Search results

I might have to experiment with up-ing the levels of coconut oil. I've kept it at around 20 - 25% so far because I'd read so much about it being drying but it might be an idea to try it for myself.

I know it might seem irrational but it comes from personal experience with severe rashes after the use of citrus oils. As I don't wish to trigger a reaction again I steer clear of anything with citrus oils in them, so I was just advising really that anyone with a photosensitivity issue will not...

Thanks Nevada for the suggestion but I made a decision not to use either lard or palm oil, just personal preference. I will probably just do as new12soap suggests and try it with just one luxury soap at a time for comparison. I am on the whole happy with my usual recipe, it seems to be working...

I'm planning on doing rosehip soap soon. The plan is to add the ground rosehips for speckles of colour and exfoilate. But I also currently have some ground rosehips infusing in a jar of OO which I am hoping will add some colour, although its been infusing a week so far and the colour hasn't...

The guidelines I have for lemon EO are 3%. You want to be careful with lemon on the skin though because it can be photosensitising, I speak from personal experience so I never use lemon in my skin products now, I use lemongrass instead.

Looks good, beautiful colour :)

Looks like I got the 3 worst oils available, they all fall into the 'noticeably rancid and disgusting' category. Perhaps I'll stick to my original recipe after all ;)

Sorry I should perhaps have been clearer about my intentions. My usual recipe has olive, coconut, avocado, castor oil, cocoa butter and shea but I wanted to try some batches without the shea, cocoa and avocado and replace them with cheaper ingredients to compare the two to see if it was really...

I posted yesterday about how my castille soap recipe didn't match any of the suggested ranges on soap calc and the general consenus seemed to be that soap calc figures are perhaps meaningless because a castille bar is a good / desirable bar of soap. Well, the past couple of weeks I've done a few...

Well I went for it and made a batch today and yes it did take a long time to trace which I wasn't expecting because every other batch I've done so far traced really quick. Anyway, it looks and smells lovely, so I'm going to make more in a few weeks, so that even if i have to wait 6 months for...

It was half mango, half shea. I've ran out of mango now, so might try with cocoa butter next. Thanks for the link, I'll have look.

Or you could try de-odourised cocoa butter if you don't want to up the E.O. Have you used it yet? how does it feel? The reason I ask is because I am struggling with too much greasiness with my bars at the moment and I'm starting to wonder if its possible to even get a non-greasy bar.

A year? I don't know if I'll be able to hold off that long, 6 months seemed long enough as it was ;) maybe if I do a bigger batch, that way I'd be able to test some every month :)

Thank you Vanessa. I do keep seeing people on the forum say to take it with a grain of salt, so I'll keep that in mind. I think I'll still give it a go, just out of curiosity.

I have read a little about Castille soap and liked the sound of it, as the idea of pureness and mildness appeals greatly, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. However, after putting it through a soap calc I'm confused! It doesn't have any desirable qualities from what I can see, none of...

I agree for some the best way to learn is by getting stuck in (I'm a hands on type too). I personally wouldn't bother with books, as you can find all the info you need on the internet these days and this forum is fantastic for any questions (if you haven't searched the archives yet, then do so...

I do the thermal transfer method too and therefore don't use thermometers. Its great, you should give it a go. Tbh (and I know many will disagree) I think its a safer method because there is less fiddling around with the lye, as you're not checking temp and it doesn't sit around waiting to...

I read that about raw soap somewhere in the soap archives on this forum. I think the reasoning was that if you was the raw soap down the sink it will follow through the next stage of saponification right there in your plumbing, maybe if I understood it correctly. So most people were advising...

Thanks, I'll have a look :)

That happened to me today too, I had to scoop the mix into the moulds in the end because it had solidified too quickly for me to do anything. I had all these big ideas about doing swirls and stuff but it all went out the window as I was just desperate to get it into the mould as quick as I...