Essential Depot Silicone mold, anyone have one?

[nsmar4211]

http://www.essentialdepot.com/product/RED-SILICONE-SOAP-NATURAL.html


Does anyone have this? I'm wondering how sturdy it is. I love my Crafter's Choice mold, curious if this is as good..

 

[shunt2011]

If you look below there are several post regarding these. There have been folks that said the red one can bleed onto the soap however, I don't have first hand experience with them. Most seem to love their molds though. It does need support of some kind, either the box it comes in or the wire basket they sell.

 

[navigator9]

Just a note about the red silicone. Don't know if it's the same, but I have a Wilton red silicone heart mold, and when I gelled soap in it, they were stained red where they touched the mold. I have lots of silicone molds, but this is the only red one, and the only one I've had that problem with.

 

[Deedles]

If I read this right, it's not red in color. The RED refers to Revolutionary Essential Depot....maybe the brand? Looks like it's replacing a red colored one or is an option.

A friend has one of the red colored ones but hasn't mentioned any color bleeding. She also has the wire basket so I don't know if it truly works stand alone.

 

[HoiPoloi]

I have one, You need the basket or you'll need to make sure the side are supported. It's a nice mold although I do find that it is tall and narrow at the top, I like a more open top (not sure that sounds correct), I'm messy and my aim isn't that good! with a narrower opening at the top, I tend to have some spillage.

 

[nsmar4211]

Okay, "need a basket" was exactly what I needed to know :grin:. Did not think about the narrow at the top aspect, that will teach me to grab a ruler when looking at molds. Couldn't find that exact mold when I ran a search for silicone molds here.
I have the 4" and 8" Crafter's Choice molds and I don't need to support them, but am looking for other options .

RED is a poor acronym for someone selling silicone molds! Mold is indeed white...wonder if they'll end up rethinking that one.

Edit: Oddly enough, their website did not load the comments the first three times I looked at these...hence what I missed! But you never know who writes the comments on a website and if they are vetted...

 

[HoiPoloi]

my normal molds I use make a 3 1/2 inch wide bar, and this one makes a 3 1/4 inch wide bar. I guess that 1/4 inch is enough to through me! LOL!!!

 

[shunt2011]

They also come in Red but the red is more expensive (10.00) which is silly since they had some issues with the color bleed with some folks. I hadn't visited their site in awhile.

http://www.essentialdepot.com/product/RED-SILICONE-SOAP-MOLD1.html

 

[IrishLass]

I have the natural version of the mold, and I keep having issues with it causing pock-marks all over the outside surface of my soap. I don't know what's causing it, and I've tried different things to get it to stop, but the below pic shows what my soaps look like every time I use the mold. The green soap in the pic was made in my ED silicone mold, and the blue soap was made in my Woodfield's silicone mold. I pictured them side by side to show the contrast. My Woodfield's silicone always gives me smooth surfaces, while the ED always gives me craters like you see below:

Others say they use theirs with no issues, so maybe I got a lemon, but I just thought I'd mention it .


IrishLass

 

[CTAnton]

I've got one of these with the wire basket...never had a problem ...don't remember if I've ever CPOP it though...when it's a large enough volume like a loaf mold I'd rather soap warmer and insulate if necessary...

 

[BlackDog]

I bought one a while back but have only been able to use it twice so far! It's done well for me both times. Seems very high-quality, but like others have said, you would want to use something to stabilize the sides. I bought the basket, plus I bought these dividers from Etsy (treat yo' self!)

Should come in handy for the feather swirl challenge

 

[girlishcharm2004]

I have both the red and the natural color. I haven't had the red bleed, but maybe I just got lucky. I use the cardboard box that it comes in and works well enough for me, but it's not perfect for selling. The pock marks are from the soap getting too hot. It makes the soap "boil" inside and doesn't breathe well -- you just need to know which soaps really heat up. I LOVE that these are easy to unmold. I, too, have the Crafter Choice 4" and 8" molds which have stiffer sides. The walls on these molds are more pliable that you can really unstick the soap from the mold and it just slides right out.

 

[girlishcharm2004]

You just gave me a reason to go make some soap.

One is how badly the mold will bow without support.
The other picture is support the cardboard box gives. I've used it for 2 years now and it's still holding up.

 

[rain_darned_owl]

I got one with a soapmaking kit and have used it several times. I like to use the box to help it gel, much easier than trying to move a mold with a towel wrapped around it!! I do tend to use my Crafters Choice one more often as I like the shape a bit better as someone else mentioned. Hmm, planning to make some soap tomorrow night, maybe I will use the essential depot mold for it.

 

[nsmar4211]

Oh boy now I'm an enabler !! Never a bad excuse to make soap

Thanks for the updates, a lot to consider. I've had the pockmarks happen in some of my bar molds and come to think of it, it was the "heater" FO's that had them the worst.

 

[CaraBou]

I have both the red and the natural; I mostly use the natural since the red did discolor my soap once.

The only time I've gotten pock marks was when I cpop'd a bit too warm; otherwise it has not been an issue (my normal technique is to preheat the oven on "warm" a few minutes, then turn it off, put the soap in, and put/leave the oven light on until the soap is firm enough to cut. It's usually still warm at that time).

I too used the cardboard box for support for quite a while (a year?) and it worked great. Eventually my DH made a simple scrap-wood support frame and now I use that. I still have the boxes "just in case" (of what, I don't know)! But I gotta say, girlishcharm, your box is amazing clean for being 2 years old! You're a cleaner soaper than I am!

 

[Jencat]

I have 2 of the red ones and haven't had them bleed yet. I have baskets for them, but I prefer the wooden boxes I bought on Etsy. I figure the baskets will be good for soaps that run hot since they will allow air flow around the molds so they hopefully won't go to waste.

 

[IrishLass]

my normal technique is to preheat the oven on "warm" a few minutes, then turn it off, put the soap in, and put/leave the oven light on until the soap is firm enough to cut. It's usually still warm at that time).

That's what I do, too. I turn my oven on for only 3 minutes (I time it), and then I turn it off . Then I put my soap in it for the night. I used to pre-warm my oven until my oven's thermostat read 120F before turning it off (which was a pre-warm of 5 minutes), but lately I've been doing only a 3 minute pre-warm before tuning it off, which reads as 105F to 110F on my oven's thermostat.

I guess one wouldn't technically call what I'm doing 'CPOPing', because all I'm doing is merely encouraging gel instead of forcing it as some do with a 170F temp., but it's just so weird to me that my Woodfield's silicone mold never gives me pock-marks no matter hot hot it gets. For example, when I first got my Woodfields a few years ago, I used to pre-warm the silicone liner in my oven before pouring because I wasn't sure if my soap would actually get warm enough to gel in it, and I would also turn my oven up to 170 and then turn it off for good measure before putting my soap in it. Full gel, no pock marks.

Sorry if I keep going on about this, but it's been a little frustrating for me trying to get this fussy mold to work for me without giving me pock-marks. I'm going to try it with an unscented/uncolored batch with a 3-minute oven pre-warm and see how it goes. That's one thing I haven't tried yet.


IrishLass

 

[nsmar4211]

Is there maybe an invisible oily manufacturing residue on the inside of your mold? Have you tried say a vinegar rinse?