Do you find that the smell sticks well ? I would be thrilled, I love the smell of bergamot. Also, may I ask at what % of oil do you use it?
What soapy mistake have you made today?
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Try powdered sugar - works great!
I'll have to try that! I made up my sugar water today and put it in the fridge so it will be cold whenever I make my lye solution for my next batch of soap.
Do a search on here for helping citrus to stick. For all my usage rates, I defer to eocalc.com . I frequently use litsea cubeba with citrus. Also, my experiment in 2024 was to mix an essential oil slurry in advance, a tip from my friend Owl. I mix the essential oil, 1 tablespoon of castor oil subtracted from my recipe, 1 teaspoon of clay. Shake every so often in a mason jar. This is for a 990 g of oils/butter recipe.
Unfortunately, I don't have data on how long the scent lasts which would have involved detailed notes from prior years and current year....
I just put 1 tsp. PPO into my oils - I don’t prepare it in any way.
That’s a fun option! Never thought of that. Regular sugar won’t melt in oils…
Powdered is “the bomb”! It just “floofs” right into the oil and disappears!
Ordered an 18" divided mold for Xmas. Delivery was initially scheduled for today so I reached raced home from CT (4.25 hours driving after 9pm yesterday because of expected freezing rain in CT from 4am to 1pm). Only to find out the delivery is rescheduled for 1/2
Edit: corrected my typist
Edit: corrected my typist
Almost every delivery service in the US has been awful this season. FedEx took 21 days to ship a package from Ohio to Georgia and for at least 10 of those days I was getting daily “your package will be delivered tomorrow” texts.Ordered an 18" divided mold for Xmas. Delivery was initially scheduled for today so Ireachedraced home from CT (4.25 hours driving after 9pm yesterday because of expected freezing rain in CT from 4am to 1pm). Only to find out the delivery is rescheduled for 1/2
Edit: corrected my typist
Soooo I think I might have to get down off my high horse and tell everyone that I made a soapy mistake today!!! I think it's the first time ever. I actually forgot to include TWO of my oils in the latest batch (luckily only a half batch due to it being a coffee soap which generally doesn't sell very quickly).
I thought it was odd when I was pouring because I usually have a tad leftover from by 1kg mold so i pour it into little cavity molds. This time there was no leftover batter. It wasn't until I was putting the oils back into the cupboard that I saw the two bottles and realised I hadn't included them :-(
I thought it was odd when I was pouring because I usually have a tad leftover from by 1kg mold so i pour it into little cavity molds. This time there was no leftover batter. It wasn't until I was putting the oils back into the cupboard that I saw the two bottles and realised I hadn't included them :-(
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Being human allows us to laugh at ourselves and remain humble. Your experience encourages others to embrace their foibles and see that life exists beyond soapy errors! Happy New Year from “flyover country” (mid-Missouri).
Well now that I know about this thread I’ll have plenty of opportunity to contribute.
So today I was making about 20 pounds of lavender goats milk soap. I use “African Violet” ultramarine to color my lavender GM soap, which I typically mix with glycerin and stir into the lye, as it tends to mix better that way. Well. Today I got clever and mixed it into the water before I added the lye. Lye stirred in, no problem, I had it in a cold water bath, went to check on it about a half hour later, and it had turned GREEN. I’ve never had this happen before. I think the heat was a factor because typically I am stirring the pigment into cold lye. I’ve used the same pigment many times with no problems.
This is how we learn, grasshopper.
So today I was making about 20 pounds of lavender goats milk soap. I use “African Violet” ultramarine to color my lavender GM soap, which I typically mix with glycerin and stir into the lye, as it tends to mix better that way. Well. Today I got clever and mixed it into the water before I added the lye. Lye stirred in, no problem, I had it in a cold water bath, went to check on it about a half hour later, and it had turned GREEN. I’ve never had this happen before. I think the heat was a factor because typically I am stirring the pigment into cold lye. I’ve used the same pigment many times with no problems.
This is how we learn, grasshopper.
Wow! That’s crazy. Sounds like you hadn’t added your oils yet so at least you didn’t waste a whole bunch of oils. Super interesting about the purple turning green.Well now that I know about this thread I’ll have plenty of opportunity to contribute.
So today I was making about 20 pounds of lavender goats milk soap. I use “African Violet” ultramarine to color my lavender GM soap, which I typically mix with glycerin and stir into the lye, as it tends to mix better that way. Well. Today I got clever and mixed it into the water before I added the lye. Lye stirred in, no problem, I had it in a cold water bath, went to check on it about a half hour later, and it had turned GREEN. I’ve never had this happen before. I think the heat was a factor because typically I am stirring the pigment into cold lye. I’ve used the same pigment many times with no problems.
This is how we learn, grasshopper.
Strange, or maybe not so strange… It was not all that long ago that I went down a rabbit hole on violet ultramarine, after @Elise had trouble with purple clay that turned out to be kaolin clay mixed with manganese violet. According to TKB, African Violet Ultramarine is cp stable even though it is manganese violet according to their SDS. It sounds like it’s mostly stable. Out of curiosity, why do you add the pigment to the lye?Well now that I know about this thread I’ll have plenty of opportunity to contribute.
So today I was making about 20 pounds of lavender goats milk soap. I use “African Violet” ultramarine to color my lavender GM soap, which I typically mix with glycerin and stir into the lye, as it tends to mix better that way. Well. Today I got clever and mixed it into the water before I added the lye. Lye stirred in, no problem, I had it in a cold water bath, went to check on it about a half hour later, and it had turned GREEN. I’ve never had this happen before. I think the heat was a factor because typically I am stirring the pigment into cold lye. I’ve used the same pigment many times with no problems.
This is how we learn, grasshopper.
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Holy smokes. I didn’t see the SDS link on the TKB website.
Well yeah now it makes sense! I wonder why it ever works, as in, why it doesn’t always morph? The strange thing is that their SDS calls it manganese violet, but they also have manganese violet pigment - the beautiful fuscia shade that I know doesn’t work. Under “composition” on the SDS it just says “not available.” I think I’ll get in touch with them and see if I can get any more info.Re why I mix it into lye - I find that for ultramarines I struggle with clumping if I try to do it any other way. I have mixed them with glycerin and water and mixed that into soap batter but I don’t trust that it is really mixed in, and I don’t want to over stir just to get the pigment mixed in. When I mix it into the lye, I know it is dispersing, and then I strain the lye in a disposable paint strainer as I pour it into the oils in case there are any clumps lurking at the bottom.
