New to here/new to soap!

[Booker]

@Eclypse Your photos are great! So does the laurel berry make the soap that green color? Incredible! I think I like ocean-y soaps because I love blue in soaps!

@KimW Good idea, I might give that a try!

 

[Eclypse]

Yes, AND, No. Because of Trade Embargo's middle eastern products are hard to find and more expensive. Some laurel berry oil turns the soap green and others are a vanilla colour, some are green to begin with and turn vanilla with green center. I'm not a chemist, I suspect that it has to do with how fresh the oil is and or regions collected. Check out Amazon and see the different types. In my experience they are all mild, antesepctic, and still work well regardless of the colour.
I love your horse pic. I posted my Eclypse pic too.

Some finely ground oatmeal might also give you that sandy look. I usually add finely ground oatmeal to my CP soaps and I don't detect any scratchiness. I'd think it would do the same in M&P.

I've tried quick oats and quick cook steel cut oats. Quick oats left me with gooey soap, and quick cook steel cut oats were scrubby, exfoliating. Both types I ground fine in a coffee grinder.

 

[Assaka]

Welcome mate, I am also new in here

 

[The Park Bench]

Hello everyone! I'm so glad to have found this forum. I'm am very new to soap. I've only done melt and pour--which I had a total blast with! I made a cute little ocean scene type bar. I am very much interested in moving on to CP someday. It's not feasible now because I don't really have a "safe to soap" room. I have read (and re-read) two soap making books, and wish to continue lurking and reading more here. I'm a very thorough researcher and don't just jump into things before I'm ready. Thank you for allowing me to read the many threads here and being able to partake and ask questions!

Welcome, don't do like I did and just lurk here for years before participating. This is a great and safe and encouraging group of good folks!

 

[Zing]

@Booker, I'm not sure what the people in your house are like. I had 2 active -- sometimes oblivious --teenagers in the house. I'd mix up my lye solution in a pitcher with a cap on it in case someone knocked it over. I generally wait an hour for lye solution and oil mixture to cool. Then it's quickly mixed together and poured into a mold. After 24 hours, it gets cut into bars. So really the only real time to be careful and to keep household chaos at bay is the hour that the lye solution is out. Do it -- all the cool kids are doing it!

Yes, please search this Forum for Aleppo soap. I have long been intrigued. We have a local Iraqi grocery that sells both Laurel Oil and Aleppo soap. It had a label on it in Arabic. Luckily my son reads Arabic and translated it to "Aleppo Soap" -- LOL. It smelled really, really incredible! But I didn't like using it, it felt slimey to me so it must be a close cousin to Castille, but my shower smelled awesome. Every person is different, tho', it's just my experience.

 

[linne1gi]

Ok I'm done trying to figure out pic posts. So sorry everyone. I'll try to do better next time

Sometimes I can "attach" a picture from my computer and sometimes I can't - I don't know why. But when that happens, I can have my photos in a separate tab and "pull or drag" them over to the SMF post.

 

[Booker]

Welcome mate, I am also new in here

Hi there! Love the cat avatar!

Welcome, don't do like I did and just lurk here for years before participating. This is a great and safe and encouraging group of good folks!

This is good to know. I'll admit I was a bit hesitant to make a splash so to speak! LOL!

@Booker, I'm not sure what the people in your house are like. I had 2 active -- sometimes oblivious --teenagers in the house. I'd mix up my lye solution in a pitcher with a cap on it in case someone knocked it over. I generally wait an hour for lye solution and oil mixture to cool. Then it's quickly mixed together and poured into a mold. After 24 hours, it gets cut into bars. So really the only real time to be careful and to keep household chaos at bay is the hour that the lye solution is out. Do it -- all the cool kids are doing it!

Yes, please search this Forum for Aleppo soap. I have long been intrigued. We have a local Iraqi grocery that sells both Laurel Oil and Aleppo soap. It had a label on it in Arabic. Luckily my son reads Arabic and translated it to "Aleppo Soap" -- LOL. It smelled really, really incredible! But I didn't like using it, it felt slimey to me so it must be a close cousin to Castille, but my shower smelled awesome. Every person is different, tho', it's just my experience.

Yeah, I probably just have a deep level of paranoia--I think it comes from living on a farm...there's never a dull moment! All this encouragement is making me braver--I just may put my foot down and do it! That is so cool your son can read Arabic. I'm a bit of a language nerd myself, I'm not fluent in anything even though I try my darndest!

 

[linne1gi]

@Booker, I'm not sure what the people in your house are like. I had 2 active -- sometimes oblivious --teenagers in the house. I'd mix up my lye solution in a pitcher with a cap on it in case someone knocked it over. I generally wait an hour for lye solution and oil mixture to cool. Then it's quickly mixed together and poured into a mold. After 24 hours, it gets cut into bars. So really the only real time to be careful and to keep household chaos at bay is the hour that the lye solution is out. Do it -- all the cool kids are doing it!

Yes, please search this Forum for Aleppo soap. I have long been intrigued. We have a local Iraqi grocery that sells both Laurel Oil and Aleppo soap. It had a label on it in Arabic. Luckily my son reads Arabic and translated it to "Aleppo Soap" -- LOL. It smelled really, really incredible! But I didn't like using it, it felt slimey to me so it must be a close cousin to Castille, but my shower smelled awesome. Every person is different, tho', it's just my experience.

Hi Zing, Aleppo soap is usually about 80% Olive Oil and 20% Laurel Berry Oil. So just like Castile soap, it needs at least a 12 month cure. I made it, and I agree, it does have a lovely scent on its own, I added essential oils. My Aleppo skis about 15 months old.

 

[Arimara]

@Booker I am hating the fact that your soap ain't in my hands as we speak. When/if you try that again, post some more pics please. And yes, an angle might help but I'm thinking so would something curved to further exaggerate that waves depending on how you're going about it.

 

[Booker]

@Booker I am hating the fact that your soap ain't in my hands as we speak. When/if you try that again, post some more pics please. And yes, an angle might help but I'm thinking so would something curved to further exaggerate that waves depending on how you're going about it.

You're too kind! How would I make a curve vs an angle?

 

[Arimara]

You're too kind! How would I make a curve vs an angle?

You would need to pour at an angle but you would have to watch the soap as it cools down. When the soap hardended but still maleable, you would want to manipulate the shape of the soap to curve it, with your fingers or whatever you can find that helps achieve that shape.

 

[Booker]

You would need to pour at an angle but you would have to watch the soap as it cools down. When the soap hardended but still maleable, you would want to manipulate the shape of the soap to curve it, with your fingers or whatever you can find that helps achieve that shape.

Cool! I will have to try that. Slightly off topic, but is your quote (or maybe its called signature line) in reference to music?

 

[Arimara]

@Booker Kind of. I found it funny and tried to re-quote it.

 

[Louis mercy]

Hello everyone
Lovers of peace and Soap
Louise here
Trust we all are staying safe!
Joined this forum a while back but have not really been active on here until very recently my bad , I'm also new to Soap making and would be looking forward to learning alot from the gurus on here and from every ones input Will be highly appreciated.
Peace and light to all.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Joined this forum a while back but have not really been active on here until very recently my bad , I'm also new to Soap making and would be looking forward to learning alot from the gurus on here and from every ones input Will be highly appreciated. Peace and light to all.

Hi Louis!
To get to know you, please start your own thread in the Introduction Forum. Tell us about your soap making experience and anything else that might be of interest.