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I mean soda ash of course.

Hi. Long time since thus thread was "live". I can't remember how I came up with my quantities of madder. Just trial and error I guess. I used to make the madder tea with boiling water using the whole amount of water for the recipe, plus a little extra following straining cos you always...

George and Stella - I am home now and checked my recipe, below. I remembered all correctly except the extra coconut oil which was 90g not 75g. Its not a huge issue, but you do need extra coconut oil to combat the lather reducing element of the salt. In fact most soap apart from very coconut...

A lot! It is quite a chocolate brown colour, with a slightly speckled, spangly look where the salt crystals and pumice can be seen in the mix. Also, I didn't perfume this soap. If you wish to, I would suggest using an essential oil rather than a fragrance oil if you are new to soaping...

Feel free to try this recipe if you would like. I am not currently making soap. Try using half measures to see if you like it and adapt it from there. But do check the lye amount on the basic bit of the recipe before the additions of extra coconut oil and other stuff. I just can't quite...

The other thing about exfoliants is that it is a very personal thing. For example I use ground orange peel in one of my soaps. I don't even use it with exfoliant in mind, more to try and help fix the aroma. I don't even notice it. But other people think it is too rough!

Hi. Yes I am thinking of boric acid! Borax apparently is available in the uk but its sale is restricted. It is mostly used as a cleaning product and to kill small critturs like ants! Soap kitchen advertise it for sale but I can't get their website to work so I don't know any more about it...

Google it. You can get it from Soap Kitchen. So there must be plenty of other places too.

Hi i don' t know about borax, but I made a soap with coffee grounds, seasalt and pumice and it was a runaway hit. Very cleansing. Can' t you get borax from the chemist? I seem to remember buying borax crystals once to make an eye wash.

I use Soap Kitchen for most things, including essential oils. I don't use fragrance oils. Soap Kitchen has always supplied quality stuff, but I confess I use them largely out of habit, I haven't minutely looked at prices of other suppliers, except for cocoa butter, which is outrageously...

Hi, thought I'd reply as nobody else has! Been making soap for about 6 or 7 years. First just for family and friends, then was brow beaten into making it for charity I was volunteering for, for their shop.I only made very small quantities, about 80 odd bars, 9 varieties, three times a year for...

I make a soap with honey. I don't bother with ice cubes, just keep the lye cool by putting the lye container in a bowl of water. I mix at about 110 degrees f. But I do put it in the freezer for about half hour before transferring to the fridge. It isn't a goat milk soap though. But will...

Hi Lifeofriley, I still keep an eye on the forum though I am not soaping much at the moment. In my experience, lemongrass EO was the worst offender for this soda ash, which I now think that it was, but several of the other EOs also were affected, including lavender. Eventually the solution was...

I' ve had various issues with soda ash, and have to say that whilst I agree it can be insanely random, I do tend to find particular colours and fragrances ash more than others, eg my lemongrass and poppyseed coloured with calendula petals and my tea tree and mint coloured with green tea wax are...

Calendula gives a good yellow colour and the petals don't go brown. I put them in the hot lye and put the whole lot in the soap batter. I guess you could sieve it out if you don' t want them in but by the time you've blitzed it all with a blender I can' t imagine it makes much difference either way.

100% coconut oil soap (20% superfat) is one of my fave soaps. I like to make it using coconut water (from the middle of a coconut, you can get it in cans) and dessicated coconut for a bit of exfoliation, so it is near enough 100% coconut apart from the sodium hydroxide. It is sooo white! But...

Sorry, I didn' t make it! Didn't read your question properly.

100% coconut 20% superfat soap, hard as a rock, unmoulds in a few hours but doesn' t last, boohoo, its my favourite soap. Seasalt soap is hard and I think, longer lasting. The ultimate I have come across is a 22% laurel oil/78% olive oil Aleppo soap I have just been using prompted by a...

There is quite a lot of info if you Google it. I use natural colours and I found quite a bit if helpful info from the Lovely Greens website. Sometimes a particular colourant can be used multiple ways or sometimes one way is best, as Tara H says, it depends. I use madder root. I have never...

Pears soap is oval shaped with a dip in the middle. I read somewhere that this dates back to when Pears first started making soap and this occurred naturally as part of the making process. Presumably nowadays they make the dipped shape deliberately because it is such an iconic shape.