The Difference between an early bar of soap...

[ChrissyB]

The difference between an early bar of soap that I made when I first started, and the soap that I make now is.....HUGE!
I was so pleased with myself and felt so clever when I first followed a recipe and made soap. It gelled, it set, it lathered.
But compared to the soap that I make now, 2 1/2 years later, well I'm sorry to say it doesn't compare AT ALL.

So to all the new soapers that have joined our forum, my advice is: put away a couple of bars from your earliest batches, hide them in the cupboard or something, keep formulating,testing, lathering...then in 12 months compare the soap you are making then to the soap you are making now.
You won't believe the difference till you feel it for your self.
:wink: Srsly.

 

[IanT]

The difference between an early bar of soap that I made when I first started, and the soap that I make now is.....HUGE!
I was so pleased with myself and felt so clever when I first followed a recipe and made soap. It gelled, it set, it lathered.
But compared to the soap that I make now, 2 1/2 years later, well I'm sorry to say it doesn't compare AT ALL.

So to all the new soapers that have joined our forum, my advice is: put away a couple of bars from your earliest batches, hide them in the cupboard or something, keep formulating,testing, lathering...then in 12 months compare the soap you are making then to the soap you are making now.
You won't believe the difference till you feel it for your self.
:wink: Srsly.

I have a soap that I made like 2 yrs ago... Its awesome to see the difference

 

[ChrissyB]

It makes you realise how far you've come, doesn't it?
I mean, it's like "yeah I made soap 2 years ago that was ok, but I make soap now that's fantastic. And I know the difference!!".

 

[IanT]

**** right!!

I still remember making my first batch like it was yesterday!

 

[RikRaks]

I will do that....Off to go put a chunk of Cham Lav soap away Honestly I am on my 9th or 10th batch and am already seeing a difference Glad I found this board though!!!!!

 

[agriffin]

The difference between an early bar of soap that I made when I first started, and the soap that I make now is.....HUGE!
I was so pleased with myself and felt so clever when I first followed a recipe and made soap. It gelled, it set, it lathered.
But compared to the soap that I make now, 2 1/2 years later, well I'm sorry to say it doesn't compare AT ALL.

So to all the new soapers that have joined our forum, my advice is: put away a couple of bars from your earliest batches, hide them in the cupboard or something, keep formulating,testing, lathering...then in 12 months compare the soap you are making then to the soap you are making now.
You won't believe the difference till you feel it for your self.
:wink: Srsly.

Very true! I save a sliver from every batch and have at least 1 whole bar from about the first 5 batches that I did! It's amazing...

Great advice, Chrissy!

 

[Sunny]

I can already tell this is going to be true.. I keep messing things up and thinking to myself, "all right, now I know what to expect... won't do that again."

practice will make perfect. /sigh at last night's batch of soap. lol

 

[ChrissyB]

Tasha it will all start to come together for you.
After 30 or 40 or 50 batches you'll find your groove. Well it took me at least that long. But that was trying different recipes, different additives, different techniques. Test test Test!!!

 

[kommon_sense]

I'm still waiting on my first batch to cure (3 more weeks :| ). What type of difference is everyone seeing? Have you just fine tuned your recipes or have you gotten better in your process?

 

[jennikate]

Kommon to be honest I think it's alittle of both. We keep fine tuning the recipe to get the lather hardness ect we want and as my mom says practice makes perfect with our process we learn what works best for each of us. Just my 2 cents

 

[IanT]

Kommon to be honest I think it's alittle of both. We keep fine tuning the recipe to get the lather hardness ect we want and as my mom says practice makes perfect with our process we learn what works best for each of us. Just my 2 cents

yeah I agree, every recipe is fine tuned from the last, and I learn things that make me a more knowledgeable (and efficient) soaper each time I soap

 

[madpiano]

my first batch was the 33% each recipe (OO, CO, PO) and I still have some. It is actually a nice bar of soap. So hard you could kill someone with it, but of course not as nice as my current recipe.

I remember wondering why people used so many different oils in their soaps and thought people who use 5 different oils are mad. Lol, my favourite recipe has 7 different oils and it makes an awesome bar. It is being upgraded to 8 different oils this weekend, as I am trying beeswax in my soap for the first time to see if I can cut back on ash....Pain to measure it out all the time, but once I finally settled on a recipe I will pre-batch all of the oils, so I not longer have to measure. (well, only once a week)

 

[SpottedCat]

Oh I really wish I had done that. It is so true, I can really tell the difference in my soaps I made even a year ago. I just hit a milestone the other day and can actually feel a diffence even when making the soap now. I used to get ash all the time, but don't so much anymore.

 

[kommon_sense]

Any advice you can offer a new soaper? Things you realize are important, or things that aren't? Little things that you've found make your life easier? Things you can never have too much of in your soap toolkit etc.?

I think that I'm going to enjoy soaping. I'm just a little concerned by the long cure time. Seems like learning from your mistakes will take quite a while when you have several weeks between making it and finding out if its any good.

Do you let the numbers in the soap calculator dictate what goes in your bar? INS Values? iodine? etc.?

 

[IanT]

numbers are alllll relative, I dont pay attention to many numbers other than the amount of ingredients (double, triple, quadruple checking it)...

I can never have enough Olive oil, Eucalyptus EO, Tea Tree EO, or Lavender EO... looovem!

 

[DopeSoap]

Any advice you can offer a new soaper? Things you realize are important, or things that aren't? Little things that you've found make your life easier? Things you can never have too much of in your soap toolkit etc.?

I think that I'm going to enjoy soaping. I'm just a little concerned by the long cure time. Seems like learning from your mistakes will take quite a while when you have several weeks between making it and finding out if its any good.

Do you let the numbers in the soap calculator dictate what goes in your bar? INS Values? iodine? etc.?

The testing can take a long time because of the curing stage, and it becomes a bit expensive once you decide to keep going, and when you make mistakes, but it's worth it in the end.

The calculators are a great way to start, and then do some google searches and you can find information on what properties each type of carrier oil adds to the soap and you will be able to tweak your recipes to get whatever desired result you want.