What soapy thing have you done today?

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I ordered Rice Bran Oil, arrival is next week’ i’ll refrain from soaping, meanwhile I’ll be reviewing ya’ll‘s beautiful soaps & post’ chiming in when I can add substantial information ℹ As well as Spread Some Love & Encouragement 🧼🤗❤️

Happy soaping 🧼🤗💫🧼🤗💫🧼🤗💫
 
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I have been experimenting with alkanet, indigo, turkey rhubarb, and madder. The photo below shows combinations of each of these. I have had zero luck with this indigo from Bramble Berry. [ETA by zero success” I mean I’m getting dull gray, no fun blues.] I’m going to try a different brand. The alkanet and rhubarb came out much paler than when I have used it in the past. Not sure why. The madder is smooth bedstraw roots I dug and dried for the garden challenge. It was much pinker earlier and has faded to a peachy rose color.
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Also, in a big cleanup effort of my workspace I took a look at what I thought was distilled water and now see that it has magnesium sulfate, potassium bicarbonate and potassium chloride. It’s right there on the label, I obviously wasn’t paying careful attention. 😐 I am not sure of the effect of these salts on my soap but I wonder if they contributed to trouble I was having with soda ash.
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Yep’ noticed sometime back ( added minerals ) Yikes.
 
This is not exactly a soapy thing I've done today but is certainly related to my soaping.
About ten days ago I gave away a bar od soap to my grandson's girlfriend who has severe problems with skin on her face.
It is a dual lye soap made with beef tallow, castor oil and sugar, colour free and fragrance free, cured for eight weeks.
Today she told me it nicely removes excess oil without making her skin feel over dry.
We're both very happy!
Up to now I haven't made any such extra mild soap cause my skin is not oversensitive nor do anyone in my family or friends have problematic skin. The girl agreed she would test my soap although she already uses special cleansers for her face. So I thought of tallow with a little bit of castor oil and sugar for bubbles. I forgot to ask her about bubbling, we were both so thrilled with the effect of my soap on her skin.
Happy as a clam!
 
I had a fun thing happen - I was fiddling with embeds and a clay extruder and made a soap representing the James Webb Space Telescope - it was my entry for the February soap challenge with Amy Warden. I got five votes, but it wasn’t as pretty as the winners. Well, my sister has a family member who is an astrophysicist, he works on JWST and his wife works on Hubble, so she bought four of the five bars I made. I sent them off and didn’t think much of it. Next thing I know I’m getting tons of hits on my Etsy page, someone bought the lone bar, and people are messaging me to see if I will make more. Eventually I figured out she posted it on Twitter - and the space community is going nuts for it! I’m thrilled. It is a rather time consuming soap to make but I’m delighted people like it.
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I had a fun thing happen - I was fiddling with embeds and a clay extruder and made a soap representing the James Webb Space Telescope - it was my entry for the February soap challenge with Amy Warden. I got five votes, but it wasn’t as pretty as the winners. Well, my sister has a family member who is an astrophysicist, he works on JWST and his wife works on Hubble, so she bought four of the five bars I made. I sent them off and didn’t think much of it. Next thing I know I’m getting tons of hits on my Etsy page, someone bought the lone bar, and people are messaging me to see if I will make more. Eventually I figured out she posted it on Twitter - and the space community is going nuts for it! I’m thrilled. It is a rather time consuming soap to make but I’m delighted people like it.
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OMGOSH. Love ❤️ your story. Your soap looks awesome 🤩🚀
 
I had a fun thing happen - I was fiddling with embeds and a clay extruder and made a soap representing the James Webb Space Telescope - it was my entry for the February soap challenge with Amy Warden. I got five votes, but it wasn’t as pretty as the winners. Well, my sister has a family member who is an astrophysicist, he works on JWST and his wife works on Hubble, so she bought four of the five bars I made. I sent them off and didn’t think much of it. Next thing I know I’m getting tons of hits on my Etsy page, someone bought the lone bar, and people are messaging me to see if I will make more. Eventually I figured out she posted it on Twitter - and the space community is going nuts for it! I’m thrilled. It is a rather time consuming soap to make but I’m delighted people like it.
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Rightly so they're going nuts! The time and effort! This is awesome!
 
I did a lather test of the 1 week old batch of ZNSB (80% OO) I made vs 1 year old bars of Castile, Bastille and salt water bastille. I thought there was a separate thread someone had linked for lather/performance testing but now I can’t find it.
And yes, I am asking a lot of a 1 week old bar of soap, but spoiler, it performed really well. I have photos.
 
My husband is down to a smidge of his dual lye shave soap so today I mixed up a new batch. I don't know why I wait so long to make this stuff. I put some in some stainless steel cups and then molded a few pucks so I can sell them at the consignment story and market. The problem with shave soap is that it lasts so dang long.
 
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