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OMG thank you! I just moved into a place with really soft water and I was wondering how it would affect all my stuff. I planed on making my own laundry soap (powdered though). I might try a dish soap as well. Now I just need to see how soft water affects soapmaking itself or do you use...

I live in Oregon also and never could find freezer paper either. I just use parchment paper and not had any issues with that. I haven't tried butcher paper to see how it is. I'm moving to Cleveland next month, maybe they'll have freezer paper their, though again, I have no problem using...

As someone mentioned, the oil properties themselves are different from how they act in soap. However, it's still good info. On Swift's blog there are lists of carrier and exotic oil properties in the right hand column under free download PDFs. You have to scroll down a bit. You can also...

Yeah I made lotion bars to try on my feet since they are so terrible. It was okay but they didn't work as well either. And really greasy! Even with adding cornstarch. Fun to make but not my cup of tea I think. I'm going to try playing around with a few different oils. I only made a small...

Yay, I made my first lotion the other day and it came out awesome! I did the basic recipe on swiftcraft's website. I also used a bit of the little Meyer Lemon FO sample I got from Brambleberry. Damn you BB, now I need to buy more of this FO! The thing I really like about this lotion is the...

For those that say a lye heavy soap is best to use, what negative percentage do you use? - 1-2% or more?

I have a miter box I bought at a hardware store that I use with a giant putty knife (6" I think). Even using the miter box somehow I still get crooked soap! Gah. One day I'm going to buy myself a soap cutter. Maybe not the tank but one of the hobby ones...

I live out on the coast in Oregon and I've never been to a place with so many drive through coffee stands! Anyway, my next project is a coffee soap. Hubby bought a Starbucks brand coffee that he ended up not liking so he gave me the bag for soaping. I don't drink coffee but I love the smell...

I just did my first ever coloring of soap last night! I used ultramarine violet and ultramarine blue in a coconut milk/olive oil soap. They worked great, though I didn't get the color I was aiming for. Somehow my attempt at dark purple ended up blue, even though I used more violet than blue in...

Love it! I also like the boarder. Wonder if it'll fade or not?

Those two ladies from i am hand made crack me up. Love the soap! I love how she said it was evening and "late" to be soaping. The earliest I start soaping is usually 9:00 pm. I wait until the children are in bed. Just easier that way. Can't wait to see your cut soap. Looks cool!

That's so pretty! I've made almost twenty batches and still haven't tried color. I finally have everything together and will give it a try this weekend. Hope mine turn out that pretty!

Wow, that burning flame soap was awesome! Love the music in the second video also! Thanks for sharing these. I suck at finding good swirl videos on youtube!

I love that blue and purple one! I crochet, but mostly scarves, blankets, and other baby/kid clothes. I made some cute skull hats for my girls and my hubby last Christmas. Working on two baby blankets for friends of my mother right now.

Sigh. Those are pretty. I can kind of sew but I'm too scared to try making diapers. That and I tried doing adjustable diapers in the beginning with my first baby but she was so fricking tiny she wouldn't fit into them, even on their smallest setting. So we just use prefolds and covers. I...

Are you hot processing or cold processing? If cold processing soap, it doesn't matter what you use as your superfat or when you add it. The lye monster is still very active and will react with whatever fats (oils) are in the pot. So your "superfat" will most likely end up being a mix of...

Yeah some of my soaps do that too. I live on a well and have very hard water. If it does that I just lather the soap with a washcloth. I still prefer my slightly pully handmade soap over commercial soap.

Just FYI, it's called liquid soap, but you can actually make it as thick as you want. There are lots of different methods to thicken up your soap base from just diluting with less water, using salt, or using other additives (can't remember them off the top of my head right now).

The first time I used milk in my salt bars it did discolor slightly to a light tan, but I know the milk wasn't thoroughly frozen and it scorched. This last batch I just made, the milk was frozen solid and my container was sitting in a cold water bath. It turned a light brown, then yellow (that...

Haha. I bought those goggles for myself because I didn't know there were cooler ones. I also have the industrial strength chemical gloves (or whatever the big black ones are that I got from the hardware store). I didn't realize a lot of people just use medical or cleaning gloves for soaping...