What soapy thing have you done today?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
poured LS into jars, ready to be packed, planing to dissolve the rest of soap and make some BB and get ready to make my ageless cream:))
 
I washed up yesterdays soaping utensils, and peeked in the oven at my CPOP yellow & black spoon swirl. the black is soooo black on top. Yes, it looks like I achieved full gel. I can't wait to get home from work and cut it up and put it on the curing rack.

Please excuse that I've been away from posting these last few months.
I'm back now.
 
I made a HP shaving soap with tallow, stearic, coconut, avocado and castor. Color is ugly as sin cause I used a tbsp of red clay, which only colored it a tiny bit. But the bergamot EO i used smells great! Just cut open the pringles can and took this shot. I'll have to smooth out the wringles from the wax paper when I cut it.
zrwjhSM.jpg
 
I don't add extra water to the soap no matter how much salt I use - either brine or salt in the batter. For brine soap I dissolve the salt in part of the water required for the recipe.

Oh, my bad. I meant the extra water I need to dilute the 50% lye solution, not extra water for the salt. I ended up using aloe liquid, salt and honey. The FO was "Black Orchid" so I used pitch black mica from Micas & More, and Firefly and Pink Vibrance from Nurture Soap. I SBd the black too much because it was semi-solid when I finally got it in the mold. I don't think my spoon swirl is going to be very pretty. I'll check tonight when I get home and then try again. Maybe Bubblegum FO and shades of pink micas...
 
Oh, my bad. I meant the extra water I need to dilute the 50% lye solution, not extra water for the salt. I ended up using aloe liquid, salt and honey. I SBd the black too much because it was semi-solid when I finally got it in the mold. I don't think my spoon swirl is going to be very pretty.

Great! I wasn't going to mention it cos you've been soaping longer than me but then I though you might not have tried a brine soap...

Luckily this technique seems to need a heavier trace so it should be ok. I had to wait for mine to setup a bit before I swirled but may not have waited long enough because it's not whispy, which is what I was aiming for.
 
Last edited:
I was up all night last night making soap. Then after sun-up cleaned up and put everything away. After all, housekeeping was coming today! I did get about 3 hours sleep, after clean-up, though.

After several hours of driving and visiting a couple of touristy spots and Alien devotee spots (no offense intended, please, if you were abducted by Aliens, I am not mocking), I have concluded there is a soaping niche not being filled.

Now, I have been to Roswell, NM on numerous occasions and stayed in various hotels and motels there. I have been to the UFO museum & Gift Shop several times as well. Today we visited Little A'Le'Inn (on the road to Area 51) and at none of these places have I seen Alien soap. Not for sale and not as guest soaps in the hotels. There's all kinds of other Alien stuff all over the place. I know the molds exist. I have seen them.

Anyway, if any of you want to, feel free to take my observation and run with it. I have no desire to own another business so I won't be filling this niche.

Tonight I cut some of the soaps I made last night, but 2 are still too soft, so I put them back in the oven. Not sure why they aren't ready to unmold. I am awful darned tired having slept so little, then driving over 300 miles today. I should quit obsessing over soap and get some sleep!
 
Made a few batches of soap today after being a couple of months without making soaps.

Made a couple Christmas scents and tried out a couple beer soaps and a wine soap. Boy does it smell bad when you add the wine/beer to the lye. Yuck.
 
Beveled a bunch of soaps (100 bars) and put on the racks to cure. Hopefully get one more soaping marathon done this weekend then done for a couple months. I need a break. Still need to make put some holiday gift sets together for my last run of shows. I don't do a lot though.
 
Visited a Lush store near Las Vegas. It was pretty small, but I have never been to a Lush store so I don't know what size to expect. My husband bought something for granddaughter (her birthday is next week).

After our 18,000 (plus) steps walking the Vegas Strip today, I took a soothing bath with a bath bomb from Walmart that I bought a couple of days ago. I did not bring any with me this trip, but there is a huge whirlpool tub I didn't want to let go to waste, so when I saw them at Walmart for the first time ever, I picked up a 2-pack.

Next up: cut two more loaves of soap.
 
I decided to make a quick batch of soap, planning to add activated charcoal to the top half and have a black and white bar. I should have known it was going to be one of those days when I measured the AC and promptly spilled it on the counter. Then I mixed the soap, which seemed to trace pretty fast, so I poured half the batter in and mixed in the AC, all was good until I moved my stick blender and knocked over the newly mixed black half of my soap. I called for help from DH who was very near, he came in and helped me scrape the batter back into the bowl. I mixed some yellow color into the other half because the soap looked pretty yellow to begin with, unfortunately the soap was setting up pretty quickly so I tried to hurry, already rattled from the two spills. I got the yellow (hopefully) mixed in, poured it into the mold and as I was scraping the batter out of the pan I flung some all over the wall, the coffee maker, the jar of tea and the counter. DH was cleaning that up as I was getting the rest of the batter poured in. I finally got the yellow part in the mold and scraped the black half in and all looks really good, went to continue my clean up of the disaster area and found that I had also drug the cord from the SB through the black soap batter.....haha, it was a pretty stressful soaping!
 
I decided to make a quick batch of soap, planning to add activated charcoal to the top half and have a black and white bar. I should have known it was going to be one of those days when I measured the AC and promptly spilled it on the counter. Then I mixed the soap, which seemed to trace pretty fast, so I poured half the batter in and mixed in the AC, all was good until I moved my stick blender and knocked over the newly mixed black half of my soap. I called for help from DH who was very near, he came in and helped me scrape the batter back into the bowl. I mixed some yellow color into the other half because the soap looked pretty yellow to begin with, unfortunately the soap was setting up pretty quickly so I tried to hurry, already rattled from the two spills. I got the yellow (hopefully) mixed in, poured it into the mold and as I was scraping the batter out of the pan I flung some all over the wall, the coffee maker, the jar of tea and the counter. DH was cleaning that up as I was getting the rest of the batter poured in. I finally got the yellow part in the mold and scraped the black half in and all looks really good, went to continue my clean up of the disaster area and found that I had also drug the cord from the SB through the black soap batter.....haha, it was a pretty stressful soaping!


Man that was me last week. I kept spilling everything! Mixed mica, lye beads all over my counter, bravo for pushing on! Lol!
 
I decided to make a quick batch of soap, planning to add activated charcoal to the top half and have a black and white bar. I should have known it was going to be one of those days when I measured the AC and promptly spilled it on the counter.

I finally got the yellow part in the mold and scraped the black half in and all looks really good, went to continue my clean up of the disaster area and found that I had also drug the cord from the SB through the black soap batter.....haha, it was a pretty stressful soaping!

You poor thing! What a day! Congratulations on getting it in the mold.
I have to say that it is rare that I have a perfect went-as-planned soap making session so I feel your pain and really pleased that DH was there to help and you can laugh about it. :)
 
Last edited:
Jules and Penelope, not happy about your misfortunes, but glad I'm not alone....that soap looks lovely this morning, I'm concerned about cutting it though, as the top is black and the bottom is yellow ( we live in Iowa, those are Hawkeye colors)
 
I planned on making a white soap with black swirls when I came to almost finishing and realizing I had forgotten to put my fo in. In my haste I poured it all back into the bowl and added the fo stirring it to incorporate. Now I have a lovely gray soap that looks like cement
 
Back
Top