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You can use regular shopping bags if you want, but they're going to make wrinkly edges and the ink will probably transfer to the surface of the soap. Or you can fold parchment or (better) freezer paper into a liner. It will probably leak a little bit from the corners unless you have a really...

Duck fat is too wonderful for cooking to waste on soap, IMO. Make fries with that, not soap! :D

I did not, which is something I meant to mention in the OP. Generating the castille slime/lather was significantly faster than whipping up a bowl of foam. Seconds vs minutes. That's another plus in my book.

I have been testing a bar of one year old 100% olive oil castille (95/5 Na/K) in the shower for the last couple weeks. I don't honestly love it for washing the body - not enough lather for my taste - so its been languishing beside a high-lard cousin in the soap dish. This morning on a whim, I...

We're used to making the distinction between palm oil and palm kernel oil. (The former from the fruit, the latter from the seed.) I've been thinking about the fact that both coconut oil AND babassu oils also come from species of palm trees. Moreover, they are also both come from their...

The five pounds of coconut flour in my cabinet agree with your point. :D

I'm just going to go ahead and say what I'm thinking. No offense intended and if you don't agree you can ignore me. You're going to have a lot going on for your very first time making soap. You need a recipe that's going to behave well and predictably as you work through a hundred new things...

If it was working before and you changed temperature, that's your problem. Go back to 110F for more time.

With the restrictions the OP has chosen, it's necessarily going to be more complicated. It's just like you can make great bread with only water, flour and yeast, but if you need to make gluten-free bread that's even decent you're going to need to experiment more and be more complicated...

Rosacea is something that bears going to a dermatologist. There are somewhat new treatments with ivermectin and permetherin that are VERY effective for some. (I'm one.) The demodex mite lives on everyone's skin, but on some people with rosacea they can get out of control. Keeping their...

Pharm grade means that it's safe to eat. If you're not going to eat your soap, I'd go with the technical grade.

The oils.

Honestly, the biggest thing to learn to accept about dilution is that it doesn't need you. Leave it alone. Wait. Put the calculated amount of water into the paste and give it a good stir. Then hide it somewhere that you can't see it for 24 hours. Maybe have a kid or SO hide it from you if...

Beta carotene is the way to go. That's the easiest way (other than mica) to get a really true orange that will last. Not reddish yellow or yellow with orange tendencies, but cheddar cheese orange. Florida Gators orange. Dutch royal house orange.

Wild Assed Guesses

I'm just guessing about the butyric, but I'd expect there to be some butterfat in there, right? As for the longer ferment, that is just to get the complete conversion to reach the 7% average I used in the calculation. Really, the whole thing is full of WAGS.

No, I did the calculations a couple years ago but I never tried it. Once I started using pre-batch lye I forgot about it. I also found out about the butyric acid smell from milk fat being a potential problem, which was further discouragement. But if you want to experiment, the acidic whey...

Google search this site for threads about using vinegar. The sodium acetate is said to have similar effect as lactate. You can also go to a local home brewing store. A decent one will have 88% lactic acid. From that you can make your own sodium lactate (with lye). I think there are threads...

Just as an outside-the-box idea, don't neglect the idea of a foamer bottle with it's thinner consistency. I think we all try for that perfect honey consistency and celebrate when we get it. Then we watch it dribble out of the pump, dry up and make soap 'boogers' and generally get wasted when...

I think it definitely IS possible to speed up cure; it's just that the process isn't possible for us handmade artisans. The makers of Ivory and Dial aren't maintaining massive warehouses of curing soap bars, and they're ready to use immediately so they MUST be using something to accelerate the...