What soapy thing have you done today?

[Kari Howie]

Rebatched some of my recent leftover soap bits. I had enough for two bars split between 170g. Fresh soap is always more fun to melt n "make new" I think.. The harder it gets the more it should be used as confetti, in my opinion.
View attachment 40707
I like that pale green color from my recent landscape soap.

Also, been working on thinking of a name n logo for myself.. I hadn't originally planned to, but I think I wanna start officially selling to family n friends, and friends of friends maybe by year end. We shall see..

Your rebatches look great! And I think you should definitely “make a name for yourself.”

I got my shrink wrap system from National Shrinkwrap yesterday and practiced on some CP sample slices. Good thing I had a lot of samples because using the heat gun takes a bit of practice...I burned little hole in some of the wraps. But it was so cool to watch the wraps shrink down!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Rebatched some of my recent leftover soap bits. I had enough for two bars split between 170g. Fresh soap is always more fun to melt n "make new" I think.. The harder it gets the more it should be used as confetti, in my opinion.
View attachment 40707
I like that pale green color from my recent landscape soap.

Also, been working on thinking of a name n logo for myself.. I hadn't originally planned to, but I think I wanna start officially selling to family n friends, and friends of friends maybe by year end. We shall see..

I didn’t realize/never thought to melt little bits of soap. Do you melt it in the microwave, a pot on stove, hot water bath?

 

[Dawni]

I didn’t realize/never thought to melt little bits of soap. Do you melt it in the microwave, a pot on stove, hot water bath?

This one was microwave. Haven't tried the other two. Crock pot takes ages and for some reason never this smooth.... Maybe my impatience. Microwave takes maybe 5mins, stopping in between to stir. Like I said, makes a big difference if the soap is fresh. This one, and some other older ones, was pourable.

Eh. Can't type straight. Tipsy lol.. After a couple of years haha

 

[Kari Howie]

This one was microwave. Haven't tried the other two. Crock pot takes ages and for some reason never this smooth.... Maybe my impatience. Microwave takes maybe 5mins, stopping in between to stir. Like I said, makes a big difference if the soap is fresh. This one, and some other older ones, was pourable.

Eh. Can't type straight. Tipsy lol.. After a couple of years haha

I’ll have to try the microwave next time. The crockpot just gets messy and the soap stays lumpy.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I’ll have to try the microwave next time. The crockpot just gets messy and the soap stays lumpy.

I grate and melt soap in the crockpot for my sugar scrubs and I use my SB to smooth it out

 

[Mobjack Bay]

This one was microwave. Haven't tried the other two. Crock pot takes ages and for some reason never this smooth.... Maybe my impatience. Microwave takes maybe 5mins, stopping in between to stir. Like I said, makes a big difference if the soap is fresh. This one, and some other older ones, was pourable.

Eh. Can't type straight. Tipsy lol.. After a couple of years haha

Pourable sounds fabulous. I don’t think I would have enough for the crockpot. When I’m unhappy with a batch it’s usually a test run that ended up a weird color or texture and not a batch I would want to use in a confetti soap. Thanks @Dawni!

 

[Saponificarian]

Can’t seem to find joy in soaping right now.. too much on my mind. Shopping for FO does seem to give me a rush but whattodo when your Soaping purse is empty? Find a job, fast!!!!

 

[msunnerstood]

Waiting for it to cool down a bit and then Im making soap. My cream soap from the other day is resting nicely but its really hard not to touch it, its going to be a long 4 weeks.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I poured with 5 colors, I think next time I will only use 3

 

[LilianNoir]

Accidentally "baked" the CP batch I made today. I was so happy with it too. "Triple coffee" soap with coffee liquid, coffee butter and coffee grounds with turkish mocha FO.

But I put the loaf to rest in the (cold) oven because it's the safest cat free place at the moment....and then forgot about it when I put on the oven to make dinner tonight. >.<

So you could say I accomplished two soapy things today: making my first non-water/coffee based soap AND! my first experience ruining a batch

<sigh>

At least it looks pretty.

 

[penelopejane]

Accidentally "baked" the CP batch I made today. I was so happy with it too. "Triple coffee" soap with coffee liquid, coffee butter and coffee grounds with turkish mocha FO.

But I put the loaf to rest in the (cold) oven because it's the safest cat free place at the moment....and then forgot about it when I put on the oven to make dinner tonight. >.<

So you could say I accomplished two soapy things today: making my first non-water/coffee based soap AND! my first experience ruining a batch

<sigh>

At least it looks pretty.

Stick a big sign on your oven everytime you put soap inside: SOAP RESTING INSIDE DO NOT TURN ON OVEN.

 

[msunnerstood]

View attachment 40718 View attachment 40719
I poured with 5 colors, I think next time I will only use 3

Pretty!

 

[KiwiMoose]

I will use more water next time. I imagine the 40% lye solution made it trace quicker, since many experience just that (but some the opposite). It loosened up when I added more water, so I guess a not so strong lye solution will make it easier to work with.

I have heard others find soy wax impossible and rapidly thickening. For example Wicked Lee Goods on Youtube, she said she had tried soy wax, and that it was good in theory, but not so good in real life, it thickened up for her. Others find it totally fine. I don't have too much choice other than to use it, if it thickens or not, since any other hard oils are unavailable around here. If soy wax don't work too well, I will have to make it work.

I use it all the time ( usually with 28 - 32% lye concentration) and have managed to do all sorts of swirls and designed with it.

Not so today though! I had my pull through all ready to go, but had to abort the mission because my soap mixture thickened up too quickly. I wonder if it's the aloe juice - I've been using that a lot lately lately and have had thickening soap ever since. I did an in the pot swirl instead. Here's what I had ready to go:

 

[cerelife]

Here's my soapy thing: I'm in the middle of making "eczema soap" for my daughter. I'm using coconut, palm, canola, olive, castor oils with a little finely ground calendula and oatmeal. I'm also using chamomile tea for my water and am using the aloe vera gel I laboriously extracted from my poor unsuspecting plants as part of my water substitute. In addition to all that, I am using eentsy, bitsy cut-up shred of Tussah silk in an effort to help my poor daughter. BUT, stupid me, I put the aloe vera gel in the lye water and now it just plain stinks. I don't really care about the brown color it turned, but do any of y'all know if that stench is going to dissipate after cure. I plan on using lavender EO and am hoping that helps. I was also debating whether or not to add another EO, like Roman chamomile or tea tree. I need help. (Oops! I just realized this might not be the place to post this. Answers still welcomed.)

Have you thought about using calamine powder in your soap? My mother has an inflammatory skin condition called Lichen planus and she gets some relief from the soap that I made for her using 1T calamine powder and 1 T colloidal oatmeal ppo. I also use the aloe vera juice from Walmart as 100% of my lye liquid and tussah silk in every batch of any kind of soap that I make. Here's a link to the aloe vera juice:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fruit-of-the-Earth-Aloe-Vera-Juice-Original-128-Fl-Oz-1-Count/10314798
I buy my calamine powder from a vendor on Amazon, and I'm very pleased with their product. So much so that I now use it in some other products as well. But keep in mind that this product is coming from India, so shipping time was 2-3 weeks for me. Plus they have several sizes available:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076YQW8BQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[Dawni]

Soap inspection. My salt bars swimming in their own sweat...

 

[KiwiMoose]

View attachment 40718 View attachment 40719
I poured with 5 colors, I think next time I will only use 3

LOVE!!

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

Soap inspection. My salt bars swimming in their own sweat...
View attachment 40723

what causes the sweat? I threw mine in one of my closets and I guess I don't pay much attention to it (that fact impresses me) every time I see posts on sweating I go look but haven't seen any sweat yet. I turn on the air if it gets around 80 degrees though and the windows are opened otherwise and its kinda windy here. so maybe that helps? does the sweat just go into the soap then? and what does it do to the cure?

So you could say I accomplished two soapy things today: making my first non-water/coffee based soap AND! my first experience ruining a batch

the top is so pretty--so what happened to it when you turned the oven on. how long did it take for you to remember it? would still like to see a cut if you are doing one

 

[Lin19687]

@Dawni doesn't that just kill ya ? Mine do that too when it is Humid. I actually do NOT bring them with me to my FM's when it is humid/muggy/soon to rain as they always do that and I can't sell them like that

edit to say I THOUGHT about soaping but it is super humid out so that never works out for me

 

[Kari Howie]

Have you thought about using calamine powder in your soap? My mother has an inflammatory skin condition called Lichen planus and she gets some relief from the soap that I made for her using 1T calamine powder and 1 T colloidal oatmeal ppo. I also use the aloe vera juice from Walmart as 100% of my lye liquid and tussah silk in every batch of any kind of soap that I make. Here's a link to the aloe vera juice:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fruit-of-the-Earth-Aloe-Vera-Juice-Original-128-Fl-Oz-1-Count/10314798
I buy my calamine powder from a vendor on Amazon, and I'm very pleased with their product. So much so that I now use it in some other products as well. But keep in mind that this product is coming from India, so shipping time was 2-3 weeks for me. Plus they have several sizes available:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076YQW8BQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1[/.
I’ll have to try it. Thanks for the links.

 

[earlene]

View attachment 40718 View attachment 40719
I poured with 5 colors, I think next time I will only use 3

Those are fabulous! A strainer pour? I'd love to learn a little bit more about how you achieved these lovely soaps! Your color choices and the design are really very very nice attractive.

Soap inspection. My salt bars swimming in their own sweat...
View attachment 40723

That's just what my salt soap looked like in Hawaii after it seemed (to me) to have reached its maximum load of water re-absorption.

My theory, and I think it's pretty well based on the evidence of my experiment, is that a well cured salt soap that had reached a point of dryness and kept wrapped and dry in storage (as mine had), will absorb as much water as it has the capacity for, before it starts 'sweating'. Once that maximum load it reached and it cannot absorb any more water, it will 'sweat' or to be more correct (I think) the additional water it is attracting from the air (since salt has an affinity for water, as does a High CO soap anyway), then the extra water simply beads up on the surface of the soap.

Your salt bars look like they are doing the same thing.

What I found quite interesting was that once my salt bars had cured sufficiently and felt very dry (at around 8 weeks or so if I remember correctly), and I shrink wrapped them (as air-tight as possible) AND I stored them inside a paperboard box where there was no exposure to humidity, they remained dry for the duration. Even after I carried 2 bars to Hawaii's intense humidity, they remained dry while still wrapped for several days. Even after opening one of them and setting outside for 24 hours, it still had not absorbed enough ambient water from the air to 'sweat', even though there had been rain in addition to the humidity. It took another couple of days and more intense exposure to the moisture in the air before it began to bead up like that. That was one bar. They other bar sat in my grand daughter's bathroom in Hawaii and did not ever get the beaded water while we were there, until she started using it in the shower. Just sitting on the bathroom counter for several days exposed was not enough.

Since we have returned, I have not taken my salt bar out to put it back into use here in Texas. It's still wrapped in the paper towel in my suitcase where it is staying dry.

I will make an own post writing what he said. I must just ask him first if that is okey for him. And then I must test my soap that is in the mold right now, to see if I see any "unusual behaviour" that can come from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in soy wax, as he had experienced. I don't know what to look for, and it might not appear right away, if at all, I don't know. I probably will cut it tomorrow, and impatient as I am, I will test it the same day, or the day after. And write back to him, and write a post here.

Yes, I probably can hand stir. I did start to do that today, but got impatient and gave it a couple of bursts with the blender. But I probably could have just hand stirred, yes. I have already bought a new blender. I found a really cheap plastic one, 200 watts for 9,30 GBP included shipping (I calculated from NOK to GBP). I found one with just 150 watts, but it was more expensive. It was so cheap that it really was not an investment, and I think I need a less powerful blender anyway, it would make things easier in the future, I hope.

I will use more water next time. I imagine the 40% lye solution made it trace quicker, since many experience just that (but some the opposite). It loosened up when I added more water, so I guess a not so strong lye solution will make it easier to work with. But it was not impossible today, compared to what I am used to. I could not make a landscape soap or anything fancy and time consuming like that (I'm too clumsy and messy for it anyway, so not a big deal), but I would like to experience for once a soap that does not suddenly thicken, and thicken and thicken and I have to run to get it in the mold quick enough. I did really not have to run as fast today, but I did it anyway, just in case it would seize. I am used to that sort of rapid thickening, so bad that you can turn the bowl upside down and nothing comes out. But the final soaps have ended up fine. It really never got to that seizing point today, so I can't complain to much. Next time with more water, lower temperature and hand stirring only, and small changes in the recipe, that will probably do the trick. Unless I'm unhappy with the final soap and have to start a new recipe from scratch, again. But I think it will be fairly good as it is. At least I hope so.

My last soap, I actually did hand stir, and just a little bit. Even then, it suddenly and very rapidly thickened. That was seriously the most stressful soap ever. They changed the recipe of the vegetable lard I used in a high percentage, and I think the new recipe was even worse than the old one. I can't use that fat anymore because of the new recipe. The old one was full of shea, but now it is full of coconut and rapeseed oil, and I don't know the sap. value anymore. Anyway I bought that fat and soaped with it, not realizing the new recipe. Holy macaroni! That was stressful, and with only a small amount of hand stirring. But soap it became anyway, fully usable and quite good looking as well. But such rapidly thickening impossible soap batter are not too fun.

I have heard others find soy wax impossible and rapidly thickening. For example Wicked Lee Goods on Youtube, she said she had tried soy wax, and that it was good in theory, but not so good in real life, it thickened up for her. Others find it totally fine. I don't have too much choice other than to use it, if it thickens or not, since any other hard oils are unavailable around here. If soy wax don't work too well, I will have to make it work.

Rune, this is going to get lost here in this thread. There are some threads dedicated to the use of soy wax in soap, where this information would really fit well and make it so much easier for future soy wax users (or thinkers-of-using) to find the information. Or you could start a new thread to report on the use of this particular soy wax, also to make it easier to find in the future. As one of the soapers here at SMF who has been using soy wax for a while now (two years, I think), I encourage you to add your experience to one of those threads.

Speaking from my own personal experience, finding topics mingled in long threads like this can be very difficult when I want to go back and reference it at a later date. Not impossible, but very difficult at times.