Hard to make plain soap?

[Obsidian]

Anyone else find it difficult to make unscented/uncolored soap without additives? Whenever I make naked soap, I feel like I NEED to add something.

I have a loaf of naked sitting in the kitchen and I have a overwhelming desire to texture the top & add glitter:roll:

I want plain smooth topped soap, I think I have a problem...

 

[TRBeck]

I don't think it's a problem at all. Everyone starts twitching when they look at pictures of micas and read FO descriptions, right?

Really, though, it depends on my mood. This morning I was using some plain lard and coconut oil soap and really enjoying the look of the stark, white bar in the soap dish. Elemental.

But yeah, generally, I'm such a sucker for color and especially scent that I have to mix it up.

 

[Obsidian]

I love white soap, so much that I use TD in a lot of soaps, even ones I know will be naturally white. The soap I made today has a fair amount of unrefined coco butter so its far from white. I'm gelling it so I expect it to be even darker.

I did make enough I could fill a second mold so I could use color & additives but still no scent. The coco butter scent does lightly come through in the soap so thats a plus. I like naked soap, I guess it just feels like my creativity has been neglected lol.

 

[biarine]

I love plain white soap like the humble olive oil soap ( it remind me when I live in Spain ) but I have one my 100% coconut oil soap, just simple no colourant, additives or scent. I use hot process, I love it mostly for people who has sensitive skin. My friend has eczema she use it without any problem.

 

[Dahila]

I love plain white soap like the humble olive oil soap ( it remind me when I live in Spain ) but I have one my 100% coconut oil soap, just simple no colourant, additives or scent. I use hot process, I love it mostly for people who has sensitive skin. My friend has eczema she use it without any problem.

100/% coconut soap for eczema? Maybe you mean Olive oil.

 

[ClaraSuds]

I only make plain soap, ocassionally some EO will go in it. But I mold it in milk cartons and am happy with my square bars that look rustic by the time they age. As much as I can appreciate more artful bars to be honest I would never buy one nor make one. My soap is for using, I enjoy the fact my soap looks very basic. It's nice. Nothing's more satisfying to me than a wicker basket full of basic soap.

 

[Rowan]

I know what you mean about plain soap. I look at it and itch to do more, add more, colour more. It may be beautiful and elegant as it is, but I feel cheated somehow when I don't get the chance to play!

 

[biarine]

No coconut with 20% sf

 

[MorpheusPA]

I love plain soap. I love the creamy look, and smooth, flat top. I love the light reflecting gently off the surface. It looks clean.

Leaving out an EO or FO is the hard part for me. I'm not thrilled with natural soap's natural scent. I prefer to cut the soap scent.

Given the level of extinction I always get with EOs and FOs, I guess I have to get used to not much smell, however. :think:

 

[OliveOil2]

I recently made an unscented buttermilk and carrot soap, I cheated a little and used a little annatto for the color. It felt like I was missing something, a few times I picked it up to smell.
I do like natural color soap, this weekend made a soap without any added color there is scent though. It has more than rhe usual amount of golden shea and the color is nice. I don't miss the colors as much as soap being unscented.

 

[grumpy_owl]

I find it really hard to make plain soap, because my instinct is to shower glitter over everything. But it's very easy to love plain soaps. The sight of a cockeyed stack of pure white 100% coconut bars ready to shave into laundry butter makes me so happy. My very first non-Castille is still my favorite soap (and still requested)--hard white rectangles with thick swirly tops scented lightly with green tea. I made it in an 8x8 glass dish because that's all I had. Wish I'd kept one...

 

[Obsidian]

I find it really hard to make plain soap, because my instinct is to shower glitter over everything. But it's very easy to love plain soaps.

This is exactly how I feel. My plain soaps are beautiful, I love the ones I made yesterday but the desire to throw glitter on it was terrible.
I don't make a lot of plain soap and I should, my hubby really isn't into scents unless it smells like food.

 

[navigator9]

I have a confession to make. Neon colored, glittered soaps are not my favorite. I appreciate the artistry that goes into them and I love to look at them, but they're not the soaps I enjoy using . I went through a period of using a lot of color, and tops dusted with mica, but I find myself going back to basics and being attracted to creamy looking white, beige and tan bars with maybe some oatmeal thrown in. I do love fragrance. But I find "plain", creamy looking bars calling my name these days. And my customers don't seem as interested in what the soap looks like as they do in how it makes their skin feel. I'm still using color, but much more subtly than before.

 

[hmlove1218]

I don't mind a one or uncolored soap, but I can't do a non fragranced soap ha. I like all the different smells too much lol.

 

[Obsidian]

You aren't the only one. Soap with a lot of color are pretty but I don't care much to use them, I also don't like big peaked tops or stuff like petals/oatmeal scatter on top. I like white or uncolored soaps with a little color swirled in. The few soaps I've sold have all been plainer or lighter in color and the dark/colorful ones I give away remain unused.
I do love glitter though. If CP was transparent, I would make a ton of glittery nightmares.

 

[jules92207]

I'm in the plain bar club too. I have recently been playing with colors because I want to improve in all aspects of soaping, but it's not what drives me. I am a sucker for fragrance though.

 

[Susie]

I use only colors I can make in my kitchen, lol. Paprika and annato infused oils, coffee, cocoa, nothing special. I like it being something other than beige, but no swirls or patterns. All one color. I want people to know it is to bathe with, not to look at. I may get a little adventurous and try a cocoa line in the next batch.

Now I am like the rest, I like soaps with some scent. Nothing too fancy, but something. Plain looking soap is fine, plain smelling soap...not so much.

 

[dosco]

I started soaping with shave soap and my first concern is performance.

With that said, making unscented stuff gets a bit boring. I've been making shave soap for 2 years, and this past Christmas I made my first scented batches.

The bug has started to bite pretty hard, though, and I've started to branch out into other soaps.

No colored stuff yet, other than the Pine Tar soap I made (which came out colored because (you guessed it) of the Pine Tar).

-Dave

 

[MorpheusPA]

The bar of Bastille in the shower is mostly uncolored--I did use a touch of titanium dioxide to brighten the soap to a very light cream. I love it. It looks clean and inviting.

I do find with colors that I prefer light pastels, or very clean looking colors. Swirls are nice, but unnecessary, and in my case tend to be in white or cream anyway.

As I mentioned above, leaving out fragrance is my downfall. I do like to cover the "soap" scent of soap with something more cheerful. Even there, I use light, bright scents for the most part. Peppermint is about as earthy as I go.

 

[McSpin]

I'm very different from most people making soap. I don't want color, fragrance or anything else in my soap unless I know what it is good for. It has to be a completely safe, natural ingredient or I'm not putting it on my skin. I don't look to color a soap, I look to add a useful ingredient. I don't want someone to use it because of the way it smells, but for what it does for their skin health. So many soaps look like something you put on a shelf, not on your skin.

Fortunately, I don't plan on selling soap, so I don't have to worry that the vast majority of people will choose soap based on what it looks or smells like.