Basti's Adventures in Soap (2023)
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Happy New year. Amazing soaps - works of art 
Nice soaps what a awesome way to start out the New Year.
Beautiful soaps! I'm already looking forward to your 2024 thread. 
akseattle
Well-Known Member
Great soaps!!! all of them! thanks for posting!Last soaps of the year~
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FOs - Sambucus by NS / All Soul's Day by NS / Sour Watermelon Candy by NG
Some triangle soaps : ) These were a fun adventure.
Left -> I poured this one with the mold vertical, so I had to carefully pour a little bit of each color at a time.
Middle -> Putting my circle embed to good use! Yes, this soap is egg-inspired haha. This batch spooked me a bit because it volcanoedin the mold but luckily it was more of a lava burp than a Vesuvius :'D Most of the bars look totally fine, with a few having thick gashes that look like big glycerin rivers. No big deal~
Right -> It was only a matter of time until I made one of these with this mold. The seeds are made with homemade soap dough. This one and my egg soap got pretty bad glycerin rivers in the white, but I've decided that I don't care. Glycerin river smycerin river...
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FOs - Hot Pink Lime / Capri Olivo by NG
I was in a landscape mood this month.
Left -> A remake of a soap I made for a friend earlier this year. This time I did a OPW sky instead of a tiger swirl sky. No it wasn't because I was lazy... ... ...
Right -> OPW ocean with some green cliffs : ) The sea turned out much greener than I intended and am feeling slightly betrayed by my blue micas for turning so green, but it's also not an issue at all.
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FOs - Forest Mist by WSP / Peach Mango Sangria by NG
Left -> This was an impulse soap. I was going to use this FO to make a MP soap (I've used it before in MP and loved it) but woke up one day wanting to make CP soap. This FO reported severe acceleration on WSP's website but I'm no quitter, so I decided to make a ZNSC soap and made a few different sky design game plans based on how the FO performed in the green/black layer. It was thick but not soap-on-a-stick thick so I opted to do a layered spoon swirl sky. This FO smells delightful. Would definitely recommend despite the acceleration.
Right -> Neons! Sky is a OPW. I used a squeeze bottle for the yellow reflection. The blue had some confusing acceleration issues (that weren't present elsewhere. Ah, soap. You sometimes-finnicky beast) so I didn't quite get the reflection the way I wanted it to but I do really like it.
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FOs - Unscented / Fresh Lemonade by WSP
Some Christmas gifts.
Left -> Charcoal ZNSC made with coconut milk powder and sweet rice flour for my mother.
Right -> Pumice soap for my brother, featuring some soda ash I didn't bother to steam off because life's too short to steam ash off a soap when the recipient doesn't care
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Lastly, some MP soaps! I just love the straight clean lines you can get in MP soap.
Happy New Year everyone~
Your soaps always make me happy!
Thank you all~
only a matter of time, I'm sure
Beautiful soaps! I'm already looking forward to your 2024 thread.
only a matter of time, I'm sure
I am so grateful to find your post referencing fragrance oils from DOOP. I was looking at some of them, but like you said, no testing notes for soap, and no reviews that mention soap. I am going to order some and see how they work outTime for some Cold Process!
Batch #19 - 5 Oil Blend with Distilled Water
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My entrant for the January Soap Challenge. Just sharing it here for continuity sake.
Batch #22 - 6 Oil Blend with Fermented Rice Water
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This batch is for a friend! They requested a specific scent and wanted a soap inspired by a fictional character. Said character has a white/black/red color scheme. I decided to try splitting my oils and lye and start with a textured AC layer and then do a OPW on top. I did add in a tiny gold mica line to represent the gold detailing on his clothing, but it wasn't enough to show up except in a few places haha. Now I know I need WAY more mica. My white got glycerin rivers and I DON'T CARE because it adds to the aesthetic. I love these so much. And the black is so luscious. I'm obsessed.
FO is Fastlane by Nature's Garden. Fingers crossing it doesn't fade on me.
Batch #23 - 7 Oil Blend with Apple Cider
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Decided to do a bit of a Zero Waste batch. I had a random assortment of stuff that needed to get used up. I did a full water replacement with some apple cider that I was... not impressed with the flavor of, so I froze it and decided to make soap with it. I also had a few bottles of FO that had very little product left inside of them, so I opted to mix them. Finally, I tossed in some of my scraps to make it ciaglia style. I think I overswirled a little, which is fine. I do like how nice and simple they are.
FOs are White Tea & Pear by NS and Fresh Picked Apple by WSP.
Test Batch - 5 Oil Blend with Distilled Water
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I'm not counting this in my batch count purely on a technicalityI decided to do something I probably should've done before... which is do some FO testing. Until now, I've just trusted the soap notes provided by the FO company and used well behaved FOs. But I got three FOs from a company that doesn't have testing notes.
I plan to use them in MP where that stuff doesn't matter, but I still wanted to get a frame of reference for vanillin discoloration. I know I'll use stabilizer for that middle right one now
FOs Used:
Peach Milk Tea by DOOP - Matcha Latte by DOOP
Sweet Vanilla Chai by WSP* - Ube Cake by DOOP
Control - Sunkissed Beach Grass by WSP**
(+A tiny mica drizzle just so I could tell the difference at a quick glance)
* Used as a "vanillin control" as I knew the vanillin percentage and knew that FO discolored the MP soap I used it in.
** Threw this one in as it's described as a moderate accelerator by WSP and I wanted to see that first hand. It's a discontinued FO now...
I really love the 3 FOs I picked up from DOOP.
The Peach Milk Tea smells EXACTLY like the peach iced tea I used to drink when I lived in Korea and it makes me super nostalgic.
Matcha Latte smells like a can of INOTEA Matcha Bubble Tea, which is a rather floral matcha smell with the soft creaminess of a little milk. I will say it didn't smell good in the bottle though LOL
Ube Cake is a nice balance of vanilla and sweet notes as well as the nutty depth of the ube.
Their shop is closed right now... presumably for a restock... but I'll likely pick more from them in the future.
@basti , I just found your thread. OMJ, #1 and #29 soaps... How in a world did you do it? I will print those out and will try to replicate.
Technical question, in #29, how did you get so thin distinct lines? Did you pour at very thing trace??? Is it one pot pour? Looks like you used the tall and skinny mold? How did you manage to do semi circle swirls?
Pls, spare me 15 kg of oils in my trying to figure out your method
Technical question, in #29, how did you get so thin distinct lines? Did you pour at very thing trace??? Is it one pot pour? Looks like you used the tall and skinny mold? How did you manage to do semi circle swirls?
Pls, spare me 15 kg of oils in my trying to figure out your method
Good luck! I go back and eye up their fragrances ever so often but haven't grabbed any more since.I am so grateful to find your post referencing fragrance oils from DOOP. I was looking at some of them, but like you said, no testing notes for soap, and no reviews that mention soap. I am going to order some and see how they work out
All of the soaps in my first post are Melt and Pour (I assume that's what you mean by #1), not Cold Process. If you've ever worked with MP, then you may go "how?!" even more and my only answer is I am a bit nuts@basti , I just found your thread. OMJ, #1 and #29 soaps... How in a world did you do it? I will print those out and will try to replicate.
Technical question, in #29, how did you get so thin distinct lines? Did you pour at very thing trace??? Is it one pot pour? Looks like you used the tall and skinny mold? How did you manage to do semi circle swirls?
Pls, spare me 15 kg of oils in my trying to figure out your method
The pink/yellow flowers were all embeds cut very thin, the lakes were made with blue MP shreds 'glued' together with melted blue MP to make them appear more organic in shape, and everything else is done with thin... thin... layers and careful temperature control with a lot of time in between to let things harden. Would definitely be doable in cold process using piping bags, though I certainly haven't tried.If you mean the first soap in post #29 - this was done in a 4x4 square silicone mold. The trace was pretty thin and I did what I believe is called a wall pour? I poured a little bit of each color on the sides. Here's a video that shows it, though mine turned out different (probably due to the wideness of the mold):
Sorry for the late-ish response. I'm not around very often anymore ($$ is extremely tight so no soapmaking for me
), but just by chance noticed there was a question for me.Good luck! I go back and eye up their fragrances ever so often but haven't grabbed any more since.
All of the soaps in my first post are Melt and Pour (I assume that's what you mean by #1), not Cold Process. If you've ever worked with MP, then you may go "how?!" even more and my only answer is I am a bit nuts
If you mean the first soap in post #29 - this was done in a 4x4 square silicone mold. The trace was pretty thin and I did what I believe is called a wall pour? I poured a little bit of each color on the sides. Here's a video that shows it, though mine turned out different (probably due to the wideness of the mold):
Sorry for the late-ish response. I'm not around very often anymore ($$ is extremely tight so no soapmaking for me
Good luck! I go back and eye up their fragrances ever so often but haven't grabbed any more since.
All of the soaps in my first post are Melt and Pour (I assume that's what you mean by #1), not Cold Process. If you've ever worked with MP, then you may go "how?!" even more and my only answer is I am a bit nuts
If you mean the first soap in post #29 - this was done in a 4x4 square silicone mold. The trace was pretty thin and I did what I believe is called a wall pour? I poured a little bit of each color on the sides. Here's a video that shows it, though mine turned out different (probably due to the wideness of the mold):
Sorry for the late-ish response. I'm not around very often anymore ($$ is extremely tight so no soapmaking for me
I ended up ordering a couple. They are supposed to be here soon, and I am so excited! I will try to remember to post and let people know how they did for me.
Good luck! I go back and eye up their fragrances ever so often but haven't grabbed any more since.
All of the soaps in my first post are Melt and Pour (I assume that's what you mean by #1), not Cold Process. If you've ever worked with MP, then you may go "how?!" even more and my only answer is I am a bit nuts
If you mean the first soap in post #29 - this was done in a 4x4 square silicone mold. The trace was pretty thin and I did what I believe is called a wall pour? I poured a little bit of each color on the sides. Here's a video that shows it, though mine turned out different (probably due to the wideness of the mold):
Sorry for the late-ish response. I'm not around very often anymore ($$ is extremely tight so no soapmaking for me
@basti, appreciate you finding time to answer. I see you don't come her often, glad you did.
I don't do melt and pour, but the first soap should be not so difficult to replicate in CP. As for the #29, it is amazing. I have being trying to make something similar without large success. But I was trying in tall and skinny. Now with your pointers, I will try in square. I watched the video you linked to, hanks.
Will keep watching and learning.
Sorry you are not making soaps now, you have such a great talent, you soaps are awesome. I hope you will start making them soon again.
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