What soapy thing have you done today?

[SoapAddict415]

It's very pretty!

 

[earlene]

Before leaving yesterday, I filled a Hampton Inn guest bag (it's a small bag they give guests with water/snacks when they check in) with several bars of soap for my niece and her husband. I'd say about 10 or 15 bars of soap are in the bag. A good sampling with no duplicates. I let her know we'd be arriving today for a brief visit, not staying the night. (I may be back for Thanksgiving, though.)

We spent the night in Ogallala, Nebraska and plan to be in Utah before nightfall. So a far cry from Irma. I told my husband yesterday that I have decided I don't want to retire anywhere where Hurricanes are a regular occurrence every year. We had talked about retiring on Hilton Head or somewhere along the Atlantic Coast, but I just don't want to be evacuating my home at the age of 70 or 75 or 80, etc. Just like he doesn't want to shovel snow at 80.

Every day I keep checking to see if there is new SMF Challenge and I am sad that there is no word as to why not. I'd like to ask, but I don't know who to ask. Probably would not be able to participate this month anyway, but still it makes me sad that the August challenge sits at the top of the board mockingly.

 

[jewels621]

After spending a month purging the clutter in my home (can you visualize a massive dumpster and many trips to deliver donations?), canning, fermenting, and generally preparing for winter on the farm (the only thing left is to dig up potatoes, and put the garden beds to rest), I FINALLY got to soap yesterday and today! I was so excited I was shaking! I was up at 5:30 this morning because I was so excited to cut the Christmas soap I made yesterday, and was happy enough with it that I immediately made another (different) batch. I'm looking forward to the week because I NEED to make more. It's been a long time since my curing racks were this empty. Time to fill 'em up!

 

[Kittish]

I've started cautiously sending a few bars of the soap I've made into the world. I've given soap to mother in law and sister in law (who specifically requested some based on apparently rave reviews by mother in law), and got a packet together for my neighbor across the street. These are all soaps I've already tried, got bars of each along the back of my kitchen sink and been using them all once or twice a day, so I know they're safe and pretty nice soap, to boot.

 

[Kristianna]

Today, I handed out a few bars of my soap to some of my hubby's office staff. I'm hoping to get some honest reviews. I'm still trying to formulate the 'perfect' recipe that is not too cleansing and nicely conditioning. Juggling oils in SoapCalc. I can totally understand why some people keep their recipes private!

 

[Dahila]

40 BB with two color embeds

 

[Viore]

Yesterday I made two loaves of Frankincense & Myrrh scented soaps. I love that fragrance! Today I get to wrap and label the Lavender soap I made, tomorrow is the Bay Rum, and the next day is the Patchouli. Also Aqua Spa needs to be wrapped and labeled somewhere in there :???:

 

[penelopejane]

Today, I handed out a few bars of my soap to some of my hubby's office staff. I'm hoping to get some honest reviews. I'm still trying to formulate the 'perfect' recipe that is not too cleansing and nicely conditioning. Juggling oils in SoapCalc. I can totally understand why some people keep their recipes private!

Forget the conditioning etc number in soap calc. Go by feel of the soap. There are 1000s of excellent tried and true recipes on the forum and on soaping 101.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Today I made a super cool soap for my son who is a huge fan of the movie the nightmare before Christmas. I scented it with bubble gum and milk / honey FOs. I think he will like them!

 

[SunRiseArts]

have you ever purchased essential oils from them? I was looking over their selection, and the prices for their eos are... Really suspiciously low. Like in the same price range as a lot of the known fakes you see on amazon low. I sent them a message a few days ago asking if their eos were the real deal, but haven't gotten a reply.

Post pictures of the soap when you make it please? It sounds like it'll look really neat.

Eta: I might have gone a little overboard ordering micas from nurture...

the smaller jars are 1 oz jars. Two big ones are 4 oz. Mica is much fluffier than i expected it would be. The packets on top are bonus samples they included with the order. I think they might be new colors, i don't remember seeing the names when i put my order together. And a measuring spoon, too! Things are about to get colorful!!

omg!!!!!

 

[Kittish]

Today I made a super cool soap for my son who is a huge fan of the movie the nightmare before Christmas. I scented it with bubble gum and milk / honey FOs. I think he will like them!

What a bright, fun soap! I bet he loves them. Are the faces soap, too?

 

[SunRiseArts]

Yes mam, the faces are melt and pour, and I painted with micas the eyes and mouth.

 

[Kittish]

Yes mam, the faces are melt and pour, and I painted with micas the eyes and mouth.

Awesomely done!

I have three batches of soap going concurrently. Kind of feeling a bit off the hook since I got done with the last editing job. I've got 500g batches each of a vanillin trial, that includes the glycerin-vanillin mix I made. I figured to add 25g of vanillin, which meant 63g of the mix (3:2 ratio). Mixed it into the oils before I added my lye. I saw little bits that looked like maybe some light ricing as soon as I added the lye, but they seem to be disappearing as the soap comes to emulsion. The soap batter looks and smells just like cake batter. Next soap is a lard soap, colored with indigo. I steeped a teaspoon of indigo powder in boiling distilled water, and let it sit for about 12 hours. Took a bit of mixing to get the powder to go into the water, it wanted to stay dry on top. Mixed up the water when I went to measure it for the lye (to stir up the sediment), and measured out a few extra grams to account for the extra weight of the indigo. Used about 2/3 of the indigo water for the soap, so the soap has 1/2-3/4 teaspoon of indigo in it. So far, it's a very dark blue-grey. The last batch I'm going to try a drop swirl with. Ruby red base color, with drops of black, gold, purple, and pink. I've got a lovely floral EO blend mixed to go into it. I used the nag champa attempt that MIL didn't like as the base, since DH doesn't like nag champa in any version, and I didn't want it to just sit around forever. Added rose geranium and ylang ylang, close to equal amounts. I kind of expect it to accelerate, so I'm going to add it to my batter just before I pour it for each color.

 

[SoapAddict415]

Today I made a super cool soap for my son who is a huge fan of the movie the nightmare before Christmas. I scented it with bubble gum and milk / honey FOs. I think he will like them!

I love the Jack Skellington faces!

Sent from my Z828 using Soap Making mobile app

 

[SunRiseArts]

Thanks everyone!

Kittish, you need to post pictures!

 

[Kittish]

Thanks everyone!

Kittish, you need to post pictures!

I will, as soon as I get my new phone. My old one died, and that's what I was using as a camera. No loaf pics, sorry. But I'll take pics of the cut soaps as soon as I can.

Tonight I learned how to use my shrink wrap equipment. Wasn't as tricky as I thought it might be. My labels are pretty basic, and not suitable for a product being sold, but they do include both ingredients -with sodium hydroxide listed right where it should be- and the net weight of each bar. I have vents in each end of the wrapping so the wrapped bars can breathe. I'll keep a close eye on them in the coming months. So long as they don't get spotty or develop any other problem, they'll go out as Christmas gifts. I borrowed DeeAnna's labeling style because I like how much usable space you have for information, but you can also see a lot of the soap surface.

 

[penelopejane]

Tonight I learned how to use my shrink wrap equipment. I have vents in each end of the wrapping so the wrapped bars can breathe. I'll keep a close eye on them in the coming months.

Kittish some people recommend shrink wrapping soap just before it goes out because the soap can shrink inside the band.

 

[Kittish]

I know, penelopejane. But the soaps I wrapped have been curing for three months, they should be pretty much done losing water. I'll check on them every month or so, see if there is any additional shrinkage along with checking for other problems.

Looked in on my soaps this morning, see if the lard and the vanillin soaps are ready to come out of their molds yet. The lard soap may be, I'll check it again this evening. The vanillin soap has drops of some fluid speckling the top of the loaf this morning. I did not zap test it at this time, though I will. (ETA- tested. Zap! Mild one, though, just a tiny tingle. Hmmm. Let it sit and see if it soaks back in I guess) I suspect it's glycerin. It's still too soft to unmold. And the soap is decidedly orange-ish in color, perceptibly darker than it was when I first poured the soap into the mold. I wonder how dark it's going to get?

I think I'm going to have to rethink my plastic mold liners. They worked great the first few times I used them, but they're starting to give me problems now. I'm getting soap leaking into the mold around the liners, and I'm making sure there aren't any wrinkles or gaps in the liner before I start pouring my soap. I had to take another mold apart to get the soap in the liner out. Right about now I'm really glad my molds are screwed together, rather than nailed. The liners are also getting sticky, they don't want to let go of the soap. *sigh* Back to the drawing board. Think I'll see about getting some mylar and try that out.

 

[amd]

Shower steamers, packed 40 bath bombs, and got ready for syndet shampoo bars for tomorrow

I'm finally catching up on reading at the forum - so forgive my late inquiry regarding this! When I was in China in June, I picked up a shampoo bar. I finally tried it a few weeks ago, and I love it! I believe it is a syndet shampoo, it certainly does not behave like a cold process soap. It didn't even occur to me that I could make one - so now I'm a curious little cat. I'll be digging through the forum for info, but if you have a starting point to direct me to, I'd love the kickstart on my research

 

[amd]

Just ordered a handful of new WSP fragrances to try for Christmas (and beyond): Peony, Green Apple, Clean Cotton, Sparkling Snowflake, Peppermint Stick, Black Raspberry Vanilla, Verbena & Lemon, Twilight Woods for Men

Sparkling Snowflake is one of my favorites. I have had Peony for about 6 months... but I can't bring myself to soap with it yet. (I don't like Peony. I got this for my daughter who has missed the bush we had at our old house.)