What soapy thing have you done today?

[msunnerstood]

Today I'm cooking up my master plan to try peacock swirl for the first time. A friend of mine (I call her crazy Peggy) loves the combo of lavender and vanilla. She is also a bit artsy. So I'm trying to orchestrate the colors and fragrances to match (black, brown and light brown to be joined to the vanilla FO which will totes turn brown all on its own) and lavender EO to go with purple, kelly green, white and yellow.

I made my own swirling comb after watching a Youtube on how to make one using cardboard and bamboo skewers.

So excited I'm not sure I can wait till tomorrow to make it. Here's my model photo, sort of my goal:View attachment 31472

Beautiful!

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

I made a cake soap that smells like coffee

 

[scard]

That looks good enough to eat! I love it.

 

[Marten]

Yum! What coffee fragrance did you use? I'm gearing up to make a coffee soap in the next week or so.

 

[Dean]

Made orange blossom bars

....and pineapple margaritas.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

Yum! What coffee fragrance did you use? I'm gearing up to make a coffee soap in the next week or so.

I’min Mexico and i got it from a local supplier that makes FOs that actually work on cold process!

 

[Lin19687]

well it is going to be a HOT one today
I may be soaping............. if the damn cat will get off my lap. I can only reach the keyboard, mouse, and thank gawd my coffee mug ! Which is just about empty ....

 

[Misschief]

Today's a day off and I'm feeling better (had some kind of GI issue yesterday) so soap will be happening, at least two kinds. And maybe some more bubble scoops. Or shower steamers.

 

[amd]

My plan for tonight is to make the Cherry Almond soap. I had planned to do it last night after I got home from my show, but my family needed some care and attention, so tonight it is! I have two custom orders in the queue, with a third pending (the customer wants an embed on the top, she has the mold so I need to get it from her). If I can squeeze in three more of my stock soaps this week that would be perfect! Customers have already started requesting some of the soaps I only carry at Christmas time (Wild Peach & Poppy buttermilk , and Tuscan Cedarwood Beer soaps have gotten enough requests the last week that I can probably pre-sell a full 18 bar batch of each with no problems). That's a pretty heavy soaping load for me, so I may settle for getting one custom order done, one stock soap, and one Christmas soap. Seems like a nice balance.

 

[Lin19687]

I got oils all melted and waiting for the Insurance guy to call me about my policy. So I don't want to start anything just yet.
But I got 4 batches lined up.
Werewolf, Teakwood/Tayberry, Stormy Nights, Sangria Punch.

Today was trash day so I was busy all morning finding things to fill up my trash barrel

 

[Misschief]

Right now, I'm just waiting for my oils to melt and then cool. First batch of the day will be my Gardener's Hand Soap; it's proven to be a good seller and I'm almost out. It's a really scrubbby soap, made with pumice, corn meal, poppy seeds, and orange peel powder, scented with Bay Rum, Tobacco, and Sweet Orange. I'm really loving that combination.

 

[Dean]

Unmolded my orange blossom soap. Been soaping without CO (0% lauric/myristic) lately because of the drying effect. Without the CO there is little lather, plus its still a little drying. For this batch I added CO back at 15% and super-duper-fatted at 10%. I usually SF at 5%, except for the time I made 100% CO soap.

 

[shunt2011]

Got all my soaps wrapped and almost labeled. Made 4 batches of bath bombs on Saturday and got them wrapped and labeled as well. I have a two day show coming up this weekend. Only a few more things to finish up. No soap making in my near future unfortunately.

 

[Dean]

scented with Bay Rum, Tobacco, and Sweet Orange. I'm really loving that combination.

That sounds good! Wish the SMF had a scratchNsniff function.

 

[msunnerstood]

I am trying to duplicate my daughters soap tonight. The fragrance is just so good I needed to try. I let her take home all of the soap she made and Id kind of like some with the same combination scent.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

Scraped? Cleaned? ungelled? a bunch of ale vera leaves, then processed them and froze them. All ready to use for my next btch of soap. I find that using aloe instead of water i dont get any ash.

 

[SugarBushPrimitives]

So I'm just wondering what stages everyone's at. I'm a curious little cat, I am.

For myself, I'm waiting for my most recent batch of bar soap to firm up (trying to give it 24 hours before I even touch it, since the soapcalc numbers put it just shy of the 'ideal' hardness range). In addition I fiddled around with the liquid soap I made yesterday (a good chunk of it didn't dissolved, and I was seeing if that was because there wasn't enough water to dilute it all... sure enough that was the problem so it was diluted and added to the bottle holding the rest of it).

And right now I have a tea going that will eventually be strained and frozen, to be used when I make my shampoo bar. Still need to get to my aunt's to pick her citrus trees... But at least I can have the liquid ready to go! I measured out 1/2 oz of dried marshmallow root, 1 1/2 cups water (both weighed to the gram), and then for kicks I tossed in one bag each of Bigelow's Chammomile Lemon and I Love Lemon teas. I'm going to be infusing both chamomile and lemon into the oils, and needed to use the teas anyways (and I don't drink tea). Win-win, right? I might not need all of the tea for the shampoo bar (I'll only be using about 500g oils after all), but at least I'll have it done.

Waiting to cut newly made soap has to be my least favorite part of soapmaking. LOL

 

[Lin19687]

I am NO LONGER allowing DD to help with coloring. Gawd awful mustard color on the Teakwood /Tayberry
From L to R
Teakwood/tayberry/Werewolf, Stormy Nights, Sangria
The stormy nights is the end bar and didn't get the gel to the bottom, but all the rest are fine. I just noticed that while looking at the pic

 

[cmzaha]

Managed to get a batch poured today before the heat set in. It is a mix of Honeysuckle, Lettuce, Lemongrass FO and Sweetgrass. I am trying to use up a lot of fo's that just do not hold up well or do not sell well, so I am mixing them with known stickers.

 

[amd]

@Lin19687 I like the mustard colored soap! You can send it to me... no, wait... don't. I have too much soap already. My husband will leave me if I buy any more soap until I use up what I have. Or at least use up one of the boxes.

Last night I made Cherry Almond soap. The kids like it when I make that one because the whole house smells like ice cream! Worked on editing some videos. I don't like that the YouTube editor will not let me merge two separate video files into one, so my cut videos are still separate from the making videos. Or in the case of the videos I'm currently working on, the camera turned off partway through the making so I have three videos for making one soap. It is what it is I guess, until I get a computer upgrade and can use a better editing software.

Tonight I wanted to do Mint & Patchouli as a soleseife. My Jade soleseife is about 4 weeks cured so I tested it last night in the shower. My skin really liked it, and it will be a great soap when the 8 week cure is done, so I want to do more brine soaps rather than salt bars. Anyways, I put that on the schedule for tonight, then remembered that I cut the Jade soap at 9 hours and it was a hard cut. I thought I would try cutting at 6 hours this time, which means if I make it tonight I will be up until the wee hours of the morning just waiting to cut. So... trying to figure out a timeline for making it that will get it cured in time for my October show (I'm cutting it close, August came out of nowhere). A few ladies that buy at the October show have already contacted me asking specifically for the Mint & Patchouli soap, so maybe I should just make it as a regular soap, I don't know if they would like soleseife (but I would! so if it doesn't sell that's one I would love to have in my personal stash, hahaha). Sorry for rambling, I'm just thinking out loud. Tonight for sure will be Peach Poppy buttermilk soap.

That will be all my soapmaking until Sunday, unless I decide not to do the Thursday night market. My cousin called last night, they did not start her chemo treatments yesterday. Sent her home for hospice, they said she has a week or two at best left. I'm heading over to see her Wednesday night. Friday I am going over to the rental to work on some painting. Hope to at least have the garage done by the end of the day. Pretty sure I'm going to be hot, tired and crabby, so packing for Saturday's show will be all I can manage when I get home.