What soapy thing have you done today?

[Zany_in_CO]

...figuring out how to run a house of 6 people, running my soap business, working a full-time job, and barely hanging on to my sanity. This girl could use some prayers (and a personal assistant, wedding planner, and housekeeper).

God bless you, dear heart. Prayers are on their way. My advice? Let go; let God. Also, let go of trying to keep your sanity... resistance is futile. :mrgreen:

 

[Dahila]

dual lye , coconut milk 7 lb of soap, blue, pink, white, and light peachl hanger swirl

 

[Kittish]

Got my Bulk Apothecary order in today, and I'm all set up to make soap with a friend this evening. I set up sniffy sticks (tiny drop of EO on one end of a cotton swab) of my different EOs so she can check them out and decide on a blend to use. Got my mold set up for a mantra swirl, but whether it's going to be two-color or a ghost mantra remains to be determined.

I also set up a sniffy stick with the champaca so I could see what it actually smells like. Wow. That's damn near nag champa all by itself. Just add a bit of sandalwood (or amyris and patchouli since sandalwood is super expensive) and it'll be lovely.

 

[GeezLouise]

Filled a couple of tubes with soap paste for travel. Susie's idea, I think.

 

[Kittish]

I cut into my ghost mantra. I'm impressed, I didn't really expect to see quite so much definition between the more water and less water batters. I only added like an ounce of water to about a pound of soap batter.

Now to rein in my impatience and let the bars sit for another day or so so I can get them all trimmed and neat and pretty. Wondering if I can do OP after the fact on some of the bars and gel them and how that would change the appearance, or if they'd just turn into puddles when they hit gel stage.

 

[kchaystack]

I cut into my ghost mantra. I'm impressed, I didn't really expect to see quite so much definition between the more water and less water batters. I only added like an ounce of water to about a pound of soap batter.

Now to rein in my impatience and let the bars sit for another day or so so I can get them all trimmed and neat and pretty. Wondering if I can do OP after the fact on some of the bars and gel them and how that would change the appearance, or if they'd just turn into puddles when they hit gel stage.

1 oz is alot of water in a pound of batter. In my recipe that would take my 33% lye concentration to 29% - which is a pretty impressive change.

 

[earlene]

Today I am making plastic bag inserts for my squeeze bottles. It took a bit of experimentation to get the right length and width so they would fit correctly with just enough fold-over so the lid will screw on top correctly. But easy enough. I am using my Food Saver vacuum sealer and a cheaper brand of bags for this project.

The last time I had to clean out the squeeze bottles, it just seemed to get harder and harder each time. Maybe some colors like to adhere to the container more than others, or maybe my patience is waning with the cleaning. Either way, this should make for a faster cleaning experience.

 

[Spiceandsoap]

soap things

Today I did two soapy things:
1) I read advice from the post I made about salt bars (goal is to make them tomorrow)
2) I actually sat down and wrote notes on the first two soaps I made!

 

[Kittish]

Cleaned. :thumbdown:

Waffling on the soap recipe I want to use for the challenge. I'm kind of leaning toward wanting a harder, almost waxy bar. Of course, it still has to be nice soap as well. Thinking about using the recipe I used for the design trial. Two weeks into curing, it lathers up with floofy big bubbles when you get it even close to water, then settles into a lovely creamy lather. It's a bit on the dry side, though. Going to replace 5% of the RBO with meadowfoam oil. I've got it. Might as well use it.

 

[Wyredgirl]

I made these four batches, as well as 5 batches of bath bombs and 2 solid bubble bath recipes

 

[Kittish]

Wyredgirl, those little bees are adorable! And I love the pink and blue, the clear shards on top look gorgeous.

I made the fragrance blend I'll be using in my mermaid tail soap(s). Got a few drops on a cotton swab that I'm letting just sit for a bit so I can evaluate the blend as it, well, actually blends. OOB you can barely smell the lemongrass (and honestly it smells kind of funky), but as it diffuses the lemongrass steps right up.

20g lemongrass
15g cedarwood
5g frankincense
6 drops patchouli

I am so very tempted to make a small batch tonight and just see if I can get the soap to do anything like what I'm envisioning. I've got enough of my EO blend to make a couple of small batches, and I can recreate it easily enough.

ETA- Just for fun, I did this:

 

[amd]

Soapy stuff: I made pumpkin puree pumpkin shaped embeds on Friday. I am STILL waiting for them to setup and unmold. Am I the only one who hates silicone molds? Tonight I am going to do my soapy dishes from last week and tweak my pumpkin soap recipe. I think I need to oversize it just a bit so that I will enough to pipe the top. (Writers would call that a plot twist...)

Non soapy stuff: the future hubby and I traveled north this weekend for a beer festival. We did some wedding shopping for decorations, and came home with some neat stuff that we will be able to use in the house after the wedding. We also visited his grandparents who won't be able to make it to the wedding. His grandma gave us a silver serving tray that she got at her wedding 67 years ago. It is gorgeous! My grandma starts Chemo round 2 this week. I am taking today off from sitting at the hospital, but will be going tomorrow and Wednesday. She has started to lose her hair. This is hard. So hard. Cancer sucks.

 

[penelopejane]

Soapy stuff: I made pumpkin puree pumpkin shaped embeds on Friday. I am STILL waiting for them to setup and unmold. Am I the only one who hates silicone molds? Tonight I am going to do my soapy dishes from last week and tweak my pumpkin soap recipe. s.

I find I have to have a really dry pumpkin purée for it to work well as a water substitute in soap. Keep simmering it down way longer than you would for baby food.

 

[Cindy2428]

amd - download a soapy book while you are at the hospital. Makes the time go by faster. Yes, cancer does suck - benign brain tumor cost me all of my hair; I had a good excuse for bad hair days and almost always got seated in restaurants immediately and eventually had fun about the whole thing.

Slowly back to soapy stuff. Found out my favorite recipe to date is a 1-colored activity only. Oh well - lots of recipes to try yet.

 

[penelopejane]

Slowly back to soapy stuff. Found out my favorite recipe to date is a 1-colored activity only. Oh well - lots of recipes to try yet.

I think that's why I like Castile! So easy. No artistic talent required and no rush.

 

[earlene]

I made laundry butter. Also grated more soap and bagged it up for the next time I need to make laundry soap.

 

[Wyredgirl]

I made more soap and cut my batches from yesterday

And today's makes
Some cracking and gelling but it gives a really cool effect on my tic tac toe soap

 

[Wyredgirl]

Wyredgirl, those little bees are adorable! And I love the pink and blue, the clear shards on top look gorgeous.

Thanks so much it's cotton candy scented and I had wanted it to look like sugar shards

 

[amd]

Last night I put the silicone mold with the pumpkin embeds into the freezer so I could get them out. They dried quickly so I was able to have my daughter brush them with mica and I could make the soap. I think these are my favorite pumpkin bars to date. I used WSP Pumpkin Gingerbread FO. Only slight ricing and acceleration, but that happens every time I add FO to pumpkin so I've learned to work with it. I expect the soap to brown up quite a bit due to vanilla, so the white frosting and pumpkin embeds will really stand out.

 

[SoapAddict415]

What beautiful soaps! I can't to get home and plan my next batch. The last 2 didn't turn out as planned. I used natural cocoa butter and raw Shea butter which made my batter extremely yellow. I used a lot of TD but it just gave me pastle colors in a yellow base lol.