What soapy thing have you done today?

[Zing]

Hi Zing, I’m just playing around with my base recipe in an attempt to increase longevity of my bars and have found on the calc that subbing some of my olive oil for RBO helps to hire the palmitic which is nice as I can also get RBO fairly reasonably priced here but just curious as to how it hardens in time….. would you say RBO is comparable to OO in terms of hardness and longevity? I intend to make several batches to play around with this, Including a full replacement of olive oil…… but just curious before my experiment begins!!
I should add that I have used RBO at 10% before and enjoyed it in my bars but have never gone higher than this and with my new recipes I would be looking at 15-45%…..

My main reason for changing from olive oil to rice bran oil was that I find olive oil soap slimey. And Daddy needs his bubbles! I use RBO at 23% and according to soapcalc, the hardness # is 48 on a range of 29-54. People tell me my soap lasts a long time but I don't have any exact stats for you, sorry. I can't really compare it to olive oil anymore because it's been several years that I switched over.

 

[BB25]

My main reason for changing from olive oil to rice bran oil was that I find olive oil soap slimey. And Daddy needs his bubbles! I use RBO at 23% and according to soapcalc, the hardness # is 48 on a range of 29-54. People tell me my soap lasts a long time but I don't have any exact stats for you, sorry. I can't really compare it to olive oil anymore because it's been several years that I switched over.

Thanks Zing, It’s really useful to hear opinions on this so I’m just going to get into the studio and make some & see how they turn out. I’ll report back in a few months time!!

 

[Cinnamon Square]

I used a one pot pour followed by a hanger swirl using BB Orange Peel. The funny thing is that the colors compliment each other so much that you can’t differentiate them unless you use a black light. From afar it looks like a jumbled mess of colors, but up close you can see the hanger swirl and I just love that! Didn’t use enough red color but that’s okay. Next time I’ll use predominantly yellow and accent with red and orange instead of using equal parts of each color.

They're like disco soaps under the black light!

 

[The_Emerald_Chicken]

My soapy thing for today was learning that Bramble Berry has 20% off all fragrance oils through the 25th. You're welcome

 

[vnikolic]

Last night I made some bergamot blends in small 1 oz bottles, to allow my friend who requested a bergamot soap, to decide which one she likes.

Of course this sent me into a wonderful rabbit hole of learning about perfumery, essential oil notes and anchors. I love this craft....it always pushes me to learn new things. Happy creating!

 

[AliensrReal]

My soapy thing for today was learning that Bramble Berry has 20% off all fragrance oils through the 25th. You're welcome

I haven’t finished soaping all my BB samples to know what I need to purchase!! Well, I need to wait until I’m down to my last 4 fragrance oils.

 

[Sudds]

I have searched and can't find the differences between Duck and Goose fat for soaping. From what I have read they are quite similar. So going forward, many years ago I was in Prague and sweet-talked our waitress into bringing me a BIG box of goose fat to take home so I could render it to bring back to the States.
I was at my son's house and we pulled out all the pans we could find, tossed in the hunks of fat and the oven was stuffed full. Ran to Ikea the next day and bought a bunch of airtight metal lard tins and when the lard was cool enough poured it in and dispensed them between my husbands and my suitcases and held our breath that we wouldn't get caught--was just going to play stupid, if I was told it was a no-no. It wouldn't have been much at that time as our dollar was very strong compared to the Czech crown. Made it home safe & sound. I made the nicest soap out of that lard, I just found one of the recipes that I made using it, called Goat's Milk Cinnamon Oatmeal Bar. The oils & butters I used were Castor, Olive, Safflower, Soybean Palm Kernel, Jojoba, Goose Tallow, Oatmeal & Cinnamon.

 

[AliensrReal]

@Sudds, I’m not too sure there’s a difference.

Okay, I am strongly considering doubling the Fresh Squeeze Orange FO in my soap. I love this so much, but it’s barely there after cure. I do like BB Orange peel but it’s not the same as Fresh Squeezed Orange.

 

[KiwiMoose]

@Sudds, I’m not too sure there’s a difference.

Okay, I am strongly considering doubling the Fresh Squeeze Orange FO in my soap. I love this so much, but it’s barely there after cure. I do like BB Orange peel but it’s not the same as Fresh Squeezed Orange.

If an FO is too weak, doubling it won’t make much difference. Citruses are known to fade. Although I do have a blood orange that stays quite strong.

 

[AliensrReal]

If an FO is too weak, doubling it won’t make much difference. Citruses are known to fade. Although I do have a blood orange that stays quite strong.

I know, but I’m just so in love this with scent. I’ll use it in my sugar scrubs when I start making them again. What blood orange fragrance stays strong for you?

 

[Cindy D.]

I have searched and can't find the differences between Duck and Goose fat for soaping. From what I have read they are quite similar. So going forward, many years ago I was in Prague and sweet-talked our waitress into bringing me a BIG box of goose fat to take home so I could render it to bring back to the States.
I was at my son's house and we pulled out all the pans we could find, tossed in the hunks of fat and the oven was stuffed full. Ran to Ikea the next day and bought a bunch of airtight metal lard tins and when the lard was cool enough poured it in and dispensed them between my husbands and my suitcases and held our breath that we wouldn't get caught--was just going to play stupid, if I was told it was a no-no. It wouldn't have been much at that time as our dollar was very strong compared to the Czech crown. Made it home safe & sound. I made the nicest soap out of that lard, I just found one of the recipes that I made using it, called Goat's Milk Cinnamon Oatmeal Bar. The oils & butters I used were Castor, Olive, Safflower, Soybean Palm Kernel, Jojoba, Goose Tallow, Oatmeal & Cinnamon.

If you look at soapcalc, they have both duck and Goose fats listed. Double clicking on a fat in the list will bring up the fat properties on the left side of the screen. They use almost the same amount of NaOH per pound, 0.62g or 0.02oz difference.

 

[AliensrReal]

I have these vertical dividers and I am going to try and see if I can recreate the same designs as my horizontal dividers.
I guess I would call this a modified mantra swirl. I’m still working on it. I’ll get better.

 

[KiwiMoose]

If an FO is too weak, doubling it won’t make much difference. Citruses are known to fade. Although I do have a blood orange that stays quite strong.

I think it comes from Candle Science @AliensrReal

 

[AliensrReal]

I think it comes from Candle Science @AliensrReal

Thanks, I’ll check it out. I got a few more orange scents to try. I found the perfect lime FO and now I’m on the hunt for the perfect orange and lemon fragrance oil. I want a lemonade FO that is a tart lemon like Snowdrift Farm, but I just can’t find it.

 

[AliensrReal]

I think the mantra swirl came out great. When cutting from the side it looks like the oasis swirl.

Also used RE lemon slices for a very simple two color soap.

 

[dmcgee5034]

Fantastic swirls, @AliensrReal! I love the colors!

 

[AliensrReal]

Fantastic swirls, @AliensrReal! I love the colors!

Thanks! The color cards I bought helped me pick out a contrasting color to go with yellow and green.

I’m getting better at swirls and plan to continue to fine tune them. I’m very happy with how my designs are coming out lately. I really like RE Lemon Verbena. At first it’s heavy on the verbena, but now it smells like a lemon peel. Crossing my fingers both these lemon scents sticks.

 

[Zuleika]

Made my first scraping soap. The pink set up a bit too much so had some air bubbles inside that I just couldn't tap them out. I got a plastic scraper and the stamps. It was hard getting the ears scraped properly! I might have scraped 30 times. Trust the process!

 

[CLMP]

Made my first scraping soap. The pink set up a bit too much so had some air bubbles inside that I just couldn't tap them out. I got a plastic scraper and the stamps. It was hard getting the ears scraped properly! I might have scraped 30 times. Trust the process!

View attachment 76898

Awe those are so cute!

I think the mantra swirl came out great. When cutting from the side it looks like the oasis swirl.

Also used RE lemon slices for a very simple two color soap.

@AliensrReal I love your soaps very nice. I also love the citrus fruit smells my favorite ones are also the Blood Orange &Goji and Fresh Ginger Lime they are my best swirling F/O's I buy them at Candora I actually just made soap today with Blood Orange & Goji my whole kitchen smells like it right now lol. I think you will love it if you can find it at your soap suppliers the Fresh Ginger Lime has a really strong sent too. I hope you can find them.

 

[Firefly24]

I made this soap Saturday and just cut it. It's still pretty soft. Smells yummy! FO, "Citrus Explosion" from WSP