TOTALLY FORGOT to adjust my lye up to account for the citric acid. Couldn’t figure...