What soapy thing have you done today?

[Babyshoes]

New supplies arrived today! Two new fragrance oils; plum and rhubarb, and rock salt and driftwood. Also a new red mica which swears it's actually red, and some kaolin clay to test if it helps stick my scents. And little round silicone moulds so I can finish off the soap dough flowers I did the other day.

So!

On the one hand I want to be sensible and do science and only change one thing at a time... On the other hand, after the stress of yesterday I kind of want to throw caution to the wind and use the new rhubarb scent, new red mica, newly formulated recipe, including eggs and goats milk both for the first time, and try a rhubarb-and-custard inspired pull-through with the prepared tube I didn't get to use.

Where's my enablers?

[Whispers] Doooo iiiiiiittt! [/Whispers]

 

[AliOop]

[Whispers] Doooo iiiiiiittt! [/Whispers]

I'll help, I'll help!

DO IT DO IT DO IT!!

 

[Jersey Girl]

New supplies arrived today!
Where's my enablers?
[/QUOTE

We are right here silly! Go for it!

Today’s soapy thing is another test of a wedding favor soap for my daughter. I think she’s going to like the pastel colors better.

 

[AliOop]

@Jersey Girl Gasp! There are not enough LOVE emojis for this soap!!

Have you considered marketing to wedding planners? They'd probably love to give out your cards for custom wedding soaps.

 

[earlene]

Gorgeous, Jersey Girl! Did you make those flowers, too? Oh, I see you did! Your Lovely flowers.

 

[Tara_H]

Alright, you mad lot, this is how it turned out! As you can see it's not exactly what you might call a pull-through



I was all prepared after yesterday with my warming materials ready ahead of time, masterbatched my lye, what could go wrong, right?

As it turns out, it's a bad idea to measure directly into the jug from a jerry can full of masterbatched lye (no duh) and when my hand slipped I got 27 more grams than I had bargained for! By the time I calculated and added the extra oils there was a thick trace going on and no stopping it

Luckily I had a plan B prepared in the shape of a loaf mould, so I was still able to split and colour, fragrance and plop in the batter. I even did a bit of a swirl, because go big or go home, right?!

Apart from the form factor it's the soap I was going for, so going to call it a success, on balance.

P.S. I chickened out on the eggs and milk, that will be an adventure for another day.

 

[KiwiMoose]

It’s daylight now-pic as promised.

 

[GemstonePony]

Alright, you mad lot, this is how it turned out! As you can see it's not exactly what you might call a pull-through

View attachment 55187

I was all prepared after yesterday with my warming materials ready ahead of time, masterbatched my lye, what could go wrong, right?

As it turns out, it's a bad idea to measure directly into the jug from a jerry can full of masterbatched lye (no duh) and when my hand slipped I got 27 more grams than I had bargained for! By the time I calculated and added the extra oils there was a thick trace going on and no stopping it

Luckily I had a plan B prepared in the shape of a loaf mould, so I was still able to split and colour, fragrance and plop in the batter. I even did a bit of a swirl, because go big or go home, right?!

Apart from the form factor it's the soap I was going for, so going to call it a success, on balance.

P.S. I chickened out on the eggs and milk, that will be an adventure for another day.

Looks like a fantastic save, and a good learning experience!

 

[KimW]

Not actually today, but after 3 years making soap I finally got myself one of those wooden molds with silicone lining that everyone has. Up until now I had been using a silicone mold ment for bread, so I went years having bread shaped soaps, which its fine, and the mold has served me well, its as good as new, but now I can finally have those perfectly square shaped soaps everyone has:

(the pink one with green top was a fail, FO accelerated, it was supposed to be strawberry but ended up smelling like play doh so I decided to reuse it on two different batches. Blue and white one also accelerates, but my aunt (and uncle) is quite fond of the smell (chamomille) and loves the not so perfect blue layers so I just make it for them. Black one is my usual space soap that I make to use up the soap balls I end up with after beveling.)

Wohoo! Congrats! I have yet to grow up and get a silicone mold, but perhaps I should. Very pretty soaps, and I much liked reading the stories behind them. I really like the one with the curls!

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Jersey Girl Gasp! There are not enough LOVE emojis for this soap!!

Have you considered marketing to wedding planners? They'd probably love to give out your cards for custom wedding soaps.

Thank you!
I would love to generate some business making favors. I need to do some research and reach out to some planners. More marketing less production needs to be happening here.

It’s daylight now-pic as promised.
View attachment 55190

I love this! Looks like Planet Earth!

 

[MarinaB]

White color bar - sheep milk. Souffle style.
White and french pink clay, also souffle.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Not actually today, but after 3 years making soap I finally got myself one of those wooden molds with silicone lining that everyone has. Up until now I had been using a silicone mold ment for bread, so I went years having bread shaped soaps, which its fine, and the mold has served me well, its as good as new, but now I can finally have those perfectly square shaped soaps everyone has:

(the pink one with green top was a fail, FO accelerated, it was supposed to be strawberry but ended up smelling like play doh so I decided to reuse it on two different batches. Blue and white one also accelerates, but my aunt (and uncle) is quite fond of the smell (chamomille) and loves the not so perfect blue layers so I just make it for them. Black one is my usual space soap that I make to use up the soap balls I end up with after beveling.)

Very pretty

Today’s soapy thing is another test of a wedding favor soap for my daughter. I think she’s going to like the pastel colors better.
View attachment 55186

Just Beautiful

 

[AliOop]

Today's soapy thing was to make vegan soaps for my hairdresser who wants to sell them at her station. Great time to make my first ever batch of ZNSC, right? I went with the bastile version with 85% light OO, 15% CO, and 5% castor, plus sorbitol for bubbles.

Used the heat transfer method to melt the CO since I was too impatient to wait for the faux seawater-lye solution to cool. Added the other oils, and batter was at 110 when I had the bright (!) idea to use an accelerating fragrance so that it wouldn't take all that OO so long to trace.

Right. Five seconds in, aaaannd.... pudding! Y'all thought the TCS challenge last month was a messy thing, but tonight's session ended with soap everywhere! There was plopping into the cavity molds with the spatula. There was swirling it around to smoosh the batter into the details (no time to run for the paint brush). There was banging, smacking, and soap slopping all over the mold, the table, the soap bowl, just everywhere! I'm a scraper who hates to waste soap batter, but it was a losing battle.

Anyway, these naughty children were finally tucked into bed for the night. Let's hope they are little angels in the morning.

 

[Tara_H]

Wow, @AliOop there's quite a contrast between the chaotic picture you paint in your story and the incredibly neat photo of the soaps all tucked in!

So far this morning I cut the rhubarb soap from last night which is disappointingly un-rhubarby at this point, but reasonably pretty apart from all the air bubbles, and I've been pondering over another batch from late last night.

I decided to try a small batch with the other FO to see if it plays nicely, so I made a few little pucks - but when I added the FO to the batter which was just about at trace, this was the result

Hopefully the picture is clear enough, but it went sort of very slightly grainy. Is this ricing? It doesn't look like pictures of ricing I've seen before but I've never had it happen to me for comparison. I used the SB to try to blend it back in but I'm not sure if it got to being smooth before I had a thick trace again and another emergency plopping.

 

[Vicki C]

Wasn’t today, but on Sunday I tried out using astaxanthin, a plant pigment, with different concentrations and different secondary colorants. It looked red in the bottle but came out orange, which I know I can get from beta carotene (this was from astaxanthin supplements that I think had beta carotene added). I’m interested in finding a red natural colorant - I know I can get red mica (have some from NS actually). L-R, top to bottom, astaxanthin with increasing concentrations, red iron oxide, annatto, turmeric, iron oxide blue tint, annatto again, iron oxide yellow, titanium dioxide, charcoal. They look less like all the same color now that they have hardened.

 

[SPowers]

Today’s soapy thing is another test of a wedding favor soap for my daughter. I think she’s going to like the pastel colors better.
View attachment 55186

this soap is beyond gorgeous! my words are gone!

 

[TashaBird]

@AliOop you sure cleaned it up to look like a well behaved scene!



Yesterday I wrapped a bunch of soap. And, I’ve set up my farmers market table in the garage for practice. Also, got some new FO I’m excited to try! Awaken from NS is very lively! I hope it behaves.

 

[violets2217]

Ok... woke up today and started to pay some bills and balance checking account & found out my stimulus and tax refund have been deposited! Bills are paid but now 4 tabs are open with all my usual soap suppliers... and items are in cart! Going through supplies to see what I actually need, but I want to add so much more! HELP!!! Me decide what to add...

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Alright, you mad lot, this is how it turned out! As you can see it's not exactly what you might call a pull-through

View attachment 55187

I was all prepared after yesterday with my warming materials ready ahead of time, masterbatched my lye, what could go wrong, right?

As it turns out, it's a bad idea to measure directly into the jug from a jerry can full of masterbatched lye (no duh) and when my hand slipped I got 27 more grams than I had bargained for! By the time I calculated and added the extra oils there was a thick trace going on and no stopping it

Luckily I had a plan B prepared in the shape of a loaf mould, so I was still able to split and colour, fragrance and plop in the batter. I even did a bit of a swirl, because go big or go home, right?!

Apart from the form factor it's the soap I was going for, so going to call it a success, on balance.

P.S. I chickened out on the eggs and milk, that will be an adventure for another day.

Wow love your soap & designs. Just Beautiful.

Ok... woke up today and started to pay some bills and balance checking account & found out my stimulus and tax refund have been deposited! Bills are paid but now 4 tabs are open with all my usual soap suppliers... and items are in cart! Going through supplies to see what I actually need, but I want to add so much more! HELP!!! Me decide what to add...

Happy Soap Shopping

Wasn’t today, but on Sunday I tried out using astaxanthin, a plant pigment, with different concentrations and different secondary colorants. It looked red in the bottle but came out orange, which I know I can get from beta carotene (this was from astaxanthin supplements that I think had beta carotene added). I’m interested in finding a red natural colorant - I know I can get red mica (have some from NS actually). L-R, top to bottom, astaxanthin with increasing concentrations, red iron oxide, annatto, turmeric, iron oxide blue tint, annatto again, iron oxide yellow, titanium dioxide, charcoal. They look less like all the same color now that they have hardened.
View attachment 55203View attachment 55204View attachment 55205

your colors look amazing.

Not today, but in the last few months I created Soap Stencils... And brought them to the surface. Here are a few things I created with stencils designed for myself and other soap makers.
View attachment 55207View attachment 55208View attachment 55209

Very Nice'

Happy St. Patricks Day
I've ordered more supplies' Pine Tar & FO's i'm looking forward to creating pine tar soap. Its been on my to do list over a year. Happy Soaping Friends...

 

[Tara_H]

Happy St. Patricks Day

And to you!

In honour of the day I'm making a green soap with plenty of alcohol! (I'm Irish so I'm allowed say things like that )

Remelting my transparent soap to see if it will function as MP soap - it melted at about 55C, with the encouragement of a splash or two of alcohol. Hopefully it will set back up properly and will become part of a Kryptonite soap I'm planning...