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.
Yesterday I dropped off new stock at the spa and picked up a check for what she had sold. Today I'm comparing prices on shea butter, last time I bought it from Essentials Depot at a really good price for 25lbs, but I think their prices have really increased so might have to order from somewhere else. Tonight I'll be picking up some buttermilk to make soap - if I can find it. I checked my regular grocery store the other day and they had none. I probably have enough buttermilk powder to make my soap, but my soapy failure last week with this particular batch has me spooked so I'm trying to minimize all the things that went wrong. I still have to put my soap lab back together from cleaning the floor on Tuesday. I need to go through my supplies and pull anything I'm not using and get rid of it. I need more space for a better workflow... and so I can find what I need!
 
https://bulknaturaloils.com/shea-nut-butter-virgin.html
Jedward's has a really good price, but they are out of Organic unrefined but do have unrefined virgin - but you need to buy 55#

I bought the 55# refined Shea, I like it. I don't do the unrefined because my feeling is that I would be losing the unrefined benefits after the Lye.

Don't know how their shipping is because I drive over to pick it up :D
 
Thanks gals for the suggestions! The last time I bought from ED I bought unrefined organic because (crazy?) it was cheaper than refined - I can't remember if it was a sale or just how the maths came out because I was able to buy it in one bucket instead of 5lb cubes. I actually liked it better because it wasn't as sticky as refined, which made it really easy to scoop out of the bucket.
 
I did nothing soap today. Migraine day so after logging out of work early, I took a 6 hour nap hoping to sleep through the res of the headache.

I had intended to wrap and organize my inventory. Maybe tomorrow.

If you are okay with taking medications, you could to your doctor about Imitrex for migraine treatment. It makes you feel very weird for about an hour but then you can get up and do stuff. There are conditions that you can't take it with.
 
If you are okay with taking medications, you could to your doctor about Imitrex for migraine treatment. It makes you feel very weird for about an hour but then you can get up and do stuff. There are conditions that you can't take it with.

Imitrex works well. Unfortunately, my Dr. won't prescribe it. He did tell me once that I could take a combination of 2 extra strength Tylenol, 2 Advil and 2 Gravol and that it would do the same thing. Thankfully, I no longer get a lot of migraines.
 
If you are okay with taking medications, you could to your doctor about Imitrex for migraine treatment. It makes you feel very weird for about an hour but then you can get up and do stuff. There are conditions that you can't take it with.
I cannot take imitrex. I get Migraine with aura and aphasia. The limited drugs I can take I either get side effects or dont work. trigger point injectios are about the only thing that has worked and they arent covered for migraine
 
After work I went and bought some shea butter MP. I have a co-worker request for shea butter soap for his "dad's elbows" (he either has eczema or it's from chemotherapy) and he'd like it Wednesday. He has no idea how soap is made and trying to explain it to him was a lost cause but since it's a possible sale, I said OK. My friend Peggy gave me a 40% off coupon for Michael's so the 2lb of MP only cost me $6.35! I'll add a little extra shea butter and some chamomile & neem infused evoo to it to help. I forgot to prep my lye water yesterday for the blackberry vanilla test batch I wanted to make today so I prepped it when I came home from work but now all I wanna do is grab a shower and go to bed. It was a very long day!
 
I have absolutely no place to go this weekend (Shhhh, lets keep that quiet) so I have brine soap, and two special request soap batches to do, plus do an inventory and wrap. First on the list is the brine soap if I can decide which fragrance to do.
 
I made a small batch of plain lard soap. I've never done just lard/lye/water, but I thought it might be interesting. And walmart had the "expensive lard" (the one that just says lard, and no bht and whatnot) on clearance, which means they're discontinuing it, so I had to buy a pound. They also had spectrum shortening on clearance, I bought 2 tubs of that (that's all they had). Farmer's Market tomorrow. My soap has been selling pretty well this year, once I gave in and got micas and fragrance oils :). Last year I did ok, but there's only so many combinations you can make with the EOs that stick, and the bars were pretty much varying shades of "cream". I've found this year that nobody cares that it's not "all natural", they like the pretty yummy soap. New scents come on Monday from WSP. Of course, that soap won't be ready before the end of the market, but it'll be ready for the Holiday Bazaars.
 
Made some shaving soap last night, far more than I need, but I suspect I'll be giving most of it away. Made 500 gr of oils, makes something like 800 gr of soap, and 100 gr will probably last me a year or so....

Came out really nice except the scent is off, more citonella than I intended, but if it's like the last batch I used that particular mix with it will fade quite a bit, down to a pleasant faint whiff of lemon/citrus when I shave with it.

Best one yet -- 45% tallow, 35% SA, 10 % CO, 5% each cocoa and shea butter with half the butters as superfat. 60% KOH.
 
Did 4 Regular soap batches (5# each) and 3 Salt bars (3# each).
Just finished taking Regular soap out of the mold and will cut in the AM before the market if I can drink my coffee first.
Salts will stay in mold till I feel like taking them out .

Perfect Man smells loverly here ;)
 
I'm diluting a batch of HPLS today, for a special order.. it's looking so beautiful!! I've had a few issues with cloudiness lately, so I ran my recipe through a different calculator, which helped.. then I upped the LTE just a smidge... and I think that I will be VERY happy today!
 

Attachments

  • 20180818_123707.jpg
    20180818_123707.jpg
    61.3 KB
I'm diluting a batch of HPLS today; been having issues with cloudiness, so I ran my recipe through a new calculator, which was much better, but not perfect. So, I upped my lye a smidge, and I think that I will be VERY happy today!
 

Attachments

  • 20180818_123707.jpg
    20180818_123707.jpg
    61.3 KB
Instead of my challenge soap (I still have tomorrow), I made two batches of bubble scoops, Lavender and Sugarplum Fairy. My boss's wife wants 11 of the Sugarplum Fairy scoops as part of the goody bags for her daughter's birthday this coming week. I have 10 left and a market coming up next weekend. They were one of the better sellers at the last market so......
 
Back
Top