What soapy thing have you done today?

[Chris_S]

Got some extra stainless steel mixing bowls and planning on trying to make some beer soap tonight (decided againt this idea when i went into my soaping space spent a whole 2 minutes and decided then its far too cold to be waiting about for the lye and oils to cool down). So instead I organised my soaping and hobby shelves i bought last night

Mega excited today got an email earlier asking if i would be interested in setting up and looking after a bee hive for a local church fully funded by them. Contemplating making either candles or some melts instead

 

[Terri E]

Very nice Carolyne! Can't wait to see the cut


I made big bath bombs

 

[Dawni]

Tried to CP a small batch today! I mostly do HP... This has dead sea mud ^^

You can see which ones I poured in last lol

I also got my hands on TD. My swirls aren't a success; I need to figure out the consistency of the batter when I should add it.. In HP there's just "after the cook" for me lol
View attachment 33301
If there's actual swirls on the bottoms I'll post pics lol

Unmolded and cut these..
Nope. No swirls. At all lol
Dead sea mud was much darker than this so I'm assuming the TD got thoroughly mixed in. Not what I was going for but at least they're smooth

 

[Chris_S]

Hi Chris, Here’s a thread link https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/kaolin-white-clay-in-cold-process-soap.64124/ I also found helpful info on modern soapmaking and soap queen blogs. I’m not sure what your experience working with clay was but it definitely absorbs water so you can premix it with an equal part water and/or make sure your water to oil ratio isn’t low. I think a lot of soapers blend it into the oils before adding the lye mix. And it looks like most are adding 1 T per pound of oil.

Thank you carolyn for the link ill read through it properly later when i get a few minutes. That was my first and still only attempt at working with clay in soaps so very minimal experience. Been having a go at using alternatives to water recently because distilled water in england is 2 things expensive and as far i can find mostly only available online so goats milk ect is much easier to buy. But i do want to have another go at trying clays so ill definatly give that link a read. Thanks

 

[TeresaGG]

Unmolded and cut these.
Nope. No swirls. At all lol
Dead sea mud was much darker than this so I'm assuming the TD got thoroughly mixed in. Not what I was going for but at least they're smooth

It sounds like you're putting the titanium dioxide into your main batch and expecting swirls. How you get swirls is you pour off some of the soap batter after emulsification. Then you add different colors to each section. After that you pour them together into your mold to get swirls.

 

[Dawni]

It sounds like you're putting the titanium dioxide into your main batch and expecting swirls. How you get swirls is you pour off some of the soap batter after emulsification. Then you add different colors to each section. After that you pour them together into your mold to get swirls.

I tried an ITP swirl.. Perhaps I didn't add enough? Or maybe I didn't mix the TD properly? I'm not sure if it's noticeable in the big bar but there's white powder dispersed in some places. It's my first time to use TD, and 2nd try with CP but I'll definitely try again, thanks

 

[Carolyne Thrasher]

Oh my! ^ That looks AMAZING Carolyne! Love the colours.

Thanks!

 

[TeresaGG]

I tried an ITP swirl.. Perhaps I didn't add enough? Or maybe I didn't mix the TD properly? I'm not sure if it's noticeable in the big bar but there's white powder dispersed in some places. It's my first time to use TD, and 2nd try with CP but I'll definitely try again, thanks

For ITP swirl you still separate out some soap and mix diffrent colors into each section. You just pour the diffrent colored sections of soap back into your main container "pot" before pouring into the mold.

Edit, An basic example here in step 9 https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/cold-process-soap-from-scratch-516814

 

[Misschief]

I haven't done anything soapy, per se, but I have been doing a lot of reading about shaving soaps and how to use them. I did make another test batch for myself this week (with a bit of bentonite clay added) and played with lathering up this morning. Now I just need guinea pigs... er, test subjects... to provide more feedback than my husband can give me (he's sporting a full beard right now).

 

[TeresaGG]

I haven't done anything soapy, per se, but I have been doing a lot of reading about shaving soaps and how to use them. I did make another test batch for myself this week (with a bit of bentonite clay added) and played with lathering up this morning. Now I just need guinea pigs... er, test subjects... to provide more feedback than my husband can give me (he's sporting a full beard right now).

How much would it cost to ship a small testing batch to Oregon? My dad is currently sporting a Circle beard for No Shave November. He still has to shave the sides. He says he's willing to be a guinea pig.
Edit, I would be willing to pay shipping for a small test sample.

 

[earlene]

Made some soap today, last week as well. I'm staying at my brother's house in California. Last week it was my very first pine tar soap. I seem to have lucked out getting a brand that doesn't smell horrendous. I actually like the smokey fragrance of this soap very much. I used some of the pine tar soap to make an Intaglio carved soap for my December-inspired entry for the November Challenge here at SMF. I really like how it turned out.

Then today, to used up most of the oils and lye that I purchased for that soap to make a salt soap. It worked out pretty well. All that's left is a little bit of oil that I can use for frying my veggie bacon and leave what's left for my SIL to cook with upon their return. Tomorrow I plan to wrap said soaps and then on Tuesday, I'll either pack them in my suitcase or mail them home to myself. I haven't decided. I know how TSA reacts to large amounts of soap in luggage (it resembles C4 on xray so inspection is necessary), so I'm leaning toward mailing them home on Tuesday. I fly out on Wednesday morning.

This is brand I got in case anyone is interested. Plus I need to save a link for myself for future reference, since I have read some brands smell horrible.

 

[Dawni]

Did not make anything soap related, just ordered some beeswax to try for the first time. And did a little research on a local oil I've been meaning to ask if it can be added to the soapmaking friend calc.... Which reminds me, I should post about it and get more feedback.

For ITP swirl you still separate out some soap and mix diffrent colors into each section. You just pour the diffrent colored sections of soap back into your main container "pot" before pouring into the mold.

Edit, An basic example here in step 9 https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/cold-process-soap-from-scratch-516814

Thanks for the link.. That is what I did. I managed a swirl with activated charcoal the same way before though, so I really wondered at the result. In my pot, there were white swirls lol

 

[Carolyne Thrasher]

Oh my! ^ That looks AMAZING Carolyne! Love the colours.

Thanks KiwiMoose

 

[JanelleTrebuna]

Last night I made a batch of cinnamon sugar scented cp in my new silicone 3 lb loaf that dh bought me for my bday.
I haven't any colorants, so I tried something and I'm hoping it works. I didn't research first, but thought logically that it might be successful. I separated my batch 1/3 unscented and 2/3 scented. I've soaped with this fo before and I know it discolors to a pretty tannish brown. Then I poured layers and did a bit of a swirl at the top. I couldn't see a difference yet, but I'm hoping in the next 24-48 hours there will be an obvious difference in colors. :crossing my fingers: I'll post a pic after unmolding and cutting. Either way, I know I love the scent and I love using my soap; so its a win, win.

Janelle

 

[Lin19687]

Did a bunch of research but no soaping.
Will be trying some Tarts soon

 

[amd]

I made a batch of beer soap for the brewery. Had beers with my soapy friend while she was in town. We discussed a ton of stuff - fragrances, essential oils sticking, shows, stock, water discounts, stuff that other soapers do that interest us... stuff they do that annoys us... what we're working on for next year and what trends we think are dying. Oh, and designing new labels for the brewery on my new label size. I like this new size so much. So much easier to setup and print. Shipped some orders. Definitely not as much as done as I would have liked for a 4-1/2 day weekend.

This week I will be working on sugar scrubs for my sisters, one sister asked me to make her some lotion bars so I'll be giving that a go, more beer soaps (they added more to their order, yay!), and I'd like to get a Valentine's soap done, but I'll see how it goes this week - I also need to masterbatch oils, so that takes one night away from soaping. I was hoping to get back to my shampoo bar experiments too.

 

[Chris_S]

ordered some new fragrance oils this morning. made some melts the other day with some essential oils not made soap since the semi successful coffee soap it smells lovely but i blended far too much and the fo accelerated trace so the batter was far to thick so presentation wise not happy with it

 

[Zing]

I made a batch of Creamy Orange with orange 10X essential oil and cocoa butter. I wanted to bathe in the melted oils, the coconut oil and cocoa butter smelled so wonderful. I'm not a big fan of orange but my wife loves it.

 

[Suzy Knight]

they look a bit like oreos! have you stamped them with something to get them looking like that?

Went to b&q and bought a new set of shelves and put them together. they will be used firstly for curing soaps then rest of the space will be for other crafting stuff. just need to sort everything out now

I used a mold that has a pattern in the bottom.

 

[Carolyne Thrasher]

Janelle it sounds wonderful. If your swirls worked will you post a picture?