What soapy thing have you done today?

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My soapy thing today was rearranging soap bars in the boxes so that the newest is on top. Here are 84 bars of it.
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I also rendered a bit more grease. There may still be enough LARD remaining to use to make 72 more bars.
I purchased another stainless mixing bowl large enough for a 90+ oz batch.
 
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I'm not sure what I expected when I made this French clay soap but it's given me inspiration. It looks like mountains and clouds, totally by accident. That's why soap making is so much fun. I'm now going to try and make a Scottish mountain night scene based on this happy accident.
I think you meant to say you totally planned it this way.
 
I bit the bullet and bought insurance today. Also bought sidewalls for my canopy because I'm doing a market on Saturday and the weather report is calling for rain. Bummer of a way to start market season 🌦

My second show this season got rained out halfway through.

The first show was meh due to intense road construction (narrowed to one road, alternating one way) and 3 events the same day at the same location (dog show, road race).

I'm hoping third time is the charm!

I'm not sure what I expected when I made this French clay soap but it's given me inspiration. It looks like mountains and clouds, totally by accident. That's why soap making is so much fun. I'm now going to try and make a Scottish mountain night scene based on this happy accident.

Absolutely gorgeous!

My whole line is mountain themed, so I may do some sort of play on this design if you don't mind.

I already have customers comment on my "mountain shaped" soaps, which is funny to me since all I do is ridge the tops towards the middle like I see all the time here.
 
@TheGecko I suppose since I'm only using one oil I wouldn't gain much from master-batching the LARD. My constant prep is rendering LARD. It's stored in as big as of containers that will fit in my refrigerator.

If you're only using one or two Oils to make your soap, then no, Master Batching wouldn't make a lot of sense since there isn't a lot of time savings for you.

For me, MBing huge time saver and a lot less exhausting that making a 14 lb batch and making seven different soaps (lesson quickly learned there and I had some help). In the time that it used to take me an hour to make one batch of soap, I can now make two. And in addition to saving saving time, I'm also saving on wear and tear on my body and so I FEEL like making more soap.

And when it came to make Wedding Soaps for my son's wedding...MBing meant that my colors were consistent across all 160 soaps.
 
My second show this season got rained out halfway through.

The first show was meh due to intense road construction (narrowed to one road, alternating one way) and 3 events the same day at the same location (dog show, road race).

I'm hoping third time is the charm!
I admire your optimism. Hard not to feel discouraged after doing lots to prepare and then having miserable weather or other things that you can't control.
 
I had a happy accident when I cut my loaf today. I’m just awful when it comes to lining my molds with paper, and it showed this time. However, I didn’t really mind it. The wrinkles in the paper gave it a bit of a fun textured look on the sides, almost like it was intentional. It looks a bit odd in the photo, I think. It’s much more interesting in person.
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I admire your optimism. Hard not to feel discouraged after doing lots to prepare and then having miserable weather or other things that you can't control.
I had a great show on a really cold rainy windy day last year...Most of the other vendors left! Sometimes it doesn't all go bad. Hoping for breaks in the rain for you!
 
Just getting back to making some soap and bath bombs after some time off. I’ve got my first farmers market since Christmas tomorrow, and I’m pretty excited about that! Can someone tell me what’s up with soapmakingfriend.com ? I was about to go and pay the new fee and I’m getting a 404. It’s such a great calculator!!!
 
I mixed and poured my 9th batch today. this is the 2nd batch of 18. I went back up on water/LYE ratio. 2.3:1. I needed it to be like melted milkshake when I poured. The batch was nearly too big for the 18 cavities in the molds. I'm adding to my equipment to be able to pour 90 ozs, 36 bars. Two large pours and I should be finished. I used a FO that smelled like it had some cinnamon in it. It didn't take any more time to pour 18 as it did 12.
 
I start with a 5-Gallon HDPE bucket that I picked up from my local supplier for $10.00USD. It has a pour spout in the lid but I don't use it.

I usually mix up about 40 lbs of oils/butter though the bucket would easily hold 50 lbs to 60 lbs...it's all about what I can comfortably move by myself (I plan on getting a rolling plant stand later).

Anyhoo...I melt/mix in 10 lbs of oil/butters lots because that is a much hot oils/butters I want to handle at a time. I use a Revere Ware stainless steel "dutch over" to melt my Cocoa Butter, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil and Shea Butter. I set the pan on a medium heat, start with the Cocoa Butter, then add the Palm and Coconut Oils. I then turn off the heat and add the Shea Butter in small chunks. By the time it's all melted, I have added the Olive and Castor Oils to the bucket and can pour in the melted oils and give it a stir and start the next batch melting. One final stir and the lid goes on.

When I'm ready to make soap, I open the bucket and grab my drill with a commercial paint stirrer attachment that I paid maybe $5.00 and give the mixture a good whiz. How good is dependent on the time of year. During the Winter, the mixture is about the consistency of cornbread batter, during the Summer it's more of a pancake batter. I make sure I stir all around the edges and the bottom of the bucket because Stearic Acid settles to the bottom.

I have a long handled ladle that holds approximately 4 oz. I have a spreadsheet on my wall that tells me how much oil/butter, lye solution and FO I need for each mold. So if I am using my 10" Silicone Loaf Mold, I know that I need 34 oz Oils/Butters, 14.24 oz Lye Solution (ready-to-use at 33%) and 2.13oz FO. I start with weighing out my FO since I use Kaolin Clay and disperse any colorants if needed. I then stir up the mixture, tare my bowl, scoop in four ladles, then weigh my bowl and adjust from there. I then pop it in the microwave at 30 seconds PPO which puts my Oils/Butters between 100F-120F. While the Oils/Butters are melting I weigh out my Lye Solution which is usually around 70F-75F (room temp) and add Sodium Lactate. I like to soap at cooler temps so I will put my hand on the bowl when it comes out and if I can leave it there, I go on to make soap or if I can't, I'll go toss a load of laundry in or doing something else for 10 minutes.

Master Batching is great if you make the same soap all the time...which I do. It takes me about an hour to make a 40 lb MB including clean up, but I save more than that with the convenience.
Thank you for posting your process. I have always been afraid of masterbatching. I have bookmarked your post. I think I'm at the point where MB would be a great timesaver for me. You made it a lot less intimidating for me.

My soapy thing was actually last night. I made an oat milk soap, uncolored but scented with omh fragrance at half strength. I think omh at full strength is too strong and almondy smelling. I made my own oatmilk, but even through several layers of cheesecloth, teenie bits of oatmeal still got through. Hopefully that will just make a scubby addition.

I got my inspiration from Ophelia's soapery yt video. I was going to use oatmilk as full water replacement, but I'm glad I did like she did and half water and half oatmilk at emulsion. The oatmilk thickened up the batter significantly. Not a plop and drop, but enough to make me nervous lol.

I've been on a plain no color or one color soap lately because I am tired of people saying that they use it for decoration. I want people to actually USE my soap. I keep getting invited to do markets, but I have been working so much lately that I have to keep declining. Hopefully she won't give up on me.

Also, I recently discovered Soapmaking Friend. I guess I was just comfortable with soapcalc so I never tried it out. I love it! And I paid for the subscription. There's so much to do there LOL. And I like the printouts better. The color ones from soapcalc are nice, but they use a lot of ink, and I always forget to turn on black and white, which I'm never thrilled with the look of the black and white. SMF prints out nice clean and crisp recipes. AND I love the naming and saving recipes function. There isn't anything I don't like about it.

I had an order to drop off to somebody at work a few weeks ago and a NP saw it and was really excited that I make soap because she wants to learn. So today I made her a list of basic supplies and gave her my recipe that is easy to work with, and directed her to a few learning websites and places to buy stuff. I guess when she gets all of her supplies we will get together and I will teach her to make soap.
 
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Thank you for posting your process. I have always been afraid of masterbatching. I have bookmarked your post. I think I'm at the point where MB would be a great timesaver for me. You made it a lot less intimidating for me.

Start small. Get yourself a gallon bucket and make enough to fill it about two-thirds full and make some small batches of soap. I know a few folks who reuse old Sodium Hydroxide bottle to MB their Lye Solution. I do mine ready-to-use, but some folks make a 50-50 Solution. You’ll do fine.
 
Start small. Get yourself a gallon bucket and make enough to fill it about two-thirds full and make some small batches of soap. I know a few folks who reuse old Sodium Hydroxide bottle to MB their Lye Solution. I do mine ready-to-use, but some folks make a 50-50 Solution. You’ll do fine.
Yeah, I'm thinking the ever-growing supply of coconut oil buckets might be useful to start out. I hate throwing them away cause they always seem like they can be repurposed for something LOL.
 
LOL. What is happening?! So my boss recently left my organization and I sent him off with a gift bag of my soap. Now I am on vacation, it is Saturday night, and I just get a call from him and I seriously wondered if he had butt dialed me, but no. He's a great guy, and a big booming larger than life presence -- think Shaquille O'Neal. He says, "Zing! I'm calling for one reason and one reason only. Spring Clean. I love that soap, man, I'll buy 20 bars of it! Gimme all you got. I'll pay anything, just let me know."

So if you are following my life, last week a different friend demanded every last bar of my Spring Clean soap which I gave her and so I spent last weekend making more. It is my favorite -- and now totally my best-selling bar. Who knew?! It's rosemary and lemongrass, and seemingly highly addictive...!
 
My soapy thing was taking a bunch of FOs that only had dribs and drabs left, and mixing them into new scents. Some of the mixes smell really good, but of course, I'll never be able to replicate them since I just poured what was left in Bottles A, B, and C into Bottle D. The best part is that this emptied about 20 bottles, making that shelf in my soap cabinet much less crowded. I'm hoping tomorrow I can take a first swing at the Infinity Swirl Challenge Soap.
 
I did a leftover/confetti soap with some titanium dioxide. Didn't let it gel. Soaped at 50°C. I've put the loaf few hours in the freezer and then left it in refrigerator until now. Looks quite good to me.
 

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LOL. What is happening?! So my boss recently left my organization and I sent him off with a gift bag of my soap. Now I am on vacation, it is Saturday night, and I just get a call from him and I seriously wondered if he had butt dialed me, but no. He's a great guy, and a big booming larger than life presence -- think Shaquille O'Neal. He says, "Zing! I'm calling for one reason and one reason only. Spring Clean. I love that soap, man, I'll buy 20 bars of it! Gimme all you got. I'll pay anything, just let me know."

So if you are following my life, last week a different friend demanded every last bar of my Spring Clean soap which I gave her and so I spent last weekend making more. It is my favorite -- and now totally my best-selling bar. Who knew?! It's rosemary and lemongrass, and seemingly highly addictive...!
*rushes off to make some rosemary and lemongrass soap*
What's the ratio Zing?
 

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