What soapy thing have you done today?

[Tara_H]

I felt the need to break my soap drought today, and was inspired to revisit my grocery soap (honey and goats milk). I was interested to see how it would be different if I made basically the same soap, but without those specific constraints (and also if I remembered not to mess up the colouring oil... )

Summary of changes: added sodium lactate since it was a little on the soft side last time. Used a blend of FO that includes some that were ordered online (orange, lemon eucalyptus, Mediterranean fig, and frankincense). Added TD to the non-paprika coloured section to emphasise the contrast. And made it in a normal mould rather than a milk carton



At least I knew to expect it to be very trace-resistant this time, so I blasted the <censored> out of it with the SB and got it poured in a reasonable amount of time, and before dinner! The lighter part was at a light to medium trace when I poured, but the darker was barely past emulsion still.

The pour is sort of a drop swirl? Maybe? I don't think I've actually done one of those since the first one, so no clue how this will come out! And then I twiddled the top a bit with a gear tie because I've been watching too many videos and can't leave the tops alone any more...


@FragranceGuy look what you started

 

[Babyshoes]

I found the energy to make soap!

I also tried a different approach - half the energy I use is taken up in the prep (clearing the kitchen, getting soap stuff out, weighting, melting etc) and the clearing up, so I figured it wouldn't be much more effort to make 2 batches, especially if the second was a simple and quick itp swirl... I rested briefly after mixing my lye and melting my oils.
The theory worked, I'd say I used about 1.5x as much energy as I would have for one batch, which is manageable on a good day...

The only flaw in the plan was not having an easy supper ready to go, so an hour later I was back in the kitchen chopping and stirring... My feet and legs are killing me now! I think I need to invest in better slippers...

I must say I am glad I've seen videos about colour morphing greens, it gives me hope that my pear and freesia scented drop swirl will come out pretty, rather than kakhi and pink!

The second one is a fragrance we both liked called sea spray, so I bought a bigger bottle of that and did an ITP swirl in aqua and darker blue. It's a lovely unisex scent which behaves really well.

 

[AAShillito]

Not today but last night we tried soap frosting again! The embeds are now termed " melt and panic" as we were having so much difficulty getting them in the mold before the base hardened. I slipped off the wooden box this am

 

[AliOop]

@AAShillito that loaf is so pretty - embeds look fantastic!

 

[AAShillito]

@AAShillito that loaf is so pretty - embeds look fantastic!

Aw thank you!

 

[KiwiMoose]

This is what happens when you let your “well meaning” husband order something without adult supervision. Lol. Oh well...I think I’ll just draw a hyphen in there and call it a day.
View attachment 56728

Where's the hyphen? hand-made? I write it as one word usually. It looks fine!

 

[Jersey Girl]

Where's the hyphen? hand-made? I write it as one word usually. It looks fine!

Yeah...handmade should be one word. Most people probably won’t notice...hopefully.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Not today but last night we tried soap frosting again! The embeds are now termed " melt and panic" as we were having so much difficulty getting them in the mold before the base hardened. I slipped off the wooden box this am

Beautiful job piping! Very pretty!

 

[Adobehead]

I did something today that I haven't done before.
I wore my long rubber gloves to make soap even though I noticed some white crusty stuff on them. Since I wear the same ones for dyeing fabrics, I thought it was leftover urea or soda ash, which while is not that skin friendly, it doesn't kill you. The weather is hot and I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my gloved hand and and kept soaping. It started to burn but I wasn't in a good place to stop so I ignored it. After I got to the place where I could stop, I went and washed my face and wow, the forehead has burns on it! That was lye on those gloves, what was I thinking?
I try so hard to do everything clean and tidy and nice, but it never is!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Back in university, in the basic chemistry course, gloves were forbidden for exactly that reason. Students should learn to work 200% clean and tidy.
Fair enough, the stuff to handle was by far not as dangerous as concentrated lye. But still, can I be sure that it is okay to touch a door handle when I have to suspect that someone with dirty gloves has touched it before without knowing?

Where's the hyphen? hand-made? I write it as one word usually. It looks fine!

I also didn't get it at once, until I saw how the actual logo should look like.

 

[KimW]

I did something today that I haven't done before.
I wore my long rubber gloves to make soap even though I noticed some white crusty stuff on them. Since I wear the same ones for dyeing fabrics, I thought it was leftover urea or soda ash, which while is not that skin friendly, it doesn't kill you. The weather is hot and I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my gloved hand and and kept soaping. It started to burn but I wasn't in a good place to stop so I ignored it. After I got to the place where I could stop, I went and washed my face and wow, the forehead has burns on it! That was lye on those gloves, what was I thinking?
I try so hard to do everything clean and tidy and nice, but it never is!

I'm there with you. I always wash my my hands with my gloves on after soaping, but apparently I either forgot or didn't do a good job of it a few weeks ago because I have a lingering red mark where I did the same thing. whoops!

 

[MrsZ]

I made my first Goats milk soap today. Not sure if it worked or if I will need to rebatch it though. I posted about it in the beginner thread, just not sure what to think of it.

 

[Katie68121]

Orange Patchouli soap cut and can’t wait until it’s done curing!! First time using hemp seed oil too. I’m feeling like a hippie with hemp and patchouli

 

[Adobehead]

Well, I might have a bright forehead, but I also have some nice soap. I used my new mold, over a year old and I finaly got to it. So much nicer to have a smaller batch and no hoisting 8 pounds in a heavy crock pot over my shoulder. Now I get to make soap more often because the batches are smaller. Good deal.

And having just one long loaf to cut means no more trapezoids with the pizza knife. I am slow but I get there.

 

[Babyshoes]

I unmoulded the 2 batches I made yesterday, but they are still a bit too soft to cut. My kitchen smells great though, really loving the fragrances, one of which is new to me.

 

[Tara_H]

Cut the grocery soap V2 this morning - I love it! The drop swirl turned out just perfectly for goat's milk and honey, and I expect that the paprika colour will fade a bit to make the colours an even better match.

 

[KimW]

Found an old bucket of MB'd oils in the weeee back of a cupboard. AND it's even clearly labeled "Family Soap Oils". Wha?! Ecstatic.

 

[msunnerstood]

Finally made soap tonight. Was trying a line pour but the main color, white, decided to thicken up before the blue and green colors so hard to tell how it will come out

I stink at taking loaf pics and I had just a bit too much batter so its up on the sides a bit. Ill cut that off when I cut the bars. Here is the loaf, its supposed to look beachy/waves on top. I used blue moon and key west from MM and seafoam green and bright blue. Those will show inside.

 

[Tara_H]

So... after all of the woodworking, I decided I like the size of the mould as it is, and I don't want to lose an extra few mm all around by making a poured silicone liner So I lined it with paper and gave it a try as a standalone mould. If I like the size that these come out I'll make a slightly larger box for the silicone pouring experiment.

This is another attempt at a one pot wonder - using a Honeysuckle FO that behaved perfectly in testing, although I think it may have caused some ricing this time. It smells rather lively OOB but I'm hoping it will settle down in actual use.

The design is inspired by my honeysuckle-covered trellis (and when I say design, I use the word very loosely since I've no idea yet what this will look like when I cut it.) The intention, at least, is to have a gradient from green to blue to white for the 'background', being leaves, sky, clouds; and a central secondary gradient of mostly creamy yellow streaked with red for the actual honeysuckle flowers.

Why yes, I do like to overcomplicate things, why do you ask?

(I also fretted some about the May challenge not being up yet and the bank holiday weekend half over already )

 

[Juggsy]

Productive Sunday (public holiday tomorrow) and perfect weather (although most Brisbanites wouldn't agree!) in my opinion for formulating. Although my wrists have swollen up (FMS & arthritis) and my feet are sore. Self inflicted pain so I can not complain!

1. Soap ready! Some soap that I've been turning every week, finally able to use. I leave it for 6 weeks out of habit; I cure it as a week per side. I know that I could get it earlier but figure it's an easy way to remember.

Soap is Black and Blue Fyah (although tungsten light changes it so doesn’t show well)
Scent is my own blend for my fyah leo sisters. My two closest friends. It was created for feminine power and to reignite the Fyah within. To give strength and courage. I make it into perfume, solid perfume, bath salts, bath bombs and now soap. I have made it into bodywash too, but one of my friends really likes bar soap, so because Fyah blend was made for her I had to use it.
It didn't come together as I'd hoped but is still ok. It was first time I had used mica in soap. I made two smaller batches of soap at the same time. The charcoal soap batch was slightly larger at 700g. It is almond, coconut and sunflower oils. Fragrance:Fyah EO Blend. The white soap.. is where I fudged (soap accidents are generally happy ones). It was 500g Coconut, Avo and olive oils batch. I then took a third out and mixed oats/oatmeal into it. I left it while I mixed blue mica into the rest of the batch. I poured it before the white and when I went to pour white, it was too heavy? It sunk and I hadn't expected that.

2. It's Sunday yo! Sunday's the day I drag my 10 year old into the kitchen, usually accompanied by few of her friends. With only two of her mates today (7 & 5 years old) and while they were here we made Abyssinian + Nettle Conditioning Shampoo. 7 year old loves it so much and asks me at least once a week when can she make soap with me. I have been meaning to make a couple of glycerine soaps for melt and pour. Need to research though as it's been over ten years that I've made a glycerine soap.

3. After girls went home. Little miss 10 and I made an oily scalp but dry ends conditioner with shea butter.

4. We also made this week's body wash (not castile/Bastille soap based). It's actually one I formulated for Miss 10's hair when she was a baby that I've changed ever so slightly over the years into body wash. We go through way too much body wash, Miss 10 and I love it.

5. And last but certainly not least, I supervised Miss 10's first lotion (without help other than with hot stuff). Miss 10 was made to change percentages to grams then had to multiply each ingredient total by 3. I'm so mean that I didn't let her use a calculator. Extremely proud mummy!