What soapy thing have you done today?

[earlene]

I picked up some priority shipping boxes at the Post Office. I'll wrap the bars of soap in paper tomorrow and fill one of the boxes. Also the tin of pine tar. Can't take that on the plane. I checked the weather forecast and it will be raining here for the next few days, but clear in Chicago. I hope there will be no delays for my flights on Wednesday and that my box of soap doesn't get wet on the way to the Post Office (hopefully it won't be a downpour tomorrow).

 

[amd]

Made a second batch of beer soap for the brewery last night. It was kind of spur of the moment - I was moving soaps to the cure rack when I noticed a few bars weren't as tall as the others, so I popped them on the scale. Yep, they'll be underweight (I label at 4.0 oz but typically soaps are 4.3 - 4.7 oz) after curing. I had enough leftover beer to do a 9 bar batch, so I'll be able to replace the short bars. The brewery was asking if I would make extra batches for them and cut into samples (they'll pay of course) so the short bars are a good start on that project. I must have had a soap gremlin hiding in the lab on Saturday because the first batch gave me a difficult time. I was going to make some tweaks for working with what I thought was a difficult FO, but then decided to do it the same way to keep the bars consistent. No gremlins in sight, the soap went perfectly. My jars came in for scrubs, so I started tinkering with the sugar scrub. I put the base in the fridge to cool... I got side tracked and was headed up for bed when I remembered it. I pulled it out, but not sure if I'll be able to use it as is or if I can remelt it, cool and then whip it. I did my soap dishes (the ones I meant to do last week).

Tonight's list will be tinkering with the sugar scrub, making another beer soap, and masterbatching my oils. I might get around to tinkering with my shampoo bar recipe yet this week. We'll see how demanding the family is

 

[Chris_S]

Had a bash at making beer soap. Only just finished it so not sure how its gone yet but so far im pretty happy. i put lime eo in as that was closest scent i could think would be associated with beer that i have in my supplies and put a white foamy top on it cant wait to unmould it

 

[earlene]

I mailed a box of soap home to myself and the tin of pine tar, after carefully wrapping each. I was even able to fit a book into the box as well to take up some space. It all went priority mail, so should arrive day after tomorrow. I'll be home myself tomorrow, if all goes well.

 

[cmzaha]

I made a very nice non-fragranced today :-( it was a goof. I needed to pour 3 batches for my oil supplier and forgot the fragrance in the first batch. To bad unfragranced does not sell well at all for me. Have not done that one in a long time. I am telling you dementia is contagious. I did get the next 3 correct, Lemongrass, Dragon's Blood and Bayberry. Lemongrass and Bayberry for California Candle.

 

[Chris_S]

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.

Iv been using cocoa butter in my last 3-4 batches and i feel the same makes the house smell absolutly awesome.

@Dawni the last few batches iv made. so my coffee soap the beer soap iv just made and the second batche of my goats milk soap have all had beeswax in them. personally iv used 1.5% beeswax in and just had a little jiggle of my recipe around adding the beeswax. My favourite soap so far is the first one i made with beeswax. Its cp but i will pm you my recipe if you wanted to try it?

 

[SunRiseArts]

I made a landscape, secret rose and cross soap for my husband’s aunt
View attachment 32901
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wow those are gorgeous. How did you make that cross? Is it a column mold or something?

 

[Dawni]

Sure @Chris_S
I haven't received my beeswax but I will soon and it would help to try an already tested recipe ^^

Tried one soap at its 4 week cure mark for hand washing. I'll leave the rest up on the shelf for another two weeks before I try it in the shower.

This one is HP and has olive, coconut, rice bran, castor oils and cocoa and shea butters. Home made moringa and rice powders for additives.

Pics are unedited. I wonder if the green tinge comes through?

 

[Lin19687]

I can see the color. I find that the darker or even ones that you use More of the colorant seem to do this. No biggie

 

[shunt2011]

I too can see the color. Not a problem really. I sometimes have issues with dark colors mostly. I haven't had anything stain to date.

 

[JanelleTrebuna]

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

I will. The top looks lovely now, and I cut them into bars yesterday. I'm just waiting for the insides to darken. There are swirls there. I was super psyched it worked! And can't wait to get some proper micas to play with adding color. This was so much fun, kind of "secret squirrel" like. But it is harder to control when you can't see what is happening.

Janelle

 

[amd]

I finished my sugar scrubs - I think. I have never made or used a sugar scrub so I'm not really sure what it's supposed to look/feel like. Then my box from NG arrived so I was busy blissfully smelling my new FO haul (and shoving bottles under everyone's noses). Daughter had a few projects she needed help with, and then hubby needed help with some electrical stuff... and pretty soon it was bedtime and I didn't get the challenge survey sent out. Sigh. No soapmaking or masterbatching got done. Tonight is my "BFF since diapers" birthday so we are meeting up for a wine tasting at the brewery (she's the wino, I'll stick to beer), so maybe Thursday...

 

[Kerry K.]

Well, I got invited to a craft show at work, so I've been busy packing up and labeling my cured soaps (they all smell great). Spent the weekend designing and printing labels. We also packed body butters and one hair conditioner, plus some perfume oils. I'm so excited, everything looks great. This isn't a proper craft show, it's to showcase the talents of people at work, but I'm told that a lot of people will be there. Very happy with how perfectly the labels turned out.

 

[Chris_S]

I was far too excited this morning that when i thought it was ready i cut my beer soap. love how its turned out but think i need to add some light brown mica to the bottom section to make it stand out more as its not alot different to the td white foamy part at the top. I absolutely love how the foamy parts turned out though i really didnt expect much on this first attempt. The foamy part was smaller at that end not sure why it turned out like that because i tried to flatten the bottom section to make it even but saying that im still very happy although iv yet to cut it all i decided after that first cut it was still a bit too soft to cut any more.

Did some painting and decorating for a friend then went to pick up a parcel with all my lovely new FOs

 

[earlene]

Looks green to me. So does your lather.

Sure @Chris_S
I haven't received my beeswax but I will soon and it would help to try an already tested recipe ^^

Tried one soap at its 4 week cure mark for hand washing. I'll leave the rest up on the shelf for another two weeks before I try it in the shower.

This one is HP and has olive, coconut, rice bran, castor oils and cocoa and shea butters. Home made moringa and rice powders for additives.

Pics are unedited. I wonder if the green tinge comes through?
View attachment 33409 View attachment 33408

 

[amd]

I did not get my oils masterbatched last night before I left for my besties birthday dinner, so I did 24lbs today on my lunch hour. It should be cooled enough to use tonight so I can finish the last soap batch for the brewery. I'm feeling itchy to make a Valentine's Day soap, so I might start planning one to do over the weekend. It's not too early, right?

 

[Miki]

Got back from the doctor thinking I'd celebrate this last appointment with a batch of activated charcoal soap... ok, the temps were up in the 30's... summer is nearly here, soap kitchen on the front veranda, in the sun.... I'm on a high, add the lye, here's me thinking oh its going nice and quick, added the sf and charcoal.....
Of course its a false trace! Zap tested it (ouch), quickly rebatched it all and phew its turned out fine (had DH do the zap test).

 

[Dawni]

Heh... I knew it.

So I guess now if someone asks me how to get green soap I'll point to Moringa lol

I got soap on a stick the other night, but managed to mold it. Other things needed my attention so the cut was put off til much later and when I did cut most crumbled.

I rebatched last night, while my sister's beer pong party was going on and was, of course, distracted. I might have messed up molding about 1/4 of it.. Let's see.

 

[Chris_S]

made a second batch of beer soap but used some brown mica for the bottom layer and apparently brown and white makes a horrible grey colour. Who knew i was working on the assumption that white makes colours lighter but apparently this is the exception to this. Anyways i know it wont look like beer so i just did a fluffy top to it and hope it looks ok when cured. After this disaster i decided i needed a more suitable colour as the brown was very dark so iv just ordered a golden mica which should be closer to a beer colour. also pricing up shampoo bar m+p base for myself

 

[Misschief]

made a second batch of beer soap but used some brown mica for the bottom layer and apparently brown and white makes a horrible grey colour. Who knew i was working on the assumption that white makes colours lighter but apparently this is the exception to this. Anyways i know it wont look like beer so i just did a fluffy top to it and hope it looks ok when cured. After this disaster i decided i needed a more suitable colour as the brown was very dark so iv just ordered a golden mica which should be closer to a beer colour. also pricing up shampoo bar m+p base for myself

I use a bit of cocoa powder to make my beer soap darker. The top and swirls are lightened with Titanium Dioxide.