What soapy thing have you done today?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
It's still soft. And not pretty at all. I'll see how it develops over time😭 I'll try again eventually...View attachment 81384
Ahh.. drat. 😕 A tip, both oxides and ultramarines are trickier to incorporate than micas. You might try some color experimenting with smaller cavity molds. If you use a palette knife and a piece of smooth glass or acrylic, and mix the powder with just a little oil, you can really smush out all the little lumps.
I used to only incorporate oxides this way, I didn’t think it would work with ultramarines, but it does. (Thank you @Mobjack Bay!) I’ve been doing color experimenting with oxides and ultramarines all winter, 50 g samples, and have been having a lot of fun. My goal is to get reproducible results. A couple examples here. The numbers are percentages of colorant by weight as a portion of the oil. The codes are probably self explanatory - but in case not they are
UMPUR - purple ultramarine -
UMB - blue ultramarine -
TD - titanium dioxide
HCO - hydrated chromium oxide.

I make sixteen samples at a time, because I found two molds at goodwill of this shape with eight cavities each and I just like them. I use a base color, like the blue ultramarine, and mix enough for all sixteen, and then vary the other colorants by tiny amounts. A jewelers scale is necessary to measure hundredths or grams.
Oh - for oxides, I premix them in small bottles at a 3:1 ratio with oil and a drop of vitamin E to try to prevent rancidity. I add a stainless nut or two to help mix when I shake them. That way when I’m adding (for example) .05% of titanium dioxide I’m not measuring minuscule amounts of TD and mixing them.
Keep experimenting. ☺️

IMG_6267.jpegIMG_6258.jpeg
 
Ahh.. drat. 😕 A tip, both oxides and ultramarines are trickier to incorporate than micas. You might try some color experimenting with smaller cavity molds. If you use a palette knife and a piece of smooth glass or acrylic, and mix the powder with just a little oil, you can really smush out all the little lumps.
I don't have a palette knife yet. But I have one of those badger mixer things I didn't use. I didn't think I'd have any lumps but there they were...

When I used the red and the black oxide the first time I mixed them up in water. Then stick blended the mixture into the batter. This time I didn't🤦🏿‍♂️

I used to only incorporate oxides this way, I didn’t think it would work with ultramarines, but it does. (Thank you @Mobjack Bay!) I’ve been doing color experimenting with oxides and ultramarines all winter, 50 g samples, and have been having a lot of fun. My goal is to get reproducible results. A couple examples here. The numbers are percentages of colorant by weight as a portion of the oil. The codes are probably self explanatory - but in case not they are
UMPUR - purple ultramarine -
UMB - blue ultramarine -
TD - titanium dioxide
HCO - hydrated chromium oxide.
I love this! I'll give it a try eventually. A fellow farmers market vendor gave me a sheet of oval cavity molds that'll be perfect.
 
I don't have a palette knife yet. But I have one of those badger mixer things I didn't use. I didn't think I'd have any lumps but there they were...

When I used the red and the black oxide the first time I mixed them up in water. Then stick blended the mixture into the batter. This time I didn't🤦🏿‍♂️


I love this! I'll give it a try eventually. A fellow farmers market vendor gave me a sheet of oval cavity molds that'll be perfect.
You’ll find the oxides mix much better with oil. You can get a cheap palette knife at a craft store. The lumps are very sneaky…
 
@Vicki C bravo on those color tests!

I ordered this set of surprisingly inexpensive palette knives on Amazon and use them all the time. The quality is very good. In addition to using them to blend pigments, they are very handy for cleaning up soap bars. When I was trying to cut a 6” test slab into four 2.5” x 3.5” bars the other day, I even used the largest palette knife to help with cutting the soap.
 
@Vicki C bravo on those color tests!

I ordered this set of surprisingly inexpensive palette knives on Amazon and use them all the time. The quality is very good. In addition to using them to blend pigments, they are very handy for cleaning up soap bars. When I was trying to cut a 6” test slab into four 2.5” x 3.5” bars the other day, I even used the largest palette knife to help with cutting the soap.
Ordered! Arriving tomorrow😁

Thanks!
 
This project was an excrement show from the beginning! The fragrance (brambleberry lilac) made the batter suddenly seize, and turned the navy blue to more gray. It was soft for 3 days...I think I salvaged all but the end bits. What a pain 😮‍💨
View attachment 81397
You definitely salvaged this batch, the soaps look beautiful. I love the embeds. I just used BB lilac last week and although it’s not supposed to accelerate it sure did with my soap. What was planned for a One Pot Wonder turned into a clumpy mess. Thankfully the cut bars look ok but definitely not what I planned.
 
I've been humbled by a bar of soap. As I posted once before, friends of ours make their own soap and recently asked me some questions when they found out I make soap too. They gifted me a bar of their soap and it's turned out to be my youngest kiddo's favorite. I think it's the scent (lemongrass) that he likes. Anyway, I reverse engineered the recipe because our friends have literally been just following a handwritten recipe and I was curious. Well, turns out I'm not as sensitive to coconut as I thought because this soap has a whopping 28% coconut and my hands aren't burning, tight, or peeling at all. Color me shocked! So now I'm experimenting with super fat because maybe there actually is something to the thought process of upping the super fat to combat the stripping nature of coconut in CP soap.
 
Last edited:
I’m in the midst of spring cleaning my soap room, which is a big job because I’m not a neat person by nature. The most successful effort so far involved simple 90 deg rotations of the bins that contain my colorants. Freeing up the counter and wall space was the hardest part. Can you tell that I’ve been trying to pare down the number of mica colors I keep in stock 🤣.

IMG_2002.jpeg

I also made a batch of 100% CO kitchen soap to put in the ramekins I bought about two years ago.

IMG_2004.jpeg
 
I’m in the midst of spring cleaning my soap room, which is a big job because I’m not a neat person by nature. The most successful effort so far involved simple 90 deg rotations of the bins that contain my colorants. Freeing up the counter and wall space was the hardest part. Can you tell that I’ve been trying to pare down the number of mica colors I keep in stock 🤣.

View attachment 81423

I also made a batch of 100% CO kitchen soap to put in the ramekins I bought about two years ago.

View attachment 81424
I also have an untidy nature. Your shelves look great to me!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top