What soapy thing have you done today?

[Servant4Christ]

I just went out and bought a 2 speed KitchenAid stickblender at Walmart. I hope to have time to test it out tonight.

 

[lou]

So I'm just wondering what stages everyone's at. I'm a curious little cat, I am.

For myself, I'm waiting for my most recent batch of bar soap to firm up (trying to give it 24 hours before I even touch it, since the soapcalc numbers put it just shy of the 'ideal' hardness range). In addition I fiddled around with the liquid soap I made yesterday (a good chunk of it didn't dissolved, and I was seeing if that was because there wasn't enough water to dilute it all... sure enough that was the problem so it was diluted and added to the bottle holding the rest of it).

And right now I have a tea going that will eventually be strained and frozen, to be used when I make my shampoo bar. Still need to get to my aunt's to pick her citrus trees... But at least I can have the liquid ready to go! I measured out 1/2 oz of dried marshmallow root, 1 1/2 cups water (both weighed to the gram), and then for kicks I tossed in one bag each of Bigelow's Chammomile Lemon and I Love Lemon teas. I'm going to be infusing both chamomile and lemon into the oils, and needed to use the teas anyways (and I don't drink tea). Win-win, right? I might not need all of the tea for the shampoo bar (I'll only be using about 500g oils after all), but at least I'll have it done.

I'm setting up for my next batch It's Dandelion Honey. My Dandelion Infused oil is ready, so here we go.

 

[ewhitake]

I infused madder root, ancho chili, tumeric, and tomato powder into castor oil (sous vide, 12 hours, 152°)View attachment 77438View attachment 77439 Life popped up in the tumeric
The tomato didn't seem to do a thing
The ancho and madder root seem to be the same color

Nice!!! I was just going to post something about whether to infuse tomato powder in oil or add it like mica into my soaps.
Do you mean the tomato powered didn’t change the oil at all? What was the ratio of powder to oil? I tried to infuse some Himalayan rhubarb the other day and infused it at a ratio of 9 to 1. Then I read something else and it said I only needed to use a fifth of that amount. But when I used the infused oil as a fifth of my recipe the soap turned out pink, a pretty shade of pink, but not red. So the next time I’m just going to use my infused Himalayan rhubarb oil as I would any other oil and see if I can get a deep red color.

 

[Gal Magen]

Packed my first 2 batches after curring!

 

[justsomeguy]

Nice!!! I was just going to post something about whether to infuse tomato powder in oil or add it like mica into my soaps.
Do you mean the tomato powered didn’t change the oil at all?

Correct. It just looks like castor oil. I've not put lye water into it yet though so I don't know if it'll change color.

What was the ratio of powder to oil?

.37oz per 8fl oz of oil.

I tried to infuse some Himalayan rhubarb the other day and infused it at a ratio of 9 to 1.

I did .37oz per 16 FL oz of oil for that too.

Then I read something else and it said I only needed to use a fifth of that amount. But when I used the infused oil as a fifth of my recipe the soap turned out pink, a pretty shade of pink, but not red.

This is the red I got using mine.

I can't remember what percent rhubarb infused oil produced that red though. But I don't think it was 10%.

So the next time I’m just going to use my infused Himalayan rhubarb oil as I would any other oil and see if I can get a deep red color.