What soapy thing have you done today?

[Deedles]

I made my first batch of GM soap all by myself today! Up to now I've been soaping with my friend, Sarah. We had a system worked out...one melting oils, one doing the lye, one prepping the colors, etc. Today it was all me! That part went OK. It was when I added the FO that things went wonky. It accelerated really fast so the zebra swirl I had planned was plopped in and spoon swirled instead. It looks kinda 'grainy' but the colors look alright in the mold but time will tell I'm sure it will end up in the mistake thread!

 

[TeresaT]

I 'procured' lots of gloves from the labs at work.

It a relatively new job so still getting to grips with what we do as I'm only doing the accs for one element. Turns out we have all these labs with gas spectrometers, plasma spectrometers, fume cupboards all over, radiation detectors for various samples - all very geeky and interesting.

The plus is the lead chemist said if I need gloves, lye or new glasses etc to just let him know as they're all consumables to them!

Ha! Lucky you! I order the supplies at work, so when I started soaping, I grabbed a box of the gloves I use for processing evidence. They're latex and textured; I'm allergic to the nitrile ones. I had to open a personal account with the supply company that I buy the gloves from. I not only have to pay more per box, but I have to pay taxes, too. When I ordered four boxes for work the total was around $45 and free shipping. When I ordered three boxes on my own account right afterwards (2 for soap & 1 for work) the total was around $45 plus shipping.

 

[shunt2011]

Not a very good picture but these are the soaps I made over the weekend.

Some restocks and a couple holiday soapies.

 

[gigisiguenza]

Not a very good picture but these are the soaps I made over the weekend. View attachment 17086

Some restocks and a couple holiday soapies.

What a wonderful batch of soaps. Colorful and pretty

 

[dillsandwitch]

made a batch of castile soaps today. unscented but I did use honey and coconut milk. Should be ready for DH birthday next year. hehehehe

 

[brandnew]

Bought some pine tar for my first attempt! Now searching for examples of recipes....Any suggestions....just water, use/don't use additives.....is there any eo that can help calm the smell? thanks....

shunt...that is quite a show for a weekend! Hats off to you! Wish I could smell them!

 

[brandnew]

Not a very good picture but these are the soaps I made over the weekend........wee-doggie shunt 2011!! That is being productive. Hats off to you! I wish I could sniff them!

I just bought some pine tar and would appreciate any suggestions for my first attempt appreciated!....use /don't use additives.....just simple water approach.....IS there an eo or anything to help calm the scent? Yeah! Can't wait!

 

[Wyredgirl]

Bought some pine tar for my first attempt! Now searching for examples of recipes....Any suggestions....just water, use/don't use additives.....is there any eo that can help calm the smell? thanks....

shunt...that is quite a show for a weekend! Hats off to you! Wish I could smell them!

I use anise EO for my pine tar soap, it smells funny at first but masks the pine tar once cured. I've used water but have also used lactaid (which I love because it is milk didn't have lactose so it doesn't burn like normal milk) I do usually color my pine tar soap black, fuchsia, and white.

Another smell that goes well with pine tar is Christmas tree FO and pine EO if you don't like anise

 

[JuneP]

Right now I'm waiting for my lye and oils to cool down. Earlier I freaked out when my microwave lost power as did the outlet near there where I had my immersion blender plugged in. After a first, unsuccessfull flicking of switching on the power box, and a call to the electrician and panic that I'd had to move my entire soaping setup to the dining room table, I tried one more time to hit the power box and this time switched every switch on and off and voila - all was working again.
Everything is ready to go for the Secret Feather Swirl soap. I changed my mind twice about the amount of water I wanted in this soap. With 48 hard oils I didn't want to lower water too much, and decided to go with full water and then changed my mind again and set Soap Calc for 28% Lye Concentration which made the water 35.5%. I'm still wary but I'll let the lye and oils cool down a few more degrees before I start. I have 4 colors for the feather and one for the base, so I think I'd better work fast with this new recipe.
I told my husband if the pattern doesn't work we will at least have some nice soap for us. LOL Time for me to get my camera set up. Hopefully this time I will find a way to raise it higher and then zoom down so people can see what's going on with the mixing, etc.

 

[traderbren]

I placed an order for a little more lye, castor oil, and a few FOs, printed up some labels for my cured soaps so I can get them wrapped and out of my way, and ran some numbers for a beer soap. I also opened said beer (an over-carbonated bottle of homebrew from a friend- no way am I wasting our precious homebrew...) and I'm letting it go flat. I aim to soap on Saturday while hubs is hunting. Tomorrow I'll boil it a bit, and freeze it into cubes. I have some hops pellets that are past their prime for beer, but might make an interesting addition crushed in the soap or on top.

 

[kumudini]

I cleaned all my soapy dishes. Then made my DH's favorite mint and anise star soap with bentonite clay in it. today I used beeswax at 3% in the recipe. No colors other than the greenish hue from the clay, so no drama.

 

[songwind]

I cleaned all my soapy dishes. Then made my DH's favorite mint and anise star soap with bentonite clay in it. today I used beeswax at 3% in the recipe. No colors other than the greenish hue from the clay, so no drama.

Mint and anise sounds intriquing!

 

[kumudini]

I came across that scent combination in the product reviews the first time I ordered online and since I was so new to everything, I used that recommendation. For hubby it hit the right spot I guess as it reminds him of his favorite food item, it's called paan, a mouth freshener heavy on mint and fennel, anise star smells so similar to fennel. Now he always wants this soap, he uses them up so fast and I get to make it again and again. The beeswax was an attempt to slow the usage down, will have to see how that goes.
BTW, the scent combo is loved by most everyone including me.
Also, couple drops of each EO in a glass of warm water eases a queasy tummy.

 

[amd]

Stalked - er, I mean tracked - my latest oil shipment. It's 2 hours away from me but delivery time still says Monday! The agony. Tomorrow will be a photo session for the latest two soaps to come off the curing rack and more soap fondling - er, I mean flipping the bars on the curing rack. Crossing my fingers that my delivery might show up tomorrow. I'm ready to get started on a couple new soaps! (oil delivery has coconut oil and a couple fragrance oils)

 

[kumudini]

Good luck with your shipment amd, last Friday I ordered from SC, the package reached UPS store/ center that's about max 25 min from me. Guess when I got them, yep, Monday! That's just ridiculous.

Today I called Ace Hardware store one block away to find out if they carried lye, they did! So got myself 3 lbs, now I can wait to place my order from BA. That's where I got lye from. That's the most economic place for lye, if you also have to buy a bunch of other stuff so the shipping charge is justified.

 

[traderbren]

Boiled, weighed, and froze my beer into cubes. I need to weigh out the rest of my lye to see if I have enough for my beer soap tomorrow. I'm still kicking around whether I want to add crushed hops pellets or not.

My KOH is at the post office, so I hope to get it tomorrow.

 

[houseofwool]

Picked up beer from a local microbrewery for a custom order.

 

[shunt2011]

Hoping to get more soap made as well as some bubble bars and pumice scrub tomorrow and Sunday.

 

[DeeAnna]

Set up four, no, five recipes to make and got through two tonight. DH is gone, so I left all my equipment out (clean and kitty safe) so I can just jump back in tomorrow.

The first was a basic pine tar for DH. Now that I have some tallow, I added it to the recipe to make the PT soap firmer at unmolding and hopefully last a bit longer in the shower. Furry husbands are hard on soap! Took under a minute to come to trace after I added the PT, but I was (for once!) ready for that sucker to move. I was actually able to pour it into the mold for once rather than do my usual glop it in. Big victory over the pine tar gremlins!

It had been about 3 months since I last soaped, and this was the soap I started with to get my soaping mojo revved up. I was musing about why PT soap seemed like the "safe" one for me to make first. I finally realized it didn't have swirls or color to worry about! That shows you just how much angst I have about that swirly stuff. :think:

Also did a bath soap using a discoloring FO as the colorant -- Autumn Woods by Natures Garden. This is the third batch I've made with this recipe, so I'm getting more and more used to how it behaves. I hope <fingers and toes crossed> the swirl turns out -- I tried to do an in-the-pot feathered swirl. I just hope I get some kind of swirl that sort of looks like I intended to do something more than muddle about -- a modestly nice swirly-ness would be nice!

More soapy goodness planned for tomorrow. Yay!

 

[gigisiguenza]

I'm prepping oils to make 2 batches as we speak