Tried CP soleseife

[Dawni]

I was doing a lot of reading on soleseife here and several websites and figured if I do the calculations for the salt right, a newbie like me should be able to handle a small batch.

I just hope I got the superfat right lol..

I said somewhere else that I'll post pics tomorrow but I wanted to share these in the mold now, as they are my first try at CP (I jumped straight to HP coz I like the rustic look) and so far so good.

I will post pics tomorrow once I unmold them

And yes, I need lots of practice swirling lol

 

[Obsidian]

They are pretty, your swirls look just fine to me. Did you use indigo for color?

 

[Dawni]

Oh @Obsidian those are just the nice ones... I cropped out the ones that had more black lol

I guess I didn't swirl in the pot enough. I used activated charcoal (I would love to be able to find indigo, blue is my favorite color) and it mostly poured out first. I had to scoop out some from the first cavities and plopped them into the rest, coz they were lighter, then swirled with a toothpick.

I'm hoping they won't be scratchy. I can see flecks of charcoal as well as flecks of my moringa powder (which didn't turn the soap green lol).

But thank you! It's my first soap someone called pretty. My previous ones (but those were HP) looked like poop according to my teenager lol

 

[Dawni]

Thank you for moving this! I'll post here appropriately from now on

I unmolded these mini soaps after about 9hrs..

They feel oily to the touch (is that normal?) and one broke, as you can see. I should probably leave them alone for some more hours then put them away to cure without me touching them all the time after lol

 

[SaltedFig]

Don't worry - if your superfat is ok and your lye is still good, they'll be fine, just give them time (CP soaps take a little longer to saponify than HP, and yours are only a few hours old.)

And ... keep the broken one - you can wash-test using one side and the other side can be just for touching

Nice soap - if you didn't say, I would have thought the specks were intentional !

 

[Dawni]

Don't worry - if your superfat is ok and your lye is still good, they'll be fine, just give them time (CP soaps take a little longer to saponify than HP, and yours are only a few hours old.)

Yes, I read about that. I will (try) patiently wait lol

And ... keep the broken one - you can wash-test using one side and the other side can be just for touching

Good idea lol I just have to be careful not to break more. I didn't unmold the rest yet, there's another 20 mini soaps in my recycled mold.

Nice soap - if you didn't say, I would have thought the specks were intentional !

Thank you! I do wonder what the trick is but I'm assuming a finer powder is needed. The batter was a lot greener and not its faded to a very muted gray-green, but I like it.

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, the oily is normal. Stop touching them for now.
Are these soleseife (made with brine) or salt bars (made with dry salt)?

In the pot swirls are my favorite, easy and always look nice.

I had a problem of using too much of the swirl color. I was dividing the batter into 2 equal parts. Now I only color 1/4 - 1/3 of the batter to create wispy swirls.

I never cared much for indigo, could never get a good blue. It was either grey or lavender.

The specks look kinda neat. If you want to prevent them, mix your charcoal with a little water and make sure all the lumps are out and its creamy before adding to the soap.

 

[SaltedFig]

... I do wonder what the trick is but I'm assuming a finer powder is needed. ...

I soak my charcoal powder in a little distilled water first - this helps distribute the charcoal evenly and reduces charcoal dust (which is really bad for lungs).
Charcoal can clump a bit if it's added to the batter directly, depending on how you add it (dusting it works better than spooning it in, but watch your lungs this way).

... or what Obsidian says (typing at the same time)

My powder is very fine, but for the one time I had a coarser powder, I sieved the charcoal liquid through a bit of cloth material to get out any big specks

 

[Dawni]

Yep, the oily is normal. Stop touching them for now.
Are these soleseife (made with brine) or salt bars (made with dry salt)?

In the pot swirls are my favorite, easy and always look nice.

Only looking from now on I was too excited to unmold when I woke up hehe
I made these with dissolved salt at 25% water weight.. I got inspired by a thread I read here.

I had a problem of using too much of the swirl color. I was dividing the batter into 2 equal parts. Now I only color 1/4 - 1/3 of the batter to create wispy swirls.

I never cared much for indigo, could never get a good blue. It was either grey or lavender.

The black was also around 1/3 I'm guessing.. I probably didn't swirl properly in the pot coz I worried it'll all become one black color.

I've been dreaming of blue soap. The trouble is I have not yet found a trusted source for micas so only natural colorants for me for now, and even those aren't very easy to get by here.

The specks look kinda neat. If you want to prevent them, mix your charcoal with a little water and make sure all the lumps are out and its creamy before adding to the soap.

I did mix in water and got something that looked like my face mask lol. I think more of the flecks are from my powdered moringa leaves. My grinder did not want to powder them more. They're much smaller than flakes but still not fine. I was actually inspired by your green moringa soap but it just didn't wanna get green.

I soak my charcoal powder in a little distilled water first - this helps distribute the charcoal evenly and reduces charcoal dust (which is really bad for lungs).
Charcoal can clump a bit if it's added to the batter directly, depending on how you add it (dusting it works better than spooning it in, but watch your lungs this way).

... or what Obsidian says (typing at the same time)

My powder is very fine, but for the one time I had a coarser powder, I sieved the charcoal liquid through a bit of cloth material to get out any big specks

Thanks for the tips... I wonder if that will work with my moringa powder too. Most of the charcoal seem to have blended and my store bought neem powder seems to have been dissolved though so it's mainly my moringa.

 

[Obsidian]

I've never been able to finely grind herbs, not even with a mortar and pestle. My moringa soap has turned a dark brownish green, I think I used way too much for a nice color.
Maybe try soaking a few spoonfuls in 3-4 ounces.of water then blending it really well for a few minutes before straining the biggest bits out.

When I do in the pot swirls, I pour a little color in at 4 different spots and use a flat spatula to fold the batter over instead of stirring. I'll try to find the video I followed, it works really well.

 

[MGM]

@Dawni do you mind posting your recipe for these? I've been having some less than stellar results lately and think I need to follow some trusted recipes TO THE LETTER.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Dawni]

Hi @MGM.. For this one, I'm attaching the recipe. I've since made tweaks and tried different oils but I got good feedback from family for this particular one.

There's also a discussion on salt and now soleseifes here (some info prior to this post and more after it), with lots more info, if you're interested

 

[Dean]

I was doing a lot of reading on soleseife here and several websites and figured if I do the calculations for the salt right, a newbie like me should be able to handle a small batch.

I just hope I got the superfat right lol..

I said somewhere else that I'll post pics tomorrow but I wanted to share these in the mold now, as they are my first try at CP (I jumped straight to HP coz I like the rustic look) and so far so good.

View attachment 32925

I will post pics tomorrow once I unmold them

And yes, I need lots of practice swirling lol

What did u use for molds?

 

[Dawni]

What did u use for molds?

Recycled the plastic tray thingy from a chocolate box. This one previously contained Lindt gold bunnies