What soapy thing have you done today?

[MichaelP]

Hi All,

So yesterday I posted about me making the Marble cold stone process soap that Tree Marie made a YT video of. I finished cutting up the bars about an hour ago and afterwards began to think that I just did something really dumb! I cut the slabs from the mold in the typical vertical cuts, the soap isn't hideous but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm thinking now that I needed to do horizontal cuts, no vertical cuts.. Can anyone confirm this? I don't remember her talking about the cuts specifically. Here is picture of how they turned out with the standard vertical cut. The colors are a little off since the lighting wasn't right in the room, it has more warm overtones than what is showing. I used the Awaken scent from Nurture Soap which has a citrus smell.

 

[CLMP]

@CLMP Brambleberry says 20%, but I’m curious if others have guidance. I am going to price Rice Bran oil at the restaurant supply store, which BB also says 20%.

Oh thank you I was actually thinking of trying 20% first and 25% olive Oil to see how it goes I was thinking even if I just cut back on the Olive oil maybe that will save me some money. I really love using olive oil it's really to bad the prices are going up so much I almost died when I seen the price the other day lol.. I think I get my rice bran oil from my soap supplier at a pretty fair price I can't remember the price though right now. I like using rice bran oil too. I use it at 10% in my recipe I actually alternate from using almond oil to rice bran oil in my recipe. I never thought about using more that's a good Idea. I think I will go check the price to see if it's worth it. Thank you @dmcgee5034.

 

[Vicki C]

I went to the store today to buy more olive oil it has gone up almost 20 bucks more these past few months it went up 10 buck and this past few weeks another 10. It's about 50 bucks here in Canada now for 3 L It used to be 24 bucks so I'm not a happy camper right now, I think I'm going to have to change my soap recipe. I'm curious can I substitute HO sunflower for the full amount of olive oil I've been using in my recipe? I use 45% Olive oil. I don't know what I'm going to do now. @Vicki C

Yeah I have moved to high oleic sunflower - I made a bunch with high oleic soy, which I also liked. I don’t notice any difference between either and the olive oil, they might take slightly longer to trace which I don’t mind. I bought the high oleic sunflower on Webstaurant.com, it says it is non-GMO. I bought the high oleic soy at Restaurant Depot. They both have fatty acid profiles similar to olive oil.

 

[CLMP]

Oh thank you I was actually thinking of trying 20% first and 25% olive Oil to see how it goes I was thinking even if I just cut back on the Olive oil maybe that will save me some money. I really love using olive oil it's really to bad the prices are going up so much I almost died when I seen the price the other day lol.. I think I get my rice bran oil from my soap supplier at a pretty fair price I can't remember the price though right now. I like using rice bran oil too. I use it at 10% in my recipe I actually alternate from using almond oil to rice bran oil in my recipe. I never thought about using more that's a good Idea. I think I will go check the price to see if it's worth it. Thank you @dmcgee5034.

@dmcgee5034 nope the rice bran oil is 16 bucks a L too so that might not work. I thought it was cheaper. It was a great idea there's one thing I know soaping ain't cheap if it's just a hobby but to me it's worth it in the end lol

Yeah I have moved to high oleic sunflower - I made a bunch with high oleic soy, which I also liked. I don’t notice any difference between either and the olive oil, they might take slightly longer to trace which I don’t mind. I bought the high oleic sunflower on Webstaurant.com, it says it is non-GMO. I bought the high oleic soy at Restaurant Depot. They both have fatty acid profiles similar to olive oil.

I'm pretty sure we have HO Sunflower oil at are whole sale club store so I'm going to check it out next time I go shopping I think I'm going to try it!

 

[AliensrReal]

Inflation prices of oils are crazy these days. I think it’s a good idea to have some back up oils that are good substitutes.

 

[Shelley D]

Hi All! Hope everyone is having a good day!

I didn't do this today, but late yesterday. I found a video by Tree Marie on how she did a marble cold process soap and decided to do the same... This soap is made by doing several discrete pours into a large mold. Well! She makes it look so easy and I thought the outcome was really nice, so why not give it a go with my new mold?

So I did all the math, split my batter and lye into 9 different events to do the pour. I used nearly every small container I have and some small cups for the colorants... I can now say I know why she only used two colorants, because I used 5 and it was nearly unmanageable (at least for the rookie that I am). I needed a much larger countertop space than I had, and my little cups of colorant thickened up way faster than I had anticipated which changed my pace. After nearly 3 hours I finally finished and placed it on a heat pad. I have no idea how this soap is going to look. It seems like it was okay, but it won't be until I cut it that the truth will show itself. I'm going to give it a full two days before I cut it, and then I'll post pics. Hoping for something nice, but realizing it could be an ugly monster!

Wishing you all Happy Soaping!

 

[Shelley D]

Well, I did post the photo, but it got moved to the photos forum. Here it is in case you were on tenterhooks but not looking in the photos forum:
View attachment 76695

Bravo!

 

[Shelley D]

Hi All,

So yesterday I posted about me making the Marble cold stone process soap that Tree Marie made a YT video of. I finished cutting up the bars about an hour ago and afterwards began to think that I just did something really dumb! I cut the slabs from the mold in the typical vertical cuts, the soap isn't hideous but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm thinking now that I needed to do horizontal cuts, no vertical cuts.. Can anyone confirm this? I don't remember her talking about the cuts specifically. Here is picture of how they turned out with the standard vertical cut. The colors are a little off since the lighting wasn't right in the room, it has more warm overtones than what is showing. I used the Awaken scent from Nurture Soap which has a citrus smell.

Wow! It looks very intricate!

 

[not_ally]

Hi All,

So yesterday I posted about me making the Marble cold stone process soap that Tree Marie made a YT video of. I finished cutting up the bars about an hour ago and afterwards began to think that I just did something really dumb! I cut the slabs from the mold in the typical vertical cuts, the soap isn't hideous but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm thinking now that I needed to do horizontal cuts, no vertical cuts.. Can anyone confirm this? I don't remember her talking about the cuts specifically. Here is picture of how they turned out with the standard vertical cut. The colors are a little off since the lighting wasn't right in the room, it has more warm overtones than what is showing. I used the Awaken scent from Nurture Soap which has a citrus smell.

@Micheal, I just took a look at the cutting part of that video and I think she did cut the bars horizontally. Ie; she poured into an "x" height slab mold, cut the slad in half so that she had two "x" height loafs, then cut them horizontally so that the top swirl was preserved in all of the bars. Like you would with bars using dividers. I hope that makes sense!

ETA: I take it back, I watched it again and I think you had it right in the first place. It’s pretty confusing, though, if you look at the sides of your bar (which is what you would have gotten if you did a horizontal cut) they look more like her bars. I am confused now.

@MichaelP, had to watch it a third time, now I am back to voting for the horizontal cut (see strikethrough one!), I think it's the only way to get all those lines. I (a) am tempted to do this pour myself – not for this challenge – and (b) think I can finally remember how to do the strikethrough key strokes without looking them up, nothing like practice with soap and everything else!

 

[MichaelP]

@Shelley D, Thank you! It was a lot of work and it was 3 intense hours of making and then pouring 9 separate pours into the mold. I will do it again because I think I cut it wrong and I want to see how it's supposed to look. That said, I think I'll wait a week or so before I attempt again! Tree Marie makes it look so easy! There really are some very talented soapers out there!

@not_ally, Thank you for the feedback! Yes, when I look at the other planes of my soap that got shaved they have a nice look to them. They're not as busy looking which is what alerted me (after the fact ) that I may have not cut this correctly.

 

[AliensrReal]

Hi All,

So yesterday I posted about me making the Marble cold stone process soap that Tree Marie made a YT video of. I finished cutting up the bars about an hour ago and afterwards began to think that I just did something really dumb! I cut the slabs from the mold in the typical vertical cuts, the soap isn't hideous but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I'm thinking now that I needed to do horizontal cuts, no vertical cuts.. Can anyone confirm this? I don't remember her talking about the cuts specifically. Here is picture of how they turned out with the standard vertical cut. The colors are a little off since the lighting wasn't right in the room, it has more warm overtones than what is showing. I used the Awaken scent from Nurture Soap which has a citrus smell.

Looks great to me. I’ve never tried marble soap. Is it the colors you don’t like? I have cut soap wrong before.

 

[Shelley D]

@Shelley D, Thank you! It was a lot of work and it was 3 intense hours of making and then pouring 9 separate pours into the mold. I will do it again because I think I cut it wrong and I want to see how it's supposed to look. That said, I think I'll wait a week or so before I attempt again! Tree Marie makes it look so easy! There really are some very talented soapers out there!

@not_ally, Thank you for the feedback! Yes, when I look at the other planes of my soap that got shaved they have a nice look to them. They're not as busy looking which is what alerted me (after the fact ) that I may have not cut this correctly.

It paid off! I have only done 3 colors and it didn't go well I need to keep my batter more fluid before I start messing with swirls again

 

[GuacamoleSalad]

I made my 8th batch today. I was all excited about the scent and the colors and trying to make sure it goes through gel, and then I soaped much warmer than usual for me. Completely forgot that would make it set up faster. I was going to do an ombre. So I've done a sort of a plopping ombre, which should be interesting.

 

[AliensrReal]

Tried my third column pull through. We will see how it goes

 

[MichaelP]

@AliensrReal I think the soap is okay, but it is more busy looking than I prefer and I was going for a more simple marble type texture. Seems if I had done a different kind of cut to the soap it would have looked more marbled looking and less busy. It was definitely a great learning experience and I will be attempting it again to try and get a more desired look. I also realize that I didn't need 5 colors as that was overkill! ...Good luck on the column pull through! I haven't done that yet!

 

[KiwiMoose]

It's not a soapy thing I did, but a signal of how soapy my life is becoming: my spouse said today, "I never know anymore whether it's food or soap in this kitchen."

Yes - hubby was putting on a roast lamb yesterday afternoon and I had to whip into the oven to rescue my soap from the warm-up. He usually asks, but this time he didn't!

 

[AliensrReal]

My mother turned on the oven and my Custom Craft Tools column mold completely melted. No saving the soap. I’m gutted.

 

[dmcgee5034]

Oh no, @AliensrReal - my heart is so sad for you!

 

[not_ally]

Oh no, @AliensrReal - my heart is so sad for you!

Me too. Those molds are so great, and so expensive, I'm sorry. I've looked at them longingly many times, I feel your pain.

 

[CLMP]

My mother turned on the oven and my Custom Craft Tools column mold completely melted. No saving the soap. I’m gutted.

Awe that's terrible. That must be so upsetting sorry that happened to you.