What soapy thing have you done today?

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I forgot to mention I also poured some little Leprechaun size soaps in my
Leprechaun molds that were in the mail when I got home from my trip. They are really cute little sample soapies, and I just upped my batch size by 2 oz oils and had a perfect pour in one mold of 4 cavities.
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ETA: to add pictures
Beautiful,cmzaha! I adore those colors!
 
After a long, protracted soaping crisis, I finally pulled out the crock pot and started making shaving soap. Silver Fox recipe down to the last gram, I'll divide in into two batches: one will take a Nag Champa scent and the other a lime/benzoin EO mix. It's now cooking, looking good and all's well with the world...

Happy soaping, everyone (it's meant to be fun)
 
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Made my first soap in my new tall/skinny mold. Tried to do the hidden feather swirl, so looking forward to cutting it.
Mmm, I want to see a pic of the cut. My attempts at a secret feather have turned into something else, but definitely not feathers. Maybe a Secret Leaf swirl? Or Secret Owl? It's hard to say.
 
What soapy thing am I doing tomorrow? My first ever rebatch because my third batch today seized on me (look here for my description of the first two batches). Sure enough, when I went back to read the FO review, there are 2 reviews and both say "omg this seized! never use in cp soap" so I'm not sure what possessed me to buy it....
 
I cut my students' soap last night. Pretty impressed with how they turned out! I had a larger to do list, but did nothing in favor of some downtime in front of the TV with family. I'll be playing catchup tonight.
 
I continued my journey into liquid soapmaking by making the paste for Irish Lass's Creamy Cocoa/Shea Glycerin Liquid Soap last night. I started diluting early this morning (actually getting up early to do so...I think I'm too far gone down this rabbit hole! haha). I will continue that step when I get home from work tonight. I even added a little bit of honey to mine before the cook (and some citric acid to my lye water to make citrate rather than using EDTA). I'm not going to add that further superfat, and I'm going to try to not add PS80, because I'm not a fan of it really. I'll have to see if my fragrance still solibulizes with the 3% superfat and the added stearic.
I tried a little bit of the diluted soap before I left this morning and I was happy to find that it seems very gentle and the lather is very nice. I'm thinking I may also try to even out the cocoa/shea percentages on my next try to see how I like that.
 
Today I cut the soap I made yesterday using a new FO. It is Rose and I decided to go with purple swirls instead of red or yellow because the scent reminded me of the roses that grow wild near the beaches. I also wanted to try out some of the swirl motions needed for this month's challenge. I love how it turned out!
Rose Soap.jpg
 
Today I cut the soap I made yesterday using a new FO. It is Rose and I decided to go with purple swirls instead of red or yellow because the scent reminded me of the roses that grow wild near the beaches. I also wanted to try out some of the swirl motions needed for this month's challenge. I love how it turned out!
View attachment 43785
Love the simple but beautiful swirl.
 
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I cut the soap I made a few days ago. The hidden feather is actually green because I wanted to make it look like a leaf. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I even like how the one in the front got those extra squiggles which look like flowers to me. The glycerin rivers look way more pronounced in this photo too, but I don't mind them. I wish I hadn't done swirls on the top of the soap. I think it's a distraction from the beautiful interior. So, I'm going to keep trying this technique.

BUT, I had the absolute worst time unmolding the soap. I used my brand new plexi mold from Custom Crafts and the soap was absolutely bonded to it. I left it in for 3 days and it was still a bit soft. I put it in the fridge and I had even put SL in the lye water. Does anyone have any experience using these (or similar) molds? Should I look into mylar sheets for unmolding and are the recommendations on that material and sourcing it. It was a horrific experience trying to pry the mold apart and I want to avoid a repetition of that at all costs. Help!


custom craft mold.jpg
 
View attachment 43792
BUT, I had the absolute worst time unmolding the soap. I used my brand new plexi mold from Custom Crafts and the soap was absolutely bonded to it. I left it in for 3 days and it was still a bit soft. I put it in the fridge and I had even put SL in the lye water. Does anyone have any experience using these (or similar) molds? Should I look into mylar sheets for unmolding and are the recommendations on that material and sourcing it. It was a horrific experience trying to pry the mold apart and I want to avoid a repetition of that at all costs. Help!
Lovely soap!

I have 2 similar molds and have had a similar experience. I now line them with freezer paper.... each and every time! The worst was when I had to use my feet to anchor the mold so I could pry it apart. Yeah, never again! And it was such a pretty soap, too.
 
Lovely soap!

I have 2 similar molds and have had a similar experience. I now line them with freezer paper.... each and every time! The worst was when I had to use my feet to anchor the mold so I could pry it apart. Yeah, never again! And it was such a pretty soap, too.

Freezer paper. Gah! I wish I had thought of using my feet! I think my road to hell is going to be lined with discarded soap supplies. I just want a soap mold that doesn’t bow out (trapezoidal soap bars) and releases the soap. Is that too much to ask? I swear I saw someone using rigid plastic sheets that stuck to her mold. It was along the lines of freezer paper, but precut and looked easier.

EDITED: Did a quick search and found that a lot of you use Mylar. I’m going to order some in the morning. I really do like the size and shape of the bars I get with this mold.
 
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Today I cut the soap I made yesterday using a new FO. It is Rose and I decided to go with purple swirls instead of red or yellow because the scent reminded me of the roses that grow wild near the beaches. I also wanted to try out some of the swirl motions needed for this month's challenge. I love how it turned out!
View attachment 43785
Very pretty!

And @Martha - love that feather swirl, just beautiful.

I made a BIG batch of soap (3 pounds for me is my biggest mould) and the blaaardy FO riced on me!! I have had mild ricing in the past and managed to beat it to submission. But this wasn't going to budge - it kinda went into little clumps with more stirring, so i just bunged it in the mold and watch those little clumps pour in. Please cross your fingers for me because I don't want to waste this amount of ingredients. And to top it all off, the colour scheme i chose ended up looking like the local rugby team colours. I don't really want my pretty Narcissus scented soap looking like the local rugby team!
 
Cut the loaf of Patchouli soap I made yesterday. This was planned as a clyde swirl keeping the colors on one side of the loaf. Pouring the colors into the white thee colors got really thick, then when pouring into the mold the colors were coming out in thick plops rather than a nice steady stream. About halfway through pouring I raised the bowl high, shimmied it side to side, did a quick chopstick swirl and hoped for the best. Cutting it I was expecting big blobs of color and was surprised with nice wispy swirls. It never fails to amaze me how often the soaps that I expect to be ugly disasters turn out to be just the opposite.
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I've had calendula petals infusing in a little jar of sweet almond oil for the past few weeks and this morning made some chamomile tea that was promptly popped into the freezer.

Guess what's on my itinerary tonight! :)

@Zahara and @blueginkgo - both absolutely gorgeous soaps in their own right!
 
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It never fails to amaze me how often the soaps that I expect to be ugly disasters turn out to be just the opposite.View attachment 43813

Exactly! I have had several 'disasters' over the past year and to my surprise they've turned out OK. I just cut my 'riced/lumpy soap' I made yesterday, and the worst it's encountered is glycerin rivers, which I totally embrace and don't mind at all. Thanks for crossing your fingers @Dawni! This is fragrance with Narcissus FO and Palmarosa and Sweet Orange EO.
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@blueginkgo - your soaps are very pretty!
 

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