Thank you SMF

[LilyJo]

Ages ago I posted that I had lost my mojo, I couldn't make a soap work, frustrated with the whole thing.

So, I stopped making. Packed everything away and forgot about making anything at all but carried on lurking here, watching, reading, learning more and more. I made the odd soap here and there when someone inspired me to try a new recipe or such but kind of ignored them and what do you know? Those half hearted soaps the peeps here inspired me to make 6 or more months ago are now totally awesome.

I've been making for years, have soaps safety assessed and was selling before all this but now I finally get it. My old soaps looked great, smelt amazing but now I know just how much better they could've been. I am finally making again and with a great recipe and a long cure, and I have faith in my soap.

All the times new soapers rush to selling or rush to get a safety assessment I would completely echo everyone who says don't. I am a different soaper today to a year ago and hugely different to three+ years before that and it really shows in my products.

So, thank you to everyone on here who has made me question what I was doing, made me understand why it mattered and most of all kept me going with inspiration and ideas.

 

[JuliaNegusuk]

I have to say I agree. I'd been making soap for several years before I got nagged into coming up with a recipe for the shop where I volunteered. When I finally gave in I had a deadline of about 9 months, which I thought was plenty of time given my oodles of soaping experience, but also a new recipe to find and certify with no palm oil and no animal products, which was a bit unfamiliar. I did it, the soap is fine once you get rid of the soda ash!!!! People like it and buy it. But nearly three years on I can't say I would use the same recipe now and I'd probably reduce some of the additives too. I don't think I'd bother with the sugar and the castor which in my humble opinion, make little or no difference to the bubbliness of my recipe and just add to the annoying list of ingredients I have to measure and record the sources for traceability and add to the label etc. My one piece of advice for people making to sell is, like your recipe but keep it simple. If the quantity of ingredients you have to weigh and record is very slightly irritating when developing your recipe, it will be insanely infuriating once you've made it 20 or 30 times.
I'm glad you have recovered your soaping mojo LilyJo, I hope to do the same once I have conquered this soda ash, and I will do it even if I do end up having to recertify it all over again.

 

[LilyJo]

Thank you, for what its worth I'm rectifying. You can amend an existing cert for £15-20 I think so might be worth taking out the irritating bits...

 

[dippy]

What a lovely post LilyJo! I am glad you got your mojo back. I haven't even made my first batch yet as I am waiting a crazy long time for my supplies to arrive but I have been doing lots of reading on this forum over the last few weeks and I can tell the members are a supportive group of people. I have asked some very basic questions that have probably been asked many times before and I have seen other beginners asking similar stuff. Always someone has stepped up to answer and help further members education and that is a great thing.

I don't have any experience yet but I can see what a frustrating hobby this can be at times with people seemingly doing the same thing and sometimes getting a different result. To keep pushing through that must take willpower and commitment.

Well done for finding your perfect recipe LilyJo and Julia I hope you solve your soda ash issue. Wise words about keeping it simple - some recipes for beginners make my mind boggle when many advanced soapers seem to use simple recipes.