The entry thread is now closed. Voting link and password will be sent shortly. Good luck to everyone who submitted an entry - the soaps were all so unique and beautiful. Great job everyone!!
SMF November 2024 Challenge - Hello Yellow!
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Thanks, that was stuck in my head till a Yellow Submarine came swimming in and pushed it out
All the soaps are amazing and all so different and fun to see!
So many great designs. So much from one color. Tough to choose. I have a headache now. Thanks again.
@Tammyfarms I'm wondering if your Bengal tea is decaffeinated or caffeinated. I wanted to buy some last night but they only have decaffeinated. It looked like the same box as yours. I'd like to try this!
The tea is caffeine free. It is really good. I decided to use it in soap as it has too much something (maybe ginger) for me. I love the taste but my weird body reacts badly to it. That’s not unusual, I react to a lot of things so don’t let that influence your decision to try it. I hope you love it.
Thank you does it help make your soap smell like chai tea I'd like to try this in my soap too and drink it lol. I love chai tea.
Ah geez, I had just got Mellow Yellow out of my head and read this, now that Yellow Submarine has taken over.Thanks, that was stuck in my head till a Yellow Submarine came swimming in and pushed it out
All the soaps are amazing and all so different and fun to see!
@dibbles thank you for a wonderful challenge. So much fun!
Everyone’s soaps were so pretty.
I’m definitely going to try that combination of litsea cubeba and lemon from @Nona'sFarm.
It gives it a bit of chai tea fragrance and I think it helped to anchor the orange EO I used. I definitely recommend pulverizing the tea first in a coffee grinder. I didn’t do this the first time I made it and had to use a bag with the soap as it was pretty scratchy. This time I ground it and then used a strainer with small mesh to make sure the bigger pieces stayed out of the batter. One note is that it did seem to *slightly* accelerate the batter. Maybe because there’s a little clove in the tea? My usual recipe is pretty slow moving and this seemed to move a little quicker than usual.
I also put it in a slurry with kaolin clay and castor oil. I used 1Tb tea ppo. I like to let my slurries sit at least 24 hours and sometimes they sit for weeks.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions and if you make it, let me know how it goes.
@Tammyfarms, quick slurry question - would a kaolin clay, essential oil and castor oil slurry anchor scent without the addition of tea or other plant matter? And how much castor oil in, say, 1/2 oz essential oil with 1 tsp. Kaolin clay (for one pound of soaping oils)?
Thank you I never tried a slurry yet I'm going to have to try this thank you so much I will let you know how it turns out once I get a chance to try it.It gives it a bit of chai tea fragrance and I think it helped to anchor the orange EO I used. I definitely recommend pulverizing the tea first in a coffee grinder. I didn’t do this the first time I made it and had to use a bag with the soap as it was pretty scratchy. This time I ground it and then used a strainer with small mesh to make sure the bigger pieces stayed out of the batter. One note is that it did seem to *slightly* accelerate the batter. Maybe because there’s a little clove in the tea? My usual recipe is pretty slow moving and this seemed to move a little quicker than usual.
I also put it in a slurry with kaolin clay and castor oil. I used 1Tb tea ppo. I like to let my slurries sit at least 24 hours and sometimes they sit for weeks.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions and if you make it, let me know how it goes.
I believe it helps. There’s a great discussion here,
Thread 'QuasiQuadrant's Stellar Method for EO Blends That Stick'
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...tellar-method-for-eo-blends-that-stick.90973/
I use 1 TB ppo kaolin clay and 15 grams castor oil with the appropriate amount of EO (varies based on IFRA standards). I will say that even using a slurry, it’s still hard to get lighter citrus EO to stick so using a base note really helps.
Thank you so much! I've been looking for details on how to make a slurry and came up empty so far. I'll read through the discussion you linked and make up a nice slurry for my next soaping session.
Do you account for the castor oil in your recipe calculation or superfat, or is it just incidental like dispersing charcoal in a little olive oil?
Do you account for the castor oil in your recipe calculation or superfat, or is it just incidental like dispersing charcoal in a little olive oil?
I usually make a 2 lb (1000 gram) batch at a time and use just 5% castor oil which would be 50 grams. I subtract the amount from the slurry. The reason for the long explanation is that from what I have read you really don’t want to go above 10% castor or your soap gets sticky. If I added the castor oil I would be at 8%, still below the 10% but a higher percentage than I want. I will often use a little extra olive oil to mix up titanium dioxide or micas and let that add to my super fat but I try to remember to mix micas from my oils before adding the lye. That doesn’t always happen.
Okay, that makes sense. I haven't been adding any castor oil to my soaps, and my superfat is usually 2%, so that little bit shouldn't matter for me. Thanks!
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The kids came up for the week. Our oldest is a political campaign strategist from Chicago no less and has lost just one election. When he found out that voting is open, he rattled off several strategies that I need to jump on right now. "Dad, you gotta work the phones, what, you need rosemary essential oil? I got you. What, you need a wire cutter! Take mine. And practice saying Can I count on your vote? Don't forget to close the deal!" 
The monthly challenges are fun to get creative with. Since there are no prizes, I had an idea~In addition to !st, 2nd, & 3rd places, why not add Honorable mention or best use of color, etc. It would add to it and more people would win a title. Something along these lines anyway. What do you all say??
artemis
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I don't think I need something like that, personally. Really, I don't think there are enough people actually posting entries that that makes sense. If you have first, second and third place and then you tack on a "best color," "best layers," "honorable mention" or whatever, then we're almost to a point where you might as well give everyone a title. I also feel like a lot of those sorts of things happen in the comments here. We all tend to compliment competitors on their various technical skills. I personally value that more than an honorable mention.
My thoughts echo a lot of what @artemis said. Some other things to consider - Amy Warden does do some honorable mention awards for her challenges and, having been on the receiving end of that, it is nice. But you also have to understand that she has many, many entries from which to choose. We often only have a handful of entries. I could see myself trying to come up with enough 'honorable mentions' so that everyone has recognition if there were less than even 10 entries. While I don't subscribe to the 'everyone gets a trophy' mentality, I also wouldn't want only one person to not have a mention.
I don't know how the other hosts feel about what I am going to say next, but this is my take. I am happy to host challenges, but coming up with the idea, researching, making soap for an example, compiling tips, searching for good video and photo examples does take time. It's not a crushing amount of time, but it still takes the same amount of work whether 4 people sign up or 400 people sign up. Getting the survey ready also takes time. Monitoring the challenge thread for questions from participants takes time. I think we are all happy to do that, but as to adding another task - ie picking 'best whatever' is something I am not really interested in adding to the challenges I host, because I can see myself struggling with either choosing an entry for a particular award or thinking of enough awards that no one is left out. And that's probably a me thing.
It is a nice thought though, and I appreciate it.
My thoughts exactly. The extra prize categories make sense for Amy Warden because she lots of sponsors, donated prizes, and paid help based on entry fees -- not to mention 500+ entries. I'd love to see SMF get to that point someday, but for the time being, your hostesses are volunteers, and some of us with day jobs.
I do love that you @Firefly24 are thinking of ways to promote SMF's challenges. It's always good to share ideas, even if the answer is no, or not yet.
I don't think this is actually correct. Each month there is a sponsor who donates a prize for the first place winner in each of the categories, and sometimes provides a discount to the second and third place winners, that is true. But I don't get the impression that she has any paid help. The number of people who submitted entries each month was no where near 500. The highest month of submitted entries so far in 2024 was lower than 150 total. Last month there were about 50 entries. I know that more people than that register for a challenge and don't end up submitting, but I have no way of knowing how many. Neither do you, so I really don't know where your 500+ entries statement comes from.
Edit: correction to add 2024
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I'm sorry if I was unclear, or sounded derogatory in any way... I meant all of that as a sincere compliment about how much she has achieved, and how long she's been doing this.
She does have lots of different sponsors who donate prizes - but you are right, it is only one sponsor each month. And I will completely defer to you regarding the number of entries, as I've only entered once a few years ago. It seemed like there were hundreds of entries that month. I had a very hard time getting through all of them to figure out which ones to vote for! But that's a hazy memory for me; with your consistent participation, you absolutely have a better handle on that than I do.
Regarding the paid help, I was told that by someone who allegedly was "on the inside." I don't know that person well so it's entirely possible that it was incorrect. Please accept my apology.
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