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.
Beautiful shelves! Did you make them yourself?
I hope your show was a big success!
Nope, those shelves are $36 each in Amazon. I chose those because they come apart and lay flat so I can pack them up easily. I use a tote for all my setup supplies and with the 2 shelves can still fit it all into a single tote.
 
I made the most of my short weekend with loosing an hour to daylight savings! 🌸
3 batches of lotion bars (9 bars per batch) on Friday night
2 batches of soap on Saturday
1 batch of M&P Spring/Easter soaps today
Reorganized my soap storage supplies - added a second storage shelf unit and a small corner unit, so now everything is together and has its own place.
WHEW! I gotta go back to work tomorrow to get some rest! 😂🤣😂
 
I made soap today! First time in 6 weeks. Totally utilitarian gardener/mechanic with borax (major credit to @earlene ). Sometimes it's nice to not have color prep or divided batter. And I just dump exfoliants right in shredded loofah, poppy seeds, coffee grounds. Scented with oak moss and bergamot essential oils. First time using oak moss. Love it.
In our bedroom, we have an essential oil diffuser with oak moss and lime essential oils. Smells so good.
May I ask how much of the lime and oakmoss essential oils you use (ratio and usage percent)? I love lime, but have never used oakmoss. I thought oakmoss was super thick according to a post by Zany who dilutes oakmoss in jojoba before using it in soap.
 
May I ask how much of the lime and oakmoss essential oils you use (ratio and usage percent)? I love lime, but have never used oakmoss. I thought oakmoss was super thick according to a post by Zany who dilutes oakmoss in jojoba before using it in soap.
To get the usage rate, I had to email the vendor who replied with a "recommendation" of 1% of oil weight. I wanted a more definitive reply and wish the information was readily available on their website and/or the bottle.
 
To get the usage rate, I had to email the vendor who replied with a "recommendation" of 1% of oil weight. I wanted a more definitive reply and wish the information was readily available on their website and/or the bottle.
I'm wondering if you bought the absolute (?) or suppliers sometimes sell absolutes diluted at 10% in a carrier oil like FCO (fractionated coconut oil) that has a long shelf life?

Here's how I do it:

OAKMOSS ABSOLUTE DILUTED AT 10% IN JOJOBA OIL

I make it up in an amber brown glass bottle, add a label and store it with my soaping stuff box so it's ready to go any time I need it.

10% JOJOBA
90% OAKMOSS ABSOLUTE
USE RATE: 0.7%
(1/4 - 1/2 tsp. PPO)
 
To get the usage rate, I had to email the vendor who replied with a "recommendation" of 1% of oil weight. I wanted a more definitive reply and wish the information was readily available on their website and/or the bottle.
Oh, was it a premade blend? I just assumed you blended the two EOs. I guess THAT should've been my first question! 🤣
 
Oh, was it a premade blend? I just assumed you blended the two EOs. I guess THAT should've been my first question! 🤣
It's Gemlite brand oak moss "essential oil." The label and website call it an essential oil. It's a tiny bit thicker than other essential oils. It smells so heavenly and forest-y! I really like how it smells, I'm just not super confident on the usage rate.

For my room diffuser, I used 50 50 lime and oakmoss and just eye-balled it.

For soap I used oak moss at 1% of total oil weight. I used bergamot at 4% of total oil weight. Hope that helps.
 
Well I'm trying to learn and practice my swirling but I'm not having any luck the FOs I bought aren't working for swirling at all. So far only 2 I tried were good for swirling. I cut some soap today here is my beautiful apple Soap On A Stick 😆 🤣 😂.
20230315_211735.jpg
 
So I got some swirling done today the way I like it and I found a berrie FO that swirled nice can't wait to cut it. The only thing is I used oils that I had heated the other day and left at room temperature and a container of lye I mixed and it to was left at room temperature so today I reheated both the oils and lye. It seemed to work out just fine I guess I will find out tomorrow 🙂.
 
So I got some swirling done today the way I like it and I found a berrie FO that swirled nice can't wait to cut it. The only thing is I used oils that I had heated the other day and left at room temperature and a container of lye I mixed and it to was left at room temperature so today I reheated both the oils and lye. It seemed to work out just fine I guess I will find out tomorrow 🙂.
Can't wait to see your soap! For future, there is no need to reheat the lye for sure, and possibly no need to re-heat the oils unless they had resolidified, or you were worried about potential stearic spots. And unless you have a lot of hard oils that could cause false trace when combined with cold lye solution, the oils and lye don't need to be within 10 degrees of each other, either. ;)
 
No, I hadn't. Thankyou. That solves that.

I think today I'll finish modifying my wire cheese slicer/soap cutter. The wood glue should be dry by now so I can add my measurement markings. My original marks were an inch from the groove rather than the wire which made for an extra sixteenth of an inch per bar. I'm so glad all my modifications are only semi permanent. DH didn't understand why I didn't want things permanent until he saw my error and how easily I can fix it.
 
In an effort to avoid soda ash, I left small hand soaps in the silicone cavity molds for 6days. Today when I popped them out, they were discolored. By that I mean, it appears the color from the mold itself bled onto surface of the soap. 🤦‍♀️

Normally wouldn’t be a big deal but they were for friend’s birthday, In favorite colors. They were supposed to be green (one set) & the other half yellow. They are now blue green & pale yellow with red. 😢
I should also add the molds were gifts so don’t know maker. I’ve used them previously without issue but soap was popped out day2 vs day6
4090E896-3DE6-4C36-BD33-7CFD4F1B05AD.jpeg
 
Last edited:
In an effort to avoid soda ash, I left small hand soaps in the silicone cavity molds for 6days. Today when I popped them out, they were discolored. By that I mean, it appears the color from the mold itself bled onto surface of the soap. 🤦‍♀️

Normally wouldn’t be a big deal but they were for friend’s birthday, In favorite colors. They were supposed to be green (one set) & the other half yellow. They are now blue green & pale yellow with red. 😢
I should also add the molds were gifts so don’t know maker. I’ve used them previously without issue but soap was popped out day2 vs day6
View attachment 71358
I just wanted to say the soaps still look very nice I'm 😞 sorry it didn't workout the way you wanted I know that can be a real bummer.
 
In an effort to avoid soda ash, I left small hand soaps in the silicone cavity molds for 6days. Today when I popped them out, they were discolored. By that I mean, it appears the color from the mold itself bled onto surface of the soap. 🤦‍♀️

Normally wouldn’t be a big deal but they were for friend’s birthday, In favorite colors. They were supposed to be green (one set) & the other half yellow. They are now blue green & pale yellow with red. 😢
I should also add the molds were gifts so don’t know maker. I’ve used them previously without issue but soap was popped out day2 vs day6
View attachment 71358
I’ve started popping mine out of the molds (or cutting loaves into bars) and then re-covering them with plastic wrap for at least several days, before uncovering them to cure them. It really cuts down on ash, and hopefully would also prevent color transfer for you, too.
 
I’ve started popping mine out of the molds (or cutting loaves into bars) and then re-covering them with plastic wrap for at least several days, before uncovering them to cure them. It really cuts down on ash, and hopefully would also prevent color transfer for you, too.
What a great idea, Ali!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top