What soapy thing have you done today?

[earlene]

Thank you for the suggestions regarding soap for my MIL. As a retired nurse, I don't always like to hear things like 'staff might be walking off with it' and tend to lean more toward it getting left behind in the shower room. Although if it were left behind it would have to be thrown out by the next staff taking someone in for their shower. The last two soaps I gave her were small guest sized soaps. I have some very pretty little molds that I bought especially to make soaps for my granddaughter's facial soap, so that size, about 80 grams or less per bar.

Maybe I'll bring a bunch of soaps to the Nursing Home tomorrow for the staff. This is National Nurses Week, after all. Cool, glad we had this discussion. It gave me another idea of something to do with some of the 12 dozen soaps I have just finished wrapping and labeling! I am off to fill a box with various soaps.

ETA: That's just what I did. I went and boxed up a couple of dozen bars & put them into the car for our visit tomorrow. I thought of calling the home to ask how many staff, but decided just to go with my gut based on what I have observed when I visit. I'll deliver them to the Nurse's Station with a card suggesting each nursing staff person choose one and thanking them for caring for the residents.

 

[Stacyspy]

I send soap regularly to my 90 year old grandmother, and she always calls and says it's gone. Come to find out, she gives it away as gifts to her nurses, and forgets...lol... just a thought...

Thank you for the suggestions regarding soap for my MIL. As a retired nurse, I don't always like to hear things like 'staff might be walking off with it' and tend to lean more toward it getting left behind in the shower room. Although if it were left behind it would have to be thrown out by the next staff taking someone in for their shower. The last two soaps I gave her were small guest sized soaps. I have some very pretty little molds that I bought especially to make soaps for my granddaughter's facial soap, so that size, about 80 grams or less per bar.

Maybe I'll bring a bunch of soaps to the Nursing Home tomorrow for the staff. This is National Nurses Week, after all. Cool, glad we had this discussion. It gave me another idea of something to do with some of the 12 dozen soaps I have just finished wrapping and labeling! I am off to fill a box with various soaps.

ETA: That's just what I did. I went and boxed up a couple of dozen bars & put them into the car for our visit tomorrow. I thought of calling the home to ask how many staff, but decided just to go with my gut based on what I have observed when I visit. I'll deliver them to the Nurse's Station with a card suggesting each nursing staff person choose one and thanking them for caring for the residents.

 

[Guspuppy]

Thank you for the suggestions regarding soap for my MIL. As a retired nurse, I don't always like to hear things like 'staff might be walking off with it' and tend to lean more toward it getting left behind in the shower room. Although if it were left behind it would have to be thrown out by the next staff taking someone in for their shower. The last two soaps I gave her were small guest sized soaps. I have some very pretty little molds that I bought especially to make soaps for my granddaughter's facial soap, so that size, about 80 grams or less per bar.

Maybe I'll bring a bunch of soaps to the Nursing Home tomorrow for the staff. This is National Nurses Week, after all. Cool, glad we had this discussion. It gave me another idea of something to do with some of the 12 dozen soaps I have just finished wrapping and labeling! I am off to fill a box with various soaps.

ETA: That's just what I did. I went and boxed up a couple of dozen bars & put them into the car for our visit tomorrow. I thought of calling the home to ask how many staff, but decided just to go with my gut based on what I have observed when I visit. I'll deliver them to the Nurse's Station with a card suggesting each nursing staff person choose one and thanking them for caring for the residents.

I wasn't thinking of the nurses, I was thinking more along the lines of the aides and housekeepers, etc, who make minimum wage. Seeing a lovely bar of soap they could never afford to buy on their own might be too much temptation. Did not mean to offend by my suggestion.

 

[Dahila]

Packed my my creams and soaps of course, I am getting crazy with all the packing..............people like the soap packed in kraft paper with some jute on it, it is so time consuming, but it looks good

 

[earlene]

I send soap regularly to my 90 year old grandmother, and she always calls and says it's gone. Come to find out, she gives it away as gifts to her nurses, and forgets...lol... just a thought...

Certainly a possibility!

I wasn't thinking of the nurses, I was thinking more along the lines of the aides and housekeepers, etc, who make minimum wage. Seeing a lovely bar of soap they could never afford to buy on their own might be too much temptation. Did not mean to offend by my suggestion.

No offense taken, truly. I just don't like to think badly of any of them. And thank you for the compliment of my soap, BTW.

 

[TeresaT]

Yay! Congrats on the new computer. I have soapmaker 3! I like it but I often feel the software is "clunky" I wish it was easier to use. It's not as intuitive as I would like but it does the job!

Yes, I'm beginning to see that. I was looking at the sample stuff that it comes preloaded with and it is very clunky looking. However, it seems to be better than my current method of nothing. I was in work today thinking of soap (naturally) and I figured out that my "packaging" will cost me .02 per bar using the paper I purchased on sale. It's 180 sheets ($9.99)and I can wrap 3 bars per sheet. I bought two rolls of tape for $1.00 and they've got about 1200 ft total. So going on the assumption I'll use two rolls of tape to the 180 sheets of paper, that comes out to .02 a bar.

I cannot see me doing anything remotely like that with the price of oils and butters. Do I factor in the cost of the shipping to me when I add the price per oz and should I convert from volume to mass? Blah, blah, blah. Yep. Definitely grateful someone a lot smarter than me came up with something for the "serious" soapmaker. And was willing to sell it to me even though I'm never serious about anything... (ba dum bum)

 

[Misschief]

I cannot see me doing anything remotely like that with the price of oils and butters. Do I factor in the cost of the shipping to me when I add the price per oz and should I convert from volume to mass? Blah, blah, blah. Yep. Definitely grateful someone a lot smarter than me came up with something for the "serious" soapmaker. And was willing to sell it to me even though I'm never serious about anything... (ba dum bum)

When you add your purchases, there's a spot for shipping. From what I can see, it takes it into account when you input your recipes and make a batch.

 

[LisaAnne]

Got over the fact that my phone crashed and i lost everything. All my pictures, contacts, saved sites, blogs, recipes articles on interesting soaping techniques on and on. I will never get over lost pictures of my two sons and grandson. Slowly replacing what i can.

On the soaping, all replacable and it has me searching, googling and reading. Im kind of viewing it as starting over and im so much further than when i started.

Maybe its time to take my soaping in a new direction. Find my focus and run with it. Ive been all over the map wanting to build a foundation.

Everything seems to be working towards a direction i wasnt expecting. Divorced 22 years,i find myself in love with a man crazy for me and loves loves my soaping. He took me around showing me storefronts and wants me to have a business that he would fund. I don't even know how to react to any of this.
Id be happy just to have sweet haydens pictures back.


Sending my thoughts anonymously out into the universe, glad they aren't landing anywhere.

 

[SuzieOz]

Wow LisaAnne - I wish you every success in your new ventures business-wise but even more than that, with your relationship. I hope you have a wonderful life together! He sounds awesome xx

 

[LisaAnne]

Wow LisaAnne - I wish you every success in your new ventures business-wise but even more than that, with your relationship. I hope you have a wonderful life together! He sounds awesome xx

Ah Susie thank you. I am not ready for a shop. But I have waited patiently for a very long time for this man and actually had accepted the fact I may never find love. I feel so lucky, at 58 I never saw it coming.

 

[TwystedPryncess]

I have had basically three weeks off work. Just a day here and there, after hard core manager training. Spent a LOT of that getting the outside of the house underway for it's selling thing. Long way to go there yet. Spent last night making some 0%SF coconut soap, then I made a huge mess with squirt bottles and a soap that set up way too fast (of course) and ended up with a grand mess. I am going to call it the Pomegranate Plop. It didn't work for what I'd had in mind, but I figured it was a really good piping recipe for some other time. I was just too tired and achy to run around and switch everything up and try to drag out the right tools to cosmetically save it. Lesson learned. It smells good though

 

[penelopejane]

Ah Susie thank you. I am not ready for a shop. But I have waited patiently for a very long time for this man and actually had accepted the fact I may never find love. I feel so lucky, at 58 I never saw it coming.

So very nice to hear you have found someone who "gets" you!

Wishing you all the very best.

 

[LisaAnne]

So very nice to hear you have found someone who "gets" you!

Wishing you all the very best.

Thank you. Yes, not everyone gets us!

 

[earlene]

LisaAnne, aint love grand?

Soapy thing today: I took the 2 dozen bars of soap the MIL's nursing home for the staff as gifts for National Nurses Week. Well, apparently it overlaps with National Hospital Week, too, so sharing it among all staff on duty seemed to be quite appropriate. I tried to drop it off as anonymously as I could, but having signed the card as from 'x family' and we live in a very small town, anonymity is just not possible. A few of the staff tracked me down to thank me and tell me how much they loved it. Two of them even said it was the best gift anyone has ever given them (as staff, I am sure, not personally). Later on the maintenance guy thanked my husband, and then he (Hubby) fielded questions about the soap making process. I was in the rest room at the time, so he answered to the best of his ability and did a darned good job of it, too. He has been paying attention, even though he doesn't actually do any of it himself or even watch when I make soap. But we talk and he has really been paying attention. One person asked, 'Is there lye in it?' He told them, 'If it wasn't made with lye it would be called detergent.' And went on to explain how the lye in the correct proportion to the oils saponifies the oils, hence the name soap. Etc.' He did really well answering their questions and explaining the process. But then, he is a pretty smart guy.

Other soapy thing. Re-formulated a soap recipe I wanted to change a bit. I may make the re-formulation tomorrow or the next day. I have 2 soaps I want to make before we leave on our roadtrip on Sunday. So I may do both tomorrow or one each day. I will have to leave time for packing at some point.

Also weighed some individual bars from recent batches.

 

[TeresaT]

I've been working with SoapMaker for the past several hours entering all of the receipts that I've still got. So far I've got $621.36 of the more than $3,500.00 spent since March, 2015, accounted for. Some of those are more equipment and investments (like the computer and software) than they are supplies. I've got everything related to soap categorized as "soap" in my checking account to track that spending vs my other hobbies (which are also categorized -- I'm afraid to see what I've spent on "knitting" and "books" in the same time period no wonder I'm always broke).

 

[niclycha]

Still waiting on my lye so the SOAPY THING I did today. ..
I ordered the best slab mold set
It's designed exactly the size for making rimmed soap rims, plus it comes with the 2 round molds, plus dividers and silicone bottom and side pieces. 18 bar mold. For only 89 dollars.
I'm so excited. Check it out

 

[dillsandwitch]

Im planning on doing an experiment with one of my wooden moulds and a tube of gutter silicone. Will report back if it works in a couple of days

 

[mzimm]

Im planning on doing an experiment with one of my wooden moulds and a tube of gutter silicone. Will report back if it works in a couple of days

Oooh! This sounds interesting.....(rubbing hands in anticipation....)

 

[TeresaT]

Still waiting on my lye so the SOAPY THING I did today. ..
I ordered the best slab mold set
It's designed exactly the size for making rimmed soap rims, plus it comes with the 2 round molds, plus dividers and silicone bottom and side pieces. 18 bar mold. For only 89 dollars.
I'm so excited. Check it out

I've been coveting that for a while now. I'm trying to justify the purchase. Justify to whom though...

 

[kchaystack]

Still waiting on my lye so the SOAPY THING I did today. ..
I ordered the best slab mold set
It's designed exactly the size for making rimmed soap rims, plus it comes with the 2 round molds, plus dividers and silicone bottom and side pieces. 18 bar mold. For only 89 dollars.
I'm so excited. Check it out

I have their 9 bar slab, and one of their 1.5 lb tall and skinny molds.

They are great molds. The owners are great to work with. I would highly recommend them to anyone.