What soapy thing have you done today?

[Susie]

Made confetti soap to use up some of my "way too overfatted due to inexperience mixing mica with oils" soap.

Can someone tell me if I CPOP "after the fact", will it give me bubbles on the outsides of the bars like CPOPing "before the fact" does? (I use silicone molds.) I will have the dreaded partial gel if I keep it as is.

 

[Dahila]

I never got bubbles from my silicone molds but I do not gel, rather prevent gel. I like the chalky looks. I forgot to use my confetti thanks Susie, would like to help but .......

 

[CTAnton]

I'm getting my soap area organized and came up with a bar I made 2 years ago almost to the date...just the trinity...olive ,palm and coconut. I called it cop soap. Anyway I thought I'd give it a go...tonight on my face and tomorrow morning in the shower. All I can say is wow! Can't wait for tomorrow's shower!

 

[Gerry]

I just cut my Karma to be different name

What are you using for your deep red color and where are you getting it? Red it always one of those things I avoid cause it torments me. Haha!

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Can I vent?

After 5+ years of soaping I made so many newbie mistakes yesterday.

1. it was hot and humid and I just HAD to remind myself that's not the best weather to soap
2. try to soap while everyone is at home, everyone talking to me, distracting etc
3. used different recipe, without butters, it was supposed to be a test batch (note to myself again: butters in soap=hard soap)
4. measured out half of my oils before I realised I only have 1/2 of PO required, changed the recipe quickly to compensate with extra OO (I so should've stopped there )
5. forgot to add clay to my oils (note again, clay = faster trace and harder soap)
6. family friend pops in, straight into kitchen, asking me soapmaking questions what, where, how.... arghhh (please go away everyone)
7. soap is finally poured, new EOs and FOs tested in the individual molds, 500gr of batter made with well known and well behaved FO into smaller loaf, everything looks good... but
8. everything gelled super crazy and now I have one squishy oily mess, even the small loaf, with the FO I usually have no issues with, is soft like butter. The only ones turning out OK are few individual soaps made with some fruit FO. They hardened up fine but they look see through like MP, how on Earth did I do that?

Now, I'm positive it's a combination of recipe, hot weather, incorrect measurement (too much oil, it's not zappy), possibly false trace, I guess I'll never know but it's just so funny. I don't think I've ever made such a mess.
I'll let it cure and if it doesn't look good in a week I might HP the lot into something. I'm too embarrassed to take a photo haha.

 

[Gerry]

I unmolded my 100% virgin olive oil Castile. Castile makes for such an exceptionally hard bar of soap that they pick up every detail (and imperfection) in the silicone molds. You might think at first that 100% olive oil without gelling would give a soap with a chalky appearance. But nope. They're shiny, and have a perfectly smooth surface like molded hard plastic.

The molds are just those cheap 6-cavity flower ones that Michaels sells. Once fully cured each bar weighs in at an average of about 3 ounces (90 grams).

 

[shunt2011]

I haven't soaped in quite some time....withdrawals coming soon. But, before I can make any soap I have to clean out my soaping storage bedroom. It's become a huge mess and very little is in it's place. So, my goal this weekend is to clean and organize it. Also to pack up anything I'm not using. Old olds, FO's, packaging. I plan on donating some of it to my sister-in-law who just started making soap and the rest I will list on Craigslist to see if I get any interest. I have way too much stuff.

 

[Dahila]

What are you using for your deep red color and where are you getting it? Red it always one of those things I avoid cause it torments me. Haha!

Rose Kaolin and activated charcoal

 

[amd]

Swamped! Finished inventory etc for taxes over the weekend. Reopened the store on Tuesday and was swamped with orders! Love! But now I have to get busy restocking. Hoping to get time to do a confetti soap series (I have 4+ pounds from beveling bars) and still do a New Year Castile. Plus hitting the vendor show circuit in two weeks with a new display setup.

 

[Gerry]

Rose Kaolin and activated charcoal

Thank you! I'm going to give it a try.

Today I cut another soap I made yesterday - a basic layer pour + hanger swirl flavored with peppermint & eucalyptus EO. I rebended my hanger to fit my loaf mold better and finally the pattern is good right to the edges (ends) again.

Hmmm... now what shall I make this afternoon. Can you tell I'm off work for awhile? :grin:

 

[earlene]

Gerry, your soaps are beautiful.

I made another Castile yesterday, this one dual lye with color gradient layers (full water) and scented with White Tea & Ginger. From start to finish with waiting for the batter to solidify sufficiently between layers, took me almost 4 hours. Of course that includes clean-up, but still. I've made 4 gradient layers soaps this past week, and I think this one took the longest. I thought with practice it would take less time.

My problem Castile that needed an extra bit of time in the oven finally seems to be getting hard enough that today I planed and beveled them. I really have no idea why it was so weird, but it seems normal now. All my Castiles this past week have been full water and the only difference with this one was I added a bit of salt to the lye water (9 grams for 730 grams of oil batch of soap, so not that much.) I didn't even add a fragrance to it either. So it was just a fluke, but it seems fine now.

Once I get them all cleaned up and the challenge entry is chosen (I haven't yet determined which I will enter), I'll post a picture.

 

[Gerry]

I made another Castile yesterday, this one dual lye with color gradient layers (full water) and scented with White Tea & Ginger. From start to finish with waiting for the batter to solidify sufficiently between layers, took me almost 4 hours.

Oh my, sounds like an exercise in self-torture! When I do anything with layers I generally pick a slightly faster moving mix of oils rather than the slowest moving oil on earth. Haha!

I wonder if you had slipped the mold into the oven after each layer, (almost?) gelled, and cooled it down sufficiently to add the next layer if that would have worked? Obviously this probably wouldn't work if you were doing lots and lots of layers, but I might experiment with it sometime.

I didn't do any soap making today, but I did get out to buy a few supplies. I bought 20 kg (44 lbs) of lard and 12 L (3.2 gallons) of virgin olive oil at a big wholesale place here. It's a great place to shop since the lard is about $1 Canadian a pound, and the olive oil is a lot cheaper than the Kirkland Signature plain olive oil they sell at Costco. Plus no sales tax since it's sold for food purposes. And no $hipping of course!

 

[Dahila]

gerry I was looking at this OO but ........kirkland is the one which is not altered when a lot of them are. I made bastille soap and it took a month to harden enough to plan it. I do have suspicion, that the OO was altered with mid oleic sunflower oil. This is what a lot of companies do, I had seen all the altered ones (from Italy) in Metro from 15 a l to 7.88. Obviously it does not sell anymore, after purity tests

 

[Gerry]

Dahila, I'm quite happy with this olive oil. Acts exactly the same as the Kirkland and planed shortly after unmolding on the same day. Traced (or should I say not traced!) the usual way and took exactly the same amount of time to saponify.

This may seem weird, but the only problem olive oil I've used is the "Great Value Extra Virgin Olive Oil" from Walmart, the $5.97 per L stuff. It traced weird, like almost ricing although it was still very liquid. There were little pieces I think of saponifying bits among the rest. So I tasted a few drops that were left at the bottom of the plastic bottle and I gagged it was so bitter! Obviously rancid. Now one would think this cheap olive oil at such a major place as Walmart would have such a quick turnover, rancidity would be the last thing to worry about. I haven't bought that one again just to be on the safe side.

 

[chela1261]

Made soap with a friend whose never made soap before and they loved every aspect of it!

 

[Dahila]

Gerry so you use the one from Cash and Carry? I have one in my city and I buy lard there.

 

[toxikon]

I made my first oatmeal, goat milk and honey soap over the weekend! I'm itching to unmold that sucker. After pouring I threw it into the freezer for 24 hours, then moved it into the fridge last night. I think I will take it out tonight to give it a couple more days at room temperature to solidify before attempting the cut. I'm so impatient!!!

 

[Gerry]

Gerry so you use the one from Cash and Carry? I have one in my city and I buy lard there.

Basically yes, except here they call it "Wholesale Club", but still the Loblaws wholesaler. The lard comes in a 20 kg cardboard box with a bag inside. Or you have the option for paying $15 more for a fancy drum container. I go for the box!

If I were making a serious business making soap, I'd buy my basic oils at one of the major food service wholesalers. Sadly not for me because I don't buy the minimum of $750 bi-weekly that would qualify me to be a customer. $750 would buy a serious amount of lard from these guys! haha

 

[artemis]

I made one batch of a plain jane soap, and (maybe) rescued a fail, thanks to SMF soapers.

 

[jules92207]

Finished my first soaps in a month about midnight this morning. I made 6 batches which included my swap soaps finally.

Felt good to soap again but I'm sure tired at work today.