What can you Not Live without? :-)

[Wick's End]

I have been doing MP soaps and all the while I've been studying up on CP soaps. (it's bad when you are new and want to try eeevryyyThing! Ha-ha.) But am taking it slow as I want to be sure to do everything right.

In the meantime, I am building up my ingredients and also equipment for long term use for CP and would like to know:

What piece(s) of equipment that you use that you can not live without??

I will wait on botanicals as the shelf life deminishes its contributing values.

I purchased 2 lbs of sodium hydroxide from Essentials. What oil is best to start with?

I am wanting to work with Goats milk at some point as a dear, elderly friend loves Goats Milk soap and I would enjoying surprising her with some sometime or another.

I have a wonderful book to help me through and will use it faithfully until I feel comfortable to tread out deeper It's appropriately called The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Coss. (and she spoke of how her online friends were so helpful.)

Well, I'll check back later, but it is time for me to wrap it up and head off to Church. Last week the preacher preached off the back of his horse in order to keep his promise that he would do so when there were 100 people attend! We're having a fish fry at 150 people and 1 man tested God when he said he would preach off the back of a bucking bull if we reach 7500 people! I bet that one would be the shortest message i ever heard! Ha-Ha!

 

[NancyRogers]

Well, a stick blender is nice, but more and more I find myself reaching for the whisk instead. I only use the SB when I get a FO that seems to slow trace.

As far as oils go, you can make a nice bar of soap from things you can get at Wal-Mart. My very favorite recipe uses Wal-Mart's Great Value Shortening (the one that has tallow and palm oil), Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Safflower Oil. You can find the castor oil in the pharmacy section. Sometimes I will use Lard instead of the GV Shortening and that makes a very nice soap also.

I find soapcalc to be an invaluable resource. Once you learn that, you can create recipes to suit your particular wants and needs. Before I started actually soaping, I read The Everything Soap Making book from cover to cover and spent a lot of time watching You Tube videos.

 

[Deda]

I can't live (or make soap) without my Uplands molds or my Tank.

Edited to add - Soapmaker 3.

 

[Mayren]

I can't live without my Stick Blender, SoapCalc.net,
Silicone molds, Crock Pot, and Olive Oil.

 

[cwarren]

if you cant afford Tank ... I cant yet.. a good cheese cutter.. I just ordered 1 from Rachel Ray.. 20.00 cause I cant cut straight to save my life..

 

[tespring]

Tussah Silk, lots of sugar for bubbles and GOOD Mica's from TKB are what I cannot live with out. Good luck on your soaping venture!

 

[tomara]

Well, a stick blender is nice, but more and more I find myself reaching for the whisk instead. I only use the SB when I get a FO that seems to slow trace.

As far as oils go, you can make a nice bar of soap from things you can get at Wal-Mart. My very favorite recipe uses Wal-Mart's Great Value Shortening (the one that has tallow and palm oil), Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Safflower Oil. You can find the castor oil in the pharmacy section. Sometimes I will use Lard instead of the GV Shortening and that makes a very nice soap also.

I find soapcalc to be an invaluable resource. Once you learn that, you can create recipes to suit your particular wants and needs. Before I started actually soaping, I read The Everything Soap Making book from cover to cover and spent a lot of time watching You Tube videos.

/agree with Nancy

And the many gallons of distilled water I have...hehe

 

[nattynoo]

A good spatula for scrapping all the soap out.

 

[Lindy]

Soapmaker 3
Stickblender
Wooden molds
Freezer Paper
Digital Scale
Spatula

 

[Jezzy]

What the others said and this site which I LOVE!! http://www.rainbowmeadow.com/infocenter ... select.php

Deda... I love those molds!!!

 

[Lynnz]

Hmmmm now first off I would have to say my woodlands molds!!!!!!! lots more but I am going to show some constraint LOL[/quote]

 

[soapbuddy]

I love my SoapHutch molds! I now have 5 of them. No lining needed. I use sodium lactate in every batch and they come out easy. Stick blender, gloves and now a good apron, so I don't get oils on my t-shirts. After a while they were looking pretty bad, but no more. Fabric softener sheets in my lye so the beads don't run around due to electricity. Digital scale is a must. I have 2; one for back-up, just in case. I have a back up of my stick blender too. A stainless steel whisk for those fast moving batches and a nice and large rubber spatula.

 

[Wick's End]

Great ideas, you should see my notes!
Thank you all so very much.
I am creating a Christmas wish list from this. My husband is going to think I am silly wanting whisks and spatulas for Christmas, ha-ha!

Walmart GV lard, eh. Thats sounds obtainable enough.

Anything else you can think of just let me know.

 

[honor435]

I would say, palm oil, oo, co, castor, sblender, and fos, lots if them!

 

[carebear]

can't live without my microwaveable soaping bowl (I am not interested in mucking about melting stuff in a double boiler - and there's no need for it). I weigh all my solid oils directly into it, melt, then add my liquid oils to cool it down.

when doing bigger batches I use a larger pot that stays on the counter, and melt oils in batches since I don't want to try to lift too much weight out of the microwave at a time, plus bigger pot doesn't fit.

oils - give me coconut oil and cocoa butter I'm good. everything else is gravy.

 

[steffm]

I agree about SoapMaker3. I love it! I love my stickblender. I have large, cheap stainless steel pots. My SIL's boyfriend made us some great wood molds. A digital scale that goes to .1 ounces (I would love one that does .01 ounces but they don't seem to exist :? ). Large, glass containers to mix the liquid and sodium hydroxide in. A rubber spatula to scrape the soap into molds. Freezer paper and tape to line my molds. I love hand cut bars, so I have a crinkle cutter and a straight edge cutter. I have plastic wrap for the top (that I never use :roll: ) and just use our old towels to wrap it in, if I wrap the molds at all.

For oils, liquids, etc, coconut oil, olive oil, hemp oil, sodium hydroxide and beer are the things I can't live without .

 

[ToniD]

I think it is good to start out with "found" molds until you see what you like. My husband kindly made me 2 logs and a slab mold out of scraps in the basement, so we only put $.39 (needed to buy 3 screws) and 3 hrs of work into them, but later found we did not like that style as much as some others.

I suggest that you can use a freezer paper lined box, various styles--slab, log, etc-- until you figure out what you like. Then you order or make the kind you want.

digital scale

3 ring binder for keeping your recipes and notes in. It is really useful to be able to look back to see what you have done and know if you want to do it again, or avoid it.

curing racks

 

[steffm]

I think it is good to start out with "found" molds until you see what you like. My husband kindly made me 2 logs and a slab mold out of scraps in the basement, so we only put $.39 (needed to buy 3 screws) and 3 hrs of work into them, but later found we did not like that style as much as some others.

I suggest that you can use a freezer paper lined box, various styles--slab, log, etc-- until you figure out what you like. Then you order or make the kind you want.

digital scale

3 ring binder for keeping your recipes and notes in. It is really useful to be able to look back to see what you have done and know if you want to do it again, or avoid it.

curing racks

I forgot about keeping notes (I keep mine in a binder, too) and the curing rack. I guess my mind didn't get past the whole making the soap and cutting it up part .

 

[Wick's End]

Her-Hee, Steffm, I get one track mind like that too

I am really enjoying reading all the responses.
So you think 3x5 cards are too small for transferring the final recipe onto? I was thinking about writing it all out in my messy way, then transferring my tried and true's and then keeping them filed in an index box for quick reference.

May I ask... What is a "stick" blender? Is it a style of blender attachment or something else all together?

 

[AZ Soaper]

Can't LIVE with out my stickblender and LOTS of glass pyrex measuring cups from the outlet mall.
I use individual molds so I don't have the mold need(they are glad containers!)
And my soap forums!