@KiwiMoose - thank you! I think I accidentally dupped the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year with that peachy-pink! I want to give them another go soon and slow down a bit to try and be more precise. Can't wait to see yours! 
What soapy thing have you done today?
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@QuasiQuadrant There was no swapping out letters just the pronunciation that was going through my head when I glanced at the name. Lets just say....my mind is deeper in the gutter than your's lmao
Tonight after work, instead of having to do farm chores, I am going to make a big batch of soap. Trying to copy one of my previous batches. Someone bought 5 of the bars and another person purchased the rest, so I think it was a hit LOL. However, might be an undertaking I cannot achieve. If I get the colours right I will be ok with that.
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My mind is down there with yours lol
So getting back to soap instead of needing to wash certain mouths out with soap, ahem.
Wow! This is beautiful! Can I ask you what your colorants were?
I made a big batch of lye water in bulk!
I will need to check on the blue I used once I get home from work.
It is dolphin blue from candora soap.
AliensrReal
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I love the blues too! So pretty!
AliensrReal
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Yes, please!
I made another two batches of soap today. The first was a replacement batch of Salt Soap to replace the batch that didn't have enough oil (lye heavy). The second is a batch scented with Lily of the Valley from Village Craft & Candle. I expected it to accelerate, being a floral and all, and it did. I managed to get it into the mold before it got too thick, though. Looking forward to the cut; it smells amazing!
Yeah, for sure, this is totally just 'meh'!!!
JUST KIDDING! Whatchootalkin''bout Willis?!
Today's soapy thing was making a 2000g batch soap for DH, using his favorite recipe: high lard + neem + PKO, scented with Dragon's Blood.
DH had just replaced my two PVC/ABS cylinder molds that had been lost in a past move. The last time he bought a 24" length of 3" ABS pipe, it was about $3.50. That was maybe 4 years ago? This time, it was almost $18!! He also bought two flat caps for the bottom of each mold, so they stand upright on their own, bringing the total cost to about $25 for two 12"cylinder molds.
The one drawback to ABS molds is that they are super insulators. The soap tops already have small cracks, so I'm keeping a close eye on them.
DH had just replaced my two PVC/ABS cylinder molds that had been lost in a past move. The last time he bought a 24" length of 3" ABS pipe, it was about $3.50. That was maybe 4 years ago? This time, it was almost $18!! He also bought two flat caps for the bottom of each mold, so they stand upright on their own, bringing the total cost to about $25 for two 12"cylinder molds.
The one drawback to ABS molds is that they are super insulators. The soap tops already have small cracks, so I'm keeping a close eye on them.
Wow! Overall, though, still probably cheaper than if you’d bought them from a soap supplier. But still!
Yesterday I made my first soap for this month’s challenge. I haven’t cut it yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s not competition-worthy. Back at it today!
Every time you mention your neem soap, I'm intrigued. Does it help your husband?Today's soapy thing was making a 2000g batch soap for DH, using his favorite recipe: high lard + neem + PKO, scented with Dragon's Blood.
DH had just replaced my two PVC/ABS cylinder molds that had been lost in a past move. The last time he bought a 24" length of 3" ABS pipe, it was about $3.50. That was maybe 4 years ago? This time, it was almost $18!! He also bought two flat caps for the bottom of each mold, so they stand upright on their own, bringing the total cost to about $25 for two 12"cylinder molds.
The one drawback to ABS molds is that they are super insulators. The soap tops already have small cracks, so I'm keeping a close eye on them.
The Lily of the Valley soap I made yesterday started to crack as well; I put it outside (hovering around freezing here) for about an hour and that helped.
I hear you on the PVC. I looked into it as well a while back. John put the word out to his friends and one of them had some unused 3" PVC pipe laying around and gave it to us for free; it was enough to make four 12" molds. I just had to buy the end caps. @AliOop, do you line them? If so, how? My boss gave me some scraps of acrylic film but after about 10 uses, they start to crack.
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I use freezer paper to line my PVC pipe molds
@Misschief your Lily of the Valley FO sounds lovely!
I've mentioned before that my DH has both psoriasis and eczema. His skin does best with a lard-neem soap over all the others that I've made and he's tried. Sometimes I use only lard as the main base. Other times I'm using saved and cleaned cooking fats that are roughly a 50-50 mix of lard and tallow. I've tried adding some GMP in the past, but that doesn't seem to make as much difference for him like it does for me. Usually I add colloidal oats, but I forgot that last night. Here is the recipe I used last night:
35% lard
35% tallow
15% PKO
15% neem
2% SF and 40% lye concentration using MB lye solution with tussah silk, sodium citrate, and sorbitol. The loaves were quite firm this morning and ready to cut at just 12 hours after pouring.
I go back and forth between lining and not lining the molds. For liners, I've used parchment paper, freezer paper, dehydrator sheets, oven liner, and dollar-store cutting mats that were trimmed to size. My issue with lining is that I always end up with a seam, and some areas where the loaves are not perfectly round. I finally figured out that the inside of these pipes are not perfectly symmetrical, because that doesn't really matter for plumbing, I guess. But it messes with how well the liner works, if that makes sense. Last night, I used oven liner sheets, and you can see the seam mark on most of the bars (and some soap crumbs - these aren't cleaned up yet). But other than that, they turned out great - very smooth to the touch and very even in color,
Not lining the molds has the advantage of no seams, but it does make it trickier to remove. Recipes high in stearic-palmitic were much easier to remove than recipes with more OO or other soft oils. No matter what, if there is no liner, the only way to remove the loaves is to put them in the freezer for at least an hour, then let them sit on the counter for about 10 minutes. Then I either bang them on a hard surface to knock them out, or I push the tube down on a soup can to push it out the top. My main concern about that is eventually ruining the molds due to all the temperature changes and the physical knocking about.
I've mentioned before that my DH has both psoriasis and eczema. His skin does best with a lard-neem soap over all the others that I've made and he's tried. Sometimes I use only lard as the main base. Other times I'm using saved and cleaned cooking fats that are roughly a 50-50 mix of lard and tallow. I've tried adding some GMP in the past, but that doesn't seem to make as much difference for him like it does for me. Usually I add colloidal oats, but I forgot that last night. Here is the recipe I used last night:
35% lard
35% tallow
15% PKO
15% neem
2% SF and 40% lye concentration using MB lye solution with tussah silk, sodium citrate, and sorbitol. The loaves were quite firm this morning and ready to cut at just 12 hours after pouring.
I go back and forth between lining and not lining the molds. For liners, I've used parchment paper, freezer paper, dehydrator sheets, oven liner, and dollar-store cutting mats that were trimmed to size. My issue with lining is that I always end up with a seam, and some areas where the loaves are not perfectly round. I finally figured out that the inside of these pipes are not perfectly symmetrical, because that doesn't really matter for plumbing, I guess. But it messes with how well the liner works, if that makes sense. Last night, I used oven liner sheets, and you can see the seam mark on most of the bars (and some soap crumbs - these aren't cleaned up yet). But other than that, they turned out great - very smooth to the touch and very even in color,
Not lining the molds has the advantage of no seams, but it does make it trickier to remove. Recipes high in stearic-palmitic were much easier to remove than recipes with more OO or other soft oils. No matter what, if there is no liner, the only way to remove the loaves is to put them in the freezer for at least an hour, then let them sit on the counter for about 10 minutes. Then I either bang them on a hard surface to knock them out, or I push the tube down on a soup can to push it out the top. My main concern about that is eventually ruining the molds due to all the temperature changes and the physical knocking about.
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Thank you for posting the recipe you used; I may just try it as I have some neem oil collecting dust.
I'm with you on the liners re: the seam. I've gotten to a point where I'm okay with the seam now. It is what it is; once the bar has been used a few times, the seam's no longer visible. I really like the acetate (not acrylic) that I'm using but, again, there's a seam. I've done without a liner but I hate having to bang them out of the molds.
The problem I've had with any other material that isn't firm enough to stand on its own is that they tend to buckle and/or wrinkle and that frustrates me more than the seam.
How do you keep it from buckling/wrinkling?
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