What soapy thing have you done today?

[tommysgirl]

@tommysgirl I love the calico kitty! My parents had a calico for 25 years that used to go on walks with my dad (her person).

Please let me know how it goes with having your supplies out of the kitchen. I am also considering moving all my soaping supplies into the spare room. If I do, I'll purchase a small microwave and a single electric burner so that I can soap in there instead of at the kitchen table. That way, I don't have to drag stuff out, and then put it back. That makes the whole process much less enjoyable! I already use a big cardboard box or plastic storage tub to saponify my soap utensils out in the garage for a day (ahem, or a few weeks... ). So it will be easy to carry that to the kitchen with everything in it whenever wash day happens.

Thank you! Our girl is 14 years old. I hope to have her as long as your parents had theirs. We lost another calico last year to cancer, she was 15. So this is kind of a "tribute" to our little loves

I'll let you know on the soaping area. I have a mini fridge and barely working microwave there already. They were left there by my son when he moved out earlier this year. There is a bathroom up there so I will have a sink near by if needed. Not big enough to wash soaping utensils so I'll carry then downstairs and clean them up after they saponify. The biggest issue with being in the kitchen was that I had nowhere to store any of my supplies. So I had a big laundry basket full of soaping stuff sitting next to the wall in the way. I had most of my oils and additives in a small cabinet but was outgrowing that space too. So this gets things out of the floor and frees up the limited counter space that I have. I'm hoping that it works out.

 

[AliOop]

Prepared ~125 soaps for donation, including:

- two rebatches (from end cuts, planing scraps, and beveling curls)
- 5 soap challenge attempts (three of which were entries)
- leftovers from a custom request where I made extra for myself but wasn't crazy about it.
- bars made from random leftover batter at the end of various batches, that I scraped into cavity molds

The rebatches are really rustic looking (but smell good). Most of the challenge soaps are pretty, but unscented because I don't want to worry about acceleration, ricing, etc., when trying a new design. Regardless, all of them have cured 4-8 weeks, and all of them are nice soap, IISSM.

Each soap went into a zip-top baggie, and the whole pile went into a Amazon delivery box that I'd saved for resuse. Added a printout of ingredients on top. Hubby will deliver these to the shelter next time he's out running errands.

Now my soap room looks really empty, and I feel ready to try the SMF Oct challenge sometime in the next week. Whee!

 

[Zing]

Good luck! I have a feeling yours will be better than mine!

I'm not so sure about that! It's been a challenging week soap-wise for me.

@AliOop As a social services administrator, BLESS YOU for donating! There's a local soaper here who donates the end cuts from loaves and I get excited every time their box arrives.

@tommysgirl that cat soap is too much!! We have a tortoise shell and now I'm inspired. What were your colorants? Sweet orange and chili pepper are the perfect scents to describe our little Celie who is a lovey -- and sometimes a little trouble-maker. And she's the softest thing you will ever ever touch.

@Angie Gail I'm not into lavender either but it's Mrs. Zing's favorite so I make a lot. I recently blended lavender eo with litsea cubeba eo and actually really really like that blend.

 

[earlene]

Playing around with SM3 and figuring things out there. So far I really like it. I moved my soaping area out of the kitchen and into a designated corner in my crafting spot upstairs. I don't know if I like it though. It was crowded but convenient to be in the kitchen and right next to the sink. I'll give it a while and see how I like it after working there for a bit. Also, this is a soap I made a few days ago. I was looking at my kitty one day and decided I could make a soap that looks like her. So I designed a calico cat soap, lol. First time piping on top like this. I used Sweet Orange and Chilli Pepper FO from WSP and I love it!!.
View attachment 50544

LOVE the calico kitty soap!

 

[tommysgirl]

@tommysgirl that cat soap is too much!! We have a tortoise shell and now I'm inspired. What were your colorants? Sweet orange and chili pepper are the perfect scents to describe our little Celie who is a lovey -- and sometimes a little trouble-maker. And she's the softest thing you will ever ever touch.

Thank you! I also had a torti who was the sister to the calico we lost last year (we adopted the sisters together but our torti passed a few years ago). She was the sweetest ever! I colored it with Activated Charcoal, Turmeric mixed with a tad of Nurture's Mimosa and a bit of TD for the white. For the ears I made a small batch of batter and poured a thin slab with ITP swirl of the 3 colors, white being greater in volume, and cut the them out of it with a clay cutter. For the main soap I used a variation of TreeMarie's drop swirl found in the video below. I had seen in a FB group that some were piping on bars after cutting them by scoring the dry tops and spritzing with alcohol. So I gave that a go, we will see how they adhered after they are all cured out.

@earlene Thank you so much!

.

 

[Basil]

Today I unmolded @Zany_in_CO Zany’s no slime Castile soap. I made the solution 2 nights ago and froze into cubes. Last night I made the soap. I loved making it and I loved unmolding about 30 min. ago! Now it’ll just be hard to wait and try! I’m sure it’ll be a little different as I added the salts to goat milk rather than water.. but it’s beautiful and smells great as the essential oil is Lavender- my mothers favorite. Her 90th birthday is the end of December and it’ll be one of her presents! Thanks Zany!

 

[Zing]

Cut my soap! Super psyched after 24 hours of feeling impending failure!! See reverse secret feather take 2

 

[msunnerstood]

I made a couple batches in the last couple days. Just a plain lavender cause everybody loves lavender and an oatmeal milk and honey. I’m also including a pic of a soap I made a few weeks a ago...I know way off season, lol. But I thought it was cute. Found this desk set of a beach scene at a yard sale many years ago. It was in my attic and after I made the beach soap and I was photographing it I remembered I had it so I grabbed it and finally put it to use.

Summer scents smell just as good in October. Love your photo compositions.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

I made a couple batches in the last couple days. Just a plain lavender cause everybody loves lavender and an oatmeal milk and honey. I’m also including a pic of a soap I made a few weeks a ago...I know way off season, lol. But I thought it was cute. Found this desk set of a beach scene at a yard sale many years ago. It was in my attic and after I made the beach soap and I was photographing it I remembered I had it so I grabbed it and finally put it to use.

All three soaps are Beautiful' love the special added touch explains what the soap is w/ out saying it' nice touch. ❤

Playing around with SM3 and figuring things out there. So far I really like it. I moved my soaping area out of the kitchen and into a designated corner in my crafting spot upstairs. I don't know if I like it though. It was crowded but convenient to be in the kitchen and right next to the sink. I'll give it a while and see how I like it after working there for a bit. Also, this is a soap I made a few days ago. I was looking at my kitty one day and decided I could make a soap that looks like her. So I designed a calico cat soap, lol. First time piping on top like this. I used Sweet Orange and Chilli Pepper FO from WSP and I love it!!.
View attachment 50544

Love It..

 

[Dawni]

Did not make anything soapy.... But I ordered supplies and I'm currently making a detailed form for custom orders. Coz I got my first one! Yey.. First one that's not friend or family that is lol

I discovered a peeve - someone saying they make small batches but one batch is about 395739 bars lol. How much is small anyway?

I discovered another one - saying CP preserves the nutrients in the oils and the properties of the EOs because there's no heat. Am I just biased towards my HP babies? Haha

 

[GemstonePony]

Did not make anything soapy.... But I ordered supplies and I'm currently making a detailed form for custom orders. Coz I got my first one! Yey.. First one that's not friend or family that is lol

I discovered a peeve - someone saying they make small batches but one batch is about 395739 bars lol. How much is small anyway?

I discovered another one - saying CP preserves the nutrients in the oils and the properties of the EOs because there's no heat. Am I just biased towards my HP babies? Haha

I do believe the heat is being wrongfully accused, and the real culprit is the lye. And, to my understanding, HP actually has the advantage in being less damaging to a small portion of it's ingredients, since some things can be added in HP after the lye monster has gobbled.
However, to my inexperienced observation, it seems that most of the individuals militantly touting the benefits of the nutrients in their soap don't seem to understand the slightly destructive nature of the alkali salt we love so much.

 

[Misschief]

Did not make anything soapy.... But I ordered supplies and I'm currently making a detailed form for custom orders. Coz I got my first one! Yey.. First one that's not friend or family that is lol

I discovered a peeve - someone saying they make small batches but one batch is about 395739 bars lol. How much is small anyway?

I discovered another one - saying CP preserves the nutrients in the oils and the properties of the EOs because there's no heat. Am I just biased towards my HP babies? Haha

I hear you on the "small batch"; I use that on my banner and someone questioned me on it. My largest batch is 21 bars. My regular batches yield 10 bars. That's small batch.

Oh, there's plenty of heat involved in CP soap. I had a picture with a batch in full gell, with a thermometer showing the temperature. It looks like I may have deleted that particular pic. Attached is a pic of that batch (10 bars) in almost full gell. Had I left it covered, I have no doubt it would have volcanoed. If I remember correctly, at this point in the process, it was over 120F. That's just the heat. As @GemstonePony wrote:

it seems that most of the individuals militantly touting the benefits of the nutrients in their soap don't seem to understand the slightly destructive nature of the alkali salt we love so much

 

[Dawni]

@GemstonePony I agree regarding the heat - its a lye lol - and what I've learned from this lovely forum, and Ms. Misschief just said it right there, is that there will be lots of heat generated whether its CP or HP because of the saponification process. No lye, no heat, no soap. So ehem, there's many things to love about CP but not having heat isn't one of them if you actually know what you're talking about.

@Misschief yes, to me that is small batch too. My biggest batch is also just a double batch, so that's 20 bars. I mean yeah, to each her own, but if her 60-100 bars is small then what are ours, tiny? Microscopic? Haha

Pity, she makes very pretty soap.

Now back to regular programming lol

Oh wait, I'm making triple rice soap again later, yey

 

[TashaBird]

Yesterday I wrapped and labeled 3 batches of soap. My DH has been making the labels, and they’re super cute! Today I will wash the much dreaded mountain of dishes that I didn’t get to yesterday. I still haven’t put away my recent rain soap from their photo shoot. They’re too cute, and I love them, and I wish I could just look at them everyday. But, today they’ll go to hibernate.... or maybe tomorrow. Here they are again. I lub them! (But really, I have to put them away so I can make more soap.)

 

[Misschief]

Oh wait, I'm making triple rice soap again later, yey[/QUOTE]

Gotta say, [USER=28576]@Dawni, I'm loving that triple rice soap (or as my daughter calls it "Thrice Rice"). I've been using it every morning for the past couple of weeks and it's pretty much replaced my salt soap, which I also love. The lather is just so..... silky!

 

[Dawni]

@Misschief, Thrice Rice, I love it!

 

[AliOop]

@Misschief Thrice Rice

 

[SPowers]

Here is the cut of my Ghost Swirl. It worked somewhat but I really should have watched the video on the feather swirl before attempting mine, which is not very good. I think I will do a different design next time and perhaps use a coloured clay or something very light. I'm still reasonably happy with the first effort.

 

[Dawni]

Oh wait, I'm making triple rice soap again later, yey

Tadaaa! It'll lighten up considerably over the next few weeks. Zinc oxide for the lighter parts, the rest aren't colored, and unscented, as usual.

Edit: forgot the pic hahaha

 

[SPowers]

Nice! I tried my hand at it a few weeks ago and I am eagerly awaiting the first use!

I hear you on the "small batch"; I use that on my banner and someone questioned me on it. My largest batch is 21 bars. My regular batches yield 10 bars. That's small batch.

Oh, there's plenty of heat involved in CP soap. I had a picture with a batch in full gell, with a thermometer showing the temperature. It looks like I may have deleted that particular pic. Attached is a pic of that batch (10 bars) in almost full gell. Had I left it covered, I have no doubt it would have volcanoed. If I remember correctly, at this point in the process, it was over 120F. That's just the heat. As @GemstonePony wrote:


View attachment 50576

I tout small batches as well but I've never made more than 10 bars at a time. I like chunky bars so usually 8 is my max.

I see also ppl extoling the benefits of special addives, etc in their soaps as well - I doubt trying to refute it would not be taken with any amount of grace though!