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I don't find that the natural colours I use fade that quickly, even if I don't keep them in the dark , though that helps longevity. But I have used soaps several months after I made them and they are pretty much the same colour as when I started. Depends what you mean by powdered herbs though...

I always wondered what people did before synthetic detergents existed. Did everyone just have one lifelong bad hair day!

I use natural colourants and the answer to your question is "it depends". Some are much brighter when first mixed but mellow either overnight or within the first couple of days. I find this with honey (caramel brown mellowing to pale creamy brown within 2 or 3 days), and madder root (raspberry...

I've just googled it. Because M&P contains water, the botanicals will absorb the water and turn brown. It might not be as instant as with CP soap but it will happen. Also other fresh ingredients that are quite useable in CP soap are not in M&P soap. Like juices, and purees for example. They...

You could put a bit of honey in perhaps? This would give a light brown colour, or does in my CP soap anyway, I'm guessing it would do the same in melt and pour? Actually this is advice from soap queen -...

I thought the point of melt and pour (or one them) was that botanicals didn't turn brown?

This doesn't help with the bunging up the pipes issue (which I don't worry about), but I often use dessicated coconut in my 100% coconut oil (with 20% super fat) and coconut water soap. I mix some in for a bit of exfoliation and sprinkle some on top. I have a bar that I made over two years ago...

I get this problem regularly. I am using 8 cell silicone moulds. I have 9 varieties of soap. 4 varieties get the soda ash on the parts inside the mould, usually on the corners. However this isn't a superficial issue, it goes right into the soap a couple of millimetres. It looks like the...

Yes. I'm not holding my breath on hearing back from Tesco, but I'll let you know if I do. I buy OO from Tesco. Other stuff mostly from Soap Kitchen, bar cocoa butter, which I get from Ebay supplier. SK price outrageous!

Thanks LilyJo. May be I am reading the bumph too literally. It says something like "attach copies of all the MSDSs to the certifying document". Maybe it is good enough to do it on line. I take your point about suppliers potentially failing. I don't mind doing it on-line. But printing it...

I have had my soaps certified and one of the rules seems to be that you have to print off and attach all of the MSDS sheets for all of the ingredients to your certification document. I have to admit I haven't got around to this yet, partly because I can't believe it. I have over 30...

I make a "working hands" soap with coffee grounds, coarse sea salt and pumice with extra coconut oil (an additional 15% oil weight bringing the super fat to 20%). Boy is it exfoliating and everyone seems to love it, particularly the handyman on the activity centre site I work on, and the...

I've been having this problem too. Buy my ash has been on the bottom corners of my soaps in single cell silicone moulds. I never used to gel for the same reasons you don't - I hate partial gel. I used to refrigerate. I have recently done a full batch of 9 soap varieties and cpoped several of...

I have this problem too. I wash with normal detergent then soak for half hour or so in dilute hot lye water, about a tablespoon of sodium hydroxide to a washing up bowl of hot water. It doesn't fizz up at that dilution rate. The residual oil quite quickly seems to form a soapy scum on the...

I use tussah silk in one of my soaps. I think it might make a slight difference to the silky feel of the soap but not a lot. The value is more in the luxury sounding ingredient. I use about 2% oil weight, which I think on reflection is too much. If your using for the first time I'd try 1%...

I use cinnamon leaf oil regularly in soap I sell. In Europe you can't use cinnamon bark oil in soap as it is a strong allergen. I would have thought it would be the same for the powder. The cinnamon leaf oil I find plenty strong enough at 1%, which is the maximum allowable usage under EU...

I LOVE anise, or at least star anise, is that the same? It is my all time favourite soap essential oil, and cheap too! BUT, under European Law it is considered a major allergen so I can only legally use it at such tiny amounts I can barely smell it. I don't let it stop me making my own, but...

I've got a red silicon 8 cell mould. When I first used it, it stained the soaps pinky red. I wasn't selling so it didn't bother me too much so I kept using it. I found after a few times, probably only three or four, I can't really remember, it wore off and now it doesn't stain. However I now...

Wow, thanks LilyJo, I have learnt something today. I could have sworn there were two methods of labelling soaps, not just the one "after saponification method". I have seen it somewhere, perhaps on an American website as they seem to do things differently. I couldn't have made something that...

I don't understand the food thing either. Some shops sell soaps that look exactly like cup cakes or even whole cakes that you cut slices out complete with "whipped cream" and "cherries"and all! Dead groovy - yes, the info provided by your certifier looks like standard stuff and is how I do my...