What soapy thing have you done today?

[violets2217]

I really need to stop... I’ve got plenty of soap! But I was running low on my AC rice milk face soap and wanted to try out my new loaf mold I made! So I played around with my squeeze bottles and tried some turmeric along with my well loved clays! It also has green tea powder because I love how it turns while curing. I also used some lavender and frankincense EO & I find I really enjoy the smell... I was unsure at first. It’s a busy soap, but can’t wait to try it. I laugh at myself ever time I use the old one because I’m mesmerized by the swirls while I’m soaping up.

 

[TashaBird]

My first drop swirl turned out ok. It was super fun to make! Sort of relaxing! That’ll definitely be a technique in regular rotation. I like the “can’t do it wrong”ness of it. Also, I used some left over batter to make samples because spring is coming and maybe I’ll do a market.

 

[The_Emerald_Chicken]

My first drop swirl turned out ok. It was super fun to make! Sort of relaxing! That’ll definitely be a technique in regular rotation. I like the “can’t do it wrong”ness of it. Also, I used some left over batter to make samples because spring is coming and maybe I’ll do a market.

Very pretty! I think this is about my favorite design...like you said, it can hardly go wrong! Here are 3 favorite ones I've made.

 

[AliOop]

I just bought a ton of FO on the last day of the WSP 25% off sale.

I few of them discolor to yellow after cure but don't have vanillian im not sure how im going to accommodate that.

You should check with @Todd Ziegler - he mentioned having success with vanilla color stabilizer (or the homemade replacement, ZCS) when using discoloring FOs that don't contain vanillin. It's in the homemade vanilla color stabilizer thread.

I think it depends on whether the discoloration is because the FO itself is dark (in which case, VCS or ZCS won't help) or has a chemical component that causes discoloration (in which case the VCS or ZCS does work sometimes). Hopefully he can give more details about that.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

You should check with @Todd Ziegler - he mentioned having success with vanilla color stabilizer (or the homemade replacement, ZCS) when using discoloring FOs that don't contain vanillin. It's in the homemade vanilla color stabilizer thread.

HOMEMADE VANILLA COLOR STABILIZER VCS SUMMARY

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

Should old brains continue soaping? I spent a long time planning a design and how to carry it out. Wanted to do a rainbow thing to go with Nurture's Smell the Rainbow FO. Loaf divider for 3 parts, white outsides, 6-color rainbow up the center, then hanger swirl the rainbow into the white sections. All went well, or so I thought, until I was putting the last finishing touches on the top when I remembered I forgot to do the swirl! Hoping it doesn't look too bad when I cut it tomorrow. Do you more experienced soapers ever forget something so basic?
Sometimes, there's just too many things for my old brain to keep track of!

 

[AliOop]

Should old brains continue soaping? I spent a long time planning a design and how to carry it out. Wanted to do a rainbow thing to go with Nurture's Smell the Rainbow FO. Loaf divider for 3 parts, white outsides, 6-color rainbow up the center, then hanger swirl the rainbow into the white sections. All went well, or so I thought, until I was putting the last finishing touches on the top when I remembered I forgot to do the swirl! Hoping it doesn't look too bad when I cut it tomorrow. Do you more experienced soapers ever forget something so basic?
Sometimes, there's just too many things for my old brain to keep track of!

Pretty soap! I often forget to swirl the inside till after I have swirled the top. Makes me so annoyed! A few times I have successfully put the hanger tool gingerly down one side and managed to get in a little inside swirl anyway. Mostly I just leave it and call it good.

 

[msunnerstood]

My shrink wrap system came a day early so Im all set up and wrapping soap. The only thing I didn't like it the roll holder is set up to be on the right side of a table pulling plastic to the left, but that's backwards to me. I can flip it around but then the organizer had the folded plastic opening on the top and I cant switch the bar. other than that, im thrilled.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

Pretty soap! I often forget to swirl the inside till after I have swirled the top. Makes me so annoyed! A few times I have successfully put the hanger tool gingerly down one side and managed to get in a little inside swirl anyway. Mostly I just leave it and call it good.

Thank you, @AliOop ! It really helps to know others can make the same forgetful oops that I do! (Is that the origin of AliOop?) Seems like the oopses increase every year!

I wish I'd thought to try and slide the hanger under the top, but maybe I'd have just messed up that part if I did.

 

[rdc1978]

You should check with @Todd Ziegler - he mentioned having success with vanilla color stabilizer (or the homemade replacement, ZCS) when using discoloring FOs that don't contain vanillin. It's in the homemade vanilla color stabilizer thread.

I think it depends on whether the discoloration is because the FO itself is dark (in which case, VCS or ZCS won't help) or has a chemical component that causes discoloration (in which case the VCS or ZCS does work sometimes). Hopefully he can give more details about that.

Oh thats good information, thank you! @Todd Ziegler 's homemade VCS with only the metiasulfate (SP) was SUPER helpful with another discoloring f/o. I had no idea it might work for f/o without vanillian. Thanks a million! fingers crossed!

HOMEMADE VANILLA COLOR STABILIZER VCS SUMMARY

Thank you, I love having as many links to this as I can, even though I have it bookmarked!

You got that email too!?!?! I just spent a large sum of money at WSP. I only need two things but it was a SALE...

I mean, if its a sale, its almost like you'd be wasting money by NOT buying tons of fragrance oils, right?

LOL, but someone else had gotten the email and posted the information, so I was over there like a bat out of.....someplace hot! All joking aside, I think 25% off is a pretty substantial discount. But I did buy far more than I need....because....sale!

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

When will I learn?!! Step away from the soap until it’s hard enough not to smoosh!!! I figured if I could get the silicone liner out of the wood and release the sides it would harden up faster. But I’m doing so I munched my pretty swirl on top. Grrr.

I can't count how many times my impatience has squooshed the corners trying to unmold too soon!

 

[msunnerstood]

I can't count how many times my impatience has squooshed the corners trying to unmold too soon!

Same, I currently have bath bombs that have been in the mold 24 hours that I'm afraid to unmold because I have messed up many a soap loaf being impatient.

 

[Zing]

Should old brains continue soaping? I spent a long time planning a design and how to carry it out. Wanted to do a rainbow thing to go with Nurture's Smell the Rainbow FO. Loaf divider for 3 parts, white outsides, 6-color rainbow up the center, then hanger swirl the rainbow into the white sections. All went well, or so I thought, until I was putting the last finishing touches on the top when I remembered I forgot to do the swirl! Hoping it doesn't look too bad when I cut it tomorrow. Do you more experienced soapers ever forget something so basic?
Sometimes, there's just too many things for my old brain to keep track of!

View attachment 53417

But, hey, you've got a great looking top there!! Show us the cut anyway.

 

[msunnerstood]

The lesson of the day is, no matter what Anne Marie tells you, Bath bombs dont work in silicon molds.
The question of the day is, now that my bath bombs have been reconstituted and are now purple, moon cake molded, and scented with Unicorn Sparkles fo, what do I call the scent now? Purple Unicorn?

 

[AliOop]

The lesson of the day is, no matter what Anne Marie tells you, Bath bombs dont work in silicon molds.
The question of the day is, now that my bath bombs have been reconstituted and are now purple, moon cake molded, and scented with Unicorn Sparkles fo, what do I call the scent now? Purple Unicorn?

I like Purple Unicorn, or Sparkly Unicorn.

For bath bombs, I also prefer the mooncake press. Way less work.

 

[GemstonePony]

Adventure of the evening turned out to be the worst case of ricing/separating I've ever seen. It wouldn't stay together from stick blending either, it just kept separating/ricing back out again. I had separated the colors out for heart embed with pink and purple layers and white and pink details, but I'll have to try that another time. I ended up scrapping my plans and throwing the colors back together to hot process the lot to see if I could get soap dough and use the fragrance that way. When I wrapped it in plastic it had the consistency of Silly Putty, and as of a few seconds ago it was holding the fragrance ok. The fragrance was WSPs Rose & Black Pepper, so I might see if adding it with oil mitigates the problem for future attempts.
I also made the dough for my embeds for my January entry, and I also tried piping some shapes to use as embeds as well. It's a new recipe because I'm crazy, so I'm not sure what the dough will be like, but the FA profile looked promising. The FO I picked was BBs Magnolia Leaf and Tonka Bean, and it soaped very nicely.
Tomorrow- I mean, later today- should be interesting for me.

 

[rdc1978]

Adventure of the evening turned out to be the worst case of ricing/separating I've ever seen. It wouldn't stay together from stick blending either, it just kept separating/ricing back out again. I had separated the colors out for heart embed with pink and purple layers and white and pink details, but I'll have to try that another time. I ended up scrapping my plans and throwing the colors back together to hot process the lot to see if I could get soap dough and use the fragrance that way. When I wrapped it in plastic it had the consistency of Silly Putty, and as of a few seconds ago it was holding the fragrance ok. The fragrance was WSPs Rose & Black Pepper, so I might see if adding it with oil mitigates the problem for future attempts.
I also made the dough for my embeds for my January entry, and I also tried piping some shapes to use as embeds as well. It's a new recipe because I'm crazy, so I'm not sure what the dough will be like, but the FA profile looked promising. The FO I picked was BBs Magnolia Leaf and Tonka Bean, and it soaped very nicely.
Tomorrow- I mean, later today- should be interesting for me.

Thats good to know about the Magnolia leaf and Tonka bean, I haven't used it yet, but I am sniffing it all the time and am totally in love. Good information about the Rose and Black Pepper.....it was on my list of f/o to try, but maybe I'll scratch it (my current list is 5 pages long, so its no great loss. LOL)

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Oh thats good information, thank you! @Todd Ziegler 's homemade VCS with only the metiasulfate (SP) was SUPER helpful with another discoloring f/o. I had no idea it might work for f/o without vanillian. Thanks a million! fingers crossed!

The combination of thiosulfate and metabisulfate helps prevent discoloring from vanillin and other discoloring ingredients. Banana FO's is a good example of an FO that can discolor without any vanillin in it. Those non vanillin ingredients are the ones that cause yellow, orange and shades other than browns. It has my educated opinion at this point that the thiosulfate catches non vanillin ingredients that the metabisulfate does not cover.

This soap is an example of a non vanillin discoloring FO that is prevented by the ZCS. This FO has no vanillin but causes a very yellow coloring. The FO itself is yellow in the bottle. The yellow you see on the edges is from the picture and not the soap itself.

 

[TashaBird]

Another total fail at piping. I did allow my batter to set up nicely and then scoop it into the bag. Pouring liquid batter last time was a learning fail. But the giant novelty tips I bought awhile back have just not worked out for me. They’d probably be great on cupcakes! So after much spatulaing this is what I came up with. And when all else fails... and hella glitter!
Going for an ocean theme. Another drop swirl, because they’re super satisfying and low stress.
Edit: and now folks are freaking out about my other mold I got for left over batter. It’s hilarious! People who’ve never commented before PMing me losing their minds over it! Dragons!

I can't count how many times my impatience has squooshed the corners trying to unmold too soon!

I can't count how many times my impatience has squooshed the corners trying to unmold too soon!

I’m literally leaving the house today so I won’t touch it.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

I’m literally leaving the house today so I won’t touch it.

I should have left with you. I just lost the corners of my rainbow loaf taking it out of the mold too soon. I put it back in the mold hoping it will mend. Will I never learn?