What soapy thing have you done today?

[chela1261]

I ordered a new mold and a few more items I'm waiting to come in

 

[CTAnton]

made the last of my shave soap for now....3 separate 1 pound batches. One with clay, one 100% KOH and todays had a 60/40 split.the first 2 were LBussy's recipe which I can't say I had the best of success with but they are looking a lot more homogenous today than yesterday. I'm looking to give them to my testers but feeling a should throw in a cheap shave brush as well..anyone have a good source?

 

[Arimara]

I looked at this soapmaking forum!!

Me to :bunny:

 

[SheLion]

I'm looking to give them to my testers but feeling a should throw in a cheap shave brush as well..anyone have a good source?

I don't know what your parameters for cheap are but there are a good handful under $10 (including synthetics if you're interested in those) here:
http://www.maggardrazors.com/produc...hes/all-brands-shaving-brushes/?orderby=price

I own one of their brand synthetic brushes and am quite happy with it. However, it's the first and only shaving brush I've ever used so I have zero basis of comparison.

 

[Debs]

Today I bought a soap cutter!! I am soooo excited!! I have been soaping now for just over a year and still experimenting but 'the knife' has been replaced with something which will hopefully make my soaps the same size!! So no more arguments from family and friends about who's got the biggest bar?!! LOL

 

[CTAnton]

well while the snow blows big time outside I poked around in the soap room and came to the tray of curing Genny's shampoo bar. Well, they needed to be planed and I usually test one of those scraps at the kitchen sink with a quick hand wash. It seemed a little oily to me. Crap. I had high hopes.I'm thinking what all the fuss was about. Everyone on the forum RAVED about this recipe. Well, i took one of the bars (after all, I'm not going to give these away!) into the shower. Well things took an about face. And remembering it was designed to be a shampoo bar I washed my head with it. WOW!!! My hair feels great and my face feels great. I'm sold!

 

[earlene]

Worked on a soap recipe because I am out of one oil and need to make a substitution. Watched many soaping videos and a variety of different types of art videos in hopes of garnering some design inspiration. Gathered materials to make a new EDTA solution (I used mine up, so need to make a new batch.) Chose 3 molds to use for my next soap, which I wanted to make today, but I guess today is prep day only. At least I can soften soap colorant tonight, but I haven't yet selected them. Watched the front door for mail delivery. Out mail lady's vehicle is parked a door down, but she hasn't stopped here with my swap box yet. I am anxiously awaiting!

 

[artemis]

I played with a discoloring FO, using it as my color. I am still learning when to stop stick-blending. This time, I think I stopped too soon... Some day, I'll hit it just right!

 

[earlene]

I made 400 grams of EDTA 39% solution, a perfect fit for the squirt bottle I use for this. Last time I made it, I think it was only the 100 gram size and then I ran out sooner than I'd like. Hopefully this will last much longer. Now I'm good to go for my planned soap in the morning.

 

[bumbleklutz]

Today I:

Experimented with adding mango butter to my "standard" recipe. It didn't speed up trace as much as I thought it would, and I think I like it what it adds to the soap. I'll know for sure in 8 short weeks if its worth it.

Made a "hidden" in the pot swirled soap by coloring part of the batter white and then adding a discoloring FO to the swirl portion. I think this one will turn out really nice if the FO discolors to a nice dark tan or even chocolate color like I expect it to. It was "Tiramisu" FO btw, and it smells like the real thing; in fact I made myself hungry with that one.

I made what was supposed to be a lovely "Herbal Elixir" soap with a white base, and lovely green and yellow swirls. What I ended up with is a lovely solid colored pastel lime green soap. As I was about to do the swirling, I saw it sitting there; mocking me. You guessed it. I forgot to add the &$%&** FO. So in went the FO; in went the whisk, and bye-bye lovely swirls. Hello lime green block of frustration. :headbanging: At least it's still soap, and actually it's not hideous it's just not what I was going for.

I read a lot of SMF posts about edta. I have been using citric acid in my lye water and adding additional lye to form sodium citrate as a chelator. I can definitely tell a difference in the lathering and rinsing abilities of the soaps with the citric. However, since my water is exceedingly hard I'm thinking edta will be more effective. Thank you DeeAnna, Irish Lass, and anyone I might be forgetting for sharing that knowledge with all of us on the forum.

Again, I read more SMF posts this time about roe. After making the "lime green block of frustration"; I realized how much work, and how time consuming it is to weigh out oils individually for each batch. So I decided I wanted to master batch my oils. After some bad experiences with rancid oils, and dos I figured I should take out some insurance using roe. (Again thanks to everyone on the forum for generously sharing your knowledge.)

I reordered some oils and butters that I was low on in anticipation of master batching.

I ordered roe and edta from lotioncrafters.

I made a bunch of calculations for master batching oils; most of which I didn't bother to write down. What can I say? I was distracted. I blame the "lime green block of frustration". I think I can hear it laughing at me. :???:

 

[chela1261]

I ordered some oils and cut a loaf I made yesterday

 

[earlene]

Opened my delivery of oils from Soaper's Choice. Melted a bottle of babbassu oil in kitchen sink full of hot tap water as a test to see how long it would take and how well it would work. Works perfectly. When I put the bottle back on the kitchen counter, it hardened up again to about what it was before. I will use it to make deodorant in a few days. Put away the bottles of oils and tossed out the box.

Tested a couple more items from the Home Sweet Home Swap. Mm-mmm, such nice things!

 

[mx5inpenn]

I've spent the day doing cost comparisons through various suppliers and creating a very simple spreadsheet for ingredients and their costs.

 

[amd]

Made my 5th batch of soap shred soap - I am determined to use up all the shreds I've collected the last 3 years. Trying to be creative with different designs. Tonight's batch was just one solid color and shreds. I needed something quick and easy today.

 

[Soapprentice]

Placed an order for avocado, apricot and coconut oils and few essential oil samples

 

[GeezLouise]

Cut soap, with the log and bar cutters I made. An olive oil soap in two colors plus plain, kind of wall poured the first 2/3, then concentric circles for the remainder.

 

[bumbleklutz]

Yesterday, I had more misadventures in soaping.

Everyone feel free to soap with wild abandon. All the soap gremlins are at my house this week.

So, I cut up the "lime green log of frustration" into chunks. Then I made a batch to be colored with activated charcoal and scented with the same "herbal elixir" FO that caused the "lime green log of frustration" in the first place. The FO has always been well behaved in the past, in fact, it was well behaved with the "log". I just didn't remember to put it in until I was ready to swirl and my colors were already in the pot. :-?

I planned to do a black base with the "lime green chunks of frustration" mixed in with a pink mica line through the middle. Ambitious? Yes. Well, not today. NOT. TODAY. Sadly, the soap gremlins had other plans as we shall soon see.

See, I thought I had learned my lesson. I was mistaken. You know that well behaved FO, the one I forgot to add. Well, to get ahead of the game I added it to my warmed oils. No more forgetting the FO for me. Easy-peasy right?

Except the well behaved FO wasn't. I checked the temperatures and soaped cool. I hand whisked to the barest of trace. Really, more mere emulsification than trace. I turned around to get the slurry of AC and glycerin I made to color the soap. When I turned around to add it to the soap; it happened: soap on a stick. I have NEVER seen soap go from bare emulsification to nearly solid in the space of a few seconds. So I whisked and whisked and it riced and separated. :headbanging: So I threw in the AC whisked some more. I wasn't able to beat the ricing into submission, but I did get it to the point where I thought the batter might hold together.

So I glopped some into the mold, threw in some "lime green chunks of frustration" and glopped some more batter. I decided the whole mica line thing wasn't gonna happen. So, some more "chunks of frustration", more batter...etc. Then banged the whole thing down and put it to bed. I went back to check on it a few hours later, and the mold was leaking "something". At this point it could be anything. Oil, glycerin, FO, the pureed remains of soap gremlins; who knows what?

Well, I cut it this morning, and it sure is interesting. It's a "little" crumbly, but it doesn't zap. It's still weeping "something". I "think" it's glycerin. But the kicker is the "rice" I wasn't able to beat into submission didn't pick up any color from the AC, while the rest of the batter is a nice black. So, it looks like granite. It turned out really pretty. I'm just not sure that it's soap.

So, if you're contemplating some elaborate soaping technique; today is the day to try it my friends. The soap gremlins :twisted: are all at my place today.

 

[GeezLouise]

 

[maya]

I'm working everyday on products for the boutique I am opening. Today's work is a couple of lip balms and bath bombs. And the Etsy store orders for sure. Then what ever else I can get going on.

I have no idea how to add photos or I would.

 

[amd]

Right now I am soaping in the kitchen because the table I use in the soap lab is being used for shows. So yesterday I cleaned the kitchen, made one custom order and one restock, did the soapy dishes, made lasagna for dinner, and then the teenager brought the remaining 2/3 of my dishes down from his room so I threw up my hands in despair and gave up for the night. Today I will be doing (more) dishes, packaging soap, doing another restock and custom order.

I had a really good show last weekend and just enough time before the next show to do a full restock. Finally getting a good feel for which shows will work for me. More sales means I get to make more soap and making soap makes me happy!