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Thank you very much! I'll pick up some metal screening and give that a try.

I am looking for recommendations on how to protect soap from mice while curing. I cure my soaps in wooden crates, which has worked great until recently when I found that mice had been eating some of the bars. I was thinking of perhaps covering each crate with some sort of netting (e.g. fabric...

I've got my soaps curing in our guest room, too. I'm sure people would walk in and say how wonderful it smells in there! I make my soap on a counter in front of a window and open it wide when I mix in the essential oils. I also wear a mask and eye protection (over my glasses) and was just...

I have what is perhaps an unusual question regarding the smell of essential oils as my soap cures. I cure my soaps on a bakers rack in my office in my house and generally make a couple batches (two dozen bars) every month or so and have never found the scent of the curing soap to be an issue...

Thanks @sarahmarah. Even thought my basement storage room is cool it has been a bit on the humid side these past few weeks. I'll try curing my next batch upstairs and see how that goes.

Thanks for your input @Dawni. I steamed a bar and the spots on top disappeared so maybe it is ash. The surface I steamed is super shiny now, which is an aesthetic I'm not crazy about. Am I correct in assuming it will always stay like this? As for the possible steric spots, the recipe I used has...

Yes, only on the top. Here are three other photos to give a better idea of the overall batch. The first photo is a view of the top of multiple bars with the second bar from the top in this pic showing a soft white surface on most of it. There's also a little of that on the right side of the...

This thread is just what I need! I'm new to soaping and made my first test batch 8 weeks ago. It turned out great so I made the same recipe again but rebatched it to fit my wooden mold as the test batch only filled the mold 2/3 of the way. I covered the mold on the test batch with plastic wrap...

Thank you for this suggestion, @Todd Ziegler. This is good to know!

Oh shoot, I see the EOs I used are high... actually double what I should have put in. No wonder the peppermint scent is so strong! From calculating my mold size the total oils in my recipes are 50.05 so that amount x 3% = 1.5 oz. EO (or 50.05 x 4% = 2 oz. EO on the high end of 2-4% EO per...

I use essential oils for all of my scents. For this batch I used 1 oz. of lavender and 2 oz. of peppermint, which was 3% of the recipe for the 2-1/2 lb. mold. The recipe I used has 40% olive oil, 35% coconut oil, 15% avocado oil and 5% each of castor oil and cocoa butter. Thank you for the...

Thank you for your quick reply, @jcandleattic. I wasn't aware that scents could cause discoloration but will read up more about it. I'm so glad to hear the bars should clear up during curing!

I'm new to soap making and just unmolded and cut my fourth batch of CP soap and notice that the bars have a darker edge around all sides. This recipe for lavender mint soap includes avocado oil and a little cocoa butter in addition to olive, coconut and castor oils. I made this soap six days ago...

This looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing this!

Fingers crossed it stays that way! I'll post pics if it changes drastically. :)

I hope so, too!

I made the soap nine days ago and it's been curing for six days. I used fresh sage (.75 oz.) and put it in a pot with 16 oz. of distilled water and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling I removed the pot from the heat and it steeped for about 45 minutes then I strained the sage out through a...

I am new to soap making and my first three batches have turned out great. I couple of weeks ago I made a Lavender Rosemary soap and used sage infused distilled water instead of plain distilled water. The lye water turned dark green from using the sage infused water and the color of the soap is...