What soapy thing have you done today?

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still trying to finish that damn order with the bullet FO, grrrr... the lady wants it in a certain mold, and of course i only have 1 of that mold, with 4 holes in it. 4 bars per batch x 25 times. oh god, this is gonna be a long way... luckily, since this FO speeds up like lightning, i am able to unmold in just a few hours.
 
My list of Soapy things so far

I'm looking out the window at the effects of the snow and ice storm last night... AHHH HAAA! gathered a 5 gallon bucket of Ozark snow:p to thaw in the mudroom, edited a few labels, and watching a movie whilst stripping lavender buds from their stems. I'll cut two logs later today, and unmold one.
Cheers!
 
Nothing too exciting here. Tried a castile soap today. I used a pringles can as my mold. Made a one pound batch. This will be my third batch of soap...ever.

I think I might be somewhat allergic to lye. I didn't get any on me but my arm started itching and I had this salty taste going on in my mouth. Weird, huh? I can't allow this to dissuade me though, I just ordered way too much stuff to quit now!
 
Yesterday I cut my oatmeal breakfast soap and made freezer paper liners for most of my cardboard soap molds. Today I weighed my castile soap, and I'm currently waiting for my lye water to cool down to make my first soap with lard in it. I have two fragrances measured out, and the colorants have been sitting since morning.

I'm considering making another variant of the lye-heavy castile, and/or filling jars with oil to let natural colorants steep.

Made the lard soap! And man, do FOs stick to EVERYTHING when you're working with them...

In addition to the lard and the FOs, the other new thing I'm trying with this batch is to encourage it to gel. I not only wrapped the molds in towels, but I had been heating the towels in the dryer, and I put a tray of dry rice in the microwave and heated that for a couple minutes, then put the warmed-up rice in the bottom of the oven to try to add more heat and mass. Oven is closed and I won't be opening it anytime soon to try to keep in as much heat as possible. I did full water (since I heard soaps are more likely to gel with full water), but I also have 65% hard oils (lard, and a bit of coconut). I used Spring Rain and Ocean Water FOs from WSP, and did some color mixing-and-matching using the coral and green oil micas and the ultramarine blue powder from WSP. Spring rain got a natural base with accents in the coral and ultramarine blue. The Ocean Water got a light base and a darker accent with ultramarine blue and green mica.

I'm not sure how much I like the FOs... Spring Rain seems a bit too floral for me OOB. And Ocean Water seems like something I might like, but that's one that leaked a bit in transport, so I've been smelling it a lot in the house and might have overdosed on it. Also, both are far too strong OOB for me to make a true call on preference. I need to see what they're like in the finished soap.
 
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Made a goat's milk soap today. I was able to try out my new mold in the process.

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Yesterday I cut my second attempt at a tiger stripe soap. Not happy with results but it was fun. I also unmolded my hemp soap test batch.
 
The soap I made yesterday isn't ready to cut today... For the lard batch I tried to gel, it looks like it may have partially gelled at best. It feels soft and looks ungelled to me, but I haven't unmolded it yet.

The lye-heavy olive/soy I made is also still soft, with colors that are slowly morphing and shifting...

I really want to find a cheap cheese cutter to cut my soaps with. I haven't been happy with the results just using a knife. (I'm enough of a perfectionist that the inherent unevenness of knife cuts is bugging me.)
 
First HP soap today and first time using milk. Can't wait for it to finish cooking!

Well they're definitely not the prettiest soaps in the world but I'm pretty pleased with my first HP soaps. It doesn't hurt that they're scented with Guava Fig FO either. I have a feeling HP looks prettiest in a log mold.

Forgot the picture again..

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My goal for the next 3 days is to get 30-50 lbs of soap done and 3-4 batches of shaving soap. I want to be well prepared for my market season and not be behind the 8 ball due to shortages. I wish my full-time job didn't interfere with my fun one.
 
Rsupisces, that is some fine looking goat milk soap! Now I HAVE to make some.

Tonight I packaged up my soap for BB's soap swap. As a newbie, I don't know what's more stressful; making the soap or packaging it. There's so many options to choose from. I started at The Paper Source. And if that wasn't bad enough, I searched forums. I decided to invest in shrink wrap, which didn't work our for me. Bands were too small, and sheets were impossible. I finally picked some pretty white paper and wrapped them like presents. I'll be glad to get them out the door.

Anyone else participating???

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Rsupisces, that is some fine looking goat milk soap! Now I HAVE to make some.

Tonight I packaged up my soap for BB's soap swap. As a newbie, I don't know what's more stressful; making the soap or packaging it. There's so many options to choose from. I started at The Paper Source. And if that wasn't bad enough, I searched forums. I decided to invest in shrink wrap, which didn't work our for me. Bands were too small, and sheets were impossible. I finally picked some pretty white paper and wrapped them like presents. I'll be glad to get them out the door.

Anyone else participating???

Thank you! A true labor of love.

Where did you get your soap packaging.
 

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