What soapy thing have you done today?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I made a one pound batch of my first Palm free soap with ground cardamom. As promised to not_ally. I did HP and added the powder of seeds from a handful of cardamoms pods along with my ounce of SAO for SF. I was in cardamom heaven for a brief second. Hmmm, would the scent comeback???
Side note, why doesn't my HP soap ever threaten to boil over? The whole soap mass just gels without ever boiling up. Could it be my homemade double boiler that I use for HP?
 
I made a one pound batch of my first Palm free soap with ground cardamom. As promised to not_ally. I did HP and added the powder of seeds from a handful of cardamoms pods along with my ounce of SAO for SF. I was in cardamom heaven for a brief second. Hmmm, would the scent comeback???
Side note, why doesn't my HP soap ever threaten to boil over? The whole soap mass just gels without ever boiling up. Could it be my homemade double boiler that I use for HP?


I did hp before with ground cardamom the scent after 4 weeks was very faint I can barely smell them, meanwhile I have very sensitive scent of smell.
 
I did hp before with ground cardamom the scent after 4 weeks was very faint I can barely smell them, meanwhile I have very sensitive scent of smell.
Aah, I should have asked first. I was pretty excited as I got an excuse to make soap, so no worries. I know what to expect now. Thank you for sharing.
 
Ok, I guess the ground cardomom will not work, which is sad for all us. Many thanks to you guys for testing/sharing, though.

ETA: Silly question, since V tried this in HP at the superfat stage, when presumably the lye would be *least* likely to kill the fragrancing compounds, but in your opinions, worth experimenting with maybe after trace - right before the pour - in CP, at all? I kind of know the answer, most of the saponification will take place after that anyway, but just reaching now. I am getting to the point that I am thinking of just making the damn soap and sprinking super finely ground cardomom on top mixed w/a bit of oil a day or two after making, I could always just use it in my own shower get a teeny whiff and a big mess to clean, and curse myself for having another bad idea at my own leisure :)
 
Last edited:
Did your soap gel? If not, it may take several days to completely saponify. Don't give up yet. Is it zappy? If it's not lye heavy, then that means that it's still going through the saponification process. Give it a few days, and see what happens. Fingers crossed for you.

I think it's indeed still working on the saponification process. I did calculate a nice solid recipe with a nice hardness so that must be it. It's not zappy.
We'll see! I'm not completely lost, haha. I'm just going to try again since it's needs to cure for a while.. I've got some great designs in mind so let's try that. :)
 
I haven't done anything soapy today except log in and read a few threads on here and it seems today was the day of digress... Its been entertaining to say the least! I'm still laughing...

Also, I did use cardamom eo with cardamom powder once and it faded to almost nothing. I don't think it holds well at all.
 
I made a Bastille soap and while mixing it went gloopy and snotty, bizarre never had that happen before. When I took the SB out of the batter there was long snotty tendrils. Got it into the moulds, will see how it does over time!!
 
I melted four 7 pound jugs of Soaper's Choice oils today for transfer to buckets.

Then I made a test soap with 40% tallow, my first tallow usage. Since it's just a test and never going to leave the house, I tossed in blue soap glitter for fun.

Of course, I also used honey, so the soap is currently sort of a muddy green. That'll clear up and turn blue as the honey fades out during cure.
 
Aah, I should have asked first. I was pretty excited as I got an excuse to make soap, so no worries. I know what to expect now. Thank you for sharing.


I like it even though that the scent was gone but it's still very good for the skin
 
I unmolded and stamped my Aleppo soap. This is my first Aleppo style soap, stamped and ready to store away for six months or more. Aleppo soap is made with laurel berry oil. I'm not going to pretend this is the same as what you'd get in Syria, but it is 30% laurel berry oil (70% olive oil), unfragranced, the scent is very nice, and I'm hopeful it'll make a nice soap in a few months. It is definitely harder than I thought it would be. Made it in my Bramble Berry 25 cube mold, I didn't make enough batter, though, so only got 20 full cubes plus a runt. I did add 7.5 tsp of salt to the lye water to help harden the bars. I ruined the runt when stamping and one of the cubes - stamping soap is definitely an acquired skill!!

aleppo-stamped.jpg
 
Got hit with a major storm on monday. Today is the first day we have had power on since then. I want to try out some new fragrances I got the other day but dunno if I will get a chance to. So much cleaning up to do after the last few days. Might try to squeeze at least 1 batch of salt bars in today. Sigh :'(
 
managed to get a batch of salt bars done and also made a soap planer. Im not 100% happy with how the blade is sitting but once i get some better screws it should be good. It works its just a bit wobbly right now
 
I received my Laurel Berry oil from a Co-op I'm in and plan on making Aleppo soap. Don't think I'll sell it though, too expensive of an oil unless used in small amounts. Maybe Christmas gifts.
 
I just made some cp soap with chamomile and bergamot scent, blue and yellow colours in the pot swirl. I used ultramarine for the blue but it looked quite dull on pouring so I'm hoping it will brighten a bit after a good gel phase!
 
Tried my awful-smelling soap this morning. (The awful smell is from the FO, not anything to do with the oils going rancid!) I did a full water replacement on this one with the beer syrup I made, instead of the 50/50 I did with the previous beer soap. The lather in this thing is WONDERFUL. Took a minute or so to get started, but once it was going it was GOING. :D It's just too bad that I dislike this scent so much.
 
Back
Top