Confessions of a soapmaker

[LilianNoir]

I've mostly gotten over my need to accumulate stuff for soap making, except for one thing. My husband sends boxes of fruit from Harry and David to friends and clients. And of course if he orders for others, he orders some for us too.

So what to do with those really nice, sturdy shipping boxes after the fruit is gone? Well, they are PERFECT for curing, storing, and transporting my soap.

I MUST have EVERY box IMMEDIATELY when it's empty. They are mine, ALL MINE! I guard my precious hoard of H&D boxes jealously.

OOOOH. I'd be all over those boxes too.
Now I want fruit from H&D AND the box. LOL.

 

[msunnerstood]

Dollar Tree has a whole new meaning since I started making soap. If my son comes with me and he catches me holding and looking at something in the aisle he walks up and says "Yes Mom, of course, you can use it for your soap" grabs it and puts it in the cart, and keeps walking. He doesn't even look at the item, he just knows I'll stand there hemming and hawing and we'll never get out of there.

 

[maxine289]

I've mostly gotten over my need to accumulate stuff for soap making, except for one thing. My husband sends boxes of fruit from Harry and David to friends and clients. And of course if he orders for others, he orders some for us too.

So what to do with those really nice, sturdy shipping boxes after the fruit is gone? Well, they are PERFECT for curing, storing, and transporting my soap.

I MUST have EVERY box IMMEDIATELY when it's empty. They are mine, ALL MINE! I guard my precious hoard of H&D boxes jealously.

yes, harry & david boxes are excellent for soap. i grab them whenever i can get them from people i know. otherwise i scope out shoe boxes, but h & d are a zillion times better.

 

[Basil]

You start reading the most recent news on your phone but instead get diverted to see if anything new has been posted on the soap making forum lol

 

[aquamorgan]

Also awaiting details of life-changing spatula.

Also, I can't be the only one looking really hard at non-liquid consumables as well. I'm not curious enough to actually try it, and there's got to be a good reason I've never heard of it, but I wonder if gooey, stringy cheese would lend any elasticity to soap. And what's the worst that could happen if a handful of semisweet chocolate chips got melted into my oils? And if rice and rice water makes nice soap, what about potatoes and potato water?
I'm not currently ambitious enough to try soaping any of this, but these are the types of thoughts that run through my head.

I see "things" differently now and constantly wondering if anything in my fridge and pantry can be incorporated into soap making. So I tried them out in a small batches. So far, I tried purple rice, parsley, oolong tea, tomato paste, celery, cucumber, coffee, cocoa powder...etc. Aside from that, I have all the symptoms described by @LilianNoir

 

[Loran]

Omg this is great!! For me, now I look forward to the weekend evenings devoted now to making soap! I find myself instead of playing games on my phone, spending time researching and reading anything soap related. Hard to do with a 15month old daughter!

 

[LilianNoir]

Cleaning out the fridge today...I realized that I have nearly an entire shelf occupied with soapmaking oils and butters. (I got DOS twice that I'm pretty sure was from olive oil in my pantry, which is near a window that gets sun, I'm pretty sure a 5 year old with a crayon could've designed this place better, so now I keep all oils and butters with translucent packaging in the fridge)

 

[Zing]

Dollar Tree has a whole new meaning since I started making soap. If my son comes with me and he catches me holding and looking at something in the aisle he walks up and says "Yes Mom, of course, you can use it for your soap" grabs it and puts it in the cart, and keeps walking. He doesn't even look at the item, he just knows I'll stand there hemming and hawing and we'll never get out of there.

This is me! Thrift stores and dollar stores -- I'll just pop in and see what I can use in my soap shop.... You're raising a good son.

 

[Kiti Williams]

Re: the spatulas, I don't know if it's this particular brand (although it's the brand that was linked to me when I asked another soaper about it) or if it's the size, but the "MOACC" brand of spatula, on Amazon, the 8.5" size has an edge that is thin enough to properly scrape. I haven't tried the 11" size. That's the size my other spatulas are and I find their edge too blunt.

I bought red Betty Crocker spatulas at the dollar store, they are thin edged and give me a clean scrape. I also use them to make my tops pretty!

 

[cmzaha]

I MUST have EVERY box IMMEDIATELY when it's empty. They are mine, ALL MINE! I guard my precious hoard of H&D boxes jealously.

I have two boxes of H&D Pears sitting here and yep I love those boxes, almost as much as the Pears.

 

[Kiti Williams]

I use the boxes that come from the meat delivery, I can cure my soaps vertically when I use a loaf mold.

 

[Highfive]

I'm probably driving my boyfriend crazy, I see something and tell him don't throw that away I'm saving it for soap. I just saved a bunch of individual apple sauce containers to mix colors in.

Good idea with apple sauce containers to mix color. Never though about that. More stuff to accumulate

 

[TashaBird]

@LilianNoir the spatula struggle is real! I thought I had 4 that I liked, but I’ve realized I only have one. Too hard an edge, or too hard an angle. I’m in the market.
I now wander the restaurant supply store looking for soap things.
And... I now save slightly used paper towels in a plastic container for wiping out dirty soap dishes. There! I said it! I use SO many!! They’re only lightly used, and I’m wearing gloves, and the dishes still are going to get washed. This way they get one more use.

 

[Catscankim]

@LilianNoir the spatula struggle is real! I thought I had 4 that I liked, but I’ve realized I only have one. Too hard an edge, or too hard an angle. I’m in the market.
I now wander the restaurant supply store looking for soap things.
And... I now save slightly used paper towels in a plastic container for wiping out dirty soap dishes. There! I said it! I use SO many!! They’re only lightly used, and I’m wearing gloves, and the dishes still are going to get washed. This way they get one more use.

I hate buying paper towels lol. So yeah...i have saved slightly used ones too

 

[AliOop]

Yup, I’m cheap and hate buying paper towels, too! So I now save all my old dish towels and t-shirts for soap rags to wipe out all the soap dishes and utensils.

Used rags and dishes are piled up in my dirty-soap-stuff box (a big Costco fruit-packing case) till I am almost out, which takes 2- 3 batches for me. The rag-wiped soap dishes are degreased enough to run through the dishwasher or wash by hand. The rags with now-saponified soap streaks go in the washing machine with hot water, some borax powder, no additional soap, and vinegar in the rinse container.

 

[earlene]

Paper towels here, too, because I don't like putting anything that is oily or greasy into my washing machine.

So the oily residue gets a good wiping with a paper towel. I re-use paper towels until they can't be re-used again. Sometimes 6-10 times, depending on the lighter-use events. If they get wet with only water or tea, I let them dry before the next use unless I need to clean up a messy or very dirty spill. The final usage tends to be to wipe out oily, greasy residue inside a frying pan, the wok, or a soaping vessel. Since going to a much lower SF, though, my soaping vessels don't end up being as oily as they used to be in the beginning.

My niece, an avid crafter, mostly with needlework related things, gave me a roll of re-usable cloth (cotton flannel) paper-towel substitute. They have plastic snaps on each end and each 'towel' snaps to the next one. The purpose is to put them on a paper towel roll and thus never have to toss out a paper towel again. Difficult as they are to use (snaps just don't disengage with a flip of the wrist they way a scored paper towel does from the roll), and thier limited absorbancy (lightweight flannel), I still like the idea of them. And I do use them in the soaping area, mostly to spread out to protect surfaces from batter splatter, but also to clean-up as needed, while avoiding saturating them with oily residue (because then I'd have to toss them in the trash.)

 

[Highfive]

Paper towels here, too, because I don't like putting anything that is oily or greasy into my washing machine.

So the oily residue gets a good wiping with a paper towel. I re-use paper towels until they can't be re-used again. Sometimes 6-10 times, depending on the lighter-use events. If they get wet with only water or tea, I let them dry before the next use unless I need to clean up a messy or very dirty spill. The final usage tends to be to wipe out oily, greasy residue inside a frying pan, the wok, or a soaping vessel. Since going to a much lower SF, though, my soaping vessels don't end up being as oily as they used to be in the beginning.

My niece, an avid crafter, mostly with needlework related things, gave me a roll of re-usable cloth (cotton flannel) paper-towel substitute. They have plastic snaps on each end and each 'towel' snaps to the next one. The purpose is to put them on a paper towel roll and thus never have to toss out a paper towel again. Difficult as they are to use (snaps just don't disengage with a flip of the wrist they way a scored paper towel does from the roll), and thier limited absorbancy (lightweight flannel), I still like the idea of them. And I do use them in the soaping area, mostly to spread out to protect surfaces from batter splatter, but also to clean-up as needed, while avoiding saturating them with oily residue (because then I'd have to toss them in the trash.)

@ member 20849 Do you mind showing a picture of the roll of re-usable cloth (cotton flannel)

 

[TashaBird]

Funny, I posted that, and then. All day I was like “omg, they probably all think I’m gross”. I’d been waiting to buy some microfiber towels to try. After reading this, I’m thinking of cutting up some old shirts and rags and trying those. I do wash out my pipettes and use them several times before they break. I want to use old yogurt tubs for batter, but I love the pointy spout end of my measuring cups.

 

[AliOop]

Paper towels here, too, because I don't like putting anything that is oily or greasy into my washing machine.

That's why I let the towels sit for a few days before washing them. That way, there is little to no residual oil or grease - just saponified soap streaks.

 

[earlene]

@ member 20849 Do you mind showing a picture of the roll of re-usable cloth (cotton flannel)

HighFive, I'll come back to that later, but yes I will be happy to do so.

Actually let me link these here instead, because it is faster that way:

https://abeautifulmess.com/unpaper-towel-diy-they-are-reuseable/
https://www.etsy.com/market/reusable_paper_towels_with_snaps
https://tinyurl.com/y5pjr39g