What soapy thing have you done today?

[WeaversPort]

I made scent samples from my Brambleberry sampler box. I put together a mix for the purpose of doing samples, even though I have no idea if it would make a good soap.

Avocado Oil 30%
Canola Oil 25%
Coconut Oil 20%
Soybean Oil 25%

Superfat -2

The Lilac and Grapefruit Lily moved quickly in the sample cups. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Amber turns out.

 

[beardguy]

I tried my hand at the April challenge soap and it smelled so good. I just hope it looks as good as it smelled.

 

[CTAnton]

I imposed on a friend to make some more soap labels for me using Adobe Illustrator.In the 2+ years I'm into this addiction my packaging is evolving the most. I'm currently using shrink wrap polyolefin bags with a label created by my friend thats stuck on the back of the soap..onlinelabels.com is the company.

 

[kdaniels8811]

It has been a busy day. 10 pounds each Black Raspberry Vanilla and Eucalyptus Mint and my new soap flower embellished soaps. Also 24 Easter Egg Bombs with toys. Fun day!

 

[SheLion]

I unmolded and cut a batch from yesterday and cut a loaf from last week that needed to firm up after unmolding. But most exciting is that I got a new SB. It's a lovely aqua color and I can't wait to use it!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I made GM lotion scented with BB's White Tea & Amber/Cybilla and shipped them off to my wholesale customer yesterday. I added a capsule of astaxathin to give it a pale peach color. I made Essential Lotion for them today to ship later this month. It has a blend of 6 essential oils known for relieving the pain of fibro and arthritis. (Can't say that tho. The label simply states the ingredients and no more.) Both are good sellers. They can hardly keep the Essential Lotion in stock once market season starts. It makes me happy to know that I'm helping to bring some relief to total strangers. I'm not braggin'; just sayin'...

 

[earlene]

In spite of feeling a bit 'off' the past few days, today I plan to make my brother's BlackSmith soap. I talked to my husband & he's been feeling the same symptoms, so I think we both have a light touch of something, but not significantly disruptive. Anyway, I will forge ahead and make soap. Maybe I can put stripes into it and use it for this month's challenge.

I am also unpacking and trimming some of the Black Background soaps I made while on my trip. They all smell so good, it's nice to pull them out of the box.

 

[SaltedFig]

I beat up on my (current) favourite soap with a blacksmiths hammer just now, does that count? :mrgreen:

Constructively - I finally got around to planning the colour experiments with my co-conspirator. Fun for tomorrow.

 

[beardguy]

I cut (too soon) my soap for the April challenge so I guess I'll redo another one next week since it didn't turn out like I wanted. I have my idea how I will go about it next time.

Not soap related by I made three samples of a new recipe of beard balm I'm formulating with different FO and EO. The cherry and tobacco one smells really, really nice. I hope the scent doesn't morph once it has hardened.

 

[earlene]

My lye solution for my soap, volcanoed in the sink, so I ran it down the drain, followed by several more gallons of running water, cleaned up and took a shower. The volcano happened so fast, it bubbled up onto my glove of the hand I was stirring with & burned me through the glove. Heat burn, not direct contact burn. The glove remained intact. Of course I removed the glove & ran gallons of cold water over my hand, particularly the meaty area at the base of the thumb where it meets the wrist, as that is the part that felt like it was cooked. I am using ice off and on to relieve the discomfort, but there is no visible damage to the skin, so I'm glad about that. Before hopping in the shower, my clothes, apron, socks, towels used for clean up all went into the washer & I started it right away.

I am considering leaving the rest of the soapmaking to morning, although I did re-measure the items I had added to the lye solution. I'll measure out the lye tomorrow though. I am just not ready to deal with it again at this point. The oils and colorant, etc. are all ready to go and going nowhere.

After a bit of a rest, I'll tidy up a bit more so the place doesn't look so much like a disaster, but for now I just want to eat ice cream.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

The volcano happened so fast, it bubbled up onto my glove of the hand I was stirring with & burned me through the glove.

YIKES! That's scary Earlene! I hope you're okay? How did it happen?

FYI: One of the best things for a lye burn is lavender essential oil. I always have it handy just in case. There's a story around the internet about a perfumer back in the early days of perfumery that had an accident similar to yours. His hand actually caught fire. To put it out, he stuck his hand in a vat of lavender essential oil. It not only soothed the burn but but helped with the healing as well. Just thought I'd mention that. HTH

ETA: Here's a link to the story:
http://naturehacks.com/burn-scar-prevention-with-lavender-essential-oil/

 

[Greenmeadow]

Rose clay soap coloured with pink French clay and white clay

Rose clay soap with rose geranium &sweet orange EOs , layered , white pearl pencil line ! OO& CO&PO&ShB&CaO , pink French clay, kaolinite , mica and rose buds. Looking forward to cut it later today !!

 

[Saponomancer]

Planned out some soaps

 

[earlene]

YIKES! That's scary Earlene! I hope you're okay? How did it happen?

ETA: Here's a link to the story:
http://naturehacks.com/burn-scar-prevention-with-lavender-essential-oil/

Very interesting article, thank you Zany. It's better. No pain or apparent aftermath, except one tiny line that looks like a bruise under the skin - very very tiny. I used some arnica salve I normally use on my feet to sooth the pain and when I woke up this morning, no discomfort at all. I even did the dishes this morning without discomfort.

I obviously added my honey solution too fast and did not use my extra tall pitcher for the solution. I know better, but wasn't thinking things through thoroughly. Today I'll do better (taller container, slower add, longer-handled stirring tool, cool water bath for the lye solution container as a precaution.) This was not my first roiling lye, but it is the first time I didn't prepare sufficiently in advance to prevent overflow. But this time because I will be so careful, I probably won't have the roiling.

Rose clay soap with rose geranium &sweet orange EOs , layered , white pearl pencil line ! OO& CO&PO&ShB&CaO , pink French clay, kaolinite , mica and rose buds. Looking forward to cut it later today !!

Gorgeous, Greenmeadow.

Planned out some soaps

DragonGirl, that looks like a lot of testers. I hope they are all as nice as you hope.

This morning I am putting together an order from Amazon that I've been postponing. I'm adding some colloidal silver and some zinc oxide to this order. I think it's time I made a couple of salves to have on hand in case of burns. I am no stranger to burns (I was in a fire when I was 10 and the result was not pretty.) I already have loads of lavender oil and found a couple of salve recipes that include it, so I may make a tester of one of them in a few days.

I've started re-melting my oils for the BlackSmith soap and cleared the sink to get started on my lye solution again.

 

[Saponomancer]

DragonGirl, that looks like a lot of testers. I hope they are all as nice as you hope.

Me too, fingers crossed the scents behave the way they're supposed to, its going to be an interesting project to do for the next while

 

[aihrat]

Cut my avocado oil and avocado puree soap for a friend's birthday in May I added 1% ppo citric acid instead of the usual 1.5% citric acid I usually use on account of the lemon juice used to preserve colour in the avocado puree.


I used my Bramble Berry Wire Soap Slicer to slice vertical bars. Note to anyone who's considering getting one to slice horizontally and vertically like me: I hope you don't do tall peaks, because the wire bow slicer doesn't have enough space between the wooden bow and the wire to fit the soap as it's coming through. Very frustrating! It does just fine for a level, filled loaf like from the Crafter's Choice 1501 mould though.

 

[earlene]

aihrat, I am curious about the slicer. Does it require a flat-edge countertop overhang in order to use it? It looks like it on the site, but I can't tell how long the overhang is. I ask because I can't use items like that since my countertop edge is built without a straight edge. It has what's called a one-quarter bevel (or laminated bevel) & simply does not work with tools that require an overhang to hold them in place (unless the overhang is really long.) There is no mention of the overhang in the description. I can't use the overhang on my mitre box on my kitchen counters because it isn't long enough to reach the bottom edge of the countertops. (Nothing in my house has a straight edge, so I can't find another surface for using such tools.)

Also, perhaps if you put your experience in the Review section on BrambleBerry for that slicer, they may adjust the design in the future. Just a thought.

 

[aihrat]

aihrat, I am curious about the slicer. Does it require a flat-edge countertop overhang in order to use it? It looks like it on the site, but I can't tell how long the overhang is. I ask because I can't use items like that since my countertop edge is built without a straight edge. It has what's called a one-quarter bevel (or laminated bevel) & simply does not work with tools that require an overhang to hold them in place (unless the overhang is really long.) There is no mention of the overhang in the description. I can't use the overhang on my mitre box on my kitchen counters because it isn't long enough to reach the bottom edge of the countertops. (Nothing in my house has a straight edge, so I can't find another surface for using such tools.)

Also, perhaps if you put your experience in the Review section on BrambleBerry for that slicer, they may adjust the design in the future. Just a thought.

earlene, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I have no idea what an overhang is Could you post a picture? I could take a look and advise. So far I've just been using it on a flat surface. As you can see in this picture, I can happily use it while its edges hang over a stool. But as mentioned, the stool makes the slicer sit flat.



(also the pic illustrates the problem with the peaks - if your soap loaf is quite tall it will hit the slicer bow before the slice is completed. I had to rotate the loaf to get a complete cut, resulting in an ugly, radial surface on the side of the soap)

I have been contemplating putting a review on their site, but I'd like to use the slicer a bit longer to formulate my overall impression before posting. So far I love the slicer to bits (and do not regret my international purchase) but there are a few problems here and there in certain use cases that I'm not sure how to describe yet.

 

[earlene]

Here is an example of an overhang, where a mitre box is made secure by hanging over the edge of the workbench:

Here is what I see in one of the pictures on the BrambleBerry website and makes me think it might be an overhang, but if you use it flat on your surface, I must be mistaken.

 

[aihrat]

I see! The product actually has two "legs", the front of which is shown in the front-view of the pic you posted, which I suppose could act as an overhang if your workbench is the correct thickness. For me, I just use it on my countertop, and the legs act as "stilts" and lift the cutting suface a bit off my work surface

Update on the cutter: It turns out I may be stupid - my peaked soap does actually fit in the cutter, but under a different bow configuration. See below:



You do still have to watch out for the height limit imposed by the "bow" part of the cutter, but for a soap with a modest peak made in a CC 1501 mould it fits perfectly. Whoops!