What soapy thing have you done today?

[KiwiMoose]

More wicky-wicky-what! Supposedly the rosehip powder colorant moves in from the edges! I hope you can see that in the bottom photo. I should have a time lapse camera. Seriously, when I blended the colorant in, it disappeared and was just the normal melted oil color! I scented with clove and spearmint.
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Love that effect! *Rushes of to buy some roseship powder*

 

[Donee']

I have just spent 5 hours binge reading on here.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Hmm ... That sounds suspiciously like the thought I was having today, too. I've been thinking that I didn't have a good enough idea to enter. Then I had this idea. It would be funny if we both hit on the same technique.

Me too! I'm doing stage one tomorrow night and then stage two at the weekend.

 

[KiwiMoose]

My first soap in weeks.
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That looks extremely gorgeous!

 

[Dawni]

My first soap in weeks.
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Yey for pretty, pretty HP soap!

 

[Dean]

Paprika with calendula sounds very nice...I tried paprika with carrot purée for one of my first batches and was pleased with the results.

Do u have pics? I color with Carrot juice and wonder what ur combo looks like.

 

[dalewaite48]

I made my first from scratch hair shampoo's. Made them in 3 drifferent scents using essential oils. One is Lavender, One will be called Good Morning, and one for the guys will be called A Day In The Woods. Now just have to finish designing my labels.

 

[atiz]

What a riot, I just wrote myself a soleseife recipe tonight for my 2nd batch of soap! Yours are super-pretty. Did you use a stamp or woodcut for the intaglio, or were these relief molds?

Hi Meena,
Yes, these were my second batch of soap too
I used some cavity molds that had these carvings. (Got them as baking supplies originally....) Making soleseife was fun, the soaps popped out of the mold after a few hours. I wanted to gel some of them and not gel the others (just for comparison), but don't think any of them gelled. The ones I left in the freezer/fridge were a bit softer initially but now they are pretty much the same. They all seem to lather quite well after ten days; it still seems a bit drying but will see what they'll be like after the cure. Good luck with yours!!

 

[MGM]

Today's soapy thing will be to realize I really must take a break from soap (after only 3 batches in 2 weeks). I can only do product formulation once a week, and I have so many ingredients for body products to use up, I really can't justify churning out the soaps :-( Too bad, as they're pretty instant gratification. Oh well. Serums, creams, and balms, here I come.....

 

[Misschief]

Today's soapy thing will be to realize I really must take a break from soap (after only 3 batches in 2 weeks). I can only do product formulation once a week, and I have so many ingredients for body products to use up, I really can't justify churning out the soaps :-( Too bad, as they're pretty instant gratification. Oh well. Serums, creams, and balms, here I come.....

I've been telling myself just the opposite. It's fine for me to make creams and lotions and such just for myself and family but I really need to be concentrating on the soap, not something I'll never sell.

 

[GreenDragon]

I made a test batch of soap using 15% red palm oil I got on clearance from BB. beautiful goldenrod color! Will use this in a “pumpkin spice” recipe this fall. Forgot to turn on the heating pad, so did not get a full gel. No worries this batch is just for me !

 

[Hendejm]

Beautiful color! Maybe the gel ring will fade as it cures

 

[Hendejm]

I figured out what I’m going to do for the Soap Challenge! It involves buying some apparatus to accomplish the mission!

 

[Misschief]

I'm wondering now if I'll actually have the time to put mine together. This coming weekend is the last weekend I'll have with my daughter and grandkids. The big move is the following weekend.

But I'll try.

 

[Hendejm]

I'm wondering now if I'll actually have the time to put mine together. This coming weekend is the last weekend I'll have with my daughter and grandkids. The big move is the following weekend.

But I'll try.

You can do it!!!

 

[Meena]

Hi Meena,
Yes, these were my second batch of soap too
I used some cavity molds that had these carvings. (Got them as baking supplies originally....) Making soleseife was fun, the soaps popped out of the mold after a few hours.
They all seem to lather quite well after ten days; it still seems a bit drying but will see what they'll be like after the cure. Good luck with yours!!

Very pretty molds and a great idea!

Do you have notes about your salt concentration or %, and your "numbers" ? My 'numbers' per Soap Calc are:
Hardness 43, Cleansing 18, and Conditioning 56. Will be using 20% beef tallow (pasture raised), 35% olive, 8% castor, and the rest palm and coconut. Hoping to get the skin benefits of salt without a lot of drying effect, so I tried to create a fairly rich recipe. Attempted to balance the idea that a good % of coconut is needed to counteract the reduced lather from the salt, but mentally struggling with the drying factor of coconut + salt, so I might tweak this before I make it, or just make the recipe as written because, either way, it's going in the 1-lb. test mold.

Soapy thing I did today was mix up some colors in small, lidded containers, cleaned my workspace, and set out all my stuff for tomorrow, so I can get to making soap right after breakfast ... er, brunch. Will probably sleep until 10:30 or 11, like I have been.

I made a test batch of soap using 15% red palm oil I got on clearance from BB. beautiful goldenrod color! Will use this in a “pumpkin spice” recipe this fall. Forgot to turn on the heating pad, so did not get a full gel. No worries this batch is just for me !

View attachment 35118

I've been thinking of trying out some of the red palm i have in the cupboard for cooking, to test out the color, so nice someone else had a similar/same thought. Also noticed that my tub of Nutiva shortening is a blend of red palm and coconut: Haven't opened the tub, but suspect it will be much paler in color. This Nutiva stuff has so many certifications, though -- it's beyond even sustainable palm (in my mind, anyway).

 

[KiwiMoose]

Sooooo...I made the soap for my January challenge and I'm not happy! I will still be able to use it, it smells totally divine (pear and jasmine) but i just may not be able to use it for the challenge because it won't be up to the standard I like. I figured that my FOs would probably accelerate, so added some pink grapefruit and may chang EOs to try and counteract it. It didn't work - that matter was tough as old boots within seconds!
I'll have to make another batch now for the challenge, and this time I will use ONLY citrus EOs.
BTW - it's 10.30 at night and I've just sat down with my cuppa tea! Grrrrr.

 

[atiz]

Very pretty molds and a great idea!

Do you have notes about your salt concentration or %, and your "numbers" ? My 'numbers' per Soap Calc are:
Hardness 43, Cleansing 18, and Conditioning 56. Will be using 20% beef tallow (pasture raised), 35% olive, 8% castor, and the rest palm and coconut. Hoping to get the skin benefits of salt without a lot of drying effect, so I tried to create a fairly rich recipe. Attempted to balance the idea that a good % of coconut is needed to counteract the reduced lather from the salt, but mentally struggling with the drying factor of coconut + salt, so I might tweak this before I make it, or just make the recipe as written because, either way, it's going in the 1-lb. test mold.

Soapy thing I did today was mix up some colors in small, lidded containers, cleaned my workspace, and set out all my stuff for tomorrow, so I can get to making soap right after breakfast ... er, brunch. Will probably sleep until 10:30 or 11, like I have been.

Here is the recipe I came up with; I can't really tell yet if it is really good (it's been only ten days or so, so definitely needs some more curing). I did try a sliver, and the lather was nice. I used annatto-infused oil for the olive oil (hence the yellow), and added some pureed aloe vera to half of the batch (for experiment, will see if it makes a difference). I think I ended up using less salt (maybe 2.2 oz or so) because it didn't seem to dissolve that well. I used the "split method" for dissolving the salt (dissolve the lye with equal amount of water, and dissolve the salt with the rest of the water).
Your recipe looks quite good to me, but again, I'm really just a beginner

 

[kayak1987]

yesterday and today are my mistakes days
I started yesterday making a Zany's no slime castille
that ended with an overheating, today i grated and rebatched all in two different ways

1) added a cup of water where I boiled laurel leaves, melted and then added 5 tablespoon of salt, it started ricing, I decided to put in the mold anyway, unmolded in few hour and cutted,
very bad experiment for now, it's like ricotta cheese, full of water and incredibly crumbly... let's see if curing will give him a second life.. the good thing is his incredibly white color

2) (partly) melted with half cup of water, then added 3 teaspoon of turmeric, this cames out better, just a little of small glyceryn rivers, I'll call it "Pappa al Pomodoro!"
because it really looks like this very popular dish here in tuscany where I live.. (it's more red than in the photo)

so today I soap a cheese and a "bread soup"

 

[Lin19687]

Well 3-4 week cure into new recipe trial and I think I need to change more.
I think the 10% Shea and buttermilk made the later drop to almost nothing

Nixing the buttermilk and sticking to Yogurt (less of a hassle) and lowering the Shea. batch is still too soft for my liking at this point.