Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Where does BB get their FO's from ?
What soapy thing have you done today?
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Where does BB get their FO's from ?
I really don't know. Energy is the only one I've ever purchased from them. I had ordered it when I ordered a bunch of their silicone mold liners many years ago. Then had my husband build wooden molds for them to fit into. I don't even use them anymore.....some day I need to sell them. I now use Nurture's molds and love them.
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Ah, I was just curious where all the suppliers buy from if not crafters choice
A
amd
I bought Crafter's Choice Energy: An awakening and bright blend of ruby red grapefruit, orange zest and pineapple. I made 9 bars and sold all 9 before they were done curing (I did make them wait for a full cure, I mean that all were spoken for before they were done curing). I have 10 people waiting for my next batch, which I haven't even made yet as I just got more FO in. One thing I have noticed is that when I do use BB scents they don't sell well for me. I think it is because they are too complicated, too many fragrance notes, so people have a hard time picking out one fragrance note and liking it. It seems that my customers tend to buy the soaps that they can pick up and say "Oh that's mint", but if I have to tell them what the fragrance is then they do not buy it. Nag Champa is probably my only exception. After I bought BB's gem collection FO's I decided I would not buy more from BB. Too many complicated fragrances that I won't be able to sell.
Soapy stuff that I have done:
Made a white soap with cp dough ball embeds and Melon Ball (CC) FO
Made Jade (BB) soleseife. I am dying to try one of the end cuts, but I am really going to make myself wait 8 weeks and then try it. Really curious to see if my skin likes this better than a regular salt bar.
Made beer soap with Oatmeal Stout (CC) which the FO completely separated on me (again) so I rebatched it. I am so done with that FO.
Made my July challenge soap, so excited to cut it tonight! I'm actually hoping it will be ready to cut at lunch time, but I did it rather late at night (9pm) so it probably won't be. My daughter and I made a video of us putting all the soap pieces together, so I also have to figure out how to edit/splice two videos into one because we had to wait 15 minutes before the batter was thick enough to hold the top embeds, and we would like to make a cutting video, so I guess it will be three videos into one. If anyone has suggestions for free video editing software that works with Windows, or an Android app, please let me know! I have zero budget right now for anything new. (Spent the last of my money on RBO at Lowes, hahaha)
I will make more 'mechanic soap' this week as the 4 bars I made previously went over really well. I rebatched soap scraps from beveling and used liquid soap to smooth it out nice before molding, and added ground pumice. My husband came down to the 'soap store' to get a bar for his workshop sink and was sad to find that I had sold them all. [side note: I don't actually have an IRL soap store, that's just what we call the shelf where I store my soap stock.]
Dean
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Made a batch of castor oil- free soap this AM. I always use castor at 5%. It traces immediately with hand whisking and sets-up just as fast. Without the castor, I had to break out the immersion blender to get it to trace. It was still liquid in the mold an hour after pouring. I wonder what other effects the castor has had on the soap. I don't think I saw any lather improvement with it which is why I wanted to try a batch w/o. Time will tell...
Read the forum 
yep, that is the extent of my soapmaking the last 3 weeks.
[
QUOTE="msunnerstood, post: 709339, member: 27018"]Its possible, I got my 24 yr old son interested in soap volcano's lol[/QUOTE] Are you talking when a soap volcanoes or something else. I do not wish to play with volcanoes when soaping. Just curious
yep, that is the extent of my soapmaking the last 3 weeks. [
QUOTE="msunnerstood, post: 709339, member: 27018"]Its possible, I got my 24 yr old son interested in soap volcano's lol[/QUOTE] Are you talking when a soap volcanoes or something else. I do not wish to play with volcanoes when soaping. Just curious
amd, my DIL recommended DaVinci Resolve to me as the best free one available right now. She is a video editor by trade and has been doing this for decades, so it's the one I recently started to learn. I am hoping it works as well as what she taught me on, but I just don't want to pay a monthly subscription fee for Adobe Premiere.
Alfa_Lazcares
Well-Known Member
I just finished a soap (also without castor cause i didnt have any) and it went very smoothly. I am still trying to figure out how much oils fit on my mold, i am at 700g and i still have a bit of room to spare so I’ll probably make a slightly bigger batch next time. Colored it with cocoa powder aaaaand a pink eyeshadow (first ingredient is mica) and it totally worked. It looks like chocolate and strawberry ice cream. It is gelling right now, cant wait to cut it tomorrow.
I made pumice soap last night, and rebatched it this morning. Not enough pumice imo. I had used 1T ppo but you could barely tell it was in there. The rebatch is now cut but I noticed the bars sank in the middle a bit which might be the weight of the pumice?
Tonight, its Rosemary mint with French Green Clay
Tonight, its Rosemary mint with French Green Clay
Chispa
Well-Known Member
I cut up a 2kg batch that I'm going to need to throw away. Has big grey chunks in it that zap pretty hard. I don't think they are pure lye, just very lye-ey ash?
I was trying for a ghost swirl, which I have done successfully in the past. For that I use a 1:1 lye water concentration(I went about 10g over with the water). I should have poured the lye in a bit at a time and disolved it that way , instead I poured it all in (mistake #1?) and let the container cool in a tub of water. Then I mixed it well with a mini whisk. I did not see any chunks at all, but the lye had gone milky white. Usually it is a grey colour for me, but I figured it must have picked up something from the container. I put the lye back in the water bath to cool more, and got my oils ready. My soap always moves pretty fast, so I premixed in the EOs (2:1 Lavender Eucalyptus, mistake #2 )
With the oils ready I poured the lye in, and saw some big chunks of stuff go in (uh oh, should have stirred it well again before pouring? I've never done that, my lye has always disolved easily, and has never chunked up on me before). The soap started tracing almost as soon as I stirred it with my miniwhisk. From that point everything happened in about 1 minute. I split the batch 2:1 and watered down the bigger batch of batter to get it to gel, and poured some in the mould, it was the consistency of pancake batter. The unwatered stuff was almost soap on a stick with my miniwhisk standing straight up in it. Fortunately it sort of slid out of the bowl without sticking much to the sides, and glopped into the mold. Then I covered it with the remaining watered down batter, which was now moving like cold honey. I popped the mould into the oven, and turned the oven off to let it gell.
Until that point I was pretty happy just to have gotten the soap into the mould. Today I looked at it, and it looks like it has bread mould growing on it in places. I wiped a wet finger over one of the dark patches and got a good zap. They are pretty ugly, and I dont know if they will become safe after a while, and I am considering dumping the batch. Aside from the EOs, it is 95% RBO 5% Castor, so not an expensive batch. I'm just a bit disapointed.
I was trying for a ghost swirl, which I have done successfully in the past. For that I use a 1:1 lye water concentration(I went about 10g over with the water). I should have poured the lye in a bit at a time and disolved it that way , instead I poured it all in (mistake #1?) and let the container cool in a tub of water. Then I mixed it well with a mini whisk. I did not see any chunks at all, but the lye had gone milky white. Usually it is a grey colour for me, but I figured it must have picked up something from the container. I put the lye back in the water bath to cool more, and got my oils ready. My soap always moves pretty fast, so I premixed in the EOs (2:1 Lavender Eucalyptus, mistake #2 )
With the oils ready I poured the lye in, and saw some big chunks of stuff go in (uh oh, should have stirred it well again before pouring? I've never done that, my lye has always disolved easily, and has never chunked up on me before). The soap started tracing almost as soon as I stirred it with my miniwhisk. From that point everything happened in about 1 minute. I split the batch 2:1 and watered down the bigger batch of batter to get it to gel, and poured some in the mould, it was the consistency of pancake batter. The unwatered stuff was almost soap on a stick with my miniwhisk standing straight up in it. Fortunately it sort of slid out of the bowl without sticking much to the sides, and glopped into the mold. Then I covered it with the remaining watered down batter, which was now moving like cold honey. I popped the mould into the oven, and turned the oven off to let it gell.
Until that point I was pretty happy just to have gotten the soap into the mould. Today I looked at it, and it looks like it has bread mould growing on it in places. I wiped a wet finger over one of the dark patches and got a good zap. They are pretty ugly, and I dont know if they will become safe after a while, and I am considering dumping the batch. Aside from the EOs, it is 95% RBO 5% Castor, so not an expensive batch. I'm just a bit disapointed.
I have 2 kilogram jugs of SBT in the fridge from where my brother goes to China on business. Everybody else gets pearls and jade. I get exotic oils. I need to do something to use it up. I like the seed oil in leave on products, but the berry oil stains.
So I’m working on a CPLS that uses a small percentage of it today.
So I’m working on a CPLS that uses a small percentage of it today.
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Going to pick up my new cut PVC molds ... SquiEEEE
Alfa_Lazcares
Well-Known Member
Cut and cleaned!
Sandra Ramirez
Member
Just delivered an order of " Scrubby Soap on a Rope " I'm blessed to be retired and living in my dream lakehouse on a major fishing destination in the US. I'm having success with these items...the men love to keep them in their fish cleaning stations and scrub up. So that's my soapy thing I did today
"Are you talking when a soap volcanoes or something else. I do not wish to play with volcanoes when soaping. Just curious"
I do hp soap do its normal to have it volcano. He wants too see it when it happens so I call him in to see it.
I do hp soap do its normal to have it volcano. He wants too see it when it happens so I call him in to see it.
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A
amd
Thank you, @earlene ! I will check that out for sure! Don't know when I'll have time to play with videos again as the rest of the week is booked solid and Chris and I leave for a weekend anniversary getaway (our 1 year anniversary is the 29th, but this weekend worked better with the kids schedule) and next week, even though I am on work vacation, I am not on vacation at home! I have to go clean the rental house garage, paint the rental house, and work the kitchen for church's vacation bible school for five nights. Next Friday maybe I'll just lock myself in my office and dedicate my time to playing with videos.
Soapy thing done: cut my challenge soap, happy with how it turned out so that will be my entry. Tonight I am going to squeeze in doing soap dishes and making a batch of lip balm, and that will be the end of soapmaking for at least a week!
Pretty!
Got my bath bomb supplies in, my granddaughter and I are going to make Unicorn Poop bath bombs this weekend. She has been wanting to help me make soap but she's just too young yet (5). So, I asked her what she wanted to make and she said poop. She's a funny girl. I got some of those sugar eyes so we will likely make regular poop emojis too. Anything to entertain the kids. I also plan on attacking my soaping room. It needs to be organized. It's such a total disaster and every time I walk in there I'm overwhelmed beyond words.
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I made a soap today, and I feel like I'm getting a little bit better every time, but still have a loooong way to go. I do make a complete mess, so the kitchen looks like a disaster zone afterwards - or worse.
Of course something went wrong today. I think I stickblended a little bit too much. It was liquid when I poured it into the plastic cups for coloring, but when I was done mixing colorants, it was almost seized. I managed to stir it out to a thick trace. The design I was aiming for, a clyde slide, could not happen, so I just changed plans and blobbed it into the pot and swirled it slightly with a spatula before dumping it in the mold. I saved some for the top, and tried to add a little bit of cold water to each, and stir it smoother. Did not work too well. But it became a top in the end.
The black color I mixed, well, after I had mixed it I found out that the activated charcoal was not fine enough ground (I did ground it myself using a nutribullet sort of blender. Mine does not have a name, actually, so I have no idea what it is. It looked like a very fine powder, but wasn't. So I had to skip the black, which was an important color to give definition to the other colors. I do have black iron oxide, and should of course have used that instead. Well, well. So I poured my black into a separate single bar mold).
I measured out the scent, and I should have measured 25 grams (my oils were 970 grams). But I was sloppy and measured 30 grams, which is 3,1% of the oils. I sniffed the scent from the bottle, and it was very weak. But it became quickly very strong in the soap. I did not hate the scent, but I did not like it too much either. The scent was Moroccan Escape from Eroma (Australia).
I sprayed the top with rubbing alcohol mixed with gold mica. That did work very well. I had no idea if mica would dissolve in alcohol or not, but it sort of did. It will fall to the bottom, but with shaking just before spraying, it works wonders! I sprayed several times. I just used a little bit of gold mica, and it gave a nice sheen to the top.
Then I CPOP'ed the soap to make sure it gelled. I had it in there for hours, because I used quite a low temperature. I was afraid of destroying the soap, since it had a lot of sugar in the recipe. The scent really came after me during CPOP. To me it doesn't smell anything like Morocco or anything (not that I have been in Morocco). It smells very soapy, sharp and unpleasantly fresh, plus synthetic as well. I hope it cures out. But I'm not so sure it will. It does have some nice aspects. So I might like it after curing.
I washed the messy soapmaking dishes in the dishwasher, and when I opened the door the scent came out like a bomb! I decided to set it on the rinsing program, to give it an extra rinse. It did help, but it still stinks in the dishwasher.
The soap itself is outdoors now, and it will stay there overnight to evaporate out the worst smell.
Luckily I bought some fruity scents. I will try one of those next. And I will for sure use a lot less than 3% of oils. Why do they make scents with names that tricks customers to believe it has an oriental touch, and in reality they smell like strong old school aftershave mixed with old school bar soap like Sterilan? Yes, now it smells quite like those old school strong smelling soaps. Well, it is too early to judge Moroccan Escape, since it might morph into something better or some of the sharpness will cure out and make room for the underlying basenotes, or something like that. We'll see.
When I cut the soap, I will take pictures of it for you to see. I hope it turns out nice. I am very exited to cut it. I have no idea what the inside will look like. So I just hope for the best. And I'm very exited to see if replacing 5% of the NAOH with KOH does help with the lather.
The postitive side is that I have zero soda ash and that the colors themselves became nice. I especially like the ultramarine and the bright neon orange (or orange-ish neon. It is not pure orange). I had to lighten the brown a bit with titanium dioxide, but it became nice too. I like the green as well.
I actually forgot to wear gloves. I used them when mixing the lye water, but took them off to get those pesky ziplock bags open. And then I just started soaping, without my gloves. I noticed I did not wear them when I had soap all over my hands. Not a big deal, I just continued and rinsed and/or wiped my hands now and then. I did wear eye protection, which I see as the most important and a definate must to wear all the time. I will remember to wear gloves next time, because lye is not too healthy for the skin. But it will not burn your hands off immediately either when mixed in with the oils. Some do soap without gloves, and it is for sure possible, especially for those who are not as messy as I am. But it is of course best to wear gloves. I just forgot, and did not bother to put them on since I was already busy soaping as fast as I could before the soap thickened even more.
Of course something went wrong today. I think I stickblended a little bit too much. It was liquid when I poured it into the plastic cups for coloring, but when I was done mixing colorants, it was almost seized. I managed to stir it out to a thick trace. The design I was aiming for, a clyde slide, could not happen, so I just changed plans and blobbed it into the pot and swirled it slightly with a spatula before dumping it in the mold. I saved some for the top, and tried to add a little bit of cold water to each, and stir it smoother. Did not work too well. But it became a top in the end.
The black color I mixed, well, after I had mixed it I found out that the activated charcoal was not fine enough ground (I did ground it myself using a nutribullet sort of blender. Mine does not have a name, actually, so I have no idea what it is. It looked like a very fine powder, but wasn't. So I had to skip the black, which was an important color to give definition to the other colors. I do have black iron oxide, and should of course have used that instead. Well, well. So I poured my black into a separate single bar mold).
I measured out the scent, and I should have measured 25 grams (my oils were 970 grams). But I was sloppy and measured 30 grams, which is 3,1% of the oils. I sniffed the scent from the bottle, and it was very weak. But it became quickly very strong in the soap. I did not hate the scent, but I did not like it too much either. The scent was Moroccan Escape from Eroma (Australia).
I sprayed the top with rubbing alcohol mixed with gold mica. That did work very well. I had no idea if mica would dissolve in alcohol or not, but it sort of did. It will fall to the bottom, but with shaking just before spraying, it works wonders! I sprayed several times. I just used a little bit of gold mica, and it gave a nice sheen to the top.
Then I CPOP'ed the soap to make sure it gelled. I had it in there for hours, because I used quite a low temperature. I was afraid of destroying the soap, since it had a lot of sugar in the recipe. The scent really came after me during CPOP. To me it doesn't smell anything like Morocco or anything (not that I have been in Morocco). It smells very soapy, sharp and unpleasantly fresh, plus synthetic as well. I hope it cures out. But I'm not so sure it will. It does have some nice aspects. So I might like it after curing.
I washed the messy soapmaking dishes in the dishwasher, and when I opened the door the scent came out like a bomb! I decided to set it on the rinsing program, to give it an extra rinse. It did help, but it still stinks in the dishwasher.
The soap itself is outdoors now, and it will stay there overnight to evaporate out the worst smell.
Luckily I bought some fruity scents. I will try one of those next. And I will for sure use a lot less than 3% of oils. Why do they make scents with names that tricks customers to believe it has an oriental touch, and in reality they smell like strong old school aftershave mixed with old school bar soap like Sterilan? Yes, now it smells quite like those old school strong smelling soaps. Well, it is too early to judge Moroccan Escape, since it might morph into something better or some of the sharpness will cure out and make room for the underlying basenotes, or something like that. We'll see.
When I cut the soap, I will take pictures of it for you to see. I hope it turns out nice. I am very exited to cut it. I have no idea what the inside will look like. So I just hope for the best. And I'm very exited to see if replacing 5% of the NAOH with KOH does help with the lather.
The postitive side is that I have zero soda ash and that the colors themselves became nice. I especially like the ultramarine and the bright neon orange (or orange-ish neon. It is not pure orange). I had to lighten the brown a bit with titanium dioxide, but it became nice too. I like the green as well.
I actually forgot to wear gloves. I used them when mixing the lye water, but took them off to get those pesky ziplock bags open. And then I just started soaping, without my gloves. I noticed I did not wear them when I had soap all over my hands. Not a big deal, I just continued and rinsed and/or wiped my hands now and then. I did wear eye protection, which I see as the most important and a definate must to wear all the time. I will remember to wear gloves next time, because lye is not too healthy for the skin. But it will not burn your hands off immediately either when mixed in with the oils. Some do soap without gloves, and it is for sure possible, especially for those who are not as messy as I am. But it is of course best to wear gloves. I just forgot, and did not bother to put them on since I was already busy soaping as fast as I could before the soap thickened even more.
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