What soapy thing have you done today?

[FlybyStardancer]

I did that once. Only once. lol Now I have a procedure, mix it at arm's length, with stove hood on, then immediately move it to the back of the stove, and start the next one. all mixed lye goes to the back of the stove, where it is safe from breathing, being bumped, etc. lol

I too mix at arm's length... but with the container already on the back of the stove. The overhead hood vent is closer to the back burners of the stove than it is to the front. I always feel like if it were on the front of the stove, then half of the fumes wouldn't get sucked up into the hood.

 

[reinbeau]

My stove has a downdraft fan, so I mix it right on top of the downdraft. I turn the fan off when the solution clears and then set it over on the back of the counter until I'm ready to use it.

No soapiness today, just gardening, and a nice birdwatching session this morning. It's been too long. Might make some shaving soap tonight, trying out a few tweaks I've been considering.....

 

[inkyfingers]

I picked up soaping supplies today, including shea butter, cocoa butter, a selection of essential oils, coconut oil, and rice bran oil as well as a jar of lye.

This is gonna be an awesome summer of soaping!

 

[CaraBou]

I spent half the day looking for something -- anything! -- to carve out the hooked jaw of a spawning salmon. The closest thing I found cost $25. Needless to say, my soaping mission was not accomplished!

 

[jules92207]

I spent half the day looking for something -- anything! -- to carve out the hooked jaw of a spawning salmon. The closest thing I found cost $25. Needless to say, my soaping mission was not accomplished!

Oh my gosh, what are you making???

 

[Sagebrush]

Bought tables for my farmer's market that starts Friday. Yikes! I'm so nervous about getting everything done and ready!

 

[CaraBou]

Oh my gosh, what are you making???

Well, I want to make a salmon cp soap. They're so cool looking! the Alaskan summer is short and so much of it is spent celebrating salmon. If I could pull it off, it would be an homage of sorts. I'm not sure I can but I haven't given up yet! I need to find something that is sturdy yet flexible to dig out soft soap for the snout. And -- minor detail, right -- how to get a deep red. Wish me luck!

 

[songwind]

I did that once. Only once. lol Now I have a procedure, mix it at arm's length, with stove hood on, then immediately move it to the back of the stove, and start the next one. all mixed lye goes to the back of the stove, where it is safe from breathing, being bumped, etc. lol

I have moved out of the kitchen, for multiple reasons. However, a 3M painter's mask works just fine to prevent any accidental aspiration. I've gotten more conscientious about it recently.

 

[jules92207]

Well, I want to make a salmon cp soap. They're so cool looking! the Alaskan summer is short and so much of it is spent celebrating salmon. If I could pull it off, it would be an homage of sorts. I'm not sure I can but I haven't given up yet! I need to find something that is sturdy yet flexible to dig out soft soap for the snout. And -- minor detail, right -- how to get a deep red. Wish me luck!

That is so cool! Hubby and I are part of Kokanee Power here in CA, they would love that! I wish you much luck and can't wait to see your results.

Back on topic, I made a Vanilla Bean Noel soap last night that is spot on BBW, and may have accomplished the closest I have come to an in the pot swirl, missed one step though so not positive it will look good yet. Oh so much to learn...

 

[Obsidian]

I tried making a nice white soap with bright colors hidden in the center. I must have soaped too hot though, the batter thickened really fast so I had to move quick to glop all colors into the center fast as I could. On top of it, I didn't use enough mica and the colors are lovely pastels now.

I'll probably have a fair amount of air pocket even though I banged the heck out of the mold on the floor. This was a test batch, if I do make it again, it will be a one color soap. Scented with mms cotton candy FO, nice & sweet without being over bearing.

Also testing a new liner I made out of a plastic place mat. It will be nice not having to fold paper liners all the time.

 

[AustinStraight]

I browsed around WSP... I don't wanna make another order too soon cause I just spent 50 dollars there about a week ago, but I added some essential oils and the sandalwood fragrance oil to my wish list, already planning for Christmas! I don't wanna spend all 40 dollars myself to get the free shipping this time, so I'll probably ask my crunchy relatives if there's any essential oils, butters, etc. they wanna order so I can get up to 40.

Also, not a soapy thing I did, but people are putting insulation in the walls and one of them went in and out of the basement where I have soaps curing and asked if we made homemade soap... my mom said I did and he said it smelled delicious. Take that, naysayers!

 

[Sagebrush]

Well, I want to make a salmon cp soap. They're so cool looking! the Alaskan summer is short and so much of it is spent celebrating salmon. If I could pull it off, it would be an homage of sorts. I'm not sure I can but I haven't given up yet! I need to find something that is sturdy yet flexible to dig out soft soap for the snout. And -- minor detail, right -- how to get a deep red. Wish me luck!

That sounds like a great idea! I'm not sure if you use natural colorants a lot, but I recently made of couple batches of soap with paprika infused olive oil that turned out to be a dark orange, almost brick red color.

 

[Belinda02]

Unpacked my BD present. Received EOs and my first FO. Made a dishwasher soap which I'll try later today. Lined my soap mold with templet material getting ready for tomorrow.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I made absinthe-scented soap! I soaped pretty darn cool (oils had been sitting at room temp for about 4 hours, and the lye-water was sitting in the fridge for about the same mount of time), and made sure to really mix in the FO and colorant well before I added the lye-water. It took about 30 seconds with the stick blender to get to a med-thick trace! I had hoped to have enough time to mix a bit of the batter with TD, but nope!

At least the combo of adding the FO to the oils beforehand and soaping so cold made it so that it didn't rice. NG's write-up on the FO said that they had some ricing.

I filled a pringles can mold, and poured the remainder into a spare silicone mold to use for a rebatch soap. I had an idea for how to make it easy to unmold from the pringles can, and still be able to reuse it later... Used an ice pick to punch a very small hole in the bottom to prevent the soap from vacuum-sealing to the can bottom, which I then rubbed with a bit of mineral oil and put a little freezer paper disc in prevent leaks. Then lined the pringles can with freezer paper like normal. I hope it works the way I envision it would! (If not, I have a few other pringles can molds.)

 

[jules92207]

Running out of room from all my soaping so I'm looking into some storage ideas. Maybe this:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20263627/#/90263619

Getting ready to order some more base oils and maybe a few more fragrances to start some fall/winter scents. So far I've tried WSP, Daystar and Nature's Garden for fragrances so I'm thinking about trying a new vendor this time for comparison. Maybe Sweet Cakes or Brambleberry? I don't know. So much to chose from.

 

[cmzaha]

Last night I made another shave soap test fragranced with Gingergrass EO and Himalayan Cedarwood. I did not like the Himalayan Cedarwood as well as Virginian out of the bottle but it smell amazing with the Gingergrass, both from ND. I also made a batch of Honeydew Melon, using cucumber and yogurt for liquid, from calcandlesupply and it smell amazing. It does not discolor and does not accelerate. I tested this fo a couple of weeks ago and it is still just as strong in the sample. I also made a Cool Cucumber with yogurt and cucumber juice. LOL, I have had several customers request cucumber soap, now lets see if they buy it. Everytime I make cucumber soap it is a slow seller and I have tried different cucumber fo's

 

[houseofwool]

In the last 2 days I have labeled 165 bars of 2 oz soap for a custom order. I am so freaking tired of labeling teeny tiny bars.

 

[littlehands]

Poured out NG's Pink Sugar this morning. It kind of lost that sweet edge in the batter, but we'll see if it comes back. I'm using the discoloration in the design, so really need brown. Right now it looks like strawberry lemonade. Ha ha. I took a bit off the top and did a blend with sandalwood for a perfume spray; it's amazing. Thinking of pouring another one of my Aztec samples- maybe French lavendar and honey.

 

[Ravenscourt Apothecary]

I made my first salt bar, using my favorite Himalayan pink salt. It took less than 2 hours to harden but even then I was a little too late to cut it - it crumbled in places and is most likely going to be my personal and 'give away' soap. Still fun and I learned from this experience, going to just put my salt bars in single molds next time.

 

[fuzz-juzz]

This semester is finally done and I'm having my last exam today woohoo!
I'll have some time to order few FOs tonight. And I have already purchased few neons yesterday.
I have few FOs which I can soap with over the weekend, but I need to get more soda and I'm all set.
I will be probably making soap with Mango and Lotus blossom FOs. One will be made with my standard recipe and another one with avocado oil. It is a bit expsensive, but it's sooo lovely in soap.
We only have few batches left on the curing rack so I'll be soaping like made for the next few weeks.