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I loves me some tallow, and use it in amounts right up to 80%. Use some oatmeal and the lather is thick, creamy, and impossible to beat.

For fun, try Blue #1 in one part, pure white in another, and a white where you added some vanilla. You start with gray and white and it eventually settles to purple and white and brown.

Technically, borosilicate glass would be fine for soap making. However, Pyrex is no longer borosilicate and went with the cheaper tempered glass many years ago. At this point, I wouldn't trust any glassware at all. I also don't trust the thinner plastics. Over time, they'll crack a bit and...

The numbers in SoapCalc don't tell half the story, but in this case they're accurately telling you that this is not going to be a "normal" soap. Like PenelopeJane noted, Castile benefits from incredibly long cure times, whereas most soap is reasonably cured in a month. Even at 2 years, I find...

We're running out of guest soaps, so I knocked together these. They're mostly tallow, but with enough coconut to make removing them easier. The scent is honeydew melon. They'll still have to sit in the mold for two weeks before removal.

I've had that happen, too! It seems to go away during cure and the center hardens up until you could pound nails with the stuff. And it just gets nicer as it ages.

CPOP away any time until it sets up (you can even do it after that, but there's not much point). Keep in mind, the goat's milk will react rather badly if it gets too hot, so keep the oven a bit cooler than you might otherwise. The sugars in the goat's and coconut milk might also contribute to...

I've used both and prefer Nurture, the extra little bit is more than worth it. If it's going to do anything unpleasant to you, they usually don't sell it.

40 pounds is a lot to heat! You can fill the sink about three quarters (with the oil bucket in), then boil some water and pour that into the water mix as well to warm it up a bit more. Keep an eye on the temperature and, when it gets to 120, replace the water. Five gallons of solid oils is...

I've done MP inserts into CP soap. You can place them anywhere, at any time in the pouring process, as long as the CP is traced enough to support them. At the bottom or in the middle, gelling will tend to melt the MP. For an insert, that's not much of a problem as it'll tend to hold its...

You don't really need a stabilizer, and I tend to embrace the deep brown tones of vanillin discoloration, even sometimes making a swirl with it that develops over time as it cures. I have a suspicion that, being an oil, the vanilla scent is going to migrate through the soap just like a bleeding...

As usual, I'm going to completely agree with DeeAnna. One of my favorite conditioning winter soaps has a super fat of 3%, which is my standard (I'm incredibly careful when measuring). That recipe is modest in terms of oleic acid--48%, and modest in terms of stearic and palmitic at 28%. I...

Have we told you lately that we appreciate you? It's the new format, so it bears repeating. My current beloved winter soap is 48% oleic (with tons of oatmeal to settle my itchy skin...and it really does work even in soap). My summer soap is 30% oleic, plus 17% myristic+lauric. It wouldn't...

I'm not a fan of very high percentage olive soaps myself. The lather is not there. Even in a 3 year old bar I'm currently using that's only mostly olive, it's sticky and tacky and snotty. I haven't made any lately, and have no plans to do so. My current winter soap is 50% olive, and that...

Do you mean a finished bar of soap? As long as it doesn't develop DOS--and that's so random it's ridiculous, although I avoid metal contact and high linoleic and linolenic oils--a year would be the floor. And that's only because the scent fades. I've used five year old soap I stored and...

There's no reason not to use another base oil if you want. My go-to Summer Soap recipe doesn't use a drop of olive. It's a tallow base. Tallow's easy, cheap, and lasts a long time, which is why I make it one of my more often-used base oils. Olive does show up in my winter soap, though, for...

Candlewic's Soy 120 is also listed as pure soy. Some soy waxes might otherwise be a hydrogenated soy and hydrogenated palm blend, which isn't really an issue unless you're avoiding using palm oil (which I do). Chemically they're a lot alike.

I use it quite a lot as well, at amounts from 10 to 40 percent (only go that high if a somewhat waxy bar won't bother you and you've offset it with a lot of coconut for solubility and lather--I use that in my gardener's soap. It never seems to trace terribly quickly for me at lower levels, nor...

Take a photo and post it on Soapy Stuff You Did Today! Some blue micas are also lye stable. Most are based on ultramarine blue, but Nurture Soap has a huge collection of colors and a lot of choices in blue. I've used their greens and so far they're amazingly good.

Blue #1 is known to morph in soap; it's not lye-stable. Actually, pink's unusual. Most of the time mine flares ecclesiastical purple, which is why I use Blue #1 to produce purple soap. However, it may not be done morphing yet--mine sometimes takes time to adjust. For a stable pale blue, use...