December 2019 Un-Challenge - New to You

[Jennifer Horne]

I made mine yesterday!!!!!! This is right after the poor and swirl. Cant wait for the cut, i am so very excited

So okay...here we go.

I was trying to make the Clay & Charcoal Soap by Kapia Mera Soap Company. I had a few...uh...issues. It started well enough, soap batter was perfect, colors were properly dispersed. First the Rose Clay, then the Kaolin Clay and oh crap...wrong container. Okay, I’ll make some more and add more Activated Charcoal. Go to add a smidgeon of AC...and I dumped a third of a brand new container in. No. No. No. Crap. Crap. Crap. Grab a spoon, no time, scrape into my hand. Ack! Gross! Wash hands. Wash hands. Wash hands. Stir the black, it has white specks, going to have to use the stock blender...gently, gently.

Okay, time to pour. Crapola...forgot the Fragrance Oil, dump in, stir, stir stir. Grab cutting mat to use as a divider...oh no...too long one way and too short the other. Okay, grab a paper plate, cut the middle out of it, hold onto it. Pour in some of the Rose Clay...little more than light trace, but still okay. Pickup the Activated Charcoal and OH NO...it’s turning into pudding. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Okay...we can do this. Dump some in...hold divider between thumbs and forefinger, grab mold with palms and smack, smack, smack, Shake some more in. Smack, smack, smack. Okay...why do I have more black than rose when I pored exactly the same amount? Doesn’t matter, pull out the divided and grab the white and...I don’t care, hold it up high enough and it should go in most of the way. Grab the tie thingy, bend it, bend it again...how does it go again. Straight down, then something about figure-8s back and back and fourth...no time, do something. Toss tie in in sink, smack, smack, smack. Spoon three rows...smack, smack, smack...do the swirl thing, cover, open the oven...****, forget to heat it up. Okay, good enough, put in the garage.

NAILED IT! Not...LOL. But I’m not too unhappy and I will clean up the bars this weekend. I’ll try it again, but with a difference fragrance. Normally I’m a fan of Cherry-Almond, but this FO is really ‘sweet’...sticky sweet.

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It looks good to me, of i didnt read your post i would had thought u ment it to look like that

 

[MarnieSoapien]

After much consideration, I finally made up my mind and tried... Mica lines! Will post pictures after I cut it tomorrow.

 

[szaza]

I tried the soap made from repurposed sunflower oil from canned grilled zucchini yesterday. It behaved quite differently than I expected. It traced a lot faster and gelled a lot easier (which resulted in overheating). The oil was green and the soap is ever so slightly green as well. Weird enough it doesn't smell soapy to me.. it smells more oily.


Technical info for those interested:
I wanted to make 3 batches:
100% NaOH
100% NaOH with faux seawater as per zany's no slime recipe
95% NaOH 5% KOH

All 100% Sunflower oil 0% superfat 37% lye solution and 2% Citric Acid to make sodium citrate.
I spilled one of the 3 jugs of oils, so I ended up only doing the last 2 (5% KOH and Zany's no slime)

I'm curious how long it will take to form DOS, I'm not sure if it's regular or high oleic oil.. (I'm hoping for high oleic, but expect regular..)

 

[dibbles]

@szaza this is interesting. I wonder how long it will hold up.

 

[Kosmerta]

I made mine yesterday!!!!!! This is right after the poor and swirl. Cant wait for the cut, i am so very excited

I love the colors, can't wait to see this cut!

 

[bookreader451]

I am so far behind the eight ball I need to have a free couple of hours to just make anything, let alone try something new.

 

[EllieMae]

First swirl attempt. I did not anticipate how much volume decreases when you remove the dividers. These will be short little bars!

 

[AmandaLRF]

First time using honey in soap. I saw a recipe and wrote down their recommendation per pound(which was 1tsp per pound). For some reason when measuring the honey I thought it was 1Tbsp per pound and where I had written it down was across the room, so . . .
After I finished I saw my mistake but too late now.
I do like how the soap turned out.

 

[Jennifer Horne]

I love the colors, can't wait to see this cut!

Omg !!!! This is it!!!!
Super excited about this one.
The things that were new with this one are;
Recipe
Some ingredients (palm oil, heavy cream, and coconut cream)
Fo
Swirl method
Colors
And i used TD.

 

[dibbles]

So many firsts @Jennifer Horne - they look great! I love that color!

 

[Jennifer Horne]

So many firsts @Jennifer Horne - they look great! I love that color!

Thanks so much, I have been only doing this for about 6 months and i have kept it pretty basic and this is the first pretty one i ever attempted. Hearing (seeing) all of you say such good things is really helping me feel more confident in my little bit of skills and btw i believe i found my recipe.

 

[Zing]

First time using honey in soap. I saw a recipe and wrote down their recommendation per pound(which was 1tsp per pound). For some reason when measuring the honey I thought it was 1Tbsp per pound and where I had written it down was across the room, so . . .
After I finished I saw my mistake but too late now.
I do like how the soap turned out.

I have never seen anything like this. What mold did you use?!

 

[AmandaLRF]

I have never seen anything like this. What mold did you use?!

I used my basic loaf mold and lined it with bubble wrap.

 

[earlene]

I have come up with a graduation soap with granddaughter's input. But I don't know if I'll be making it this month. My right hand has been hurting for a few days making gripping things more difficult. I've been massaging it (that always helps when the Duypeytren's nodules start growing) and wearing my compression gloves (to help with the arthritis) and rubbing the Voltaren gel in to the areas that hurt, but so far I am not having the kind of relief I'd like in order to make soap or much of anything else that requires gripping.

Besides the only thing new-to-me about this soap would be it's the first time I will ever make a soap for a graduating senior. Anyway the idea is the High School's mascot in the school colors. I still have to work on the design, which is really a copy from the logo used by the school that depicts the mascot (accessible online) and how to achieve it - weather free-hand or to create an embed (and if so, how to achieve that). At least I can do the planning this month, but I don't think I'll actually be making it until after the new year.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@earlene sorry to hear about the problem with your hand. Have you ever tried Arnicare cream? I find it works better for relieving pain in my shoulder over the short term compared with Voltaren, but it doesn’t not seem to have any lasting benefits.

 

[dibbles]

Sorry you are having problems @earlene. Show us the soap whenever you get it made, it’s a fun idea.

 

[earlene]

@earlene sorry to hear about the problem with your hand. Have you ever tried Arnicare cream? I find it works better for relieving pain in my shoulder over the short term compared with Voltaren, but it doesn’t not seem to have any lasting benefits.

I have some Arnica salve that I have used in the past for my feet. I had thought of trying it on my hands, but I really don't love the smell that close to my face (my hands go to my face a lot) and it tends to remain rather greasy which I don't like for my hands.

Actually, I did discover today that I can get a longer period of relief with the combination of Voltaren and oral acetaminophen all at once. I usually only take acetaminophen for headaches, but decided to give it a try earlier today and was surprised to discover my hand was almost pain-free for a few hours this afternoon. I almost thought they were on the mend again until it started wearing off and I couldn't even wash the dishes after dinner. So I repeated the same medications and wow, almost pain-free again. It should help me sleep better tonight I think. Funny I never realized this before. Guess I just don't use pain killers very often.

But I might try the Arnica salve on my hands with my sleeping gloves at some point and see if it helps. I'm less likely to care about the smell close to my face if I'm sleeping.

 

[Lynnz]

Congrats on the beautiful soap @Jennifer Horne I have never tried cream in my soaps but must try the Coconut Cream

I love your Honey Soap <3 @AmandaLRF

 

[earlene]

I figured it out. After searching online extensively for any kind of mold that would give me the right shape for my granddaughter's high school team mascot, and not finding anything to satisfy, I was going to consider a cookie cutter and handpaint the design onto each bar of soap. But then I recalled the decoupage method for decorating soap and decided it would work the best to get the exact right logo as well as the colors. All I have to do is some cut & paste with the logo (from online photos on the school's website) and build a page with enough of the right size to print at Staples. For a mere 14 cents per sheet (or something like that) I can get all that I need in color and decoupage them on the surface of the soap.

Since I don't want to use plain uncolored soap as my base, I am going to do some sort of swirl using my new-to-me swirling tool that I won at SoapCon and use the school colors for the swirl. Of course I did not bring my red oxide or any red micas when I packed, nor did I bring a dark enough black. I do have the silver I want, but that's it for the swirl. So I put in an order for the micas from Nurture Soap and hope to get them in time to make a swirled soap in her school colors. Then I can add the decoupage. But it still may not be done in time for end of year what with winter break travel plans and all. No matter, they will be well cured by graduation even if I don't finish until after the new year.

 

[AmandaLRF]

I love your Honey Soap <3 @AmandaLRF

Thanks!