What soapy thing have you done today?

[Arimara]

I made coconut oil soap with 277g of coconut oil. It's so white but it doesn't zap. The joys of virgin coconut oil.

 

[penelopejane]

Planned and prepared for a multi colour in the pot swirl and realised that every FO that I just bought (10 of them) discolours to some degree. What was I thinking!

I used Sweet Orange Chilli Pepper and am not sure if the mica colours will morph or not. The website of the supplier says no ricing and no acc. That should have been a clue. The one review says "behaved perfectly in CP soap".
I added TD to the "white" section but not the coloured sections.
So very disappointed in myself.

 

[Sagebrush]

This is more of a "soapy thing I did this week". Summer was busy and I figured I should pop in on the forum a little bit
I came home from work last night and my hubs had started making me a soap cutter! I was so excited...he had underestimated my appreciation for such a gesture. I know you all will understand
Also, I taught a friend from work how to make soap this week. I've never taught anyone before, mostly because no one has been interested in learning (or if they are, they're a complete stranger who expresses interest in my teaching a class). I'm totally gonna get him addicted like all of us...tee hee

 

[chela1261]

Unmolded some soap today. I have a slab mold with dividers and absolutely love it......nice, clean edges

 

[Steve85569]

Well,
A couple day ago I started making soap for Christmas and managed to get a batch to false trace, nicely swirled and cpop"ing before it separated. Nice looking weed killer for the hillside. It mad a VERY hard layer of soapy lye and some ( no I will NOT zap test that) clear oil looking stuff. The weeds will die quietly and no animals will be harmed in the process.

I then had to prover to myself that it wasn't the recipe or the lye so I made a "plain" soap with no FO or EO by request. That came out well enough that I just had to make a batch of white gardenia. It's nice to be making soap again. But I think one more batch of apple butter is still in store for me this fall. :mrgreen:

 

[jules92207]

I haven't made a lot of soap lately, slowly trying to get back into it. So today I made a batch of my champagne pear, a batch of honey almond eo/fo blend from WSP, a batch of lavender lime, and a little batch of BB oatmeal milk and honey without any coconut oil for a friend who is allergic to coconut oil. I also attempted a salt bar with pink grapefruit fo and peppermint eo but I don't think I mixed it well enough as it doesn't seem to be setting up. I've never had a salt bar fail so I guess this is a first. I'm going to leave it alone for a bit and see if it comes together otherwise I guess I will have to hp it... if it's even possible.

I also ordered some supplies today. I'm getting all soapy!

 

[navigator9]

I cut a batch of avocado oatmeal soap today. It's supposed to have an AC swirl, but it just looks muddy to me. Once I made a batch and was actually happy with the swirl, deep black and just a bit of a swirl. This batch, not enough AC, and I'm just not happy with the swirl, as usual. I think my frustration with my swirling keeps me from doing it more often, and that's probably just the opposite of what I need to do...practice more! You know how you hate it when you can see the finished product in your mind, and what you end up with is nothing like that. That's what always happens when I swirl. Oh well, it's still really nice soap.

 

[earlene]

navigator9, I think they are lovely!

 

[dibbles]

Navigator, your soaps are beautiful. Truly. It happens more often than not, for me, that I have an idea in my mind of what I want the soap to look like. It rarely happens to turn out the way I have it pictured, and am disappointed. But when I go back to it a few days, or weeks, later I can appreciate it for what it is. Usually I find that I actually like it quite well. Look at your soap again in a week, and appreciate the soft colors you achieved, the pattern of the swirls and how different they are in each bar, and how it all seems to work together with the scent you created. Then try again.

I love your individual molds, BTW. They are so elegant.

 

[navigator9]

navigator9, I think they are lovely!

Navigator, your soaps are beautiful. Truly. It happens more often than not, for me, that I have an idea in my mind of what I want the soap to look like. It rarely happens to turn out the way I have it pictured, and am disappointed. But when I go back to it a few days, or weeks, later I can appreciate it for what it is. Usually I find that I actually like it quite well. Look at your soap again in a week, and appreciate the soft colors you achieved, the pattern of the swirls and how different they are in each bar, and how it all seems to work together with the scent you created. Then try again.

I love your individual molds, BTW. They are so elegant.

Thanks for the kind words. All I can see is how different they are from how I imagined them. And not in a good way. :wtf: Dibbles, because I seem unable to make pretty soap by swirling, I can at least pour them into pretty molds. I have lots of them! Oh, and they're unscented, so there's not even that to save them!!! But I will check again in a week. Maybe the sting of disappointment will have softened by then. Thanks.

 

[earlene]

Planed & beveled some soap.

Unmolded the white salted out soap, cut one into bars, put another 1 pound loaf out to air dry a bit longer. The individual molded ones look so pretty and they all smell great. But they're pretty darn soft. I should have let the soap dry longer before preparing it for molding. They are bound to loose a lot of water weight.

Spread out drained salted out soap in a thin layer on a towel on a cookie sheet, granulating it into small bits with my fingers so it will dry more. I will have to do this twice more because I have two more bowls of this. I think I'll line a couple of large cardboard box lids and put them upstairs to dry under the fan upstairs. I'm not sure how much time this will take, but I don't want mold growing on my soap powder-to-be.

 

[penelopejane]

I cut a batch of avocado oatmeal soap today. It's supposed to have an AC swirl, but it just looks muddy to me. Once I made a batch and was actually happy with the swirl, deep black and just a bit of a swirl. This batch, not enough AC, and I'm just not happy with the swirl, as usual. I think my frustration with my swirling keeps me from doing it more often, and that's probably just the opposite of what I need to do...practice more! You know how you hate it when you can see the finished product in your mind, and what you end up with is nothing like that. That's what always happens when I swirl. Oh well, it's still really nice soap.

I know that feeling! I am an artist in my mind!

AC is tricky. Do you know (you probably do) that if you use 3/4 tsp pre mixed AC ppo and SB you get a black batter but if you hand blend the exact same amount it turns out grey?

You still have to experiment with the exact amount to get the colour you want that doesn't bleed in the small amount of batter you swirl but at least this eliminates one huge variable that took me a while to discover.

 

[navigator9]

I know that feeling! I am an artist in my mind!

AC is tricky. Do you know (you probably do) that if you use 3/4 tsp pre mixed AC ppo and SB you get a black batter but if you hand blend the exact same amount it turns out grey?

You still have to experiment with the exact amount to get the colour you want that doesn't bleed in the small amount of batter you swirl but at least this eliminates one huge variable that took me a while to discover.

I did use the SB, but obviously what I thought was plenty of AC, was not enough. The nice AC swirl I got before was with thicker batter and less colored with AC. I did a spoon swirl. Why didn't I do that this time? Why? Why? Why? LOL

I didn't know that about AC and hand mixing though, so thanks for that.

 

[penelopejane]

I did use the SB, but obviously what I thought was plenty of AC, was not enough. The nice AC swirl I got before was with thicker batter and less colored with AC. I did a spoon swirl. Why didn't I do that this time? Why? Why? Why? LOL

I didn't know that about AC and hand mixing though, so thanks for that.

I rushed out to tell my DH (scientist and paint chemist) when I discovered it because I was so excited and he said of course it does...and gave me this great explanation as to why. Something about shear force...all I know is that it works!

Here is a good thread on AC amounts in batter with pictures that might help cut out a few test batches for you:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=59802

 

[penelopejane]

It's a fun way of doing soap.

Not related to this post but you were looking for a car mold.
Look what I found for you!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Small-Ca...n-Cupcake-Baking-Mold-Mould-1pc-/111490202677

and there are more...

 

[Wyredgirl]

Made a few batches of soap with my sister. Blew $500 at WSP on colors/fragrance

I made a tooth soap with a lovely swirl

Made a sweet magnolia scented soap that I want to turn out well (it will, but my sister is new to soaping and this is her fav)

Made a two-toned soap that was disappointing , the FO accelerated trace because of my colorant and the other part was creamy and slow to trace still nice just not what I hoped for

Made an OMH soap loaf with bubble wrap (thought I'd try it)

Made my first beer soap, 1/2 beer caramel type color. 1/2 activated charcoal. Allowed that to gel

Busy, busy.

 

[penelopejane]

I have never had to rebatch a soap before, but if I ever need to, I agree, I think the fine one will make it "melt" easier.

I like both effects for different reasons. I think the finer shreds can be made to look like sand, without having to use additives like oatmeal.

Soapy heart
I think your last soap on 5018 is one of the nicest confetti soaps I've seen. I like the idea of a sand substitute with fine grained confetti too. I am thinking of making a green soap just so I can confetti it!

 

[earlene]

Planed & beveled more soaps. Trying to decide what to bring with me to SoapCon this weekend.

 

[biarine]

I made a one batch of 1000 grams Bastille soap today, with purple mica and lavender essential oil. I will donate it to charity for the homeless.

 

[Dahila]

Does it count?