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It was definitely my error, not a problem with the lye - I have a trusted supplier of lab grade sodium hydroxide and I've bought a whole 25kg of it from them! :shock: However, it's a valid thought - so thank you! I'm rebatching my ruined batch as I type this. What I did was (not in any way a...

Thank you DeeAnna; this is the common sense advice I would give myself in this situation but it was good to hear it from another person.

Please help me figure out how to fix this: I made a batch last night using my old (unscented) recipe, measuring it all out and doing everything the usual way (or so I thought). I noticed right away that the batter took its sweet time reaching a trace - much longer than normal I'd say. When it...

I always just buy from them on eBay but I linked it to their website in my post. Good to know it led to some positive results for you though! Oh and Mistral Chemicals sell lab grade lye in large quantities, and last I ordered, were offering free shipping on any purchase. They have other stuff...

I made my first salt bar, using my favorite Himalayan pink salt. It took less than 2 hours to harden but even then I was a little too late to cut it - it crumbled in places and is most likely going to be my personal and 'give away' soap. Still fun and I learned from this experience, going to...

I second that about Fresh Skin, they are pretty amazing when it comes to essential oils, carrier oils and various other luxury oils (think jojoba, rosehip oil, etc). Another fantastic supplier is Mystic Moments, despite the cheesy name they have great cosmetic clays and butters on hand, and use...

I found that just using cold-pressed unfiltered avocado oil will ensure a rich green shade, no fading. The soap itself will be very mild and emollient. As for the avocado fruit itself, I'd rather eat it.

I've made a Coffee&Brown Sugar soap. It did have minor weeping, but curing resolved this issue. I used raw brown sugar, but definitely less than you would for a salt bar. I was merely going for a studded effect. Not sure I'll bother again, just the coffee grounds alone do that, and I don't have...

1) I'm going to chime in with everybody else who said the link you provided doesn't work, but I found you at http://scentaliciousbytanja.com.au/ 2)If you want better sales at your website, you need better product photography. The pictures are very small, even when I click to zoom in, and most...

Jenn, I believe in the power of supply and demand. 20 years ago it was near impossible to go out and eat vegetarian. Today there are whole vegan restaurants in many major cities of the world. Call me naive, but I think consumers can make a difference with their choices. It's a two way road, and...

Yup, sometimes it's just cost-prohibitive. We can but try. I use beeswax in my salves and lip balms, of course it's less than what you would use for candle making, but I find that it's nice to use something that is not GMO nor awful for wildlife.

It's so nice to hear that someone else out there is committed to eco-friendly practices in their business! I am opposed to the use of palm oil myself, it's horrible what growing it unsustainably does to rainforests and animals; and soy isn't much better. How about local beeswax bought directly...

Lemon|Lavender > Rose|Orange

No Problem Tienne, the thread is there for everyone to participate in, if interested. Makes sense about the scaling down thing, great info there. I was basically going to do exactly that - subtract the weight of the embeds and adjust the recipe through the SoapCalc, since I know the weight that...

Lin, So you're saying that a soap that marbled did not go through the gel stage at all... That sort of ruins the previous theory (due to overheating/glycerin separation). Was your soap high on the stearic acid?

dixiedragon, judymoody Thank you, that makes sense. The stearic acid content in all my soaps varies from 3 up to 17; the streaks happened in soaps with stearic content being 5, 13, and 17 (so basically covering the whole range). I think it has more to do with the temperature and the separation...

Arthur Dent It'd be one thing if I was AIMING for the swirls, using two colors, etc etc. But I didn't! I do one solid color batches, and I'm trying to eliminate the factors contributing to the swirls/marbliness out of nowhere.

tinytreats, I stick-blended it, the same way I do with every other colorant I use, in approximately the same proportions to the soap mass. I'm really scratching my head as to what it could possibly be. When pouring the soap into the molds, it was all homogeneous-looking, with nothing to suggest...

TVivian, thank you for the info. I can still cut through the cured soap I am thinking of using for embedding, so that shouldn't be a problem, however, I'll keep it in mind that fresh and uncured bits work better overall.

TVivian, Looks good! Embedding at thick trace makes sense, but the problem I have with it is that it leaves air pockets.