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i thought about superfatting and using more Coconut oil, but i worry about how the soap will feel after it's cured. i always figure on my bars being about 5%, and i sometimes wish they were harder. i worry that superfatting will make them even softer? I also thought about using...

haha, yeah, the dvd shows brad in the oreground, with ed norton behind. and, brad is clutching a pink bar of soap, with the title stamped into it. i've been tempted to do the kiss/lye tattoo, but only whilst soaping drunk. ( i cannot recommend soaping under the influence--SUI) -rob

not quite. i was definitely shirtless and shoeless, no one tapped out, only one man to a thread, only one thread at a time, and while i'm not to TALK about fight club, no one said i can't type about it... haha, seriously, fight club is probably the only mainstream movie i've ever seen that...

thanks, everyone, for the info very helpful stuff. the reason i'd asked was, i made some soapwith a LOT of coconut oil, like maybe 60%, with 35% olive oil and 5% sunflower. basically, i was clearing out some excess oils; i have used more olive oil than coconut everytime. the soap with the...

bakingnana, you might enjoy the book more than the movie, but either way, there's lots of violence and grossness. it's ostensibly about guys who ight eachother as sort of a social support group, and who finance this by making soap out of ... well, i guess you oughta rent it. thing that...

For me, it was mostly "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk (full of erroneous information), and my obsessive dislike for artificial scents (or, "stink", as i tend to call it). I didn't like that the only readily-available scentless soaps at the supermarket were, like, $3 each and totally lacking in...

i've read that sugar causes more bubbliness in most soaps, but i'm not terribly clear on why this is, nor on how much sugar i should be using, etc. anyone have any thoughts on the subject? danke -rob

Really? OK, so anytime that folks make orange soap, they're just using FO or something? I know ppl make soap with tomatoes, which are quite acidic. And, tomato soap tends to be orange. An ideas of other was to use orange? mabe grate some zest up, and add it at trace? thanks for the advice...

thanks. that makes total sense to me. i guess the question now is, how much at to add at trace? -rob

This is a good point, which is why i used the somewhat nebulous term "involved", rather than saying that there's lye *in* it. However, i think your approach is a good one, in that you're trying to educate your customer. I'm not very good at explaining the chemical process of saponification...

Just my opinion, and halfway off-topic, but i think that the shadiness involved in using the phrase "saponified oils of..." on a label has more to do with the lye than any animal fat. Whenever ppl ask me how i make soap, and i explain it, they always balk at the lye part. They make comments...

ps again: Sorry for the crazy long post, and this last-minute addendum. Assuming that some soap with OO and CO could be made with OJ as the liquids and with a load of powdered ginger thrown in at trace, what color do y'all reckon it'd be? Like, velveeta? -rob

Hello, everyone. I've posted a few questions here before, and i've always received excellent advice. I guess I'm back for some more. I want to experiment with some additives in my soap. I've been using a 3:1 ratio of olive oil to coconut oil as a "base" soap, and last time, i added some...

thanks, all, for the tips/links I just bought a buttload of olive oil, and i've got more lye on order, so i'll likely rebatch quite soon. -rob

that certainly does help, but i still need to know when i add it to the next batch, and whether or not i take the old soap into account when figuring out my lye/water needs... thanks -rob

hi. I tried to search for rebatching methods, but the search feature on this otherwise excellent forum leaves much to be desired. Anywho, I've got a huge pile of little soap chips sitting around, and i'm thinking i'd hate to waste all of those materials. so, the way i see it, maybe i can put...

Thank you all so much for the valuable advice. I like the idea of sliding the soap out, one inch or so at a time. That might reduce the crumbling effect, i guess. I still suspect my main problem is coming from timing, but every little method'll likely help. I'm gonna get a taping knife, and...

Thanks for the tips. I'm a primitive beast, so i've been using a knife. I'm thinking of using something different. I wanted to try fishing line or similar (guitar string), but as hard as my soap was, i don't think it would've worked. I think i'm going to try again, but try to cut at...

Thanks for the prompt reply. Last time, i tried to slide the log out at about 18hours, but it was too soft to budge. I fell asleep, and tried again at about 32 hours. It slid out super-easily, but wasn't cooperating with my cuts. Maybe it's a problem with my cutting method, more than the...

Hello. I'm quite new to the hobby, but I'm enjoying it thus far. I'm making cold-process soaps, usually with olive oil/coconut oil bases. I'm happy with the quality of soap I've made these past few attempts, but I'm frustrated b/c I've not yet figured out how to decide when to cut the soap...