What soapy thing have you done today?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
If you go back a couple of pages you will see a test I did with red palm. I used 5% in one layer and 2% in another. I think at even 25%, you will have a lot of bleeding/staining. Of course, if you do decide to test at these higher amounts, please post your results!

It’s only a 12.5 oz batch of oils so I’m not too terribly worried if it doesn’t work out…it’s something on soap bucket list. If I dislike too much, I have a bunch of empty FO bottles and would happily share with anyone else who wants to try. I didn’t buy a whole lot, 2-15 fl oz jars; fair trade.
 
@violets2217 @Vicki C
I just opened it somewhere in the middle (part II: Basic Chemistry – pun intended???), and got caught in the prose with which he introduces the fundamentals of liquid chemistry. He really does an awesome job of reducing things to the bare minimum, and explaining it in an entertaining way (without compromising correctness). I seriously doubt I could do it any better. He really takes a lot of time to avoid all the errors of pedagogical distance that are ubiquitous in many academic textbooks. C'mon, he describes how he overshot in a titration, and explained what he did to get to the level of precision he aimed for, when things don't go as intended! How awesome is this?

I am just enjoying how he builds a narrative around things (and tbh I'm also skimming over some parts, like the rightfully pedantic but largely repetitive lab instructions for the experiments). Honestly, I'm yet to find anything that is genuinely new to me. But as said, I'm just at chapter 10, and all the exciting soapy things are still to come yet.

ETA: Well, that's not entirely correct. I have learned the reason behind his weird non-standard atom colour scheme, that has baffled me in every of his graphics (some C and H atoms are turquoise, others are white; some O atoms are red, others green). It's actually quite clever! He can encode the polarity of moieties (atoms/atom groups) in a way that is easily visible in colour (turquoise = non-polar/hydrophobic, red/white = polar/hydrophilic), but survives when the graphics are printed B/W (the higher the local contrast, the more polar the molecular regions).
 
Last edited:
It’s only a 12.5 oz batch of oils so I’m not too terribly worried if it doesn’t work out…it’s something on soap bucket list. If I dislike too much, I have a bunch of empty FO bottles and would happily share with anyone else who wants to try. I didn’t buy a whole lot, 2-15 fl oz jars; fair trade.
Please share results! I've been curious about red palm for quite a long time, and now that I finally have some I, for one, would be interested to see what happens at the higher percentage.
 
@violets2217 @Vicki C
I just opened it somewhere in the middle (part II: Basic Chemistry – pun intended???), and got caught in the prose with which he introduces the fundamentals of liquid chemistry. He really does an awesome job of reducing things to the bare minimum, and explaining it in an entertaining way (without compromising correctness). I seriously doubt I could do it any better. He really takes a lot of time to avoid all the errors of pedagogical distance that are ubiquitous in many academic textbooks. C'mon, he describes how he overshot in a titration, and explained what he did to get to the level of precision he aimed for, when things don't go as intended! How awesome is this?

I am just enjoying how he builds a narrative around things (and tbh I'm also skimming over some parts, like the rightfully pedantic but largely repetitive lab instructions for the experiments). Honestly, I'm yet to find anything that is genuinely new to me. But as said, I'm just at chapter 10, and all the exciting soapy things are still to come yet.

ETA: Well, that's not entirely correct. I have learned the reason behind his weird non-standard atom colour scheme, that has baffled me in every of his graphics (some C and H atoms are turquoise, others are white; some O atoms are red, others green). It's actually quite clever! He can encode the polarity of moieties (atoms/atom groups) in a way that is easily visible in colour (turquoise = non-polar/hydrophobic, red/white = polar/hydrophilic), but survives when the graphics are printed B/W (the higher the local contrast, the more polar the molecular regions).
I’m going to give it another try… tbh I didn’t put in a very good effort. Most of my reading these days is recorded books. Would you mind reading it to me? 😄
 
I wonder if it's worthwhile to start a new thread, as a homestead to the various red palm oil soaps out there, their performance, staining issues, and other experiences?
Yes please! Because I think it is your fault I have 4 16oz jars of red Palm I’m afraid to use! I do have an 💡…. I just have not figured out how to do it yet, because I have no regular Palm and I want to do an ombré just using half colored with red Palm… but at what %!?!? Lol! The math…. 🥸😡
 
Made my first “shower bombs”. (sort of a soapy thing, has surfactants!) not bad for first try. Hopefully will improve with practice and recipe tweaking. They smell nice, and feel good to use so far. Hoping they harden up quite bit.
@ResolvableOwl I’m so intrigued by this book now! Just put it in my shopping cart.
@KiwiMoose those turned out gorgeous!!
 

Attachments

  • 82739A86-58FF-4CC6-8F0D-EF96A54A261D.jpeg
    82739A86-58FF-4CC6-8F0D-EF96A54A261D.jpeg
    282.9 KB
I want to do an ombré just using half colored with red Palm… but at what %!?!?
My loaf mold holds 30 oz oils = 40 oz. soap.
Here's what I would do:

Make up 2 pitchers of Basic Trinity of Oils, 15 oz oils each:
1 - With red palm
1 - With shea butter or lard subbed for the palm in the recipe. This is your White batch.

15 oz oils = 20 oz soap

Layers:
1/3 Red Palm (7 oz.)
Add 1/3 (6.5 oz.) of the White batch to the Red batch and pour
1/3 (6.5) Mixed
Continue adding 1/3 White to all the Red for each layer, reserving 1/3 of the White batch for the top.

I hope that makes sense. :oops:

ETA: 7 oz. + 6.5 oz. X 5 = 40 oz. soap (approx)
 
Last edited:
My loaf mold holds 30 oz oils = 40 oz. soap.
Here's what I would do:

Make up 2 pitchers of Basic Trinity of Oils, 15 oz oils each:
1 - With red palm
1 - With shea butter or lard subbed for the palm in the recipe. This is your White batch.

15 oz oils = 20 oz soap

Layers:
1/3 Red Palm
Add 1/3 of the White batch to the Red batch and pour
1/3 Mixed
Continue adding 1/3 White to all the Red for each layer, saving 1/3 of the White batch for the top.

I hope that makes sense. :oops:
Thanks for the math! Perfect sense!
ETA: thanks for linking the Trinity of Oils! I’ve been wanting to make a vegan soap for a friend and this sounds perfect! Been wanting to try out the GV veg shortening too. I do love getting all my experiments in one batch. Also I’ve been using up some HO Sunflower in place of Olive Oil… my batter is just so much more naturally white….so we see what happens!!!
 
Last edited:
@Violet253
You're welcome! I'm glad it made sense!
To make the Trinity recipe, you can surely sub HO Sunflower for the OO and GV shortening for the palm to make the "White" recipe.
After thinking about it, I think you need a nice strong orange for the "Red" batch: 80% palm + 15% coconut + 5% castor. ;).
 
Just finished a batch of lotion bars. As part of Operation Empty Cupboard, I used up the last of meadowfoam seed oil (*wipes one lone tear from cheek). Also used mango butter for the first time. Scented with the last of neroli essential oil and a titch of lemon essential oil.
If I'm ambitious, I'll work on a soap recipe for tomorrow. Guess I'm committed now!
 
Made my first “shower bombs”. (sort of a soapy thing, has surfactants!) not bad for first try. Hopefully will improve with practice and recipe tweaking. They smell nice, and feel good to use so far. Hoping they harden up quite bit.
@ResolvableOwl I’m so intrigued by this book now! Just put it in my shopping cart.
@KiwiMoose those turned out gorgeous!!
I'm glad I enlarged that pic to see it was corn cobs/lilies and not what I thought they were 🤪
 
Yes please! Because I think it is your fault I have 4 16oz jars of red Palm I’m afraid to use! I do have an 💡…. I just have not figured out how to do it yet, because I have no regular Palm and I want to do an ombré just using half colored with red Palm… but at what %!?!? Lol! The math…. 🥸😡
That’s just what I was thinking of! Looking at @dibbles gorgeous soap what if you made two small batches, one with 5% palm, one uncolored, and just winged it, starting with the uncolored and adding the 5%? For that matter you could make a batch at say 7% and gradually add it in to the uncolored… hahttps://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what-soapy-thing-have-you-done-today.42556/post-926337 I think it would be ok if the uncolored had no palm, just use whatever your usual recipe is.
I just had a thought though - @dibbles when you say 2% and 5% do you mean those percentages of palm or of total oils? I’m assuming it’s total oils.
 
I'm glad I enlarged that pic to see it was corn cobs/lilies and not what I thought they were 🤪
Omg you’re the second person to think the stink horn flower was a 🍆! 🤣
although, I do like a chuckle!

First shower steamers in the books! This mold makes me chuckle!! Green ones are rosemary and sage EO, and orange ones are rosemary and orange.

Mixed lye for some soap, but didn’t make it any farther.
 

Attachments

  • 9E2E880D-D0B8-4E3B-991F-29532C84029D.jpeg
    9E2E880D-D0B8-4E3B-991F-29532C84029D.jpeg
    167.6 KB
  • 9A99AE8B-271D-406E-A859-FE9DB1B5AEF7.jpeg
    9A99AE8B-271D-406E-A859-FE9DB1B5AEF7.jpeg
    129.5 KB

Latest posts

Back
Top