What soapy thing have you done today?

[FlybyStardancer]

Aaaand just made some lemongrass soap. I used kaolin, and infusions of calendula and parsley to color the soap, and the batter itself was not looking promising about the colors showing up. Oh well.I really hope they do show up in the end, though... I'm also trying (AGAIN) to gel it... Got the soap bundled up with my heating pad on high.

 

[ArtisanDesigns]

Just finished making my Blueberry Praline Carmel Soap. I like this one in HP. We went and picked the blueberries and blackberries at a local farm. So much fun. Then had to rinse all the fruit and will have a canning day on Monday when I am off again. Blackberry jam yummy!! I AM about to head to bed now. Will finish cleaning up when I wake up. Hope everyone has a great morning.

 

[Chrisje]

Thank you all so much, I am pretty pleased with the 2 molds. I have 1 more to go it will be a slab mold. Have everything cut, but forgot the extra length for the bolt & nut to go. So I will most likely finish it with velcro to keep the sides up.

Yes I did make the liners myself
I got silicone mats from a shop ( similar to the dollar shop you have over there ) The bottem side is faced on the inside as it was the smoodest side of teh mats.

I measured my bottom piece and cut that one using a paper cutter similar to this one:

For the bottom piece it is the full length of the mold. Those small sides are not attached to the bottom. So I placed those on top.
Then I meassured the sides and did the same. I had to take of tiny bits to make it a thight fit at the end. Used soem vaseline to keep them in place.

Hope that helps. ooo and I used a metal ruler to tuck in the corners and the sides to make sure they are nice and sharp lined.

 

[Chrisje]

WHOOP WHOOP I just finished my very first batch of soap. Is it just me, or have you all doen a happy dance after your first soap was in the mold. ROFL

I will have pictures tomorrow

 

[not_ally]

Thank you for the liner notes, Chrisje! I have to find one of those paper cutters somewhere, I have been trying to make liners with scissors, and they always come out crooked.

And yes, the happy dance, I think we all do them. I did after the first one and still do on occasion! Just wait until you cut, there will be more happy wiggling

 

[kchaystack]

Thank you for the liner notes, Chrisje! I have to find one of those paper cutters somewhere, I have been trying to make liners with scissors, and they always come out crooked.

And yes, the happy dance, I think we all do them. I did after the first one and still do on occasion! Just wait until you cut, there will be more happy wiggling

You can find them at Michael's or JoAnn's

 

[Chrisje]

Thank you for the liner notes, Chrisje! I have to find one of those paper cutters somewhere, I have been trying to make liners with scissors, and they always come out crooked.

And yes, the happy dance, I think we all do them. I did after the first one and still do on occasion! Just wait until you cut, there will be more happy wiggling

For the big mold I had to use a sharp kitchen knife and a metal ruler. Used the tip of the knife to cut in a single stroke or a double depending on how much pressure you put on it.

I did the wiggle, sound effects and happy face all together. But had a frown and worried face already too. As my soap was a lovely light creamy ( very pale yellow) color. But then turned dark in the center... so it is gelling has 2 tiny cracks at the top and is getting some ash on it too...

Hmmm o well. I will have to wait and see how it looks tomorrow. ( left the top uncovered and did not wrap a blanket around it or anything. don't have space in the freezer I will deal with it tomorrow. I included oatmeal and EO in my first recipe. perhaps I should have kept it simple LOL
http://www.soapmakingforum.com//nl.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[not_ally]

I like this suggestion, I will try it. I was trying to draw a pencil line down my liner material and fold along it, just kept misfolding, this sounds much better.

I made three soaps yesterday, a buttermilk one (added honey, sugar and oats) and two heavy cream ones. The cream ones came out well, the buttermilk is soft, turned maple syrup brown and cracked, oozed some oil, definitely overheated (it sounds like that is what happened to yours?).

The oil has reabsorbed, though, and it is not zapping. I am still hopeful it will be good once it is hardened and cleaned up, I think you should be too! My first overheater, it is kind of cool to learn from these lessons.


"

For the big mold I had to use a sharp kitchen knife and a metal ruler. Used the tip of the knife to cut in a single stroke or a double depending on how much pressure you put on it."

 

[Chrisje]

The crack seems to be just at the surface and under 1/2" , don't have any oils oozed out it did turn kind of an amber semi translucent color in the mid section at first, then more to the sides of the soap as well. That is goen now and going back to the more dense look. It is also getting lighter in color as well. I keep going to my soap to check on it LOL while I work on my shopping list for soap supplies I can not wait to get it out of the mold!

 

[Slnsgirl]

I made some soap the other day and colored it with madder root powder infused in olive oil. I had a heck of time straining it. I tried a couple of different things and it was a mess. What is everyone using out there in the soap world????

 

[not_ally]

Chrisje, I check the problem children soaps more than the good ones, they are more interesting. I actually am glad this one is kind of soft right now, I am getting some stamps tomorrow, it should be a good stamping texture by then. The brown will be great with gold mica, too. I can usually find an upside with soap (unlike life sometimes!)

 

[TeresaT]

My first drop swirl was a plop swirl. I don't know if my clove oil accelerated the batter or I just blended too long, but it was a mess. I didn't use enough TD to whiten the batter from the greenish tint of the EVOO and the burgundy was too bright. I mixed those two together and ended up with a weird chocolate color. The green and blue are quite vivid. I think this is going to be fugly soap. I'll see when I cut it. This is what the top looks like. I'm actually impressed with the swirl. I've never done that before and it came out halfway decent considering everything was pretty well set up by then.

 

[Sagebrush]

I spent way too much time researching how to concoct a new shampoo bar, running ingredients through soap calc, re-running them because I discovered that my chamomile-infused oil was sunflower and not olive, then ending up with an amazingly creamy delightful-smelling batter that behaved really well.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

My first drop swirl was a plop swirl. I don't know if my clove oil accelerated the batter or I just blended too long, but it was a mess. I didn't use enough TD to whiten the batter from the greenish tint of the EVOO and the burgundy was too bright. I mixed those two together and ended up with a weird chocolate color. The green and blue are quite vivid. I think this is going to be fugly soap. I'll see when I cut it. This is what the top looks like. I'm actually impressed with the swirl. I've never done that before and it came out halfway decent considering everything was pretty well set up by then.

That top looks gorgeous! And it's quite possibly the clove--spices are well-known for accelerating. The only spicy FO I ever used did a major acceleration on me. Luckily, I had expected it and was only doing a single-color soap with the colorant mixed in to the oils before adding the lye.

 

[TeresaT]

That top looks gorgeous! And it's quite possibly the clove--spices are well-known for accelerating. The only spicy FO I ever used did a major acceleration on me. Luckily, I had expected it and was only doing a single-color soap with the colorant mixed in to the oils before adding the lye.

Thank you! That's so sweet. I cannot wait to get home and see if it's ready to cut! I'll have to remember that about the clove oil and add at emulsion, not trace.

 

[TeresaT]

I cut my "plop swirl" and it turned out not-so-bad. It isn't the prettiest soap around. But it's not quite butt ugly, either. It smells great, though. I think clove is going to be my personal scent. Until I get sick of it.

 

[jules92207]

Not bad! I love clove too. Its one of my favorite scents.

 

[seven]

Just finished stamping these babies

 

[Sagebrush]

I made a double boiler HP soap today. I've only made a HP one other time and it was about five years ago when I first started making soap. I was very nervous today and was researching like crazy, had about four tabs open on my computer in case I needed to reference something quickly. But it went swimmingly (easy, in fact), and I was able to pour it <shock>. I haven't cut them yet, but, man...I might have to do this more often!

 

[not_ally]

I have been playing around with the little camera I got some time ago to take pics of my soapies. Figured out I can take pictures and automatically download them to my computer wirelessly! Yay, so much easier to keep track of which soap goes with which note. Spent so much time in the beginning making soap but keeping crap notes and then not being able to figure out what was good and bad afterwards.