What soapy thing have you done today?

[Zany_in_CO]

I always find I have to stick blend the crap out of it anyway to get it to a medium trace so the water discount aids in that manner too. And not to mention the batch I made last night I was able to unmold this morning. Usually my bastille soaps have to sit in their mold for a week before I can unmold them. ... I cant' wait to see if the cure time is reduced. My Bastille bars usually take 12/14 weeks to cure.

Think about giving Zany's No Slime Castile a go. I think you will be surprised at how quickly it comes to trace, hardens, cures, lathers and of course, no slime. I'm currently using a small 2 oz. sample bar made from leftovers from the last batch I made for my son about a week ago. I make the 85% olive, 10% coconut, 5% castor variation. Lovely soap.

 

[Misschief]

Printed labels and wrapped soap. My least favorite part of soap making. I'm rather disappointed in my shrink wrap skills. It takes way too much time and I make too many errors. Plus I was supposed to get the perforated shrink wrap and ended up with the non-perforated so I end up with pillowing and then have to carefully make a hole without destroying my wrapping. I really need to scour some forests for some wrapping fairies to help me wrap and label my soap. The dogs are no help at all.

I keep a corsage pin with my shrink wrapper. Every bar gets two small holes poked into the wrap before applying the heat. It helps to keep the pillowing down. Also, keep the heat gun moving and don't get too close to the wrap.

 

[earlene]

Today I made a Double Rice soap using up some partially masterbatched oils. (I had masterbatched the liquid oils only for a recipe that also calls for some hard oils). It's a Double Rice instead of a Triple Rice soap because I had planned to make the soap while traveling and had no RBO with me on that trip (2 weeks ago! - how time flies - I feel like I've been back home for at least 2 months!) I didn't want to try to re-calculate for adding RBO to the formula, so just went with the same formula except to replace water with Rice Congee and Rice Purée. I love how well my stick blender purées the overcooked rice, it is as smooth as I have ever seen a purée. We shall see if it remains as smooth once the soap cures. I am hoping it won't turn into an exfoliating nightmare, like some food additives do. But I'm thinking it won't.

I may actually give the November challenge a try if I have time, because I can easily use this soap to do a string pull.

 

[Misschief]

Almost noon and this morning, I've packaged Bubble Scoops for tomorrow's market. And, I've got myself completely organized for tomorrow, the first of five weeks of holiday markets. I'm ready!! Hopefully, the weather cooperates.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

It improves with practice.

Maybe you could get something like this to make perforations prior to packaging:

https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Leat...KIH5E?ref_=ws_cp_69fe08e517a759a5b6dd_p_3_t_p


Yes, I also love Mahogany Teakwood. It's a fabulous scent. Beautiful soaps!

They are shipping me replacement perforated shrinkwrap but in the mean time I need to keep up with packaging or I will fall way behind so I'm just strategically melting holes in inconspicuous places.

 

[Catscankim]

I keep a corsage pin with my shrink wrapper. Every bar gets two small holes poked into the wrap before applying the heat. It helps to keep the pillowing down. Also, keep the heat gun moving and don't get too close to the wrap.

I am going to try the pinholes. Thank you for this tip! I too suck at shrink wrapping.

I cut the salt bars that i made in a loaf mold last night. I guess these are about 12 hours in the mold. They look a little crunchy on the bottoms, so they probably could have been cut a little sooner...i fell asleep lol.

They are a little too pink. I think that might lighten up with the cure. Hopefully lol. I was going for a Himalayan Salt look. The top is uncolored.

I usually do salt bars in cavity molds, just wanted to give them a try in the loaf. My recipe was 30% lye concentration, 85% CO, 10% Avocado, 5% Castor. 50% plain sea salt. Its really nice to work with, i almost ventured into doing a drop swirl lol.

Smell is Abalone and Sea from crafters choice. I did 7% FO, which is higher than my normal, but 6% fades to almost nothing...can barely call them “lightly scented”.

I have lots of great feedback on this recipe from testers on 3 month old soaps.

Actually like the crunchiness on the bottoms lol. I stacked them in two columns to hopefully reduce any ash on the sides.

 

[GemstonePony]

Dish soap! I wanted a more rustic vibe, so I blended in lots of air bubbles, soaped hot so it would start to gel and then cooled it off for partial gel.
Before gel, beginning gel, and cleaned up:

 

[The_Emerald_Chicken]

Espresso from today. It's darkened a little since gel, and I expect that the fragrance will make it darken even more.

 

[melinda48]

It improves with practice.

Maybe you could get something like this to make perforations prior to packaging:

https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Leat...KIH5E?ref_=ws_cp_69fe08e517a759a5b6dd_p_3_t_p


Yes, I also love Mahogany Teakwood. It's a fabulous scent. Beautiful soaps!

Just keep at it. Before you know it, you will be shrinkwrapping with the best of them! Like any other skill, just takes time on task.

 

[Catscankim]

I keep a corsage pin with my shrink wrapper. Every bar gets two small holes poked into the wrap before applying the heat. It helps to keep the pillowing down. Also, keep the heat gun moving and don't get too close to the wrap.

I just wrapped a bunch of soaps by putting a pinhole in them. THIS CHANGED MY LIFE. Mwwwah lol

 

[xavalyss]

Printed out flyers to place around in my building.

 

[Misschief]

I just wrapped a bunch of soaps by putting a pinhole in them. THIS CHANGED MY LIFE. Mwwwah lol

I'm glad it helped.

 

[Guspuppy]

I am (im)patiently waiting to cut the soap I made last night. That's the trouble with soaping late at night!

 

[rdc1978]

I am (im)patiently waiting to cut the soap I made last night. That's the trouble with soaping late at night!

LOL, I hear 'ya. I think I finished soaping around 6am, and now I have insomnia! I know at least one loaf was a fail because the f/o did not behave well and the other one is problematic but maybe salvageable because I stupidly decided to try a mica swirl for the first time and used castor oil. Messy, messy, messy.

 

[Catscankim]

I am (im)patiently waiting to cut the soap I made last night. That's the trouble with soaping late at night!

I mostly soap late at night, errrr middle of the night. But i work night shift, so i dont get home till 12-1:00am. I unmold and cut the next night after work and make a new batch. Its become my system lol.

if i have off the next day, like Saturday, it kills me to leave it in the oven all day. I have given in and cut early, but that is never a good idea lol.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I can’t seem to totally catch up with reading everything everyone is posting on this thread, but wowzers, y’all are turning out some mighty fine soap!

Here’s my (room for improvement) attempt to copy a beautiful soap @Misschief posted last year. Due to using what I had on hand, I was fighting a tannish base (palm) and possibly a slightly discoloring FO, which forced me to use a lot of blue mica, white mica and TD to get blue without a greenish brown tinge. And then, in the end, I ended up with a bit of blue mica streaking. Dang. Many of the snowflakes broke while I was taking them out of the mold, so I half buried them in the snow. I may try this again with my tallow lard base, which stays white and is much easier to work with.

 

[Guspuppy]

if i have off the next day, like Saturday, it kills me to leave it in the oven all day. I have given in and cut early, but that is never a good idea lol.

Haha, I went ahead and cut it after 14 hours. It was fine but pretty soft. Will no doubt ash terribly!

In my defense, I only have one mold, and SO MUCH soap to make before Christmas!

 

[Catscankim]

Haha, I went ahead and cut it after 14 hours. It was fine but pretty soft. Will no doubt ash terribly!

In my defense, I only have one mold, and SO MUCH soap to make before Christmas!

Lol no explanation needed. I have only recently acquired more molds. I have cut at 12 hours and been fine. I am not a patient person, especially when i want to see the inside.

 

[Guspuppy]

Me either!!!!

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

I've ran out of my holliday gingerbread soap so im going to make that' no coloring cause the molasses turns it brown anyway' however i'm concentrating on no steric spots or soda ash. seams easy enought right? lol we shall see if the soap Gods are playing nice!, its the first CP gingerbread soap all other batches has been HP so fingers crossed it turns out nice.

Just got some awful news about the health of a close family member and been walking around like a zombie for two days.
Finally got myself up and moving.
*Cleaned some intense ash off my snowman poops.
*started documenting which pull through plates do what. SO unpredictable! Need to reverse engineer what’s happening in there!
*and two of my worlds came together when I repurposed some broken hunting arrows to support my soaps that I’m finally putting away.

Hug you’re loved ones and tell them you love em!

So sorry' on your recent family news' hugs . Your soap is beautiful.