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Thanks everyone for the advice. I did a no-frills basic soap, it seems to have gone according to plan, and I'm feeling a lot better about going forward from here! You guys are great. :)

During a hysterically busy summer with a large garden and all the preserving stuff that goes along with it, I didn't make a single batch of soap. I've been soaping for over ten years and was regularly using some pretty complex techniques successfully. Needless to say, now that it's winter...

Fooling around. Saprolite ("Lightning Stone") with Agate Deposit and Striated Granite. Neither quite right yet.

Here in the United States Virgin Islands, we celebrate Transfer Day every year -- the day in 1917 that the U.S. bought our three little Caribbean rocks from Denmark. This March is the 100th anniversary, so there's going to be a big party. I thought I'd try making some soaps that capture the...

I live in the Caribbean, after learning how to cold-process soap in Northern California. I had to adjust my formula to avoid the sloppy, greasy mess in the first place. In the high-humidity, high-heat summers here, the soaps have to be in a dehumidified and preferably cooled area to cure, or...

A fun thing to do here in the Caribbean is to comb the beaches for sea glass, those bits of broken glass that have been rounded and burnished by the ocean. Beautiful jewelry can be made from these treasures. I decided to try making some hand soaps that would echo a walk at the waves' edge, where...

There's usually a "waste piece" on my cuts that I use to test. With my formula, (soleseife, a bit hard to start with) stamping usually works from about 2 days after cut, having let the surfaces harden up a bit in the air. Put a piece of saran wrap over the soap and beneath the stamp, be very...

There are more than a few EO's that should not be used by pregnant women, that can cause photosensitization, lung reactions, and contact dermatitis, and have cautions for people with various physical conditions in various uses. They are not necessarily harmless even though they are "natural."...

I moved from Northern California to the Caribbean. I ended up completely reformulating my "go-to" shea butter formula because the percentages that worked like a charm there do not work here; whether it's the heat, the humidity, the trade winds or the constellations, I'll never know. But then...

I live on St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Every Caribbean island is wonderfully different, but St. Croix is the only one that has "chaney" -- small, water-tumbled pieces of china, porcelain, and other crockery, taken from the sugar plantations, that were smashed during the slave...

I've used pollen from the stamens of stargazer lilies, which is a vibrant copper-red. In CP the color came through as a slightly browner but still coppery red color. It did fade very quickly to a dull brown, unfortunately.

I'll try your technique next batch. I was just standing there like a doof with my mouth gaping, it happened so fast. :)

Tried a lard/pine tar(PT)/OO/CO/castor formula today (no eo's/fo's). Kept the PT aside in an ounce or so of reserved oils, emulsified the remainder with stick blender, hand stirred the PT in. The stuff turned into fudge inside of 10 seconds. The only time I've ever seen anything accelerate...

I hear you. I completely botched a fairly simple tilted tiger stripe because the dogs were pestering and whining and completely out of their minds. They were safely outside, but would not shut up. Constantly distracted, I miscalculated the amount of one color, the EO accelerated like a...

I must admit to being a little confused by all this. I started out very simply by growing herbs. Because I'm both a medievalist by avocation and a bit OCD, I gathered quite a library of books about herbalism -- both modern and ancient. Some herbs have histories that are centuries, even...

The Conservatorie's "Ruby Red Mica" worked well for me, but may be a little brighter than you're looking for.

I'm working up an order for 2" rounds wedding favors. It is a fragranced shea butter formula (no colorant) requested by the friend-client, fairly simple (olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, sodium hydroxide, fragrance) to be packaged in a very pretty organza bag. What sort of ingredient...

Midnight in Tunisia FO from Sweetcakes. Incredibly romantic description sucked me right in. Soaped, it smells like an armpit at the end of a long, hot day carrying pine needles (to me, anyway. Husband disagrees). Blech.

Got a bright red using the Conservatorie's Ruby Red Mica. You can see it at the Pinterest page as "Tommy's Heavy Metal THUNDERR!" (don't laugh, made it for a very good friend). http://pinterest.com/pin/431290101785401212/

I've found that the Conservatorie's Cosmo Martini and a touch of ultramarine blue makes a lovely deep purple that is holding strong.