Still waiting on my lye so the SOAPY THING I did today. ..
I ordered the best slab mold set
<snip> Check it out
That looks so nice!
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
I am looking forward to hearing about this.
I finally made a soap with avocado puree. Split the difference with coconut milk and scented with cucumber green tea....
Pretty. I need to try avocado puree in soap again. The first time I did, I really liked it. I used it as a shampoo bar. The second time I did, it I also liked it. Did that in combination with kombucha tea. But the third time I did it, it did not turn out so well and I ended up using that batch as a re-batch for some coffee soap for my husband. Nice nourishing soap for him, but one doesn't usually think of avocado as an additive to coffee soap. :think:
My lye came in yesterday, started this at about 4 this morning
<snip>
My new Essential Depot mold
Lovely looking soap. I haven't used my new ED mold yet. I have it sitting out since yesterday to do so, but since one of my 1 pound tests didn't go as planned yesterday I'm still on the fence about making that much soap in one batch right away.
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My soapy stuff:
A few days ago, I had to throw out a dandelion oil infusion I had started because it was growing mold. I was so disappointed, but figured the dandelions must have been moist, even though I thought I had let them dry out long enough. Oh, well, I will try again when we get back from our roadtrip. Hopefully there will be more dandelions in our yard when we get back. I may put them in the oven for a bit (like when I dry herbs) this time first.
Yesterday I made 4 one-pound loaves of test soaps.
#1. Walnut Oil & Milk soap. I have been wanting to try out Walnut Oil for a while, but kept postponing buying the oil. Finally did. It looks nice. I unmolded it after 20 hours
#2. Test batch of a revised recipe I made on a roadtrip a few months back. I had brought along a few oils and threw together a recipe based on what I had on hand, and did a nice little HP in my hotel room, with a quart-sized milk carton as my mold. I liked the look & feel of the soap, until I washed my hands with it a few days ago. Way too drying for my tastes. Too much Coconut Oil. So this test was a revised version with less CO and more OO. Still in the mold. I may take it out later today. (I am keeping the original soap for comparison. Eventually I will combine it with something milder in a rebatch.)
#3. Test batch of my favorite soap, with only one change. Changed from SoapCalc's default 38% water to 30% Lye Concentration. Unfortunately, this recipe also includes Sodium Lactate and using the SL at 30% [lye] was a mistake. Immediate ricing and separation in the mold.
#4. Same as #3, but without the SL. Success. Much better behaved. Still in the mold as I just put that one in at 11:15 pm last night.
Today: I rebatched #3 from last night. Scooped out all the oil on top and cut up the fairly firm soap into a plastic bowl. Covered with plastic wrap & microwaved for 3 minutes (in shorter intervals) at 30% power (defrost setting on my microwave). Stirred well and it looked perfectly well incorporated. The temp fell rapidly, so I zapped it into the microwave for another minute at 30% after getting the mold ready again & warming up a teaspoon of yogurt. Mixed the yogurt into the batter to increase pour-ability & put it into the mold. Looks so much better now!
I am hoping to unmold the others later today. Then I will let them all sit on racks to dry and cut them when we return from our roadtrip.
I wanted to do a larger batch to use in my new ED mold like
niclycha pictured above. But now I'm thinking better left to when we return. I do have to finish gathering the wool roving and needle felting stuff to bring along as well as pack my bag for our trip. So that should be my focus today, not a new batch of soap.
