Thank you so much for looking! 2009! You must take care of your things really well. I had a soaping break when I was out of the US for a number of years. All of my soaping stuff was in storage in my mom's garage and my sister threw all of it out during a mouse infestation. I still think of some of the great molds I had and can't replace, I've spent so much time online looking for them. I'm glad you still have the smiley man after all these years!
Shower Lotion Bar Tests and recipes
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I think it's not possible to use this mold for soap.. it's made from that clear plastic material and a part of it is a little warped from something hot, so I can only use it for lotion bars which I don't often make.
Ah I can relate to parting with precious crafting equipment. I moved from Canada to the US and had to give up most of my molds and my entire collection of EOs and FOs. Molds are tough to replace though, for some reason there are too many on the market and too few that are actually inspiring :/ side note - try searching with Google lens, it's actually useful for looking up stuff from pictures.
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Oh i haven't thought of polymer clay. How do you make a mold with polymer clay?
They're also known as red mung beans or red beans, which you might be able to find if you have a Chinese or Asian grocer nearby.
I will refer you to YouTube where people way more talented than I am can provide intelligible instructions.
Well I already have the mold lol, but if @not_ally wanted to dupe it and knows of an easy method, I'd be open to trying.I will refer you to YouTube where people way more talented than I am can provide intelligible instructions.
You would use your mold to make an item out of polymer clay, or resin. YT has video tutorials that show you how to do this.
When that dries, you would send the clay or resin item to not_ally.
Then she would watch the other videos that show how to make silicone mold using the item you sent her. Like this one.
That sounds really complicated! I will forego the opportunity to try and replicate Mr. Smiley man and just admire him in @nadsnads creations. I got an Etsy gift certificate for Christmas and bought one of the Wild Plantanica pull through kits, I have a feeling I am going to be fully occupied for a while, those soaps are beautiful but it seems like there might be quite the learning curve.
@AliOop, I am going to look at the mold replication thing for another mold I have, though, I really like it but I only have the one and it would be nice to make more than one at a time. That video was really interesting and tempting in terms of projects. ETA: have you made a silicon mold using a method like this? They make it look so easy but I suspect it is not, maybe.
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That makes sense!
Thank you! Do you know if they are the same as small red beans? Those are easy to find locally.
I bought a pull through kit from Wild Plantanica a couple months ago and still need to try it. I will definitely share my experience.
She (the seller) is so nice. I forgot that I wanted to add the six disc pack for making square soaps out of empty quart dairy containers, so messaged to ask if she could add it and how to pay, and she told me not to worry about payment, she'd just add it to the order because I'd ordered several items.
I am really looking forward to using the kit but am weirdly nervous. It just seems hard to keep the batter from tracing too fast when you're trying to pour small amounts into the center of that small space so many times. But such a great payoff if you can figure out how to do it!
I am really looking forward to using the kit but am weirdly nervous. It just seems hard to keep the batter from tracing too fast when you're trying to pour small amounts into the center of that small space so many times. But such a great payoff if you can figure out how to do it!
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Saffron
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Thank you for sharingI'm actually thinking that I will stay with the bigger ones because they will last longer, although your point about just using them up faster without worrying about bigger mushy bits makes sense. I have one of the round ones in the shower now (I think they are about 4 oz). After about ten showers (I think, not sure because my niece may be using it too) - using them pretty lavishly on my arms and legs - it got thin enough to break and I just smushed the pieces together to finish using it. I have NOT been good about keeping it out of the shower/away from heat and steam, though. I think it would last much longer (and it would be a good health/safety measure) if I did, so I'm glad we had this little talk
How many showers have your Buffy dupes lasted for? They are an expensive indulgence because they are 2/3 pure butters and the whole point is that they melt, but if you make them yourself I think they are so worth it! I am too cheap to pay $14 for 3.3 oz at Lush, though.
ETA: I was a little worried about them getting moldy or otherwise nasty in the shower, but decided with them being anhydrous and then adding the preservative they should be OK. Plus Lush has had them on the market for at least a decade, that's somewhat reassuring!
Regarding Lush bars, a while back I read somewhere that the reason their products don't spoil without apparently having any 'preservatives' on the ingredients list is because the preservative is included as a component of the perfume. They tend to use a lot of 'fresh' food ingredients (bananas, avocados etc) in their products such as masks and lotion bars and to sell those to the public without adding any preservative would not meet the cosmetics safety standards in the EU (or anywhere else). Like you, I would err on the side of caution and include some form of preservative.
I'm not sure but I think you could sub with pretty much any bean. The texture is more or less the same.
That's interesting. I thought that in the US at least (and I had always assumed that the EU would be be more stringent) that you had to be explicit about components of ingredients to avoid just that. To do otherwise seems kind of disrespectful to people that feel strongly about avoiding preservatives. Definitely not me, I'd much rather have a tiny amount of a preservative with a paraben in it than take a chance on making someone sick, but I understand that a lot of people feel really strongly the other way.
My understanding is that in the US, the FDA has a pretty wide and open definition of "fragrance," because a lot of times it's proprietary. I don't know how much (or if at all) they regulate what exactly is in those fragrances.
ETA: Fragrances in Cosmetics
Wow, that's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. Good for them if they figured out a way to work it, I guess.
Totally. They kinda leave it on the consumer to try everything and decide what doesn't work for you, lol.
Thank you!
