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Please do! I've read so many great things about your DB, and I think it's time I give it a try.

I can't help with your existing recipe (I've never used stearic), but if you want a high-stearic shave soap that is pourable, try using hydrogenated soybean oil (soy wax). Unlike stearic acid, soy wax is a triglyceride, and it doesn't reactive so quickly with the lye solution. I'm able to soap...

Here's a thread where a member wrote about using 12% honey in a CP soap: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/12-honey-cp-soap.63192/ And here's another thread where the 10% honey soap was briefly discussed: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/dandelion-honey-recipe.63492/ I had...

I, too apologize as I didn't realize you were in India. Also, I'm sorry for singling you out; I've removed your quote from my last post.

As I understand the laws in the US, incidental ingredients and proprietary ingredients can be withheld from an ingredient declaration, but there are rules for doing this-- In Soap & Cosmetic Labeling, the author states that an incidental ingredient is defined as one “that has no functional or...

Because the coco glucoside that I use is thick on its own, and it tends to thicken my liquid soap, I find it easier to incorporate into my dilution water first, and then add the soap paste. But if this is your first try, I would suggest that you dilute your paste first and then you can...

Just to clarify my earlier comment, I wasn't suggesting that one should soap hotter, but rather that I have found that heating my hard oils to a higher temperature and then cooling to my preferred soaping temperature, has resulted in soaps that no longer have bumps when cut with a wire cutter...

Out of curiosity, jemgraham, what does your soap-making method entail? I used to get the same bumps when using my wire cutter, but I revised my methods and my bars no longer suffer. Even when making cold process soap, I find that if I melt my hard oils (coconut, lard, tallow, soy wax...

Susan, in her Point of Interest blog, wrote about how one can use stearic acid and triethanolamine as an emulsifier, and I wonder if this list of ingredients is "accidentally" incomplete. Did you pull the list of ingredients from a bottle or a website? I've noticed that sometimes websites...

The difference is remarkable! How old are the bars in your pics? Are they the same age? By the way, I LOVE that paw-print mold!

Beautiful pictures! Where about did you stay? My father-in-law is from Switzerland, and he grew up in a little town called Merenschwand (in the canton of Aargau). He took my DH for a 2 week trip to visit family back in 2009 (I didn't go; we had just closed on our new house and somebody had to...

I should mention that I haven't tried holding after mixing the phases. . . yet! Keep in mind that I'm relatively certain that the article in question is speaking specifically about "newer" emulsifiers that are chemically different than "traditional" ethoxylated emulsifying wax, and that these...

The EO should be fine then. My only other thought, especially if this is happening with other batches, is that maybe you're incorporating too much air into the batter with your SB, and as it heats up, the air expands, causing the volcano . . . that's all I got! As for my name--here in upstate...

Dean--have you look at this thread: www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/recipe-for-a-really-hard-bar.67389 . You'll find some posts about using SW, and thanks to earlene, some links to other posts about SW. My method is to heat my castor and coconut oil (I use 92 degree CO, not the 76) in a...

Did you use cider as a complete replacement for water? Sweet cider contains, IME, about 10% sugar; that may have contributed to the overheating.

If your oils were just melted, your oil temp was probably okay but how hot was your lye solution? Many soap without a thermometer, but I like one as it allows me to remove one extra variable so I'm more likely to get consistent results from batch to batch. Can you post your full recipe? It...

The soy wax I use has a melting temp of about 120-125F; I'd think twice about cooling things down too much. My go-to CP formula is almost 40% soy wax, but I've used higher. I've never experience overheating with it, and I soap at 130F, with a 40% lye concentration, and most of the fragrances...

This article is written for formulators using more "natural" emulsifiers and not those using an emulsifier containing ethoxylated ingredients (i.e. emulsifying wax containing some form of polysorbate). Besides, I think calling "Heat and Hold" a myth serves much of the same purpose as...

Have you tried making the alkanet batch without cocoa (powder, I assume)? It can hold a lot of water, and from my baking experience I can tell you that when adding cocoa to something like yellow cake (to make it chocolate), it's best to start with at least an equal amount of liquid (by weight)...

Thank you for mentioning that "sweet spot," cmzaha. While I'm very much familiar with it, it doesn't produce the best of results for my formula and procedure. For starters, I hand stir all of my batches as I've never had luck with stick blenders; the lower water content helps to bring...