What soapy thing have you done today?

[SoapAddict415]

I wish I could say I had a soapy project, but I am in the process of building a new home and soap shop. Everything I own is packed and it is driving me crazy. So I just hit YouTube and learn.

That's a nice drawer. I think I've still got the same brown loaf mold that you have in picture #5. We had 2 basement floods and then we moved so I'm not sure now. It was the very first mold I bought.

 

[KimT2au]

That's a nice drawer. I think I've still got the same brown loaf mold that you have in picture #5. We had 2 basement floods and then we moved so I'm not sure now. It was the very first mold I bought.

That is awful

 

[KimT2au]

Today I received one of the two soaping orders I am waiting for arrived by courier. After that my daughter helped me make a temporary 8 bar mold (yayyeee for us), then I received a text from Australia Post telling my parcel (the second order I was waiting for had been delivered so I rushed down the driveway only to find they lied My letter box is empty . May plague and pestilence fall upon those who text messages to people falsely claiming their parcel has been delivered. If it is not here by this evening I will have to go to the post office tomorrow and see what is going on. Not a happy camper.

 

[Suzy Knight]

I am soooooo excited! I went to the local vineyard for a wine tasting and asked to try something that was fragrant since I was considering make soap with it. The owners ears perked up and she said "You make soap?" I was then invited to be the only soap vendor at a show they are doing in November!!

That's so awesome! Congrats!

 

[steffamarie]

Time to split off my cube of palm oil...maybe I'll make some soap out of it later. But that would mean I have to do soap dishes and we all know how lazy I am.

 

[amd]

Last night I made shampoo bars and masterbatched 24lbs of oil. So... I think the shampoo bars might be a total disaster. I'm not sure I got the emulsifying wax completely melted, I noticed as I was smooshing the goopy paste into the molds that there were small chunks that look exactly like the wax pellets. Sigh. I thought about throwing them back in the melter, but wasn't sure if it would work because I had already added fragrance and preservative, and didn't know if it would I would need to add more after the remelt, how much would be lost, and what would be safe to add. Oh well, these first batches will be for me to try, so if they aren't quite perfect it's probably ok. Now I know I need more time for melting. I probably should have cut the batch in half for this first time, 'cuz it's kind of a lot of bars for a test. Noted for when I move on to the next recipe.

I'm hoping tonight I will get to make soap. I'm an emotional anxiety ridden mess today (someone cut me off during the school dropoff and I cried for five minutes), so not sure I will be in good shape for soapmaking tonight or if I should just go to bed early and try again tomorrow. I have one more beer soap I would like to make for my stock, and I have to do the brewery soap.

 

[cmzaha]

@amd, you can remelt them but I would add in more preservative, since the heat will kill your preservative. If you end up selling them test them well first. Shampoo bars are not necessarily easy to make, I tweaked mine several times before settling on one I like. My first issue was the bars became very mushy after first use, and it was a Swift Monkey recipe. Are you using SCI, if so it is very hard to melt so I use powdered form or grind the noodles to powder. It is interesting that you had trouble with melting the e-wax, I have never had a hard to melt e-wax, but SCI it is mean...I put my Liquid Surfs, Oil and Wax and melt all together in the micro, never leaving it. It will puff up and needs to be stirred down constantly until all is melted, 20-30 min average for me

Still no soapmaking or anything for that matter here. Just crocheting hats and hoods for market

 

[amd]

@cmzaha Oh yes! I am definitely in testing phase. I am nowhere near comfortable with a) the process or b) if the recipe is good to even think about selling them right now. I'd like to say that I will be selling in 6 months, but if it takes longer then it takes longer. I would rather take longer to have a good product than throw something out to customers willy-nilly just because it's a trend.

I did some reading on SCI, and everything I read warned me that it would be difficult to melt although it does melt better with a liquid, so I melted it with my cocamydipropl betaine (spelling might not be the best on that one, ha!). I think it was melted together, at least it was gooey and rather translucent. Do you think it melted enough? Should it have been runny rather than gooey? I looked for a good step by step process so I would know what it should look like, but couldn't find one. Now, I'm realizing that I didn't look on YouTube, duh! I'll be searching there tonight. I suspect the ewax was me being impatient, it took so long to get the SCI/betaine to the point that I thought was melted. Next time I will melt the ewax separate and add it to the SLSa and other additives. And do a smaller batch The whole process was messier than I expected. My husband wasn't impressed with the mess in the kitchen when he came home from church. I cleaned up when I was done, but the during part was not pretty.

 

[cmzaha]

I found SCI melts better in the liquid surfs and oils, I add in butters after all is melted. I never got a good melt when melting in just the liquid surfs

I love them and use them exclusively, but I cannot sell the darn things well at all other than 1 customer that also loves them, so I make them for she and I

If you are worried about adding more preservative just use a different preservative. What I did when I had to tweak mine was melt down a couple of bars recorded all tweaks until I got one I liked, then I could finish tweaking the batch. They are just to expensive to make and toss in the trash. Sorry guess we should have a new thread for this, my bad...

 

[amd]

@cmzaha good idea about a new thread! I know there have been some in the past. I'm going to do a search to check the age, if there's a recent one, I will add to it, if not I will start a new.

 

[Lin19687]

re-arranged my soap room a little last night. now to pick what FO's to use

 

[steffamarie]

Let no one say I've been unproductive on my sick day...I've done all my soap dishes and might just reward myself by making up a batch of soap!!!

 

[Lin19687]

had to deal with my recall and car issue that I have been dealing with for 4 months .. grrr

Now have a loaner. HATE gas cars, but I must say I do like the room in the minivan I got for a loaner

 

[ulrurunaturals]

I made my 1st 100% Lard Soap. Never gave used it before first time. Now got to wait 6 weeks to try not like melt and pour. Never have done melt and pour before.

 

[Ronda Stika]

I think I'm finally getting the hang of swirled CP soap. Made a nice 18 mold of pinks & greens, but the next one was a real eye opener!
Made a coffee soap using cold coffee for water with the lye. I must not have let the coffee cool enough and when I poured the lye in, it heated and overflowed! Scary! I added the lost liquid with distilled water and continued on. The swirl came out nice on top, will post both batches when I cut in 2-3 days. I'm loving CP and all the great recipes! I am attempting a rimmed soap next!

 

[msunnerstood]

Iv been on Amazon again. I got a piping kit. Im going to attempt to pipe HP soap on my wine soaps this weekend and then put leaf embeds on top.

 

[Misschief]

Iv been on Amazon again. I got a piping kit. Im going to attempt to pipe HP soap on my wine soaps this weekend and then put leaf embeds on top.

Looking forward to seeing how it works.

 

[msunnerstood]

Looking forward to seeing how it works.

Im doing a one pound test batch first. some of my experiments work, others dont and I dont want to waste the oils on a big batch if it fails. The wine was expensive too since it local from a vineyard.

 

[cmzaha]

Ordered some fragrances today. Maybe I will get to make some soap soon...Holidays are coming and I do not have even close to enough soap

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

I’ve been making a bunch of soap this past few days. 2 scents smell fine, but they accelerate way too much to be able to do any pretty swirls. Once smells meh and it was the one that behave beautifully.

I have 2 batches cut and cleaned and one that i just unmolded today. I am down to my last test scent and i dont know if i should use it tomorrow or wait until next week that i am getting a new mold i just ordered.

Probably will wait since i have to do some soap dishes first.