Pitbulls with lipstick

[sygrid]

Alright ladies, what is it that you want from me.
I was just sharing a process.

While you are all busy bashing my process and calling me a liar I am actually successfully making soap for a living, something I know many of you would love to be doing.

I told you my soap was soft in the very beginning of these 'bashings' I mean discussions. I said it didn't last as long and that my customers like it. Why does a bar have to be so hard? Because it makes a better soap? By who's standards? and Which recipe?
Have you made all the recipes?

My method of testing is continually under fire, even though I asked for someone to let me know if there were a method that would be more accurate that I am not aware of. No one stepped up 'Deda', I guess it's just more fun to keep hammering me.

My pricing is no typo, that's what my bars sell for. If you are still all selling your bars for $1.00 or $1.50 /oz . the same going rate as 14 yrs ago you can't even begin to recover the costs of ingredients, packaging, labeling and labour.
And if you are new to soaping, that is what soap was selling for that long ago and if they are telling you that that is fair market value even though all raw mats have gone up, especially fragrance and essential oils you are selling yourselves short.
If you want to make a career of soapmaking then look harder at what you are worth. If customers pay $18.00 for a bar of mp from Lush why is your wonderful cp soap not worth at least that much.

I'd be happy to send you pictures if you can suggest what I was doing wrong when I tried to upload. The text came thru but the picture cleared the screen when I hit submit. I was using the forums 'resizer'.

Sygrid

 

[krissy]

i am actually very interested in your method because i am new and learn the best by doing and trying things out myself, not just reading them.i like to "feel" how things feel and work together to learn. i can't explain why the pics didn't work because i am not computer savvy like that but i am looking forward to seeing some if someone else can help you post them.

 

[sygrid]

thanx....

I hope I can send some pics too.

Sygrid

 

[krissy]

this is the way i do it, maybe i can explain it somewhat.

i click on the choose file button at the bottom then i choose my pic folder and the particular pic i want. then i click on hot it and it uploads to somewhere that gives me link options for my pic. then i copy and paste the first option to the text box where i am typing. then i just post it. the pics show up for me.HTH!
krissy

 

[mamaT]

Sygrid,
The only way I have been able to get pictures to show on the forum is to upload them to flicker and then include the link in my post. I guess that's pretty bad considering I have degrees in computer programming and electrical engineering technology.

 

[jarvan]

I realize that there are safety issues when working with and selling products that are made using lye. However, I also believe that there doesn't always have to be a straight line between the beginning and the end (product in this case). I am far too new to know what the possible safe detours are, but I discount no new idea. I am open to other possibilities. I am sorry that some here made you feel bad about your technique and success. This forum is generally very friendly. I respect all the folks with years more experience than I have in this new craft that I crave.

Oh, and for those who think that paying over $10.00 a bar for handcrafted soap is too much, you should see the stuff for sale in the gift shop in the hospital I work at. I almost dropped the $14.00 two oz. bar of lemon scented soap that they had on the shelf with all the other products such as lip balm, body butter, etc. I thought I was seeing things until I saw the same price stamped on the next bar and the next...

I realize that a price of over $5.00 per bar might seem steep for the average public ("in these hard economic times"), but it is being done and apparently successfully in certain areas.

 

[Deda]

Sygrid, I have been polite to you from the beginning.

I asked about your method with interest. Questioning, but still interested. If your interpretation of my question led you to think it was an inflammatory post that's your issue.

You're free to make soap any way you choose. We, as a forum, are free to question your methods when you appear on our doorstep proclaiming to have a brand new method. Your "Can't fail overnight cure recipe ". A method that many feel flies in the face of the science and safety we adhere to. If you have a better way, teach us. Demanding respect you have yet to earn will only isolate you further from this community.

Most of us have use slightly different methods, I don't think any of us feel the need to constantly defend our practices.
I'm sorry you do.

An aside, if you were to address another member in the goading manner you addressed me I can assure you that your membership here would be in question. As a moderator I'm a big girl and can see that you're feeling threatened.
Clean up your act and begin again.

 

[Vinca Leaf]

An aside, if you were to address another member in the goading manner you addressed me I can assure you that your membership here would be in question. As a moderator I'm a big girl and can see that you're feeling threatened.
Clean up your act and begin again.

Kaaaaaa-POW!

And for the record, I'm not from Alaska....

 

[sygrid]

Deda, I don't feel threatened

I'm happy to answer any of your questions, I am wondering why you don't answer any of my mine. You are the one who is challenging my method of testing my levels, and I have asked you twice which method is better and still no reply. So how do you test your soap?

Although not a cosmetic, soap has the same spectrum of formulations, & processes. Everyone has a drawer full of cosmetics that don't work for them not because there is anything wrong with the product. They may not care for the texture, colour or perhaps they have a reaction to them. It does not make the product 'bad', it's just not suited to them.
I have asked if you would qualify the reasons soap has to be hard, why you consider my process and soap inferior and most recently unscientific and unsafe. The science is correct I can assure you and the soap is safe.
I am still interested to hear your answers.


I am not combative in the slightest. In your last post you questioned whether I even make soap. I dont' think that qualifies as polite actually.

Anyway, I will try to upload these pics for those who have asked to see.
Thanks for the help tips for uploading for those who cared to offer

Sygrid

I still can upload, I'll try again later

 

[gekko62]

Sygrid,photobucket is the way to go(it's free & virtually instantaneous).You can't upload straight from yr pc to the forum,so ...upload yr pics to photobucket,...in photobucket,move yr mouse over the pic you want to load,...hilite 'IMG' code(its the last one on the drop down list)..,right click then copy,..back to forum,..right click then paste..voila! (sorry if this all sounds a bit basic,but I've no idea how computer savvy you is ..AND many kind thanks to the kindlysoul who pointed all this out for me!)

 

[jarvan]

I personally use Phenolphthalein to test my soaps for neutrality. I prefer a hard bar of soap, especially if I buy an artisan bar, simply for my satisfaction of knowing it won't melt in the first few showers. It doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with a softer bar, just that I feel I get my money's worth in a bar that lasts.

I know there are other testing methods, zap, pH paper (litmus)...I just know what works for me.

I had looked up testing pH of soap for acidity in a google search and found a PhD chemist who mentions all of these methods and finally says that simple pH strips will get you in the ballpark to make a safe determination.

 

[Deda]

I have asked you twice which method is better and still no reply. So how do you test your soap?

I use a tested recipe with an acceptable superfat and an accurately calibrated scale. I've tested my soaps with DH's pH meter, they always come out around 9.8.

 

[Deda]

OK Sygrid, let me clarify this little tête-à-tête.

You commented:

Soap will be cured by the next day. Test with Phenol so that you are sure the ph is right. Not with ph strips, they are not accurate.

To which I replied:

I'm guessing you didn't actually mean Phenol, but Phenolphthalein.

Phenolphthalein would react (fuchsia) in a range of 8.2 and 12, not really helpful in making bar soap (ideally between 8.5 and 10.5).

You answered by telling me I was being mean to you.

I understand that testing the pH level is important to you. I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't have any interest in how you test, if you test, or what you test with. I was simply trying to clear up confusion since you were directing your recipe/instructions to new soapmakers who might not be familiar with different means of testing.

Again, I'm so sorry if you felt threatened.

 

[madpiano]

Sygrid, your soaps look georgeous. Now I understand why you charge so much and as I said before, if you can get that kind of money, well done on you.

I would love to charge this kind of money, but round here I can't. I could try for a stall near central London in the heart of tourist land and that is a plan for the future, but for now I am happy if I don't see the town centre again for a long time (I worked for 10 years "in the city").

I am not sure what this PH testing is about. I have some strips from the fish tank and may try my soaps with that and once I get into liquid soap I will have to test anyways.

I still question your 24hr cure method, but if you are happy with your product then this is perfectly fine. We all sell products we are happy with.

 

[honor435]

yikes! whats is the method that you use for making soap? It is cp, then what, covering, oven? I cant find where this thread first started.

 

[carebear]

Go with it, if you are satisfied.

I couldn't be - but that's me.

And no, I don't sell my soaps for $1.50 - and I doubt anyone here does if they have any desire to make a profit off it. Nor do I charge $35. I'm sure in some venues I could command that price (after spending a significant chunk of it on packaging) - but I prefer to sell a great product at a reasonable price.

It's not necessarily about getting bars out there fast and making money: for me, the primary driver of my soaping obsession is control over quality. My bars are consistent, stable, and skin caring. And they are pretty and smell nice too!

But each has their own goal. And I'm good with that.

 

[Deda]

http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... ght=#96361
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... ght=#96621

Honor, these are the 2 topics where Sygrid shares her soaping method.

 

[Tabitha]

The title/intent of this thread is inflammatory. It is now closed.

 

[12345smf]

The SMF's definition of an internet troll:

"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupting normal discussion."-WIKI

The SMF has zero tolerance for trolling. If we determine you are attempting to provoke or disrupt this forum or if your posts have an inflammatory feel to them your account will be deleted an your IP will be banned.