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.
Because it's cold (-12C here at the moment), I decided it was a good time to make some Oatmeal Milk & Honey soap, a notorious heater. It's chilling outside right now.

OMH -12.png
 
Because it's cold (-12C here at the moment), I decided it was a good time to make some Oatmeal Milk & Honey soap, a notorious heater. It's chilling outside right now.

View attachment 76028
Just chillin', lol.
I would love to have snow like that in the winter. The worst we get here is a slight frost.
 
I could be wrong because I haven't seen this, so it is just a guess. It seems like all of your pebbles might be from overheating? I looked at your picture a dozen times between yesterday and today and I came to this conclusion because all of it happens just right in the middle.

The weird thing (which is why I keep going back to look at it), is that it seems to follow a pattern...going along the pattern of your swirls. Maybe it is caused by the td or one of your colors. I dunno.

Try planing the soaps, see if that gets rid of them, or to see if they come back.

Otherwise, very pretty swirl!
@Catscankim i don’t know how I missed seeing your response! (Or how I came to find it today when looking for something else 😂) - anyway, belated thanks!
I have learned that for some reason, using this wire cutter often gives a bumpy looking cut. It’s really annoying but I’ve learned just to polish my bars after cure; that helps, and once the bars get used they smooth right out. Maybe the “pattern” of bumps - more in the middle - was due to an imperceptibly incomplete CPOP? 🤷
I just love this chopstick swirl design and that batch of soap was so, so pretty. I have half a bar left and I’m keeping it just to remind myself of what I can do when I have a design fail! 😂😂
 
I’m waiting for my boiled down red wine to freeze so I can try out a red wine soap. Contemplating what recipe to conjure up for a first attempt at hot process. I scored a free slow cooker from my neighbourhood buy nothing group (I’m testing it out now to see how hot it gets at its 3 temperature points). It’s quite small, which should be fine for a small batch of HP.
Yesterday I wet felted a scarf, using my last bar of Zany’s NSBastille. After a couple hours in contact with very sudsy water, my hands felt so soft - not dry at all. So - I need to whip up another batch of Bastille a la Zany! It’s terrible to be all out!
 
It looks like there's more in our forecast.

View attachment 76029
Oooh, that looks warmish to me!! We‘re so cold to the east of you, @Misschief, that we were on emergency alert yesterday for several hours and were requested to turn off all appliances, lights, other electrical draws to avoid rolling power blackouts. Dangerous when the temps were in the -40 range and furnaces are needed! 🥶🥶🥶
 
Oooh, that looks warmish to me!! We‘re so cold to the east of you, @Misschief, that we were on emergency alert yesterday for several hours and were requested to turn off all appliances, lights, other electrical draws to avoid rolling power blackouts. Dangerous when the temps were in the -40 range and furnaces are needed! 🥶🥶🥶
I saw that, @janesathome. Not fun! And, yeah, -40C is a lot colder than we are here. Please, keep it there, ok?? I don't want it any colder! Stay warm, my friend!

:nonono:
 
Because it's cold (-12C here at the moment), I decided it was a good time to make some Oatmeal Milk & Honey soap, a notorious heater. It's chilling outside right now.

View attachment 76028
The coldest I've ever been is - 4 in the coolroom and was in and out all day. It was 29C here yesterday, cooler today a 24.
 
Today I swore I wasn’t making soap, so I labeled the tops of my micas. I have a little 3 drawer organizer and each drawer holds 12 jars of micas, but you can’t see the front labels. I was writing in sharpie on the lids, but even that would wipe off. Hopefully this works better - the labels came free with some jars I got for sugar scrubs, and the metallic pen seems to stay on them well.
IMG_5088.jpeg

Then in checking my supplies, I noticed I only had a small amount of castor oil left, and needed more little lard bars I love as facial soaps. So I “HAD TO” make soap - hehehe. 75% lard, 20% coconut oil, and 5% castor, with AVJ water replacement & GMP, no color added and lightly scented with BB Candied Citrus. This is more than I’d normally make, but I wanted to get rid of the almost empty jug of castor oil. On the fun side, I poured some batter into my new little piggies mold. I’ll have to send a few to my nephew that gave me the mold. The little flowers will be great travel bars, because even the guest size bars last forever.
IMG_5089.jpeg
 
I cut yesterday's soap. Meh. In an effort to avoid stearic spots, I soaped at warmer than I usually do and it thickened rather quickly which thwarted my hanger swirl. It smells great tho'!

I prepped lavender scent using @QuasiQuadrant 's technique using castor oil and clay. Mrs. Zing has requested a lavender scented soap and I have tomorrow off so plan on making tomorrow a soapy day.

And I posted items on CraigsList. I often receive gifts like flower petals, molds, etc. that are better suited for melt and pour soap. I'm de-stashing and organizing my soap shop, #NewYearGetOrganized
 
I made a batch with a FO I'd been avoiding because it is known to discolor and accelerate. I dealt with the color by adding activated charcoal and didn't add FO to the blue parts. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and extra pleased because an hour after I cut the bar our power went out and stayed out for about 12 hours. It was 13 degrees here, with 45 mph winds, snow and sleet. I'm so glad something good happened before the rest of the day happened!
BTW, the FO is NS Blue Agave and it smells heavenly!
Blue Agave.jpg
 
I made a batch with a FO I'd been avoiding because it is known to discolor and accelerate. I dealt with the color by adding activated charcoal and didn't add FO to the blue parts. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and extra pleased because an hour after I cut the bar our power went out and stayed out for about 12 hours. It was 13 degrees here, with 45 mph winds, snow and sleet. I'm so glad something good happened before the rest of the day happened!
BTW, the FO is NS Blue Agave and it smells heavenly!View attachment 76040
Wow! It looks amazing!
 
I saw that, @janesathome. Not fun! And, yeah, -40C is a lot colder than we are here. Please, keep it there, ok?? I don't want it any colder! Stay warm, my friend!

:nonono:
Haha, OK @Misschief - just for you we will hang on to the Arctic air for another day. Rumour has it that we are going to get into the minus TEENS by Wednesday, be still my heart!
 
I can't even imagine that kind of cold! I hope Alberta is better prepared to cope with it than Portland. Power's still out here for lots of folks and it's "warmed up" to 21F! (Is your minus TEENS F or C degrees?)
@janesathome and I are both in Canada so our temps would be C. For comparison, right now, we're at -20C or -3F here in Kelowna, BC
 
Whew, that's still bone-chilling, but not quite as awful as my first thought of it in fahrenheit! Thanks for clarifying.
I'm a winter wimp -- anything below 50F has me piling on sweaters 🥶
@Feelin' Soapy over here in Alberta we have had a run of REALLY cold weather. Minus 40 is the point where the temperatures are the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius, and we’ve been there -and colder! - for several days! @Misschief has had it relatively easy 😂😂 but minus 20C is no fun either. That’s when we Albertans put on our sweaters. (JK 🥶)
 
@Feelin' Soapy over here in Alberta we have had a run of REALLY cold weather. Minus 40 is the point where the temperatures are the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius, and we’ve been there -and colder! - for several days! @Misschief has had it relatively easy 😂😂 but minus 20C is no fun either. That’s when we Albertans put on our sweaters. (JK 🥶)
So true but....... I was born in Winnipeg. I remember -40. Not fondly but I do remember.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top