What soapy thing have you done today?

[Louise Taylor]

T

I would say to put your measured lye in a bowl or pan of water at the temp you want it to be. Or maybe a few seconds in the microwave though I have NO CLUE how benign or dangerous that would be...maybe others could chime in.

Thank you for your reply. Yeah, I figured microwave would be dangerous. If I need to wait for it to warm up in a bowl of water then I can just as easily wait for it to cool down if I make it fresh.
does cold lye work for you? Any problems with stearic spots?

 

[TheGecko]

Sadly, all my plans for today today were derailed by a scratched eyeball and a long nap. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

does cold lye work for you? Any problems with stearic spots?

No because even though my hard oils/butters don’t resolidify because of the soft oils, I still have to remelt them. They usually come out of the microwave at about 110-120F and warm up the lye.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

Holy soap on a stick. I just had the craziest soap experience in my life. I have had some batches go bad but this just went totally tits up. I was making a custom batch for a customer that wanted honey and beeswax added and a custom scent I had to design. They wanted two colors, blue on the bottom and orange on the top. Everything was going ok until I split the batch and added the color and suddenly both batches just seized like an engine out of oil. I threw both batches each in a pot and added some water and was trying to stir both soaps and suddenly the blue batch starts erupting out of the pot. Hot soap all over the stove. I got the orange off the heat and the blue over to the sink and blue soap is bubbling everywhere. I beat it into submission and then put it back on low and stirred til my arm almost fell off and it finally came together enough for me to pour it in the mold. Then I started on the orange one which did fine until the orange turned brownish orange so no brilliant sunset color. Then when it was ready I poured it into the mold but it pushed the blue up the sides but I did get it all in. I definitely can't give this to the customer but maybe someone else will want it. It's definitely a rustic looking soap now. I've used honey before but never beeswax. I don't think I will ever do that again.

T

Thank you for your reply. Yeah, I figured microwave would be dangerous. If I need to wait for it to warm up in a bowl of water then I can just as easily wait for it to cool down if I make it fresh.
does cold lye work for you? Any problems with stearic spots?

Don't microwave the lye. It will make a mess in your microwave and possibly melt the container.

 

[Louise Taylor]

No because even though my hard oils/butters don’t resolidify because of the soft oils, I still have to remelt them. They usually come out of the microwave at about 110-120F and warm up the lye.

I will give that a go with a small batch and see how it goes. Thank you

 

[linne1gi]

Hope you feel better soon! Allergies are no joke.
I feel like I can’t master batch my lye because I add sugar to my water. It really helps with the bubbles because I use very low CO.

I didn’t plan on making soap tonight. I was supposed to be packing for a trip. But I got into my stash of soap dough and did an experiment, then i just HAD to see how it worked. I had all the ingredients prepped and went ahead and put the embed into a loaf. We’ll see if it looks silly, or if it resembles what I hope it will.
Got a new anti fatigue mat. Yay! Carpet in a soaping area is a BAD idea!!! Also, going to try the blue shop towels. They “absorbe oil”! Also, a big bottle of lavender EO. Yay!

I master batch my lye also. I do a 1:1 master batch. So say I start out with 1000 grams of water, I add a 1000 grams of NaOH. When I make my soap, I usually use a 2:1 water to lye ratio (33% lye solution). So I need to add one more part water to my master batched lye solution. To that part of water, I add my sugar (I use powdered) and salt. Sometimes I’ll change it up and use milk instead of water, but you can still add additional sugar to the milk. I hope this makes sense. You still add liquid to your lye solution, so it’s easy to use master batching.

 

[TashaBird]

Started playing with some soap dough last night, working on an idea I had to make an embed that looks like a bubble. The goal was for it to look like a painted bubble, kind of. I had a few gaps between the colors. So, I have to be more careful to smoosh them together when I’m layering them. But, I’m pretty happy with how they look, for a first try! I’m blaming those spots on the pink soap on the shea butter, which I’m just trying to use up. They’re pretty stinking cute though!

 

[GemstonePony]

Holy soap on a stick. I just had the craziest soap experience in my life. I have had some batches go bad but this just went totally tits up. I was making a custom batch for a customer that wanted honey and beeswax added and a custom scent I had to design. They wanted two colors, blue on the bottom and orange on the top. Everything was going ok until I split the batch and added the color and suddenly both batches just seized like an engine out of oil. I threw both batches each in a pot and added some water and was trying to stir both soaps and suddenly the blue batch starts erupting out of the pot. Hot soap all over the stove. I got the orange off the heat and the blue over to the sink and blue soap is bubbling everywhere. I beat it into submission and then put it back on low and stirred til my arm almost fell off and it finally came together enough for me to pour it in the mold. Then I started on the orange one which did fine until the orange turned brownish orange so no brilliant sunset color. Then when it was ready I poured it into the mold but it pushed the blue up the sides but I did get it all in. I definitely can't give this to the customer but maybe someone else will want it. It's definitely a rustic looking soap now. I've used honey before but never beeswax. I don't think I will ever do that again.

Wow! I'm curious, what percentage of beeswax were you using?

 

[msunnerstood]

Phew! Wrapped eight (I think) batches of soap today for tomorrow's market. It's going to be an interesting one; it's only supposed to be -2C (about 30F) and we're outdoors.

Part of the reason I hesitate to do markets. I cant handle the cold.
Stay warm and wish you tons of sales

@TashaBird Impressive Soup Dough! I just started and I havent got past making little beads.

 

[Basil]

Started playing with some soap dough last night, working on an idea I had to make an embed that looks like a bubble. The goal was for it to look like a painted bubble, kind of. I had a few gaps between the colors. So, I have to be more careful to smoosh them together when I’m layering them. But, I’m pretty happy with how they look, for a first try! I’m blaming those spots on the pink soap on the shea butter, which I’m just trying to use up. They’re pretty stinking cute though!

I love those! So clever!

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

Wow! I'm curious, what percentage of beeswax were you using?

I used 1 oz of beeswax for 7lbs of soap. Which was under what was called for in a brambleberry recipe I saw online for making beeswax soap. The BB recipe called for 2.8 oz beeswax for a 10oz mold. I only did one stick blend of 2 seconds after I poured the lye as I had already stick blended the wax, oils, and fragrance. The colors I added were nurture colors that have never caused seizing before. The temp of the oils was around 170 because with beeswax you have to soap at higher temps so I knew I'd have to move fast but never have I had a soap on a stick like that. I unmolded it this morning but the blue layer is still soft so I'm going to let it sit for a bit before I cut it. The fragrance held up to me cooking it and when I cleaned up the pots this morning the hardened soap is quite lovely. I do like HP soap but it always darkens the colors when you HP it so it won't work for this customer but I'm sure other people will like it. The fragrance is orange, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, frankincense, and a eucalyptus which sounds like it would be horrible but it's actually pretty nice. I never would have put those scent combinations together on my own.

 

[msunnerstood]

Ill never understand how you can prepare soap frosting with the same oils, at the same temperature, and have one batch take 20 minutes to firm up and the next 4 minutes and you better move fast. got the soap piped but i had to place the embeds quickly because it was setting fast too

eta: figured it out, its the new tallow. Its leaf tallow and from what I read, is higher in stearic.

 

[The Park Bench]

Finished the first round of restocking soaps, which is about where I planned to be for 2020 - although I had planned to have all my soaps done by March 1 and it was June 1... ahem. It still left me with most of the summer free to not have to make soap and start restocking in Aug/Sept, so that part of the plan is working, I'll work on my follow through for 2021. Restocked two CM soaps (The Perfect Man and Cucumber Melon Splash), and two yogurt & honey soaps (Cranberry and Mango Menthol). I'm much happier with the Mango Menthol this go around. The last time I made it I erred too far on the side of caution with the menthol, and ran short of the mango FO. This time I think I hit the right amount of menthol (no tingle but smells of light mint). I might be a fan of this combo now!

How much menthol did you use that you were happy with?

 

[Louise Taylor]

Today I cut the Chocolate orange soap that I made yesterday. Chocolate in soap make it very soft ( higher sf). I am guessing this will take longer to cure but it will still be ready by Christmas

 

[Catscankim]

Cut my pine tar soap. Excuse the crumbs from my slicer lol. They are out in the garage bedroom and im not going to bring them back in for another photo.

They stink to high heavens. I hope they mellow out. Dr Squatchs doesnt smell anything like this, so i wonder how much PT they put in theirs. I used 10% PT and 6% Pine FO. I put pumice in it...3T. I was afraid i put too much, but you cannot see it in the cut soap. AC made them pretty black.

As promised to @AliOop lol, here is my cut. They are safely out of the house lol.

 

[LilianNoir]

Wrapping Halloween and Pumpkin Spice soaps to send to friends.
Planning out FOs for a batch of MP Halloween soap I decided, yesterday, that I needed to do.

 

[Catscankim]

Don't microwave the lye. It will make a mess in your microwave and possibly melt the container.

I was wondering about this. I have a batch of lye in a container on my counter that i made for salt bars, then didnt have enough coconut oil for the recipe, so had to redo my lye for a smaller batch. I saved this one for my regular sized Batch.

 

[LilianNoir]

Cut my pine tar soap. Excuse the crumbs from my slicer lol. They are out in the garage bedroom and im not going to bring them back in for another photo.

They stink to high heavens. I hope they mellow out. Dr Squatchs doesnt smell anything like this, so i wonder how much PT they put in theirs. I used 10% PT and 6% Pine FO. I put pumice in it...3T. I was afraid i put too much, but you cannot see it in the cut soap. AC made them pretty black.

As promised to @AliOop lol, here is my cut. They are safely out of the house lol.
View attachment 50893

Kim I love these!
There's something really beautiful and satisfying about a simple, clean looking bar of soap. The top texture adds just enough visual interest without taking away from the simplicity. Really, I love these.

 

[The Park Bench]

Made a small batch of mentholated shower steamers, it went smoothly and I will probably make a bigger batch tomorrow. And, wowza, are my sinuses cleared out LOL those menthol crystals are no joke!

 

[Catscankim]

Kim I love these!
There's something really beautiful and satisfying about a simple, clean looking bar of soap. The top texture adds just enough visual interest without taking away from the simplicity. Really, I love these.

Thank you! I love black soap. Almost any fragrance fits. I actually thought of making charcoal bars my “thing”, but i really like playing with swirls too. I tried to do a white swirl in a charcoal bar, but they turned out to be ugly lol. Epic fail.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

Second try at beeswax soap. This was a custom order for a neighbor who wanted me to use Honey, Beeswax, and Bee Pollen from her bees so she can give out gifts to her friends and family. The first batch went to soap on a stick but I figured out where I went wrong. I let my oils with the beeswax get too cool so when I added the lye the beeswax hardened and turned to concrete. This time I did another batch but made sure my oils were at 130*F and it all came together nicely. Whew!