What soapy thing have you done today?

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Zing, I made some lotion bars yesterday, too. I realize, after the fact, that they're not really my thing. I'll either pass them on to someone else or use them in another product, like lip balm.

I made a batch of Lindy's Cream Soap, which is now curing. I did a LOT of reading and watching YouTube videos before, during, and after the making.

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I checked my cream soap and rewhipped it. It whipped up really nice so I added fragrance (a combination of lavender, lime and patchouli EO's with a touch of NG Lavender Sage FO because I was short on lavender EO - turns out there was a bottle hiding in plain sight, sigh...), pumice and preservative. It's going to sit for another month before I jar it for foot scrubs.

I gifted one of the sugar scrubs I made to a friend, she's been raving about it and wants to buy 7 for gifting. A little hesitant because 1) this is the first time I've made sugar scrub so I haven't done any shelf life testing and 2) I am out of small plastic jars, the only option available locally is small glass canning jars, and I don't like glass in the shower... On the plus side, I did discover that if I use NG's Bite Me FO and call it Cherry Limeade my husband will rub whatever it is all over his body and come to bed smelling like a popsicle... (he really likes Cherry Limeade and decided to check out the tub of pink stuff sitting on the shower ledge, he's a fan.)

I made a second batch of shampoo bars, went slightly better than the first batch - I'll detail that in my shampoo bar thread.

Daughter helped me design a Valentine's soap, and made the m&p embeds for me. We'll get around to making the rest of the soap later this week.

This week's agenda: finishing the VDay soap, maybe making the March soap, doing dishes, and then either working on examples of wedding favors for the bridal show, or a batch of charcoal soap. I haven't decided.
 
Zing, I made some lotion bars yesterday, too. I realize, after the fact, that they're not really my thing. I'll either pass them on to someone else or use them in another product, like lip balm.
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Yeah, some people really like them, others prefer lotion lotion. My sons are rock climbers and their hands take a beating and they swear by this product. They got me hooked as well and it's better than the 100 prescription cremes I've tried. Let us know how the cream soap turns out!
 
Keep us posted on this recipe, KiwiMoose. These are beautiful and I'm curious about your colorants, it's so white. I want to try your scent blend. My son recently told me to combine bergamot and may chang which I never would have thought of on my own, and it's great.
Funny enough - that's exactly what I used! I had (of the EOs) 30% rosemary, 30% bergamot and 30% May Chang (give or take 10%). And I used real lemon juice in the soap recipe.
Also - the colour is au natural :)
 
awesome thank you for sharing your method. The last beer soap i made smells amazing but is rather grey coloured so im just gunna tell people its based on a mud pie and miss out the beer part :rolleyes: so iv come up with the name mango mud pie.
Do you need to take say 5ml of water or whatever your mixing the lye with and use that to mix the powder? so far iv opted for mixing them with a measured by eye amount of oil out of the recipe.

I've had success coloring beer soaps two ways: For a light green color I use an IPA beer with extra virgin olive oil (a nice dark green brand). For a tan I use a brown ale, and a stout will give a rich brown color. I've also made a Black & Tan by adding some Charcoal to 1/2 the batch.
 
One of my favorite parts of soap making is the excitement to see whats inside when you cut it. The top can come out perfect and yet you dont know till the next day exactly what you have. For this soap, I wanted a big uneven top because i was glittering with 3 different mica glitters. Here is todays cut.

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One of my favorite parts of soap making is the excitement to see whats inside when you cut it. The top can come out perfect and yet you dont know till the next day exactly what you have. For this soap, I wanted a big uneven top because i was glittering with 3 different mica glitters. Here is todays cut.

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I've had success coloring beer soaps two ways: For a light green color I use an IPA beer with extra virgin olive oil (a nice dark green brand). For a tan I use a brown ale, and a stout will give a rich brown color. I've also made a Black & Tan by adding some Charcoal to 1/2 the batch.

interesting ideas ill write that in my soaping book and pick up some newcastle brown next time im at the shop. Given you are in america you probably dont know what that is though. I dont know if this would be an issue for you but i dont think iv ever seen an general olive oil that dark that isnt ev olive oil and that only comes in dark botttles so until you get it home and open it theres no actual way of telling if its the colour you would want for soap making purposes.
 
I love Newcastle! Also Boddingtons Pub Ale. Great on a hot Texas summer day. :) One thing to watch out for: the darker the beer the more sugars it contains therefore the more likely it will accelerate and or gel.

As for getting a green EVOO, just cheat and add some green coloring ;)
 
I love Newcastle! Also Boddingtons Pub Ale. Great on a hot Texas summer day. :) One thing to watch out for: the darker the beer the more sugars it contains therefore the more likely it will accelerate and or gel.

As for getting a green EVOO, just cheat and add some green coloring ;)

oh well i stand corrected then. Boddingtons used to be brewed in my local city, Manchester now apparently brewed somewhere in Lancashire the joys of Wikipedia. I dont drink much, 2 pints a month is most i will have and have never tried newcastle brown i do like boddingtons when the fancy takes me though. Iv only got a bright green mica and iv ordered enough recently think ill stick to the suggestion without using mica as last time i did that it was a greeny mud colour smells lovely though. decided its not getting called a beer soap now its getting called a mango mud pie it just happens to have beer in but thats getting forgotton for sake of having a little bit of pride left lol ill also make a note about the darker ales tracing faster thanks for the info much appreciated :)

I spent about 4 hours tonight setting up sm3 and inputting some of the inventory set up my spare pc in my living room so i am closer to all the stuff im logging into it i definatly need my office chair a basic dining chair is not comfy after an hours sitting down. More of the same tomorrow day/night think im starting to get to grips with it just finding it very time consuming. I also did a bit of research into pure castile soap and thinking about giving that a try out just because its soap without all the prep and weighing loads of oils plus its cheap v multi oils soap
 
In soap, I guess mostly for label appeal lol

However, rice water and rice powder alone, are very good for your skin.. The claim is it lessens dark spots, acne and wrinkles, and overall help you have smoother skin.

Some do say that continuously using rice milk soap has given them the above results... But at the very least, the soap bar itself (my observation) has an added smooth silky-ness feel when rice used.

Not to mention it's a very cheap additive for us, since rice is always available at home and the water would be otherwise thrown away..
 
Well, I finally got all the things I needed to make a proper KOH HP shave soap! I followed the instructions on the now-famous "My first shaving soap is a success" thread including DeeAnna's method of using two double-boilers and a two-step process. It was my first batch of HP and I think I didn't cover the bowl tightly enough at first. I ended up with a lot of harder chunks and it was almost impossible to stir together while cooking. I cooked it for about 30 minutes and got no zap after that, so I added my superfat and extra glycerine and mashed that in as best I could.

I decided that it was going to need some kneading (pun intended), so I put a pair of thick gardening gloves under my nitrile ones to protect my hands from the heat and set to mashing. It didn't take long to break up most of the bigger clumps and get them smashed down into the rest of the soap mass. I separated some off to be unscented because I plan on giving this to family for Christmas and my dad doesn't do well with fragrances. The remainder I fragranced with WSP Barber Shoppe (yum - my house smells amazing) and smushed into bail jars. I did have some left at the end after filling all my jars so I rolled it up into a log that I can cut for refill pucks later. The soap pot (a Pyrex bowl) that I used has lots of residual soap on it, so I'll be taking that into the shower later today to give it a test drive. From the lather I worked up off my gloves with BF's shave brush, I think this is a smashing success. Pictures incoming when I can upload them off my phone.
 
Getting ready to pour a batch of Black Irish from Oregon Trails for a vendor at my Wed market. While I like the fragrance I cannot sell it so I have her purchase the fragrance. I just will not stock what does not sell anymore. This is the last batch for the year, since I am back to the parents next week. :-( After the soap is poured I need to finish up some hats and hoods for market tomorrow, and hoping the rain holds off until after market.
 
I made a batch of Guinness soap the other day, and cut it today.. fragranced with sandalwood, for needle, and black pepper essential oils. Will be gifting it to the men in my life for Christmas, either a little note to say wait until the new year to use, as time got away from me, and my core time is short!
 

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