What soapy thing have you done today?

[Zany_in_CO]

I plan to. I only asked here because in her response to my previous post, Zany said she had experience with that particular FO.

So, I just checked MMS fragrance calc and under the chart for use rates, where it says NOTES there was this: "May add yellow tones to product. Has a warm and smokey scent."

What I know about MMS is that they do extensive testing of all their fragrance oils. if you go to the main page about their FOs and click on "learn more" it says that they avoid FOs that contain certain chemicals known to cause seizing. So that info won't be in the NOTES section.

I agree with you, Artemis... I've always thought MMS needed to put this info in the FO description, as well as the fragrance "notes". That being said, they make a quality product and, IMO and IME their fragrances "stick", altho I like some more than others.

 

[earlene]

Today I lined 4 (maybe 5) molds with freezer paper. I bought a small wooden ambulance box with a slide-in lid (I call it that because of the picture of a local ambulance company on the box) at Goodwill recently, so measured it to calculate batch size & lined it. Also a couple of small tea boxes, as I want to see how they would work while traveling (I am always buying more tea and end up tossing out a lot of tea boxes). Because I want to repeat some of my single oil soap tests now that I actually have a better idea of what I am doing than I did when I first did them, I am preparing these small molds for that purpose (as well as to see how they might work for easy molds while on the road.)

I made a 600 gram batch of 100% Hemp Oil soap and documented the process. It is now in the oven for CPOP. Next up is 100% Rice Bran Oil soap. I did RBO single oil soap 2 years ago, but my notes on it were so sketchy that I just don't know what the result was other than how it behaved in the beginning. Performance over time notes are glaringly absent for the RBO soap. This time I will be more diligent with my documentation for all the oils I test.

After my RBO soap, I will take a nice luxurious bath in my whirlpool tub because the shower head broke in the shower this morning. Poor hubby; he had to rinse off with a steady stream from the wall, just like rinsing with a hose, except it was at least warm.

 

[SoapAddict415]

I've spent my evening trying to figure out a way to use a palm/red palm/coconut oil blend in my next batch without knowing the percentage of CO in the blend. I'm thinking of lowering my SF amount from 8% to 5% and the percentage of CO I normally use in my recipe to compensate for the unknown amount of CO in the palm oil blend.

 

[Nyathera]

I put my re-batched milk & honey soap to the freezer so I can get it out of the mold and cut it It overheated at first so it had a big hole in the middle of it. That's why I re-batched.

 

[earlene]

Unmolded both my test batches: 100% hemp oil soap and 100% RBO soap. I thought they were gelling because they got & stayed warmer than the pre-heated oven for several hours, but it looks like partial gel. I will return them to the oven to encourage full gel. I should have realized they needed more than the usual heat since I used a [40% Lye Concentration] and both oils & Lye at room temperature (76° F).

I may cut the Rice Bran Oil soap before returning it to the oven because it is so hard and I am curious.

So far, and as expected: The Hemp oil soap is quite a bit softer than the RBO soap, at least by half or more. I expected the hemp oil soap to have a greener hue, but it is refined hemp oil, so I guess that was just wishful thinking. Both are a pretty pale beige color.

Next I plan to repeat the experiment with each oil with added vinegar and see what difference in hardness I get with the hemp oil. I'm fine with the hardness of the RBO without the vinegar, but will look at that as well.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Next I plan to repeat the experiment with each oil with added vinegar and see what difference in hardness I get with the hemp oil. I'm fine with the hardness of the RBO without the vinegar, but will look at that as well.

Hey Earlene, I love following what you're doing, but if I ever want to come back for another look, it's pretty much buried in this thread! LOL So when you're finished, I hope you'll post results with comments in a separate thread. Please? I'm sure others would be interested too.

For comparison and inspiration, you might want to take a peek at Amanda's (Lovin' Soap) Single Oil Soap results. Here's a link:

http://www.lovinsoap.com/single-oil-soaps/

HTH :bunny:
​

 

[earlene]

Hey Earlene, I love following what you're doing, but if I ever want to come back for another look, it's pretty much buried in this thread! LOL So when you're finished, I hope you'll post results with comments in a separate thread. Please? I'm sure others would be interested too.

For comparison and inspiration, you might want to take a peek at Amanda's (Lovin' Soap) Single Oil Soap results. Here's a link:

http://www.lovinsoap.com/single-oil-soaps/

HTH :bunny:
​

Yes, I began composition last night for a new thread about this, but by taking so long with it, and not saving it as a draft, I lost it. So I began again, saving my draft this time in another document. It's taking me a long time to compose, but hopefully I'll be able to focus on it and consolidate my thoughts so I can come up with a final draft soon.

I've read several Single Oil soap experiments, including that one. Thank you.

So one of the other things I'm doing, which is also sort of related (hemp oil soap), is planning a soap specifically for one of my brothers (I have 4).

Four brothers and specialized soaps:

I have already designed a soap for my brother who is a Blacksmith (Plastics Engineer by training and during his career, but in retirement, he has turned to blacksmithing.) He has given me feedback and helped me come up with one that he likes best. So what about the rest of them?

My next step is to create a Hemp soap for my brother who was once a grower for medical marijuana. I mentioned it to my husband and he agrees with me that this would be something my brother would really appreciate. So I've been watching youtube videos and reading up on hemp oil soaps. This is going to be a fun project and all for my brother. Maybe I'll look for a Marine Corps emblem to stamp it with, because he maintains Marine Corps pride with a passion.

The other brothers will have to wait. Don't tell them. But they did get some of my 'Dad's Flagstone Patio' mosaic soap, which has become my close second to my favorite recipe for how it makes my skin feel. So no one is doing without!

 

[artemis]

^^^artemis,
Sorry I should have known you would. I just didn't want your post to be missed.

I was thinking I should do a separate post for each of these FOs in the fragrance section after I've tried them. Though, now that there's a handy form for updating the FO review sheet, maybe I'll put the info there.

 

[earlene]

I made an attempt to make sunflowers on top of soap, but the yellow began to rice while in the squirt bottle and the flower petals are not quite what I was hoping for. But I finished it anyway & popped it into the oven to CPOP. Maybe it will turn out better once it gels.

 

[Spiceandsoap]

I made soap yesterday!
4th batch in 2 months.
I broke a cardinal rule- change/add one thing a batch- and went ahead and did two new things. First, I used (frozen) almond milk for half my liquid. Second, I tried micas for the first time. After reading many blogs/instructions, I dutifully dispersed my micas in a carrier oil... then things went a little off-plan. I waaaaaaay underestimated what I would need, and ended up panicking and adding powdered mica to the soap batch directly. End result was poorly dispersed colour, but I think it will look ok for a first mica attempt.

 

[amd]

I soaped quite a bit this week: wine soap, a second batch of banana puree, an aloe vera soap using Patchouli and Linen Type fo, and then today I made oatmeal milk & honey cupcakes. Not too shabby for working in the kitchen all week for VBS, and getting married on Saturday!

 

[Cindy2428]

Congratulations!!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Not too shabby for working in the kitchen all week for VBS, and getting married on Saturday!

Way ta go! What a cute couple! Congratulations!

 

[earlene]

Congratulations to Mr. amd and what a lovely bride you make, Mrs.!

It's been a busy week! I hope you have a great honeymoon and a long and happy marriage.

 

[toxikon]

Congrats AMD!!!

 

[jewels621]

I soaped quite a bit this week: wine soap, a second batch of banana puree, an aloe vera soap using Patchouli and Linen Type fo, and then today I made oatmeal milk & honey cupcakes. Not too shabby for working in the kitchen all week for VBS, and getting married on Saturday!

Lord, have mercy! Did you find time to breathe? Congratulations....and may you have a long and very happy marriage!!

 

[earlene]

Yesterday I trimmed two of my test soap bars to see how they hold up on day two after being made: 100% hemp oil; 100% Rice Bran oil. Both were still a bit soft, although full gel helped harden them enough to plane & bevel while handling with care. Fingernail marks in the Hemp bar are hard to avoid with my long nails, so I'll probably trim my nails before I trim anymore bars. They grow so darn fast; it seems I am always having to trim them in order to handle soap without marking them up!

I watched a youtube video on the making of a Hemp 'special brownie' soap, which was scented with a marijuana FO mixed with a chocolate FO. I told my husband about that this morning while showing him the 100% Hemp Oil soap & he agrees it's a good idea to get a sample and add it to the soap I plan to make for my brother. I need to come up with a formula for the soap next, so I'll continue reading the different posts and watching the videos online about hemp soaps. His birthday is still several months away. Plus if it's not ready by then, I can just take some with me to Spring Training next year and give them to him then. Or both. I expect this is going to be a big hit.

ETA: I cut the sunflower soaps & even though I was too lazy to go get my ground walnut hulls for brown & tried to mix what I had to get brown and it is really grey, it didn't turn out too bad for a first attempt and ricing yellow petals. Pictures below.

Also am in the process of mixing vinegar lye solution for the test soaps I was going to do a couple of days ago. Want to get them done today so at least the non-vinegar and the vinegar ones will have been both made in July (3 days apart, but that's okay.)

Reference for the vinegar:NaOH calcuations.

 

[dalewaite48]

It's The Pits

Finally had success making a all natural Underarm
Deodorant, and it really works well.

 

[penelopejane]

I soaped quite a bit this week: wine soap, a second batch of banana puree, an aloe vera soap using Patchouli and Linen Type fo, and then today I made oatmeal milk & honey cupcakes. Not too shabby for working in the kitchen all week for VBS, and getting married on Saturday!

Congratulations AMD! Best wishes for the future.
I love the super cute bees on the cupcakes.

 

[earlene]

Today I cut my two vinegar-for-SA single oil soaps: Hemp 2% S.A. and RBO 2% S.A. Happily they both fully gelled this time, but I also soaped a little warmer because I made the lye solution fresh (I even went out shopping to give the second one time to cool down before soaping) and heated the oven a little more; plus I used a lower [Lye Concentration] than the non-vinegar version.

I could have cut the RBO vinegar soap sooner, but at least I didn't wait too long. I waited until both soaps dropped to 82°F before removing them from the oven, then let them sit for a short time before cutting.

Cleaned up my Bud Cutter & put it away again. Did a little tidy up of some soaping supplies.

I used up the last of my 39% EDTA solution in yesterday's soap, so I need to make up a new solution. This time I'll go to the 50% solution like DeeAnna has since written about how to do. I will have to adjust my calculations to determine how much of this solution to use, but I am sure I can adapt. The calculations look easier, so adapting shouldn't be too hard. So my goal is to make the solution either later tonight or tomorrow. Hubby is off work, so I won't be disrupting the kitchen with soapy stuff much more today.

I also washed my hands with a soap made at my advanced swirls class this past June; they are all about 8 weeks old now. Well, it only re-confirms my experience that my skin just can't handle such high CO content in soap. This one is 36.6% C.O. It's quite bubbly and has loads of lather, but I don't like the feel of the lather; it's not very conditioning feeling and my skin is rough & dry just a few minutes after washing. My skin just does not like this recipe. I haven't tried the others yet, but I expect the results won't be much different. The goal wasn't to make fabulous soap; it was to make fabulous swirls. Maybe they will get milder with age, but for now, I just can't use them on my skin. I won't even give them away, so I'll hold on to them and see how they perform over time and take notes along the way, of course.

ETA: I gathered supplies (EDTA; Magnesium; Beeswax; Deo bottles) for my next projects. I am running low on deodorant, hence the Mg & Beeswax & bottles. Still thinking about what fragrances to add and how much to make. Thinking of Dragon's Blood for one bottle; it would be interesting to see how dark it turns the deodorant & if it stains my skin. hmmmm.... I used Rose FO that last time and I like that, but am thinking of branching out.