Welcome to the SMF Family!! Please read this first :)

[Esther]

Hi! I'm Esther, 10 days older than dirt and new to soap making.

Mostly out of curiosity and a bit because I wanted to make the nice stuff in the stores way cheaper for myself and as gifts. This is a great forum! I'm very happy to have found you!

 

[cinta]

Hi! I am so glad I came across this forum! I love CP soapmaking, and while my husband loves listening to me ramble on about my soapmaking ideas & adventures, I have often wanted to share info & experiences with other 'soapers'.

Looking foreward to learning, laughing & loving soapmaking with you all!

 

[Wendy0224]

My name is Wendy. I have been doing some research on soap making. I haven't tried making any soap yet and still have some questions. I am here to learn from experienced soapmakers. It looks like so much fun!

 

[apurwa]

Hello

Hi Everyone,

I am Apurwa from India. I have just started making soaps and my first ever attempt was unsuccessful I need some help with it. I dont know where i went wrong. Can i post my queries here or should i open a new thread for that?
I would love to make beautiful soaps in the future so want to get the technique right!
Please help me.

Thanks,
Apurwa.

 

[IanT]

hello apu,

Welcome to the forum!

Depending on whether you are making Cold Process soap, melt and pour, or other types of soap, I would post a thread in the respective forum for the type of soap you are making ... youll get waaaaay more replies from posting a thread in one of those areas as opposed to here (people tend to forget to check the "stickies" like these )

 

[apurwa]

Thanks. I am making soaps by cold process way. i will post my query there.

Apurwa.

 

[IanT]

No problem!! I would be glad to help you, my best advice would be to post a thread over in the CP forum, include your recipe and maybe some pics of the batch if you have any, and what you think went wrong, or a brief description of your process...

usually those types of threads get the most replies!

 

[lamiette512]

Hola! I am New too!

Hola, I am new to this forum. I am so excited to be here to learn and share with all of you!

 

[IanT]

welcome!!!!!


looking forward to seeing all of your creations!!

 

[lngrid]

Hi!
My name is Ingrid. I made a batch of lard soap about 20 years ago (I'm 48.) back before the Internet existed. I didn't like the way it turned out, so I didn't do it again. Last Christmas I got 2 bars of Castelbel soap and I LOVE what they do for my skin. But who can afford Castelbel all the time? So I'm gonna make my own!

HAHAHAHA!

My first run, on Monday night, was hot process shortening soap. I used SoapCalc to come up with the recipe: 16 oz. shortning, 6.08 oz. water, 2.08 oz lye. Uh... It did eventually saponify, I think, but the process didn't look a thing like the photos I was looking at. It never got waxy. It got fine little curds, then it got doughy. I stuffed it in the molds anyway. It seems a little less caustic now, but I'm not going to worry or give up! At the very least I have cheap laundry soap!

I've been reading around this site a bit and I really Really REALLY like how supportive everyone is. I've seen pics of soap here (not yours, by the way ) that look NASTY, but no one says a negative word about it. I've read some ideas that made me think, "This person whats to do WHAT?!?" but again, everyone is positive and encouraging. This is excellent. Yay, SMF! Can't wait to begin to get to know you all!

 

[IanT]

lol that is awesome!! glad that you are seeking to get back in to the craft!!

welcome to the forum!!


Persistence pays!

 

[lngrid]

Thank you for the welcome. And I didn't mean to sound snippy talking about nasty looking soap. I should have added that no soap here looks as nasty as the soap I made Monday night. Um... think "cottage cheese stuffed into a girdle" or "clouds pressed into a cube." That's what it looks like!

On top of that, I understand that the world doesn't revolve around what I like. My likes aren't even a guide to good taste! I'm guessing the soaps I don't like are probably selling very well, making their crafters very well-known and rich. There certainly is a good home for every kind of soap.
Except for "cottage cheese in a girdle." I'm thinking I'm going to be learning rebatching very soon.

 

[IanT]

lol we have all been there done that with the cottage cheesyness lol mmmmmm..

its all soap in the end

 

[lngrid]

Ian! Are you a foodie?

I read your "NOM" post in the thread about using plastic cookie thingies as soap molds.

I would be a foodie if my butt didn't get huge just looking at cookies...

 

[IanT]

Ian! Are you a foodie?

I read your "NOM" post in the thread about using plastic cookie thingies as soap molds.

I would be a foodie if my butt didn't get huge just looking at cookies...

LOL

undeniably...yes yes yesssss

I am a major foodie lol, was raised in the industry, my dad was a culinary arts professor and still runs 2 restaurants... lol needless to say Ive definitely had the love of food by osmosis my whole life.. yeah I have metabolism on my side...for now at least lol, been trying to GAIN weight my whole life.. cant get above 135.. my mother thinks I have hollow legs lol....

i loooove good food and likewise..cooking it ...see here for proof:


http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=16698

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... php?t=4737

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... php?t=3556

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... php?t=3613




whats your favorite?? For me...last meal would consist of home made pasta, my mothers spadini and marinara... mmmmmmmmm and then home made mint chip icecream and my moms linzer tarts and some of the vodka she steeps apricots in for like a year ... lol then Id die happy for certain

 

[lngrid]

My favorite? It would be my close friend's son's lasagna. She's Italian-American, her husband's Italian, (her parents come from Cosenza and Salerno) and she taught him. It's TO DIE FOR. It's *real* italian food, not what you find in american restaurants here.

And her pizza? OOOoooo.....
Rosaria makes the dough from scratch and Agidio tosses it while I watch and drool. Every time she puts different things on it, but it's always killer. She won't tell me how she spices the sauce, and I can't tell whats in it, but it's sweet in an aromatic way, a little like tarragon.

 

[lngrid]

We're not supposed to be shy here, but I am. A lot of you know each other pretty well and you're pretty experienced at soap-making. It feels kinda wrong to just start posting away in the other forums. Sorta like being invited to a "friend of a friend's" party and then hogging all the attention with long stories.

But I have to tell about the soap I made Monday night.

My first batch of hot-process soap was cured and finished today. I used SoapCalc to figure out my recipe: 16 oz. shortning (Soybean and cottonseed oil), 6.08 oz water, 2.08 oz lye, superfatting at 5%. It never traced. It was stubbornly fluid for half an hour then went from fluid to curdled to "dough of curds" in about 15 minutes. I stirred in a couple of tablespoons of Bath and Bodyworks Lime and Coconut body butter "at dough" to scent it. It came out funny. I say it looks like cottage cheese stuffed into a *something* several sizes too small. My friend says it looks ...polite pause while she searches for an encouraging word... "baroque." (She's a good friend, isn't she?) The bars smell like lime and coconut though. Anyway, I tried it out under the faucet today.

Ew.

It does lather but it feels slimy. I can rinse the slime off but my hands smell like a deep-fryer instead of anything pleasant. I find it's a bit drying, too. I would rebatch this, but I really hate the deep-fat smell.

This is all my fault. It has to be.

I didn't use a digital scale. I don't have one. I've learned my lesson.
I used my stovetop because I don't have a slow cooker, bain marie or double boiler and don't have much space. I didn't use the oven because mine doesn't have a window to check for volcanoing. Maybe I can make room for a slow cooker.
I set the heat too high because I FORGOT that heat inhibits saponification. (You know, I've never been quite the same since the alien abduction...)
I used a mixer instead of a stick blender because I don't have one. Guess what I'm buying asap?
I dyed it with a crayon. Because I'm a cheapskate. The color (white) was okay, but did it make things curdle?
I added fragrance with the body butter for the same reason above. I onder if that made it slimy in water. It sure didn't kill the "stale french fry" smell.

I hope I don't sound bitter. When it was all done it was very funny. I had been working bare-armed with the lye. I was fine. I sponged splatters off with vinegar-soaked sponge, but I smelled like it. So I was sitting in a kitchen that smelled like a greasy-spoon diner, smelling like a pickle, with molds full of what looked like brains. And laughing my head off.

Julia Child would not have approved.

So, the bottom line is: this is wonderful news for everyone. If you're a newbie, don't be afraid. Jump right in. I've already made the soap that's too embarassing to photograph. No matter how you screw up, at least one soaper can't at you. Not even in secret.

If you're an expert and you sell your wares, your job is SOOOOOO safe from me! Not only that, I'm not ready to be my own customer so you haven't even lost one yet.

You know that saying, "If it ain't baroque, don't fix it?" Mine is so baroque I don't want to fix it. But I'm still laughing.

 

[IanT]

Ohhhh how I love Lasagna "I pledge allegience to Lasagne, which smellsa so good in the kitchen, and all the mozzerell and how it melts, yup it beats the hell outa chicken"

(yeah I just made that up, but you get my point lol)_


.....lol dont be shy! ...this is how we get to know eachother and such !

youre not coming into a friends-only type thing... once you join your kinda part of the forum 'family' as i like to call it !

people love reading other peoples stories and stuff...

awwwww ..yeah I dont like using shortening alone in soaps I think it gets a little weird, and like you said you can not cover the fry-oil smell very easily.

I prefer olive oil mixed with other oils, but thats just my preference lol ... I have a thing for olive oil (we Italians and olive oil...muahahahhha )... ...

Dont be down about it though, just let it serve as a learning experience that you can add to your 'tried that, but dont like it' list ...

also you can add different oils to it next time and see how it changes the recipe to learn more about the properties of different oils in soap.

I think I learn the most from the recipes I feel Im not happy with.. I ll either rebatch them to see what I can do to make them better, or just start over, but keep the original soap so I can compare when I add different things to the said recipe and I can find out how it changes the end result!




I love 100% olive oil soap... or 75%/25% Olive oil/CO...

I think olive and coconut are my 2 favorite oils, I pretty much include them in every batch...

 

[IanT]

Ohhhh how I love Lasagna "I pledge allegience to Lasagne, which smellsa so good in the kitchen, and all the mozzerell and how it melts, yup it beats the hell outa chicken"

(yeah I just made that up, but you get my point lol)_


.....lol dont be shy! ...this is how we get to know eachother and such !

youre not coming into a friends-only type thing... once you join your kinda part of the forum 'family' as i like to call it !

people love reading other peoples stories and stuff...

awwwww ..yeah I dont like using shortening alone in soaps I think it gets a little weird, and like you said you can not cover the fry-oil smell very easily.

I prefer olive oil mixed with other oils, but thats just my preference lol ... I have a thing for olive oil (we Italians and olive oil...muahahahhha )... ...

Dont be down about it though, just let it serve as a learning experience that you can add to your 'tried that, but dont like it' list ...

also you can add different oils to it next time and see how it changes the recipe to learn more about the properties of different oils in soap.

I think I learn the most from the recipes I feel Im not happy with.. I ll either rebatch them to see what I can do to make them better, or just start over, but keep the original soap so I can compare when I add different things to the said recipe and I can find out how it changes the end result!




I love 100% olive oil soap... or 75%/25% Olive oil/CO...

I think olive and coconut are my 2 favorite oils, I pretty much include them in every batch...

 

[IanT]

Ohhhh how I love Lasagna "I pledge allegience to Lasagne, which smellsa so good in the kitchen, and all the mozzerell and how it melts, yup it beats the hell outa chicken"

(yeah I just made that up, but you get my point lol)_


.....lol dont be shy! ...this is how we get to know eachother and such !

youre not coming into a friends-only type thing... once you join your kinda part of the forum 'family' as i like to call it !

people love reading other peoples stories and stuff...

awwwww ..yeah I dont like using shortening alone in soaps I think it gets a little weird, and like you said you can not cover the fry-oil smell very easily.

I prefer olive oil mixed with other oils, but thats just my preference lol ... I have a thing for olive oil (we Italians and olive oil...muahahahhha )... ...

Dont be down about it though, just let it serve as a learning experience that you can add to your 'tried that, but dont like it' list ...

also you can add different oils to it next time and see how it changes the recipe to learn more about the properties of different oils in soap.

I think I learn the most from the recipes I feel Im not happy with.. I ll either rebatch them to see what I can do to make them better, or just start over, but keep the original soap so I can compare when I add different things to the said recipe and I can find out how it changes the end result!




I love 100% olive oil soap... or 75%/25% Olive oil/CO...

I think olive and coconut are my 2 favorite oils, I pretty much include them in every batch...