What soapy thing have you done today?

[earlene]

Of all the items I ordered, I forgot Lye..THUMP.. there is no 2 day shipping on Lye.

Amazon Prime has two day shipping. I've bought lye that way before.

 

[steffamarie]

StephanieMarie. I like your plans. I'm curious how you'll use the soap caddy is it with your pringles can? I recently bought a can of pringles to try round soaps. Or is it simpley to keep your soap dry at the sink? It's a prettier caddy than most.

That is exactly right - I've cut it up to use in the Pringles can as the puller-througher (lol). But it is really kind of nice-looking so I may find a use for a second one at my sink. It was a few dollars at Walmart so I don't feel too bad about getting another

 

[msunnerstood]

Amazon Prime has two day shipping. I've bought lye that way before.

Yeah I tried that and even with Prime they are saying Monday. I think its because Lye has to go ground.

 

[LilianNoir]

Yeah I tried that and even with Prime they are saying Monday. I think its because Lye has to go ground.

Lowes or Home Depot? Or a restaurant supply store perhaps?

 

[amd]

Today's to do list:
Take stock to Peddlers Market
Do soap dishes that didn't get done yesterday because I have NO clean dishes left
Make more lye solution for brewery soaps to make tomorrow
Cut soaps made last night
Spray down cure crates with hose because they need a good cleaning before new soap gets added (might be able to get daughter to do this because she'll get to play with the hose and it's hot out)
And then a whole bunch of non-soapy nonsense that I am going to resent the heck out of doing because I really want to be making soap.

I made two batches of brewery soap last night. One was a very dark beer, imagine my shock this morning when I peeked in on them and that soap was almost white! (I leave part of the soap uncolored to highlight the natural colors of the beer.) I'll cut them tonight after work and post a pic of the four of them together. I'm quite proud of how the other two turned out, hoping these two will be just as nice.

List for the weekend:
Spray down cure crates with hose because they need a good cleaning before new soap gets added
More dishes
Make soap with IRL soap friend who is coming to visit
non-soapy nonsense that I am going to resent the heck out of
MB Oils and more lye solution
Make 40 bars of soap and 96 lip balms for custom order #1
Make 24 ugly sweater embeds for custom order #2

 

[jules92207]

Y’all I’ve been a bit absent with my crazy life but I finally got to making some soap and bath bombs last weekend! Plan to keep up a plan of at least two batches a week, I think that’s a healthy goal for my crazy life [emoji4]

Last weekend I made Eucalyptus Spearmint from WSP and Bite Me from NG which I call “Forbidden Fruit”

 

[dibbles]

@earlene I don't keep up with this thread too well, so I just read about your brother. So sorry it happened, but I am glad to see he seems to be doing well - all things considered.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Y’all I’ve been a bit absent with my crazy life but I finally got to making some soap and bath bombs last weekend! Plan to keep up a plan of at least two batches a week, I think that’s a healthy goal for my crazy life [emoji4]

Last weekend I made Eucalyptus Spearmint from WSP and Bite Me from NG which I call “Forbidden Fruit”

View attachment 39587View attachment 39588

YAY! These look great!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@earlene I ‘m another one who has trouble keeping up with this thread.

I’m sorry to hear about your brother’s health issues and it’s good to read that he is doing better. I hope he keeps on his upward trajectory and follows the doctor’s orders!

 

[DWinMadison]

Last day at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama. It’s so beautiful here. Can’t wait for retirement! I stalked the soap store in Fairhope (nice stuff, but mine is better). Dropping daughter at the airport tomorrow then driving home to unpack supplies for shave soaps and shampoo bars. Gonna do the shave soap HP either tomorrow or Sunday to have them available for Father’s Day.

 

[earlene]

Thank you, dibbles. He is doing well, and SIL has calmed down, too. They went to the VA (veteran's administration) yesterday to get his prescription(s) filled and schedule the necessary follow-up. He wasn't taken to the VA hospital by ambulance because, although it's not really far, it was too far in the situation at the time. He actually would not have survived had they gone there instead of the closer hospital, so it's all good. And the VA is picking up the tab; that's one of the things that had my SIL so worried.

Anyway, all is good for now.

On the soapy front:

Today I cut soap (made yesterday or the day before) - I expected it but it's still a disappointment - beet root powder is a waste in CP soap. No color at all remained. Beveled some soaps. Tossed out half the soap trimmings I've been saving for adding to confetti or 'old & new' soap as I think of them. Searched again for my lavender EO. I can't believe I used it all up, but it just is not to be found anywhere. If I didn't use it all up I sure did misplace it; I've been looking everyday for 3 or 4 days sure it'll be where it belongs this time. I guess I am just going to have order some more. Then it probably will turn up.

Puréed some black cherries this morning, and Hubby walks in and says, 'You aren't going to waste that in soap, are you?' Well, yes, that's exactly what I am going to do! I have gathered the juice and now have purée as well. Just have to decide what colorants to use and do a small test batch to see how it turns out. Guess that's on tomorrow's agenda.

ETA: I just found a soap I left in the freezer in the garage several days ago because I couldn't get it out of the mold. It came out like a breeze. Funny, I totally forgot about it and today I was wondering what had happened to that mold and absolutely did not remember that I had not yet un-molded that soap! Anyway, then I had to go back out to the garage to get the lima beans for dinner that I left in the freezer when I saw the soap. So dinner is started & soap is thawing.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Anyway, then I had to go back out to the garage to get the lima beans for dinner that I left in the freezer when I saw the soap.

Thanks for sharing. I love stories like this with happy endings! It's good to know I'm not alone in my struggle against time.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@earlene I had to make 4-5 rounds of my house this morning to find a bag of matcha tea powder I bought the other day. I finally found it sitting right next to the soaps I made the other day, which I looked at twice this morning without noticing the tea

I’m infusing annatto, Calendula petals, madder, matcha and parsley in olive oil this morning to make a round of single color soaps with my ne FOs this weekend. Since I did not this to infuse the oils in advance, I have the jars in a hot water bath on the stove.

I also discovered a neat little trick for lining my makeshift 1 lb mold. It’s a recycled card box from an out-of-date Trivial Pursuit game. I neatly covered the outside of the bottom of the box with parchment paper and then slipped the bottom into the top of the box, pulled the bottom part of the box out, and voila, a perfectly lined top!

 

[steffamarie]

Well, I decided to make two batches this morning. I finally made my pull through soap which turned out pretty decently, I think. Suppose we'll see tomorrow when I unmold and cut it! Then I attempted to make the rim for this month's soap challenge and of course I used my palm recipe thinking it would be fine. Yeah, no. I was going for a cosmic swirl and two of my colors set up on me really fast (strangely enough, my white colored with TD stayed fluid) and I had to abandon the rim.

Poured the whole slab back into my pot and threw in some FO, blended that mother up real good and smacked it into my 1lb mold. It still looks fine since the colors I was using worked together but now I have to re-do my rim. Sigh. You win some, you lose some!

Also, unrelated, but I'm currently on steroids for a work-related injury from a few weeks ago and YOWZA. 25 is too young to have hot flashes XD My face is so flushed I'm literally putting a bag of frozen hash browns on it cuz it feels so good. Only five more days of this.....

 

[SYT]

Yeah I tried that and even with Prime they are saying Monday. I think its because Lye has to go ground.

Our ACE Hardware has it. In stock almost always. So maybe your local hardware store?

 

[earlene]

@earlene I had to make 4-5 rounds of my house this morning to find a bag of matcha tea powder I bought the other day. I finally found it sitting right next to the soaps I made the other day, which I looked at twice this morning without noticing the tea

I’m infusing annatto, Calendula petals, madder, matcha and parsley in olive oil this morning to make a round of single color soaps with my ne FOs this weekend. Since I did not this to infuse the oils in advance, I have the jars in a hot water bath on the stove.

I also discovered a neat little trick for lining my makeshift 1 lb mold. It’s a recycled card box from an out-of-date Trivial Pursuit game. I neatly covered the outside of the bottom of the box with parchment paper and then slipped the bottom into the top of the box, pulled the bottom part of the box out, and voila, a perfectly lined top! View attachment 39611

Funny, I'm actually doing the same thing. I started with heating an annotto infusion last night, then this morning was starting one for paprika and accidentally picked up the annotto bottle again. So now I have two annotto infusions and on paprika infusion going. Jeez! At least I knew what happened right away, but had already begun the pouring the spice into the jar of oil before I could stop myself. My brain->nerve pathway->muscle response is a little slow sometimes.

I need to go get my manjistha because I want to start an infusion of it as well. At least I am confident it is where it belongs, with the rest of the natural colorants. But I keep the paprika in my freezer because it can grow bugs if left in the spice cupboard and I love it on deviled eggs as long as nothing is moving around when I look inside the bottle. Yuck! I guess it wouldn't matter for soap but still, I hate bugs in my foodstuffs!

So I just realized in one of my efforts to clean out the excess jars & bottles in my cupboard, I now don't have enough jars for many oils infusions and for leftover food that I store in jars after a meal. Well, at least that prevents me from going overboard with the oil infusions this time around.

I have not tried the matcha tea powder yet, except to drink it. I'd like to try it as an oil infusion and as added to the lye solution, but right now I want to concentrate on the warmer tones given a project I have in mind and my limited number of jars and my mind doesn't need to try to do too much at once.

My goal is to test these colors side-by side as oil infusion only, as lye solution mixed only and as both lye mixed + oil infusion to see what kinds of results I will get with color. I had fabulous results with manjistha before, but didn't do any extensive color testing. This time around I hope to be more scientific in my method.

I wish there were more options for red tones besides dead bugs.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

You could probably make Hungarian Goulash with the infused paprika

I need to go get my manjistha

. Is that the same as madder? My madder infusion from this morning looks less like an infusion and more like madder powder suspended in olive oil. How did you use your Manjistha when you had success with it?

My goal is to test these colors side-by side as oil infusion only, as lye solution mixed only and as both lye mixed + oil infusion to see what kinds of results I will get with color.

This is the best strategy for comparisons and I really should do the same.

 

[earlene]

One of my favorite things from my mom's kitchen was her Hungarian Goulash! What a fabulous suggestion.

You could probably make Hungarian Goulash with the infused paprika

. Is that the same as madder? My madder infusion from this morning looks less like an infusion and more like madder powder suspended in olive oil. How did you use your Manjistha when you had success with it?

Some say it is the same; some say it is not. I am unsure of the correct answer.

On June 11, 2016 I made a ghost swirl soap with oil infused manjistha. My infusion rate was 1 tsp powder to 1 Tablespoon almond oil. I did not make a note of how long I let it infuse, unfortunately. No other colorants were used. Below is a photo of the High & Low water Ghost Swirl soap from back then. The color never faded.

I wouldn't call it read, but the darker part did look a bit more mahogany in person.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

One of my favorite things from my mom's kitchen was her Hungarian Goulash! What a fabulous suggestion.

Some say it is the same; some say it is not. I am unsure of the correct answer.

On June 11, 2016 I made a ghost swirl soap with oil infused manjistha. My infusion rate was 1 tsp powder to 1 Tablespoon almond oil. I did not make a note of how long I let it infuse, unfortunately. No other colorants were used. Below is a photo of the High & Low water Ghost Swirl soap from back then. The color never faded.

I wouldn't call it read, but the darker part did look a bit more mahogany in person.

Love the ghost swirl. Mahogany is a good description of the color. I’m hoping to get more red. Check out what I posted on this thread about the temperature sensitivity of madder colors. Temps above 200 F destroy the red. The dyers bring madder root up to a simmer very slowly in order to coax the reds out!

 

[Bladesmith]

Made a batch this morning. This fragrance oil (nightfall from nurture) has vanilla in it. Curious to see how the color changes...

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