So you're clearly pandering to the Kiwi vote.
What soapy thing have you done today?
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Trish3
New Member
Officially an empty-nester. Daughter is doing her college thing. Hubby went right from dropping her off to a work trip so I’m all by my lonesome. I masterbatched fats and lye solution before our trip, knowing I’d need a distraction once I got home. Turns out, my daughter is adjusting fantastically and I’m doing better than I thought! She’s texting me way more than I expected and actually asking for my advice!!!! She NEVER asks me for advice on ANYTHING. Patting myself on the back for playing it cool and encouraging a partnership in her decision-making rather than tell her what to do. Want her to feel like she’s the driver and I’m merely opening up the road in front of her.
Anyway, going to make soap as soon as I’m caught up on work stuff/day job. Just because…
Anyway, going to make soap as soon as I’m caught up on work stuff/day job. Just because…
Gremlins are at my house!
First there was the lumpy batter, and today I'm making a 6kilo batch and forgot about going slow to add the lye to lemon juice.
Massive lye volcano ... it looked really pretty, but oh so dangerous.
No harm done (all cleaned up without injury), although I did break a really nice bit of glassware while I was shoving things out of the way.
(The loss of 800grams of lemon juice I HAD JUST SQUEEZED canes a bit tho ...)
Hopefully they are done with me now!
(or ... hopefully I stop making stupid mistakes real soon)
Edited to add ...
... nope, not done.
No3. Caramalised the honey.
(ice bath, multiple jugs, slow pour ... and it still went).
Now I have pretty BROWN (blah!) soap. Can't be bothered remaking it today ..
Edited again ...
... it's gelled, out and cut (7 hours later - I had to cut it warm, might up the soft oils for the next one)
The bars ended up a light tan, and the lather is white
Feels nice for a new soap, and the lather is good, so alright in the end!
First there was the lumpy batter, and today I'm making a 6kilo batch and forgot about going slow to add the lye to lemon juice.
Massive lye volcano ... it looked really pretty, but oh so dangerous.
No harm done (all cleaned up without injury), although I did break a really nice bit of glassware while I was shoving things out of the way.
(The loss of 800grams of lemon juice I HAD JUST SQUEEZED canes a bit tho ...)
Hopefully they are done with me now!
(or ... hopefully I stop making stupid mistakes real soon)
Edited to add ...
... nope, not done.
No3. Caramalised the honey.
(ice bath, multiple jugs, slow pour ... and it still went).
Now I have pretty BROWN (blah!) soap. Can't be bothered remaking it today ..
Edited again ...
... it's gelled, out and cut (7 hours later - I had to cut it warm, might up the soft oils for the next one
)The bars ended up a light tan, and the lather is white
Feels nice for a new soap, and the lather is good, so alright in the end!
Last edited:
CelineEnilec
Member
I have finally made a batch of @Zany_in_CO 's legendary ZNSC: I'm in the process of testing a couple of new fragrance oils so I thought it'd be a great idea to use a single-oil recipe for those and it'd allow me to try out both the promised wonderful Castile and at the same time try the fragrance oils and new oxides and ultramarines.
Testing method was simple enough: made out a batch to fill 6 rectangular cavities, split it in 6, add the fragrance oil, pour an uncoloured layer inside each cavity and add oxides/ultramarines to the rest and pour on top of each uncoloured layer. Reasoning behind this was that I did not want to make one uncoloured and one coloured soap for each fragrance oil, and the uncoloured layer is a good enough option to determine if the FO discolours (once enough time has passed, of course).
This was done yesterday afternoon and I'm just after checking the soaps, they're still soft-ish but I'm in no hurry so it'll wait as long as they feel ok to unmould.
Both my salt and sodium bicarbonate were properly dissolved prior to adding the NaOH but when said NaOH was added I could see some white "flakes", which remained even after the NaOH was completely dissolved. Looking at the ZNSC reference thread, it might be related to the water temperature when making the faux seawater so I'll try Zany's trick to nuke the faux seawater for a minute after making it and then letting it cool prior to making the lye solution.
Testing method was simple enough: made out a batch to fill 6 rectangular cavities, split it in 6, add the fragrance oil, pour an uncoloured layer inside each cavity and add oxides/ultramarines to the rest and pour on top of each uncoloured layer. Reasoning behind this was that I did not want to make one uncoloured and one coloured soap for each fragrance oil, and the uncoloured layer is a good enough option to determine if the FO discolours (once enough time has passed, of course).
This was done yesterday afternoon and I'm just after checking the soaps, they're still soft-ish but I'm in no hurry so it'll wait as long as they feel ok to unmould.
Both my salt and sodium bicarbonate were properly dissolved prior to adding the NaOH but when said NaOH was added I could see some white "flakes", which remained even after the NaOH was completely dissolved. Looking at the ZNSC reference thread, it might be related to the water temperature when making the faux seawater so I'll try Zany's trick to nuke the faux seawater for a minute after making it and then letting it cool prior to making the lye solution.
What a GREAT idea! Rather than 2 separate soaps to do the 2 layers in one soap.! Genius. I hope I remember this tip for future Fragrance & color testing.
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
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Ugeauxgirl
Well-Known Member
Today I trimmed several batches of soap. I tried two milky way molds- both released cleanly but I didn't like the tray mold. I couldn't cut them evenly- a problem I should have anticipated. The cavity molds were nice though. The accelerated batches turned out better than I expected but that's not saying much. Will post pics tomorrow
My soapy thing today: cut some soap logs into bath bars; looked through my soap stash for a bar I cannot find a photo of (I am absolutely positive a photo exists, but for the life of me, I was unable to find it today, nor the soap either.)
Cleaned up some soapy mess, repackaged a container of palm shortening because the lid had cracked, which I discovered when looking ahead to what to bring along on next roadtrip for making soap.
Cleaned up some soapy mess, repackaged a container of palm shortening because the lid had cracked, which I discovered when looking ahead to what to bring along on next roadtrip for making soap.
My soapy thing is trying to catch up with this forum. I was at an intensive and fantastic 3 day training, 12 hour days, at a nearby hotel. I forgot to pack soap. Ugh, hotel soap. And I pulled out a recipe for a special order and hope to make soap tomorrow!
I tested my 2 day old soap and I'm really liking it!
(there's one at the sink already, which is almost unheard of for a new soap!)
And today I had to tell someone to wait for the cure before they could have a bar ...
(good thing they don't read this forum
)
(there's one at the sink already, which is almost unheard of for a new soap!)
And today I had to tell someone to wait for the cure before they could have a bar ...
(good thing they don't read this forum
)CelineEnilec
Member
I made a second tiny batch of ZNSC to test the last three fragrance oils I had. I still had white flakes in my lye solution after dissolving the lye in the faux seawater (faux seawater was nuked for a little while after dissolving the salt and bicarb and let to cool down prior to adding the lye), but nothing a sieve couldn't handle.
It came to trace so fast it was crazy. I use pomace so a faster trace is to be expected but I didn't even have to stick blend. Looking forward to test all the ones made this week and see if I'm a Castile-convert
A couple of months ago (after lurking in here for ages) I decided to try soy wax in my soaps to increase its longevity (I'm palm-free and vegan so getting the palmitic and stearic up is a challenge). I somehow got it in my head that Naturewax C3 was ok in soaps so I purchased a kg of it and tried it at 10% (removed this % from my olive portion) and was fairly happy about it, but then I heard that Naturewax C3 isn't skin safe so I'm stuck with slightly less than a kg of it....
As we all know, when FO companies don't list soap notes in their description, it's only when testing them that we see if they behave well or not. And let's just say that I had a couple of very misbehaving ones. But I loved their scent.
The link between the soy wax and fragrance oils I hear you ask? Well I do like the smell of the misbehaving fragrance oils, and I do have a pack of soy wax.... so I made wax melts with them. I'm sure C3 isn't ideal for wax melts but hey, it does the job for melts to use at home!
It came to trace so fast it was crazy. I use pomace so a faster trace is to be expected but I didn't even have to stick blend. Looking forward to test all the ones made this week and see if I'm a Castile-convert
A couple of months ago (after lurking in here for ages) I decided to try soy wax in my soaps to increase its longevity (I'm palm-free and vegan so getting the palmitic and stearic up is a challenge). I somehow got it in my head that Naturewax C3 was ok in soaps so I purchased a kg of it and tried it at 10% (removed this % from my olive portion) and was fairly happy about it, but then I heard that Naturewax C3 isn't skin safe so I'm stuck with slightly less than a kg of it....
As we all know, when FO companies don't list soap notes in their description, it's only when testing them that we see if they behave well or not. And let's just say that I had a couple of very misbehaving ones. But I loved their scent.
The link between the soy wax and fragrance oils I hear you ask? Well I do like the smell of the misbehaving fragrance oils, and I do have a pack of soy wax.... so I made wax melts with them. I'm sure C3 isn't ideal for wax melts but hey, it does the job for melts to use at home!
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
CelineEnilec
Member
Zany to the rescue as always!!
You truly are a soapyclopaedia Zany, good thing (for you) I don't have your phone number or it would definitely be on speed dial and with this little pesky time difference between Western Europe and Colorado I don't think it'd be well received
As always, thank you so much <3
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
You are too kind, but thank you!
However, when it comes to science, it's best to wait for @DeeAnna to repond!
I'm not sciencey at all. What I know, and share, is based on my knowledge, a LOT of trial & error and many years of experience since I made my first soap in 2003. I am fortunate to have had excellent mentors at the beginning that were generous and ever so patient with me. "Paying it Forward" is my way of expressing my gratitude to them for all they taught me.
I made a batch of Patchouli Orange soap this morning. At my last market, one customer ordered 6 bars and another vendor wants a bar or two as well. So...... I made some.
Hurray! I made soap today! I'm lovin' this masterbatch action and I repeated a recipe so it only took an hour out of my day. I can tell it's been at least 6 weeks since I've made soap because my curing rack is completely bare. It was a special order for an entire loaf. My friend wanted the same scent, colors, everything. Easy peasy.
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
LisaBoBisa
Well-Known Member
I usually cover and CPOP soap, but this 100% coconut oil cavity mold pour was already hard when I put it in a closed cardboard box, wrapped it in towels, and placed it on the only clear surface available (the couch). I caught my sweet boy inventing a new technique to help the soap go through gel phase. If using a warm oven is CPOP, should using a warm cat be CPCP? (Cold Process Cuddle Process)
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