What soapy thing have you done today?

[Lin19687]

Made 100 Lip balms last night.
Hat staying up till Midnight and then waking up at 6am getting too old to do that

 

[RobinRogers]

I made a HUGE mess today! I’m still kind of new to soaping. I’ve had soo that accelerated and some that got too hot in the molds. I’ve had colors change and scents not stick. All were quite disappointing!! However, today I had a batch to seize! Thought my stick blender was a goner because of all the stuff in it! I didn’t even use it except to mix my oils. I stirred with it. So, I took the clumps and mashed them into molds, really ugly and hot stuff. The color is there and the scent is there. I’ve made mosaics out of soaps I didn’t like, but just wondered if anyone could tell me what else I could dk’

 

[kaysejean]

I cut my 2nd try for Amy Warden's Food & Drink challenge, and was a tad disappointed. I think the puree I used had a slight discoloring affect. The first try (that I forgot the food item in), turned out pretty well, though with a little less definition between the red and the pink in the red pink and white swirl. So I tried again with a bit more brick red in the red and added a bit of other pinks to my pink mica. But I cant really see any distinction in this one, and the overall color is less vibrant. I mean, it still looks and smells nice, just not as nice as the 1st try (which is disqualified due to missing 1/2 the challenge ingredient).
I'm coloring with mica blends and haven't run into this before. I'm trying to figure out if I try once more or call it good. I dont know what I'd do with all of these bars though. Well see.

Goodness, sounds like it's been a bit of a week for a few of us. Here's hoping we learned/fix something and that our next batches rock.

 

[earlene]

earlene, you humble me. I made one simple batch yesterday. I had to get it done because we are expecting house guests today through the weekend, and I guess it would be rude to excuse myself to go make soap. I will, however, have to go cut it later on today so I have that to look forward to.

You flatter me. It's almost noon and I've only beveled on bar of soap and unpackaged some plastic jars to put my micas into. That's it! So far I am lazy today. Maybe if I go eat something I'll get some energy to get started. So I'll start with eating and go from there.


Soapy goals for today and the next few days:

- continue my clean-up/organization in soaping areas (prep for future renovation)
- toss/donate items destined to make room for soaping supplies in kitchen (prep for moving my soaping area)
- transfer more colorants from plastic zip lock baggies to plastic bottles
- color test soaps using the infused oils, etc.
- photograph alkanet confetti soap
- choose soaps to give away to family (various visiting family coming the next 2 weekends)
- determine how many more soaps I have left to plane & bevel - make a plan to get caught up
- design soap labels for soaps ready to package & begin packaging
- begin packaging

 

[Kari Howie]

Oh, yes, it is still being used and not only in food, lots of cosmetics, too.

See this video:



As I understand it, cochineal bugs provide many many people their livelihood, so in that respect, I don't let it bother me too horribly.

Great video!

 

[earlene]

My day turned out unproductive. Yesterday I had a headache that wouldn't quit, and by evening a tiny bit of dizziness. This morning I did not notice any of that, but in the afternoon, the dizziness returned and I decided to lie down for awhile. Several hours later, I woke up and realized it's almost time for Hubby to get home from work.

So the only soapy stuff today was cleaning up a dozen bars of soap. And I haven't even cleaned up from that yet. Or done my lunch dishes and still have to think of dinner. So I'll have to carry over my Soapy To Do list to tomorrow.

 

[Bladesmith]

Made another batch today. It was the Aveda style rosemary mint fragrance. I was in a rush and cut it earlier than I normally do. Figured it would be fine. Used a wire loaf cutter and quickly realized there was about a 1" circle that was still liquid in the middle.

My first screw-up. Still use-able soap but sure looks weird!!

 

[earlene]

Bladesmith, if you want to force complete gel (you have partial gel) you can put all the bars of soap back into the mold and complete the gel as oven process. Just like normal oven process - pre-heat the oven to 150 if you can (or the lowest setting you have), place the soap mold inside, and turn off the oven.

 

[Bladesmith]

Actually, this is hot processed. It was just still too hot in the middle. Usually I stick the mold in the fridge for 2.5 hours then cut. I needed to leave and thought I could get by cutting a little after 2 hours in the fridge. I was wrong.

I like to cut it pretty fresh so it doesn't stress my wire cutter.

 

[earlene]

I must have misread that post. I thought you said it was a dark circle. Re-reading it I see it says liquid. I guess you really do cut early!

 

[msunnerstood]

Actually, this is hot processed. It was just still too hot in the middle. Usually I stick the mold in the fridge for 2.5 hours then cut. I needed to leave and thought I could get by cutting a little after 2 hours in the fridge. I was wrong.

I like to cut it pretty fresh so it doesn't stress my wire cutter.

Try the freezer. I always threw mine in the freezer for a few hours and then took it out and thawed for 30 minutes and was able to cut. Ive been banned from my freezer though because my Last loaf's scent impacted some frozen food items from the other side of the freezer... oops. Im thinking i'll pick up a mini freezer for just soap ise.

Today I un-molded and cut my challenge soap. it was a lot harder to accomplish then I was planning but its done.

 

[Lauren C]

Does everyone use MP for embeds?

I make embeds with HP. I slice off a thin slice of of my unmolded soap, then press a candy shape cutter into it, like cutting out cookies with a cookie cutter. Or I roll little balls of the soap to make berries. The berries in my avatar were cut in half and placed in the bottom of my mold, along with my cut out leaf embeds. I also sometimes put my HP soap in embed molds. I'll attach some pics of both. The pic with three plates of Christmas trees and palm trees shows embeds made in molds. The other pic shows embeds made from the candy shape cutters.

 

[katemz]

Made these inverted soaps at first I really didn't know which way to cut then I figured it out [emoji4]

 

[amd]

Well, my attempt to do 40 bars of soap on Weds night was derailed by a bad case of karma (I went to bed early instead). Attempted last night and discovered that I only had enough FO for 18 bars. Ordered more FO today, as well as some larger jars for sugar scrubs, and a lip balm filling tray (thought I'd try it, I have 96 lip balms I need to make for a custom order).

This weekend is jammed with family stuff, but here's going to be the attempt list:
Photograph, package and label 27 soap cupcakes
Send out email newsletter
Make 6 ugly sweater soaps (I have 24 to do but only one mold so if I get one round done I will be happy)

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Mobjack, the resin that I used from Eden Botanicals is not like the myrrh resin at all. Myrrh, frankincense, benzoin, etc resins are harvested from the trees. They are hard. The resin that I mentioned are perfume resins created in India, are soft, and look like this-https://www.ebay.com/itm/Premium-Go...hash=item5b02122cd2:m:mIH40DY2Q1G0-2Cz2Y0AN7g.

Another new thing for me. Thanks TAS!

@katemz Actually, I think the “wrong” cuts look pretty cool and in the vein of a Kandinsky-Mondrian hybrid.

We’re on a road trip to Vermont with LOTS of traffic and also plenty of time to do research on soap and read SMF. That’s about as soapy as it can get in the car until I start browsing for soap molds...

 

[earlene]

Back to work on soapy stuff. Hours of cleaning & moving stuff around. I have a huge mess all over the place, because of this re-organizing. But I am tossing stuff as I go, so there is progress.

Until the upstairs renovations, I still need to use the kitchen for soapmaking, but with all the moving things around, decided to re-organize my soap working area in the kitchen, too. So that's part of this big mess. Moving things around upstairs and downstairs. Also because I decided I need to make more videos to stay in practice, I wanted to create a more-or-less semi-permanent spot for the tripod to stand, both safely and for possibly better lighting. Got the first part done, not sure about the lighting being any better. Still, progress.

So far today:

✓ continue my clean-up/organization in soaping areas (prep for future renovation)
✓ toss/donate items to make room for soaping supplies in kitchen (prep for moving my soaping area)
✓ cleared worktable completely, changed table cloths, washed linens
✓ found a new home for my Cuisinart
✓ found a new home for my Juicer
✓ replaced needed items for soap making onto worktable
✓ set up my camera in a different spot (so I can safely leave tripod set up)
✓ sort & put away some soaping items left on DR table for weeks (some, not finished)
✓ taking a break to rest my back - hoping to get back to it in about an hour
✓ beveled another dozen soaps
✓ finished breaking down Cocoa Butter into smaller packages for ease of use
✓ filled a large-ish garbage bag
✓ re-homed some soapmaking items left on DR table (not done, but progress)

Soapy goals for today and the next few days:

- sort & put away soaping items left on DR table for weeks
- transfer more colorants from plastic zip lock baggies to plastic bottles
- color test soaps using the infused oils, etc.
- photograph alkanet confetti soap
- choose soaps to give away to family (various visiting family coming the next 2 weekends)
- determine how many more soaps I have left to plane & bevel - make a plan to get caught up
- design soap labels for soaps ready to package & begin packaging

 

[LadySarah370]

What do you guys think...does it look like the butterfly swirl?

I also made a coffee soap with a pvc pipe...It got too thick before I put it in..all of them did. I need to get a whisk to mix things instead of relying on the stick blender. I also get nervous that I am gonna get false trace so I think I over blend.

 

[TAS]

Ordered lye from Mile High and will pick up tomorrow. I want to measure out a small (3 batch) master batch tomorrow. Today - no soaping - have company, but he leaves tomorrow.

 

[RobinRogers]

I did my first re-batch. NEVER AGAIN! I will cut it in chunks and make it into a mosaic but I will NEVER cook soap again!!

 

[kaysejean]

I donated some of my soap to a silent auction to benefit a friend of a friend. That feels nice, and I hope it helps.
In order to do that I got to play around with shrink wrap bands for the first time. Bit of a learning curve there...