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Is your intent to harden the soap with Sodium Lactate in order to counteract the softening of the bar from high amounts of castor?

I think your formula looks great! I use castor, but if you don't have it, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you've got it on hand, 5% will be nice and will help speed trace. Your procedure looks good, too. I don't keep the temp at 155F for any length of time. Generally, when...

I stopped using olive oils because of all the news about it being adulterated; I don't like not knowing what all is in it. As a result, I like HO sunflower, but a lot of people use (cheaper) olive oil without batting an eye. For me it's less about whether it works or not, but rather not...

I use 20% coconut and I SF at 4% (I test my lye for purity and compensate for that). My main concern is that because of the high melting point of Soy Wax, too much SF leaves a lot on the skin. And while hot water will clean up spilled wax, it needs to be very hot--too hot for skin. I've...

Awesome summary! I do insulate, and I keep the towel-wrapped mold in a warm oven. Even today, it's cold in the mountains--I don't like to take chances with a partial gel! I gave up in using my SB. It speeds things up too much for me and bubbles in the bars bother me. I whisk from start to...

It's been about 10 years since I used cocoa butter in soap, so I have no comment about that. What I will say is that my soy-wax soap tends to start out a little softer, but it hardens up nicely by week 4. I think you're seeing the same results as I do. With 20% coconut oil, I personally like...

It looks very nice! I was never able to get clear soap with olive oil--I'm kinda jealous! And the color is perfect.

I made a batch of OMH soap recently where I warmed evaporated goat milk and honey until everything was combined. I then slowly added the cooled milk mixture to a 50% lye solution. In retrospect, I should have chilled the milk and honey in the cooler, but everything went off without a hitch...

I’m arriving to the party late so I’m going to try not to repeat what others have said. I.Love.SoyWax! There, I’ve said it. I use it (or have tried it) in just about everything. Bar soap, pomade, lip balm, lotion. I’ve used it in bar soap at levels as low as 5%, all the way to a...

I'm not sure where I found it. I have a copy I printed from the internet and put in a binder. I did a quick search and found it for free (Kindle download) on Amazon-- The Handbook of Soap Manufacture, by W.H. Simmons and H.A. Appleton. Of course, I just downloaded, too! Or, you can find...

My "duel lye" bars seem slightly softer when unmolded than my 100% NaOH bars. But this is temperary and by week 4 they're plenty hard enough. I love the lather of the duel lye bars, but what got me started with adding KOH was a brief passage in a 1908 soap manual. It mentions that a small...

When I first started playing around with shampoo I was so dissatisfied because I felt like my hair was even frizzier when I got out of the shower than it was when I got in. And on top of that, there was so much drag when the shampoo was rinsed out that I couldn't run my fingers through my wet...

I have shoulder-length frizzy hair, make all of my hair products, and I stay away from humectants and 'cones. I like hydrolized oat protein, Lamesoft (well, my DIY dupe), and jojoba. I'd love to try broccoli seed oil but it's expensive (and jojoba is cheaper and contributes some of the same FAs).

That sounds nice. I don't I would have thought to blend them.

Hmmm. . . . That's a new one fore me, and I have a culinary background. I could go on for quite some time about why I think baking a potato in rosin is a waste of both the rosin and the potato, but this is a soap forum, so I'll spare you all the dissertation and resign myself to, "that sounds...

I did a bastile for a friend that was 90% olive, 5% castor, and 5% coconut. I used a 40% duel lye concentration and it was very hard at 8 weeks and had a nice lather, too. As far as "cures" faster--well, that's a relative term.

Welcome!

Most of my fragrance blends are a mix of EO and FO. I like the idea of EO, but they aren't as well-rounded as FOs. I'm not a perfumer and I find it difficult to formulate a nice, well-rounded EO blend. There's also price. In my area, Balsam is a big seller, but it's expensive and doesn't...

When it comes to soaping, I don't use olive anymore. Not because I don't like it, but there's so much talk about it being adulterated, that I'd rather not bother with it. If I make a true castile, I buy a nice California-grown brand. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I hate the smell of castor, but...

Fair enough, DeeAnna. I, too, am far from an expert on Rosin and I'm sure my observations are, at best, anecdotal. I had read so much (CF's books and a few old-timey manuals), and was so sure that Rosin was going to do such great things for my liquid soap, that I bought 5 pounds of it in...