Greetings from Culver City, CA

[Momsta5]

Hello there,

I have been soaping for a year, focusing on HP. recently I have committed to learning CP because it offers more opportunities for creativity. I just love all of the fun ways it can be worked with.

I have been doing basic practice batches of CP and the soap gods have not smiled on my efforts! Going to keep at it, hope to take some classes soon. Try, try again is my mantra. I hope to learn as much as I can from all of the soapers here.

I live in the Culver City area of L.A. with my hubby and kids. Hope all of you are having a great day and perfect soap batches!

Chris

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome Chris! Hopefully we can all help you out with improving your CP efforts. Whatever you do, don't give up!


IrishLass

 

[not_ally]

Hey Chris! There are quite a few of us in the LA area, I live in Highland Park. Hope to meet you at some point, it is always good to know more soapers ...

 

[kumudini]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Good for you, for sticking to it. CP soaping is so much more convenient and super fun. It let's you make bigger batches at a time if you ever see the need for that. Hopefully you have enough cured HP bars to last till your CP bars cure.
Please don't hesitate to trouble shoot, this is a very helpful forum with great experienced people.
I had a mostly soapy day. Have a bunch of stuff on the ready for future batches.

 

[Momsta5]

Thank you Irish Lass! Today was a bad soap day but I will rebatch and move on.
I have really enjoyed (and learned from) a lot of your posts and responses.

 

[Momsta5]

Thank you not_ally! Cool to know that there are soapers in this area. Would love to have someone to talk soap with...my husband says I have soap on the brain.

Maybe you can answer a question for me. Is there a local place to buy butters? I have been looking for butters to avoid shipping costs. I'm glad to drive where I have to. There is a health food store in Culver City where I can get Cocoa (very expensive though) butter and shea in really small amounts. Would love to find a place in L.A. or surrounding areas.

 

[zolveria]

Hello Chris, Hope you enjoy this forum.. One of the best on the net

 

[not_ally]

No, I'm afraid not, really. Kind of surprising, given how large and diverse the population is, but still find that the best place to buy almost everything is on line. I do get my OO from Cosco and my lard from Smart and Final.

It *is* nice to have people to talk soap with, a few of us gathered a little while ago and it was so luxurious to just yak and yak about it with boring anyone else!

 

[cmzaha]

Welcome. If you do not mind taking a trip to Riverside, Cibaria soap supplies does will call and they do carry butters. Essentials by Catalina will also will call with arrangements and they carry butters along with a large array of supplies. They are located in Corona. There is a supplier somewhere out in the valley but I do not remember their name and their oils prices are very high. At $4 per gallon of gas one has to weigh the shipping cost versus driving costs. I have an approx 80 mile round trip when I do a Cibaria run, by purchasing large amounts it pays me. Otherwise I would recommend Soapers Choice

 

[Momsta5]

Thank you Vkumudini! I do have some finished HP stored. Given the bad outcome of the CP batches I am really glad I didn't give it all away to friends and family! I figure if I run out before I get the hang of CP I'll buy from the soapers who I love to watch and read about. I'm thinking I may rebatch this last CP failure tonight-it's just sitting there on the table mocking me!

 

[cmzaha]

I have to ask what is failing or what you consider a fail, it may not be. If you post your recipe I guarantee we can help you troubleshoot. I find most failures are either due to in-accurate measuring, but most often it is fragrance that causes problems

 

[Momsta5]

I also get my OO from Costco and will definitely look at S&F for lard. I haven't done a lard or tallow soap yet and I am really looking forward to using them.

That sounds amazing! I find myself a little isolated in this journey. My friends love the soap when it's done but they aren't too interested in talking about it.

 

[cmzaha]

I also get my OO from Costco and will definitely look at S&F for lard. I haven't done a lard or tallow soap yet and I am really looking forward to using them.

That sounds amazing! I find myself a little isolated in this journey. My friends love the soap when it's done but they aren't too interested in talking about it.

Be aware lard at S&F is in 50lb blocks. Walmart usually has tubs of lard, especially during the holidays. I always liked the Morrell Snowcap

 

[not_ally]

Heck, don't buy soap while waiting for cure, I will give you a bunch of mine. My mom came over today and was like "what are you going to do with all this soap?" It is crazy for a hobbyist to make so much, but the process is so fun that I can't stop myself.

 

[Momsta5]

Wow, thank you Carolyn! This is great. I don't mind the trip (even though gas is just ridiculous right now) I'll make a day of it and be stocked up. Maybe hit an outlet mall while I am on the road to do school shopping.

This is the most recent recipe, I appreciate you looking at it. The mold is a wooden DIY with a lid, I lined it with press-n-seal. I had no leaks, it didn't volcano or grow out of the mold. I did want it to gel so I insulated it with a towel. Methinks the sugar caused overheating- made worse with the added insulation? Or maybe I blended the lye with the oils at too high a temp?


Almond Oil, sweet 2.29% 1oz
Castor Oil 5.73% 2.5oz
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 22.94% 10oz
Olive Oil (infused and strained well) 46.10% 20.10oz
Palm Oil (sustainable/fair trade certified)22.94% 10oz
Superfatted at 5%

Distilled Water 16.57 Ounces
Lye 6.11
Sugar 2 tablespoons, dissolved in water prior to addition of lye
1.5 ounces of essential oils (blend of Litsea Cubeba, Amyrus, Patchouli and Jasmine)
One teaspoon of green clay added to half of the sweet almond oil (.50 ounces)
Ten drops of Vitamin E was added to the green clay mixture (this might have been an issue, forgot to add this into my recipe when calculating)

 

[Momsta5]

Will let you know when I get close to running out! Thank you. Yeah, I have a real problem being a soaper and a sewer. Between my sewing stuff and my soap stuff we are running out of room.

 

[Momsta5]

Hi Zolveria, thank you. I agree, this is a great forum and the people and support are awesome. Going to upgrade my membership as soon as I am able.

 

[Seawolfe]

Hi Momsta - Im in So Cal too - Long Beach.
Whats wrong with that soap? You mean the crack on top? If that's what you mean, that might be from overheating. Try soaping a bit cooler. Like room temperature even, that's helped me a lot. But I think your soap looks nice, I adore clay soaps.
It probably just overheated a bit, something to watch out for with sugars. Plus in this heat wave....
If you see a crack form when its still soft, sometimes you can push it back together gently with gloved hands, and then put a fan over it to let it cool a bit.

 

[cmzaha]

Your soap is fine, if it does not have oily caverns inside after cutting. It did overheat, but that is only aesthetic if it did not separate inside. Sugar can lead to some overheating but I do not find it contributes as badly as honey does to overheating. What can be done is to spritz the new crack, while the soap is still wet, and rub crack to seal it. Best with a glove because you still have zappy soap. Soap cooler, a lot of us use room temp lye and oils. When and if I decide to gel my soap I put my molds in a long flat plastic storage container cover with a lid and blanket and check periodically to see if any cracks are appearing. You can also put your mold in the freezer to deter gel. Couldn't believe it took me 5 yrs to figure to gel my soaps in the storage container, I am a wee slow at times. The plus side of that is if a batch goes south and decides to separate and run out of the mold I have it contained and can dump all in a crock pot.

If you decide to purchase from Cibaria you will need to place the order at least 3 days ahead in order to set a will-call time. I am notorious for calling Lee Anne (customer service), begging forgiveness and having my order expedited. That I do not advise. . She always reminds me I need to order at least 72 hrs ahead, I always smile and hand her a bag of soap. :shifty: Their website is cibariasoapsupplies.com

 

[not_ally]

I really want you to try lard, it is so nice in soap. If you are over this way at any point you can pick some up, along with some soaps! Also look through my destash pile to see if there are any FOs you want ..