Finding the right mold

[Lin19687]

They are 2.5 lbs each. I have those. When I first made a few batches with them I forgot and made them 2# and they were a bit shy from the top where I wanted.
Duh moment like we all have. But 2# fits fine and with the room on the top you can cover and not worry about it touching the soap

 

[rjuconnfan]

They are 2.5 lbs each. I have those. When I first made a few batches with them I forgot and made them 2# and they were a bit shy from the top where I wanted.
Duh moment like we all have. But 2# fits fine and with the room on the top you can cover and not worry about it touching the soap

Thank you for the reply. Very good to know size in lbs and now I can start working on finding which recipe to make! Thinking I will find one CP and one HP for my firsts. Getting excited!

 

[Kari]

Hope they are good starter molds. I am thinking each one is .2lbs each?

They're pretty good starter molds! I bought one when I first got started. Pretty easy to use, and I see a lot of soapers on youtube (who seem to have been soaping for years) who still use them. Tip: the sides warp really easily, you can 'stick' them to the sides of the wooden box with petroleum jelly.

I got a little over 3lbs out of them, but I tested it with melt and pour. I don't know how more or less dense M&P is than cold/hot process. I did use those numbers for my first CP soap and had a slightly mounted top - but I also remember specifically making a bigger batch so I'd have some to play with or in case I had spills.

 

[earlene]

Your soap is beautiful...love the hidden heart! Is this cold processed? Since HP is thicker when poured would that work? Wondering which molds hold the 1 lb? And how many bars do you get? I am thinking 4.5 oz so you get 3 or 4 bars right? Just learning and I am finding the issue of how much soap and which molds and bar sizes somewhat confusing.

Thank you. Yes, it was CP. The tea Box gave me 4 or 5 bars (I don't remember the weight of each & cannot check as I am traveling.) The mold in the center in the lower picture is the Crafter's Choice 1-lb mold. Depending on how thick I want my soap & which direction I cut the soap, I get 3 or 4 bars of soap. Incidentally, the center soap was not a hidden heart, but a mosaic soap, pictured in my soap gallery here.

 

[rjuconnfan]

Thank you. Yes, it was CP. The tea Box gave me 4 or 5 bars (I don't remember the weight of each & cannot check as I am traveling.) The mold in the center in the lower picture is the Crafter's Choice 1-lb mold. Depending on how thick I want my soap & which direction I cut the soap, I get 3 or 4 bars of soap. Incidentally, the center soap was not a hidden heart, but a mosaic soap, pictured in my soap gallery here.

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing! If my Amazon order gets here I may be making my very first soap this week..and someday will try these more creative soaps. Looks like you have a lot of patience to put those mosaics in the soap so evenly.

 

[cmzaha]

Those mold will roughly make 3lb soap loafs, using 32 oz of oils, which is a lot of soap if you do not like the bar. I would set them aside until you have found what you like. This is a nice mold that make 1lb and is what I use most of the time for testing.
http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/small-loaf-silicone-mold.aspx

Milk cartons make nice soap molds. I also use the little half pints at times for testing. Sorry could not delete the post I meant to edit and accidentally quoted my above post. So now we have 2 posts and I did get rid of the quote

 

[navigator9]

They're pretty good starter molds! I bought one when I first got started. Pretty easy to use, and I see a lot of soapers on youtube (who seem to have been soaping for years) who still use them. Tip: the sides warp really easily, you can 'stick' them to the sides of the wooden box with petroleum jelly.


View attachment 30241 View attachment 30242

The first silicone mold I ever bought was made by Uplands, now long out of business. I had the same warping problem, or so I thought. The sides of the mold, when inside the wooden box, were all wavy. But when it was sitting on the counter, out of the box, drying off after I washed it, the sides were perfectly straight. Hmmmmm...that's when I realized that the mold wasn't warping, it was actually stretching, lengthwise, just enough to make the sides buckle when put back into the wooden box. Luckily, with the Upland molds, the ends of the box were removable, so all I had to do was take one end off, and my mold was nice and straight again. I don't have the mold you mentioned above, but if it has removable ends, you might give it a try and see what happens.

 

[rjuconnfan]

Milk cartons make nice soap molds. I also use the little half pints at times for testing. Sorry could not delete the post I meant to edit and accidentally quoted my above post. So now we have 2 posts and I did get rid of the quote

Do you lay the carton down, cut the top off long side, then cut and reshape the pouring side? That is what I think I have to do. We just finished a creamer container and I am working on that as an experiment. We don't have milk in the house but I do have coconut milk half gallons and almond milk, which is the same weight cardboard I think. I am going to get some of my liquid oils pre-measured and put in jars ready to go. And I am going to try melting some coconut oil and put that in little containers pre-measured. Then other than a quick trip to get thermometers and silicone/ss scraper /wisk, I will be playing the wait game for my deliveries. Good advice not to make larger molds full of something that might not work well..hoping to find silicone molds at Michaels for testers.

 

[navigator9]

Do you lay the carton down, cut the top off long side, then cut and reshape the pouring side? That is what I think I have to do. We just finished a creamer container and I am working on that as an experiment. We don't have milk in the house but I do have coconut milk half gallons and almond milk, which is the same weight cardboard I think. I am going to get some of my liquid oils pre-measured and put in jars ready to go. And I am going to try melting some coconut oil and put that in little containers pre-measured. Then other than a quick trip to get thermometers and silicone/ss scraper /wisk, I will be playing the wait game for my deliveries. Good advice not to make larger molds full of something that might not work well..hoping to find silicone molds at Michaels for testers.

I'm not Carolyn, and she may do it differently, but when I used a milk carton, I just opened up the top all the way, and poured the batter in, then closed it up again, and wrapped it in a towel. I think if you cut the side off, it's going to bow out a lot, and you'll have to find something to brace it. If you pour from the top and leave it upright, it bows slightly, but it's not a problem. Then, when you're ready to take the soap out, you can just tear the carton away and you're left with your beautiful soap!

 

[rjuconnfan]

I'm not Carolyn, and she may do it differently, but when I used a milk carton, I just opened up the top all the way, and poured the batter in, then closed it up again, and wrapped it in a towel. I think if you cut the side off, it's going to bow out a lot, and you'll have to find something to brace it. If you pour from the top and leave it upright, it bows slightly, but it's not a problem. Then, when you're ready to take the soap out, you can just tear the carton away and you're left with your beautiful soap!

I thought maybe that might work..thanks for the confirmation. We shall see...

 

[earlene]

I've done it both ways with milk cartons. It's easier to remove soap from a carton laid on it's side without having to tear it apart. The bowing can be minimized with a velcro strap or rubber bands or heavy objects.

 

[amal]

Regarding using small butter boxes:

I have used Tea boxes to make soap, lining with freezer paper, and have no issues whatsoever, other than slight bowing because the sides are not rigid.

This soap was made in a Tazo Tea Box:

View attachment 30239

The tea box filled with soap is on the right below.
View attachment 30240


The only caution I would advise is to make sure the soap is not too thin when you pour. I did not have any leakage, but it could be possible under the right conditions.

how you get that beautiful color @earlene

 

[steffamarie]

They're pretty good starter molds! I bought one when I first got started. Pretty easy to use, and I see a lot of soapers on youtube (who seem to have been soaping for years) who still use them. Tip: the sides warp really easily, you can 'stick' them to the sides of the wooden box with petroleum jelly.

I got a little over 3lbs out of them, but I tested it with melt and pour. I don't know how more or less dense M&P is than cold/hot process. I did use those numbers for my first CP soap and had a slightly mounted top - but I also remember specifically making a bigger batch so I'd have some to play with or in case I had spills.

View attachment 30241 View attachment 30242

I have two of those molds and I'm finding that I can fit just slightly over 3lbs of CP in them! The sides do bow pretty badly so I'm considering lining the wood box with freezer paper and just using that instead of fighting with the silicone liner.

 

[earlene]

how you get that beautiful color @earlene

Which color specifically? In which soap? The purple? The green? The blue? The base colors?

The recipe I used has 2 oils that contribute to darker than white soap, 32% RBO &5% shea, so even with a tiny bit of TD, the base soap in the otherwise uncolored soap is not very white. The other colorants I used in the soaps were used in small amounts to obtain muted, rather than bright colors. All except the TD were from Steph's Micas & More. The colors used in the soap made in the Tazo Tea box were cosmic purple, powder blue & glitzy green neon, which may have been muted with TD because I wanted pastels, not bright neon colors. The colors in the rim of the rimmed soaps (second picture) were TD, cosmic purple, silver graphite, powder blue. The base soap for the windowpane mosaic style in the second picture (on the right) was colored with periwinkle.