What soapy thing have you done today?

[Kari]

I made my first oatmeal milk and honey soap last night.. with colloidal oatmeal. The rest is just fragrance. I aim to make my bars vegan-friendly, so opted to use just water and no honey. It was interesting because that's the first time I've used additives! I do love the scent though, and I can see why it's a popular seller for many soapers.

I also recorded the making-of video with a two-camera set up. It'll be more work on my end to put the final video together, but it's a good thing I did because the top camera died on me during the pouring!

The OMH bar is one of two 'no frills' bars I plan on making. The other one is a allergen free bar, which will be my only non-vegan bar - because as far as I've read the only really good replacement for coconut oil is lard. I've made a choice not to use palm oil in my recipes.

Tonight the plan is to make soap cupcakes for the first time. I still have to make my m&p embeds.. I've got two apple scents, one is caramel apple - which will be the bottom/cupcake part.. and jolly rancher apple which will be the frosting part.

Soaps/Techniques I want to try still:
Round soaps
Peacock Swirl
Activated Charcoal only bars
Facial bars

 

[artemis]

The other one is a allergen free bar...

I am curious to know which allergens it will be free of? Did that question even make sense?

 

[Kari]

I am curious to know which allergens it will be free of? Did that question even make sense?

Yep, it did! Anything nut/drupe based. So no nut oils, including coconut (which is a drupe) and sweet almond oil. My standard recipe is just five fats:

Olive Oil (fruit)
Rice Bran Oil (grain)
Castor Oil (seed)
Coconut Oil (nut)
Shea Butter (nut)

so in the end, I'll probably just swap out the coconut oil and shea butter for lard. Although, I might replace the shea with cocoa butter. (which is a seed)

As far as I know for a vast majority of the population, even if you have a nut or drupe allergy - the oils are fine for skincare. However my step-niece is in the small percentage of people for whom coconut oil does cause an allergic reaction. I'll probably only make 6 bars total. Two to give to her and four to sell.

 

[earlene]

I'm working on revising a formula I really love, to change it a bit geared toward the most popular fatty acid profile of soap as reported on in this link. I just want to see if changing one of my favorites would actually improve it even more. Partly because I thought I ran out of one of the oils, and partly because I really want to know if that range will be better than what I currently like using. If I am able to see an actual difference, it might change how I formulate my recipes in the future.

While getting out the oils for a batch of soap, I realized I am not out of Castor oil and also not out of Fx CO either, so that's nice to know and means I don't have to order either for a bit. That makes me happy. I couldn't find the loofah I was looking for, though. I'll probably run across it when I don't want to use it.

After mailing a package to granddaughter (soaps), I plan to buy more salt for salt bars. But first need to make sure I have enough CO, which I am pretty sure I do.

 

[artemis]

Anything nut/drupe based. So no nut oils, including coconut (which is a drupe) and sweet almond oil.

Oh, I see! So, not allergen free per see, just nut and drupe free. I wondered what kind of soapy magic you were using to remove all the allergens. [emoji1]

 

[Misschief]

Over on Ravelry, the soap making group is having a challenge; this month's challenge is Rebatching - Making something new out of soap we're not happy with (or end cuts.. whatever). I'm home today with a killer headache (I should NOT have moved some of those logs, knowing I have a deteriorating disk in my neck) but I can't just sit here and do nothing all day so I made my Ravelry challenge soap. (I didn't enter this month's SMF challenge.)

 

[Lin19687]

@Misschief that is funny you say this. My gym buddy stood me up so I came back home. I am sitting by the crock pot with scraps in there doing a Re-batch ! I MAY even Whip it
Why do they always seem to take forever to melt.

 

[wardbond]

a friend made a 4-foot mold for me, he went a bit overkill with the partitions (every 2 inches) used it for the first time today to make to soaps,, will use the other end tomorrow for another soap.

moringa powder base lemon poppyseed annatto titanium swirl soap with calendula sprinkle on the left and Oatmeal balsam of tolu and bitter almond on the le right with empress milk oolong sprinkle on the right

Unmolded the soaps today

 

[wardbond]

Who cares if it's pretty, its amazing to have so many options. I would love to just have a section of the mold and be able to adjust the batch size. I have just 2 molds now but thinking about trying to make one.. not that big though. The soaps you have in them currently look cool too

Unmolded!

 

[msunnerstood]

Unmolded!View attachment 30054

They turned out great! Love the tall and thin molds. I've been trying to find a good one. They just look like they would fit the hand better.

 

[cmzaha]

Yep, it did! Anything nut/drupe based. So no nut oils, including coconut (which is a drupe) and sweet almond oil. My standard recipe is just five fats:

Olive Oil (fruit)
Rice Bran Oil (grain)
Castor Oil (seed)
Coconut Oil (nut)
Shea Butter (nut)

so in the end, I'll probably just swap out the coconut oil and shea butter for lard. Although, I might replace the shea with cocoa butter. (which is a seed)

As far as I know for a vast majority of the population, even if you have a nut or drupe allergy - the oils are fine for skincare. However my step-niece is in the small percentage of people for whom coconut oil does cause an allergic reaction. I'll probably only make 6 bars total. Two to give to her and four to sell.

Nothing is allergen free. Someone will be allergic... I have a customer allergic to lard in soap and so is my daughter. Properties change once lye plays with it.

 

[Kari]

Nothing is allergen free. Someone will be allergic... I have a customer allergic to lard in soap and so is my daughter. Properties change once lye plays with it.

I suppose I should have said "common allergens" or nut free like artemis said. It's all good. It's not like I am crafting labels for soap I haven't even made yet, lol

 

[zanzalawi]

i made my first hot process soaps this weekend
a coffee scrubby soap with a naughty vanilla i didnt want to fight with in CP, and i made a second smaller batch with a blue mica that had previously morphed like crazy on me in CP. its still blue! yay!

 

[amd]

Very little accomplished in the soap lab because SPRING finally came to South Dakota, so I spent as much time as possible outside over the weekend and Monday. I did some cleaning in the lab, to move some things off the floor so when the concrete gets warm enough I will be able to properly wash my floors. I just couldn't bring myself to spend enough time down there to make soap - the weather is just too gorgeous! I do have soap I need to get made this week though, before I have to work on other projects (painting the rental house and stripping the family hutch that has at least 6 layers of paint on it). I sat down last night and designed the next soap I will be doing, an ombre brown and yellow Iced Tea soap, so I needed some calculations for the colors and splitting out the batter, etc. My head is still hurting from the math! I won't be getting April's challenge soap done because I really really need to get the information put together for May's challenge. (Yep... I *might* be a bit nervous about hosting my first challenge, which has led to procrastination.)

 

[earlene]

After returning from our little train trip to Chicago, I unmolded my Sous Vide Challenge soaps, photographed and posted my entry. Because I used individual molds, I was spared having to rush through a cut and planing scenario; totally planned it that way because I knew the timeline I had to work with. The entry thread is supposed to close tonight.

I am really quite tired after getting so little sleep two nights in a row. So I won't be doing anything else soapy tonight.

 

[amd]

Cut my iced tea twist soap. The medium yellow in my ombre wound up being the same color as the light yellow, but I am still happy with it.

Working on the embeds for the next club soap, then I will be back to making my simple soaps again. I have 17 FO's from BCN to test in soap, so there are a lot of small batches in my future!

 

[earlene]

They are beautiful, amd!

 

[cmzaha]

Amd, I agree that they are beautiful.

 

[Serene]

Amd,

That FO is lovely and so are the soaps.

 

[amd]

Thank you, all! I wish I would have slowed down and cleaned up my sides a bit better between pours - I did so with the first two colors, but then things started thickening on me and I panicked and just started dumping... I really didn't need to panic at all. A bit of stirring and the colors would have loosened back up (getting the small amount of texture on the top took forever, it was so slow to setup). So far the fragrance is really holding well. I quite like it!