Soap Gifting

[SudsMcKenzie]

I gave soap to people for the first time--
Massage therapist - she got one bar each of the first three batches, I took a bamboo skewer and scribed the number of weeks to wait before she could use them. In retrospect I should have put a date...or the date they were made.... I also put the oil percentages on them. I am ashamed to share what the oils were-they were not according to Hoyle.
Sister in law - she got a test bar of a batch I rebatched-so it was harder despite it not being very old. It was 100% olive oil, she thought it would be greasy, I told her the lye combines with the oil so there is not much oil left. She was OK with that. I can't wait to get feedback on the soap, even if she doesn't like it, that is OK, everyone likes different qualities in their soap.
Also gave "sample packs" to my nieces. I had some other soaps I made in small batches to see what the FO's would smell like in the soap (and to see if they stunk, since some of them did not smell that great not in soap). They were super excited. I told them to give feedback. I took some wrapping paper that I tore off one end of the paper I was wrapping a gift in (you know when you have too much to fold up on one end and you cut some off, but I was too lazy to cut it so I ripped it off...) and used those tacky scraps and taped them in a sleeve around each piece of soap (some were just pieces of a bar of soap ha ha ha) and wrote what they were and what the fragrance was, except for the ones where I put "?" because I didn't do a good job of keeping track. If you can't tell what it is when you smell the soap then that is kind of not an ideal FO? Also had some uggo's where I experimented with colors. One niece thought it was cute (squiggles). She has not seen those cylinder pulls. The test batches were from one big batch that I was taking small amounts from and mixing the FO's in as I went, by the end, it was setting up pretty fast, plus I was running low so those didn't fill up the bar molds all the way - they were chalky wafers. Put their samples in zip locks. I am a class act.
Gave mom her custom oatmeal soap. It is not fully cured, but that's OK, she can have the rest months from now to compare. She has used that Aveeno for years, it melts so easily. Hopefully I can craft a more resilient oatmeal soap for her.
I know, long post. Can you tell I am really excited about this? Anyone reminded of their early soap gifting?

 

[melinda48]

The only soap I “gifted” when I first got soaping was to my husband and daughter. I was too afraid that the bars were not good enough for others and so they went to those who would not be insulted by my “learning bars.” Once I had been soaping a while (about a year), I started giving soaps to friends at work. Once I began selling, I went back to my Sweet Baboo (lucky man!). now he and our daughter and son and daughter-in-law are my guinea pigs. They don’t seem to mind.

 

[AliOop]

I am ashamed to share what the oils were-they were not according to Hoyle.

Sorry, I don't understand what this means. Is Hoyle the author of a soapmaking book? I thought I'd read most of them, but am not familiar with this name.

Anyway, even if Hoyle is a well-respecting soaping book author, you don't have to follow anyone's recipes. If you understand what the different fatty acids in each of the oils bring to your soap, you can easily create your own recipes using a lye calculator. If you'd like to learn more, here is a good article about the fatty acids in soapmaking.

 

[Ford]

Hi, there's nothing like the excitement. Of your first few batches.

^According to Hoyle means according to the prescribed rules and regulations for a particular situation. It comes from Edmond Hoyle (1671/72-1769), a British writer who codified the rules for various games.^

 

[SudsMcKenzie]

Thanks soapers,

The only soap I “gifted” when I first got soaping was to my husband and daughter. I was too afraid that the bars were not good enough for others and so they went to those who would not be insulted by my “learning bars.” Once I had been soaping a while (about a year), I started giving soaps to friends at work. Once I began selling, I went back to my Sweet Baboo (lucky man!). now he and our daughter and son and daughter-in-law are my guinea pigs. They don’t seem to mind

Congratulations on selling, And on having guinea pigs. I would like to sell. I don't mind making the soap, but the rest of it sounds like the harder part of it. My soap was ugly, but I see a good soap as being the same as what someone told me once about a good wine. "It's a good wine if you like it".