What soapy thing have you done today?

[bumbleklutz]

Excuse the bad photo quality, my phone camera has a broken gyroscope (or so the fiancee tells me). When I have more soaping space I'm going to try saving my soap shreds by color to see what cool looks I might get. I'm dreaming of yellow lemongrass soap with green shreds...

Speaking of dreaming... The fiancee and I looked at a house today and I fell in love with it! It has a soap lab with a sink and counter plumbed in and everything! I guess some people might call it a laundry room...? Crazy. On my drive home tonight I was dreaming about my soap lab (and the rest of the house) and missed my turn...by ten miles!

So other soapy stuff done today: ordered 25lbs Shea butter, 32lbs sodium hydroxide, and officially have insurance for my soaps. I might put in an order at NDA yet tonight too before Chris cuts off my spending...

Those are some #$@^%##@#%^%$ gorgeous bars of soap amd. I only hope mine come out half as nice.

 

[dibbles]

After a month of traveling and then being sick, I finally made some soap I was going to try (yet again!) a butterfly swirl but kind of forgot and got a little hanger happy. Still, I can't wait to peek inside and see what is there.

 

[GeezLouise]

I unmolded an experiment and they broke. For the next attempt I will freeze the soap-filled mold and pop the soaps out while they are still frozen.

The little planes are the same batch and lard based recipe (Susie's recommended proportions) as the bars beside them.

 

[cherrycoke216]

They aren't lye heavy, create tons of bubbles and actually made my hands really soft so I don't have it in my heart to toss the batch but I can't give it to the girls now.



Mistake 5- Not exterminating all soap gremlins :headbanging:



To be honest, this was the first time a soap has misbehaved with me. I've gotten lucky in the few years I've been doing this and I only had one other batch that didn't set up right. (Bad scale at the time) I think from now on I'm gonna soap with a glass of wine or two.

Maybe put it in a soap saver bag and use it up or share with family?
I'll grease up the new mold now, in case you forget to do it again. I'm forgetful, don't know about you.

Yeah kill all the soap gremlins! They always broke my heart damn it!

 

[dalewaite48]

I made three new batches of my Cherry Almond Bath Truffles. I have a Mother & Daughter that purchase 30 of them about every 2 or 3 months apart. They must really like to take baths. The cherry almond scent smells so wonderful. I package them up 15 to a bag and then make a custom label for each bag.

 

[earlene]

Easter egg soaps

To be honest, this was the first time a soap has misbehaved with me. I've gotten lucky in the few years I've been doing this and I only had one other batch that didn't set up right. (Bad scale at the time) I think from now on I'm gonna soap with a glass of wine or two.

Guess it has to happen sometime. But the colors are lovely and the soap sounds like it must be a great recipe. Hope you find a replacement Easter project that will be ready in time.

I spilled EO on my plastic table cloth (picture an outdoor picnic-type table cloth) that I keep atop my work table. It melted right through the colors and now I have a checkered table cloth with a couple of splotchy white areas. At least it didn't go all the way through and eat an actual hole in it. So I've tried t be very careful with EOs and FOs since then.

But that hasn't stopped me from ruining the small scale I used for measuring them. I spilled FOs on it twice. The first time, it just made an ugly mess of the plastic & gave it a permanent fragrance. The second time was way worse because I spilled it not only on the scale, but all over my kitchen counter as well. Somehow the FO got inside the mechanism and now the scale won't turn on anymore. So I have to replace it. Bummer.

While cleaning up the spill on the kitchen counter (afraid the whole time it was going to ruin it and cost me thousands of dollars to replace) I used paper towels to clean it up. After cleanup, rather than toss the FO-soaked paper towels in the trash that would soon end up in landfill somewhere, I put them in the trash in my small bathroom, which hardly ever fills up enough to have to empty it. Weeks later, and my small bathroom still smells great! One consolation.

Oh, and thankfully it did not ruin my kitchen counter, so that's a good thing, too. Now I just have to be extra careful with fragrances and NOT ruin another scale like that again. Such an annoyance.

Here's the homemade hanger swirl tool:

Great looking hanger swirl tool, bumbleklutz. Well now I understand why you picked that handle. :???:

The little planes ...

I love your airplanes! Where did you find that mold? I am always on the lookout for boy-appropriate soap molds and this one looks wonderful.

I made three new batches of my Cherry Almond Bath Truffles.

The Bath Truffles look so nice. How wonderful that you have such loyal customers! Your Bath Truffles must be really luxurious to influence your customers in such a way.

 

[jules92207]

For science



Also the soda ash is killing me.

I'm sorry for all your troubles, but my son would love those! He always asks me to make soap balls for him.

At least the colors are pretty.

 

[Bubbles1189]

Maybe put it in a soap saver bag and use it up or share with family?
I'll grease up the new mold now, in case you forget to do it again. I'm forgetful, don't know about you.

Yeah kill all the soap gremlins! They always broke my heart damn it!

I'm not usually this bad when making soap but I think I'm definitely going to do that asap. That's a good idea too! Now I just have to convince my family to take some. They already have enough castoffs to last a couple years.

I could also use it during the summer by the spigot so that I can wash my hands before I come inside from working with my animals and garden.

 

[Bubbles1189]

Also thank you to all who like the colors. The green was a mix of Lime Appeal and Four Leaf Clover micas from Nurture Soaps and the pink was Hollywood Pink mica from the same company. (Incase you wanted to replicate the colors) Don't ask for amounts on the greens though. I just mixed till I was satisfied with the color.

 

[GeezLouise]

I love your airplanes! Where did you find that mold? I am always on the lookout for boy-appropriate soap molds and this one looks wonderful.

They were sold as ice molds. I chose to receive 4 from a recognition program at work and only opened 1 mold. That way if the soap thing doesn't work, I can give the unopened molds to our daughters for ice. 3 of our daughters have boys. Jet appears to have the lowest price today on the same airplane mold. This mold kind of wraps around the contents on the open surface.

:bunny:

 

[penelopejane]

I unmolded an experiment and they broke. For the next attempt I will freeze the soap-filled mold and pop the soaps out while they are still frozen.

The little planes are the same batch and lard based recipe (Susie's recommended proportions) as the bars beside them.

One alternative I've found that works for me with an intricate design silicone mold is to leave the soap in the mold for a week then pop it out.

It's a test of patience that's for sure but it works for me.

 

[mx5inpenn]

I cleaned out the cupboards in the utility room and organized all the soap stuff. It takes up most of the space.

Also moved some soaps from curing racks to boxes. Had to make room for more.

I hope to do my side by side test batches with and without avocado oil tonight. Also need to masterbatch some KOH after the kids are in bed.

 

[earlene]

They were sold as ice molds. I chose to receive 4 from a recognition program at work and only opened 1 mold. That way if the soap thing doesn't work, I can give the unopened molds to our daughters for ice. 3 of our daughters have boys. Jet appears to have the lowest price today on the same airplane mold. This mold kind of wraps around the contents on the open surface.

:bunny:

Thank you, GeezLouise. That looks like a decent mold. How much does ones airplane soap weigh? Just curious if they are about the same weight as my small sports car soap. It weighs about 80 grams after cure.

My soapy stuff today: Not much. I got side-tracked by the need to meet my son's tenant to get the keys and look at the house. (I have to go back tomorrow and do some cleaning because I meet the new tenants on Wednesday to hand over the keys and the old one didn't clean very well.)

I carried a tray of cut soap upstairs to set out for curing. Spread out some materials to do some wrapping & labeling, then was gone the rest of the day. So wrapping & labeling didn't happen. Maybe tonight.

 

[kchaystack]

I cut some soap I made yesterday.

It is Nurture's really red (should have used more) and yellow vibrance micas. It also has uncolored batter scented with WSPs oakmoss and sandalwood which should discolor.

The small round tubes are the colored unscented batter to be used as embeds soon.

 

[jules92207]

I haven't posted many updates as I haven't done much soapy stuff in the last couple months. I did make some soaps this weekend and yesterday I got my new 5 lb mold from Nurture I'm so excited to use this weekend. My first time working with a wood mold and silicone liner - any tips anyone can share?

 

[SheLion]

I went down to my curing rack and inspected (and sniffed!) the last batch I made. It was my most complicated batch to date - two colors (ok, half colored with AC the rest not colored) and scented. Now I really know why soaping is addictive!

I also ordered a handful of micas from Nurture - also a first as I've never used micas, or any colorants other than AC. And signed up for the March SMF challenge, which precipitated the order of micas-not that I really needed an excuse!

 

[earlene]

I used soap. That's about it. Cleaning my son's house (between tenants) made me wish I had a bar of my own soap with me. Yuck on the commercial liquid soap he left behind.

So glad to come home again and use my lovely Home Sweet Home Swap items. My hands needed it.

 

[GeezLouise]

Thank you, GeezLouise. That looks like a decent mold. How much does ones airplane soap weigh? Just curious if they are about the same weight as my small sports car soap. It weighs about 80 grams after cure.

Hi earlene, the mold held about 112 gm water and today the soaps weigh 93 grams (all four together).

I made a quick trip to town to get monthly cash and stopped at Wal-Mart to buy lard. Only 3 check stands were open... so I read soapmakingforum on Tapatalk.

 

[LunaSkye]

I was gearing up to make a soap right now and bam: I mixed up the weights for the PO and CO. I didn't even catch it until after I added EVOO. The soap should still come out nice, but I only wanted to make a pound of soap to test out a CO/PO combo I was thinking of...
:headbanging:
This is why I am now getting ready to go to sleep. I'll soap later.

 

[penelopejane]

I haven't posted many updates as I haven't done much soapy stuff in the last couple months. I did make some soaps this weekend and yesterday I got my new 5 lb mold from Nurture I'm so excited to use this weekend. My first time working with a wood mold and silicone liner - any tips anyone can share?

No, but I am jealous!!!