What soapy thing have you done today?

[Misschief]

Love your unicorn poop soap, Karen. It's fun!

I did learn one thing doing the dancing funnel soap -- it should be done in a slab mold, not a loaf mold. Oh well, I still like it.

 

[dalewaite48]

Lice Soap

Has anyone had any luck making a Cold Process soap that would work to get rid of Hair Lice. I had a gal at church approach me and ask me if I had ever thought of making that soap. I have heard that Tea Treat essential oil works against lice.

 

[earlene]

Has anyone had any luck making a Cold Process soap that would work to get rid of Hair Lice. I had a gal at church approach me and ask me if I had ever thought of making that soap. I have heard that Tea Treat essential oil works against lice.

Dalewaite, you should probably start a new thread for this topic as it will get buried in this thread. But I will share a couple of thoughts.

First it's no longer considered soap if it has a medicinal purpose, therefore drug regulations apply for producing and selling. So there is that drawback if you plan to claim a bar soap will get rid of lice. Also regulations regarding soap are different in different parts of the world, so bear in mind I am talking about US regulations. If you are elsewhere, my comments may not apply.

Second, lye soap has a very high pH not good for hair, but if the goal is to kill lice (and that is no easy or instant task), perhaps the person won't care if the high pH ruins their hair. And realistically, they would have to leave the soap on the scalp for a prolonged period in order for any possible medicinal effect to take place and that just exposes the hair and scalp to that high pH. Commercial lice shampoo is a neutral pH so as not to damage the hair. So that's another drawback to creating a lye soap for medicinal purposes.

 

[penelopejane]

Same ... I kept on making (fortunately catching, but still making) mistakes with the soleseife trials. It was at the moment that I made up a fresh batch of lye with plain (distilled) water instead of the saturated salt solution I'd prepared, that I finally called it quits and stopped until the heat and humidity goes away.

Don’t you fine that the salt precipitates out?
I mixed salt (only 6tsp) with water before lye. It dissolved completely. Then I added the lye and I formed a thickish white cloudy solution. Small amounts of the salt formed crystals on the top as well. I tried to strain it thru muslin but so much remained behind I was worried it wouldn’t be accurate.

 

[Dahila]

Found out that decyl glycoside does thin the shampoo, even it does not seem it is so thick

 

[SaltedFig]

Don’t you fine that the salt precipitates out?

Yes.

I made up the salt water solutions the day before, and stirred them occasionally.

I wasn't so worried about precisely how much salt was in the final solution as long as it was saturated at the ambient temperature (winter soap would have less salt this way, but I don't mind).

Just before I strained the salt water into fresh containers (to add the lye into) they did have salt both at the bottom and in flakes around the rim.

The salt water was clear after straining.

When I added the lye to the salt water, I stirred it and then left it to dissolve. When it cooled, some of the salt was out of solution and had formed a sediment of minature crystals on the bottom, and there were just a few very thin flat crystals on the surface that broke up on stirring. The solution became smoothly cloudy (and stayed cloudy, although some sediment would settle again) when I stirred.

There aren't any large crystals of salt in the final soap, so the soleseife soap is very smooth.

They passed zap tests and lather up nicely already.

 

[amd]

I did not attempt the snake skin mold over the weekend. Too many kids demanding my attention all weekend so I could only breakaway for small amounts of time. Will try tonight when I only have one kid.

I did make 1 large batch using an Irish Spring dupe, and 2 small batches. The Irish Spring was my first time using m&p embeds. I lined them up completely wrong and tested the strength of my cutter to cut through them. It was also my first time doing a solid layer bottom with a hanger swirl through only the top layer. Happy with it overall.

 

[Cellador]

Unmolded these cute sheep this morning. I'm not normally one to get specialty molds- these were a gift....but I think they are adorable!
"Sleepytime" scent blend.

 

[Lin19687]

Used a round mailing tube the other day for my Salt bars. Came out good because I used Freezer paper. I could never find that years ago around here for some reason.

 

[earlene]

amd, those are just gorgeous!

Cellador, those are cute little sheep.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Has anyone had any luck making a Cold Process soap that would work to get rid of Hair Lice. I had a gal at church approach me and ask me if I had ever thought of making that soap. I have heard that Tea Treat essential oil works against lice.

As Earlene said, you will most likely get more replies if you start a new thread titled Tea Tree Oil for Head Lice. Most members don't bother to check this thread on a daily basis. You could also google for more info. As for Tea Tree CP, it would be wise to research the benefits of TT as well as its cautions. A good (popular) EO blend to fragrance your soap and add beneficial qualities is Lavender, Rosemary & Tea Tree -- equal parts or to your preference. Add to your favorite CP recipe.

HTH :bunny:
​

 

[SunRiseArts]

My Nurture order arrived today, yippeeee! This is my first time ordering their FOs and I gotta say, it was love at first sniff. Wow. Beautiful complex notes. They make WSP smell like cheap perfume. Can't wait to soap with them.

My faves OOB are:
Awaken
Vanilla Cream
Flame Tree
Juicy Apricot
Jeweled Fir
8th & Ocean
Earth Meets Sky
White Tea and Pear

View attachment 27315

I am super envious! :mrgreen:

I am curious about juicy apricot. Is it as good as it sounds?

 

[penelopejane]

Yes.

I made up the salt water solutions the day before, and stirred them occasionally.

I wasn't so worried about precisely how much salt was in the final solution as long as it was saturated at the ambient temperature (winter soap would have less salt this way, but I don't mind).

Just before I strained the salt water into fresh containers (to add the lye into) they did have salt both at the bottom and in flakes around the rim.

The salt water was clear after straining.

When I added the lye to the salt water, I stirred it and then left it to dissolve. When it cooled, some of the salt was out of solution and had formed a sediment of minature crystals on the bottom, and there were just a few very thin flat crystals on the surface that broke up on stirring. The solution became smoothly cloudy (and stayed cloudy, although some sediment would settle again) when I stirred.

There aren't any large crystals of salt in the final soap, so the soleseife soap is very smooth.

Sounds similar to the mix I made. I tried to strain it through muslin though and it was too thick to go through without losing so much I was worried it wouldn't make soap.

Do you use just a standard metal strainer?

I will try it again because some of my soaps are complicated and I'd like to be able to mix the salt with the lye water.
Thank you for the details.

 

[jewels621]

I am super envious! :mrgreen:

I am curious about juicy apricot. Is it as good as it sounds?

I scored some Juicy Apricot at SoapCon last September and I love it. I don’t normally like food scents, but this was such a fresh, summery scent with a nice note of greenery to it. Very well behaved in CP, as well. I used it in one of my Christmas soaps with mineral glittered white, soft orange and green swirls and called it Sparkling Winter Apricot. My family liked it more than traditional Christmas scents, and the couple bars I have left right now still smell delicious. Made them in late September.

 

[earlene]

When I went to reply to this thread last night, the forum was down. For hours! I finally gave up and went to bed. And now look at it! My gosh!

Oh well, on to what soapy thing I did....

I made 13 colors of soap dough last night. Finally! I started setting up for it in the morning, but didn't actually start making the soap until 6 pm. By 7 pm I was just finishing up the clean-up so I could prepare dinner. Only an hour? It felt like I'd been standing there for half the day. My back was killing me, but it has been giving me pain for about 3 days.

The delay? Well, first I had to masterbatch some lye. I used 2 bottles of ED lye to make my mb and that took some time and tied up my sinks letting it cool and re-bottling it and what not. Then there was carrying all (no, most, but not all) my colorants downstairs to choose which colors I wanted to use for soap dough. And I forgot to choose a true blue. I did one turquoise, but I really want a couple of blues, so I guess I need to make some more soap dough. Because the plastic packets that Steph's Micas & More uses don't always survive the length of use, I had to repackage a couple of micas into different containers. (The zip lock fails eventually with some of the baggies. I've had this happen at least 4 or 5 times, not a huge percentage overall, but a pain when it does.) Well, the day just got away from me and it took me until evening to make soap, but they got done and I will check on them a bit later. 12 are in cavity molds, covered with plastic wrap and one is still in the plastic cup in a baggie.

 

[Karens62]

Wow, 13 colors? No wonder you were pooped out! I can’t wait to see what creations come out of that effort

 

[SaltedFig]

Today is lye delivery day. I'm getting some 99% pearls delivered, instead of the usual 98%, so it'll be interesting to see what difference the shape makes to using the product.

@penelopejane

Yes, just a course woven stainless strainer (the slurry will happily sit on top of a fine strainer).

I reckon you will like it for swirling - I got so much more detail on the soleseife soap than with the ordinary salt bars.

Do you use just a standard metal strainer?

I will try it again because some of my soaps are complicated and I'd like to be able to mix the salt with the lye water.
Thank you for the details.

 

[Lin19687]

I sat on the puter all day looking things up for local bulk supply. Didn't get very far until I started to see videos of cute kitties and puppies.. this happens all the time

 

[debratant]

My day off is Wednesday, I like Wednesday for soaping because it is my "I'm alone hubby is working" day, it is MY day to enjoy and
do whatever I dang well want to do.....pfffffttt....yeah right.

I think about all these soapy/candle things that I am certainly going to do on Wednesday on my
day off work. I have my recipe printed, my design all in my head...and every wednesday, not a thing gets made.
So depressing LOL.

So, I thought of soaping all day, but in reality, I didn't get anything I wanted to do done...except laundry and I vacuumed.
Go Me!

btw, this scenario seems to be repeated on a weekly basis. Although 2 week ago, on wednesday, I did
get two batches done lol

 

[earlene]

Unmolded & wrapped my 13 colored soap dough blocks in plastic wrap, labeled each for color used, and placed all in a large plastic baggie for double air tightness. Then we went off to the Cities and were gone for several hours. During the course of the day, Hubby & I talked about soap and it continues to amaze me that he doesn't get bored and actually is interested and asks questions and is really involved in the conversation.