What soapy thing have you done today?

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After staring at my BIG aloe plant for a very long time, I finally took the leap, harvested my own home grown aloe gel, then combined it with my usual frozen goat milk. The liquified aloe was frozen, as was the goat milk, when I added the lye. I wasn't prepared for how fast it heated up!!!!! Normally, I have lots of time to mix the oils and colors while the milk/lye mixture is doing its thing. Not this time! I also used indigo powder hoping for a light bluish tint. Well...maybe it will change...hopefully, because right now it looks like aged guacamole! Now I have to leave it alone to do its thing - my biggest challenge!
 
After staring at my BIG aloe plant for a very long time, I finally took the leap, harvested my own home grown aloe gel, then combined it with my usual frozen goat milk. The liquified aloe was frozen, as was the goat milk, when I added the lye. I wasn't prepared for how fast it heated up!!!!! Normally, I have lots of time to mix the oils and colors while the milk/lye mixture is doing its thing. Not this time! I also used indigo powder hoping for a light bluish tint. Well...maybe it will change...hopefully, because right now it looks like aged guacamole! Now I have to leave it alone to do its thing - my biggest challenge!
I heat my oils and let them start cooling down BEFORE mixing my lye solution. I use an icebath and slowly add the lye to the water and frozen aloe to prevent the sugars from scorching. Otherwise, the natural color of my soap is more yellowish than it's usual creamy off-white.
 
I sat and rolled little pieces of white soap dough between my fingers while reading posts on SMF and watched a couple videos. Then I dumped what I made on the table and asked my husband if they looked like seeds. He said "What do you mean, they are seeds."
20241121_162429.jpgafter getting his nose within 10 inches of them. 🤣 But they are soap, then he asked if I was going to put some down cellar and see if the mice would eat them.
 
Tried making beer soap. Walked away from it singing "And I know things now many valuable things".
Boil your beer.
I found a thread afterwards that explained the alcohol will make the soap to seize. Good thing I had a slow moving recipe cause as is I barely had time to put it in the mold once I realized what was happening.
 
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Tried making beer soap. Walked away from it singing "And I know things now many valuable things".
Boil your beer.
I found a thread afterwards that explained the alcohol cause the soap to seize. Good thing I had a slow moving recipe cause as is I barely had time to put it in the mold once I realized what was happening.
My very first soap was beer and and a very high percentage of deer tallow. Instant pudding. Seriously, I accidentally made floating soap! 🤣
 
Are bath bombs a soapy thing? I bloomed some dye to make embeds. Said I would not make embeds again, I’d buy them, yet here I am. Never say never.
The trays I was looking for last week arrived today and they are such a great investment!!! Doubling my real estate is SO exciting!
 

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I sat and rolled little pieces of white soap dough between my fingers while reading posts on SMF and watched a couple videos. Then I dumped what I made on the table and asked my husband if they looked like seeds. He said "What do you mean, they are seeds."
View attachment 79899after getting his nose within 10 inches of them. 🤣 But they are soap, then he asked if I was going to put some down cellar and see if the mice would eat them.
I e had mice eat my soap! Little jerks!! But only unscented.
 
Tried making beer soap. Walked away from it singing "And I know things now many valuable things".
Boil your beer.
I found a thread afterwards that explained the alcohol will make the soap to seize. Good thing I had a slow moving recipe cause as is I barely had time to put it in the mold once I realized what was happening.
The first time I used beer, it was frozen - and I had really hard time dissolving lye in it, not the same as using frozen milk at all. Since then, I've only used chilled beer from the fridge - before I add NaOH to it I dissolve citric acid, a little sugar and salt - and I stir it really well. The stirring gets rid of the bubbles (salt probably helps too), and the solution behaves well and moves relatively slowly. I never boiled the beer, I hate extra effort 😁
 
@Ekuzo I thought that I would be okay not to boil based off what I had read. I disloved some sodium citrate but skipped sugar. I had also let it go flat in my fridge for a week and thought I'd be okay. I boiled some last night and am interested to make some soap again and see the difference. Ya know for science 😏😋

Now that I know I think I could get away without boiling and just move quicker and don't SB. I love learning this stuff!😍 So many experiments... I'm gonna need more beer...
 

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