Obsessed with art of making soap

[sunnysuds]

Hello, I live in California and I was working in Hospice. I resurrected my interest in making soap after many years, and its very therapeutic for me. I find that I'm improving more and more as I read this forum, gain ideas for new soaps and watch youtube videos. I stumbled into this forum by doing a search on the internet. My son is a barber, and my new soaps are aiming for his clientele, hoping he'll sell some bars for me. I plan to get a business license to be able to do that. I am obsessed, and would like to make soap 5 days a week, small batches of 9 bars, but with other priorities, I create 1-2 days a week. That's about it. Thank you all for sharing. I hope to show my creations soon.

 

[GemstonePony]

Welcome!

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[msunnerstood]

Welcome!

 

[Relle]

Welcome

 

[Zing]

Welcome aboard! I stumbled onto this forum by accident too while searching for a recipe. And I was like, whoa! there's a whoooole big sub-culture here of soapers! Then I found more on YouTube. I like making soap because it engages the math/science mind and the artsy creative side to me. And it got me through a tough lay-off. I really like the folks here because there are some super-smart and super-knowledgeable people and generous to share advice and tips. And some ha-ha's.

 

[norrysoaper]

Welcome aboard! I stumbled onto this forum by accident too while searching for a recipe. And I was like, whoa! there's a whoooole big sub-culture here of soapers! Then I found more on YouTube. I like making soap because it engages the math/science mind and the artsy creative side to me. And it got me through a tough lay-off. I really like the folks here because there are some super-smart and super-knowledgeable people and generous to share advice and tips. And some ha-ha's.

I love the math, and science aspect of soap too. I love calculating recipes by hand for fun.

 

[KimW]

Welcome!!

 

[Misschief]

I love the math, and science aspect of soap too. I love calculating recipes by hand for fun.

Math for fun??? What is wrong with you?? (Just kidding!) Funny thing is, I failed Chem 11 in high school.... twice! Hated it. And what is soapmaking? All chemistry. Life is funny that way.

 

[Misschief]

Hello, I live in California and I was working in Hospice. I resurrected my interest in making soap after many years, and its very therapeutic for me. I find that I'm improving more and more as I read this forum, gain ideas for new soaps and watch youtube videos. I stumbled into this forum by doing a search on the internet. My son is a barber, and my new soaps are aiming for his clientele, hoping he'll sell some bars for me. I plan to get a business license to be able to do that. I am obsessed, and would like to make soap 5 days a week, small batches of 9 bars, but with other priorities, I create 1-2 days a week. That's about it. Thank you all for sharing. I hope to show my creations soon.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Zing]

I love the math, and science aspect of soap too. I love calculating recipes by hand for fun.

Dude, like what exactly, do you not use an online lye calculator?!! In my dark moments, I worry (this on top of like a million other worries because it's, you know, 2020) about not being able to access online lye calculators and think I should learn to do this by hand like my grandmother who soaped without Google. My calculations are mold size volume and ratios of various colorants. And as I've ranted before, why oh why can we just not make the leap to metric already?! So many recommendations are in "ppo" but I use grams and then I have to convert to ounces and then for the life of me I can never remember how many ounces are in a pound....

Math for fun??? What is wrong with you?? (Just kidding!) Funny thing is, I failed Chem 11 in high school.... twice! Hated it. And what is soapmaking? All chemistry. Life is funny that way.

My undergrad major was chem and I loved it! Everything made sense, everything fit into a set pattern. Putting on my gloves and goggles and calculating and writing "lab notes" takes me back to the soapstone counters. And you, @Misschief, are a brilliant chemist and you should send some of your product to the teacher who failed you!

 

[Misschief]

And you, @Misschief, are a brilliant chemist and you should send some of your product to the teacher who failed you!

Unfortunately, both teachers (Grade 11 and Grade 12) have long since passed away. They were both amazing people but I just wasn't interested.... at the time.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Welcome aboard! I stumbled onto this forum by accident too while searching for a recipe. And I was like, whoa! there's a whoooole big sub-culture here of soapers! Then I found more on YouTube. I like making soap because it engages the math/science mind and the artsy creative side to me. And it got me through a tough lay-off. I really like the folks here because there are some super-smart and super-knowledgeable people and generous to share advice and tips. And some ha-ha's.

Personally...I love the ha ha’s.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Hello Sunnysuds & welcome

 

[norrysoaper]

Dude, like what exactly, do you not use an online lye calculator?!! In my dark moments, I worry (this on top of like a million other worries because it's, you know, 2020) about not being able to access online lye calculators and think I should learn to do this by hand like my grandmother who soaped without Google. My calculations are mold size volume and ratios of various colorants. And as I've ranted before, why oh why can we just not make the leap to metric already?! So many recommendations are in "ppo" but I use grams and then I have to convert to ounces and then for the life of me I can never remember how many ounces are in a pound....

My undergrad major was chem and I loved it! Everything made sense, everything fit into a set pattern. Putting on my gloves and goggles and calculating and writing "lab notes" takes me back to the soapstone counters. And you, @Misschief, are a brilliant chemist and you should send some of your product to the teacher who failed you!

I still use soapmaker3 to calculate my batches. I think its important to know how things work, and how the reaction that creates soap happens. I've been working on a YouTube video series on calculating recipes by hand.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I've been working on a YouTube video series on calculating recipes by hand.

To give you an idea how long I've been soaping, the calculations for my first soaps were done by hand! I kid you not.

I resurrected my interest in making soap after many years, and its very therapeutic for me. I find that I'm improving more and more as I read this forum, gain ideas for new soaps and watch youtube videos.

 

[Zing]

To give you an idea how long I've been soaping, the calculations for my first soaps were done by hand! I kid you not.

Wowza!!

 

[lenarenee]

I still use soapmaker3 to calculate my batches. I think its important to know how things work, and how the reaction that creates soap happens. I've been working on a YouTube video series on calculating recipes by hand.

Oooohh I would watch. I hated math and chemistry in school. Years later, had to take some college science and had to learn some basic chem. It was the miracle of the polar molecule that made me realize what magic those little atoms were. Now....let's see if there's any magic in math!