Karmic
Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm going to do a test batch tonight. I've noticed a lot of people talking about reds in general and this specific mica being mentioned so I'll be sure to show off for everyone once I get to soaping with it later
What soapy thing have you done today?
- Thread starter FlybyStardancer
- Start date
Help Support Soapmaking Forum:
Yeah I'm going to do a test batch tonight. I've noticed a lot of people talking about reds in general and this specific mica being mentioned so I'll be sure to show off for everyone once I get to soaping with it later
That looks very pretty Mobjack. You owe @Relle a Christmas present for making her merge three posts! You wait - you'll wake up tomorrow and they will have magically (!) be merged into one single post.
@KiwiMoose that seems to happen every time I am trying to catch up on this thread .
I’ve already cut my tallow lard soap! First lesson: a recipe with 36% palmitic and stearic hardens fast. I cut the soap within 7 hours of putting it in the mold. I probably could have left it another couple of hours, but I really wanted to wind down for the day. Second lesson: the new heating pad works! I’ve had my first overheating experience. It was just a little crack on the top, but the sides have that telltale rash. There’s something else going on inside the soap, but I don’t think it’s anything major. There are small dots, but they didn’t look quite like stearic spots or bubbles. I didn’t get a good look because I put it all back in the mold and covered the top to avoid ash.
Despite all that, I’m very happy with my first tallow soap. I especially like the way the base color turned out. It’s a bluish, grayish green and exactly what I was hoping for. Photo tomorrow...
.I’ve already cut my tallow lard soap! First lesson: a recipe with 36% palmitic and stearic hardens fast. I cut the soap within 7 hours of putting it in the mold. I probably could have left it another couple of hours, but I really wanted to wind down for the day. Second lesson: the new heating pad works! I’ve had my first overheating experience. It was just a little crack on the top, but the sides have that telltale rash. There’s something else going on inside the soap, but I don’t think it’s anything major. There are small dots, but they didn’t look quite like stearic spots or bubbles. I didn’t get a good look because I put it all back in the mold and covered the top to avoid ash.
Despite all that, I’m very happy with my first tallow soap. I especially like the way the base color turned out. It’s a bluish, grayish green and exactly what I was hoping for. Photo tomorrow...
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Um, would ya like some cheese with that whine?
(Just kidding. Like everything else, you'll get there... just never as fast as you would like.
)
Completely ruined a batch of soap. Got in a hurry, wasn’t paying attention to where I left off, was too focused on trying something new. As soon as I poured the batter into the mold I knew exactly what I had done wrong and tried to fix it. Probably could have if I hadn’t been soaping hot, but by the time I got it back in the bowl and on the scale and got out my Olive Oil...it was too late. I barely got it scooped into a garbage bag before it became a hot rock!
Second batch went much better, but I think I will reserve the ‘heat transfer’ method for larger batches of soap. And it’s a new recipe...Palm free and has Avocado Oil.
Sitting trying to figure out what to make next. I’m bummed about the first batch because I wasted a 2 oz bottle of Honeysuckle FO and I won’t be putting in another order until January.
Second batch went much better, but I think I will reserve the ‘heat transfer’ method for larger batches of soap. And it’s a new recipe...Palm free and has Avocado Oil.
Sitting trying to figure out what to make next. I’m bummed about the first batch because I wasted a 2 oz bottle of Honeysuckle FO and I won’t be putting in another order until January.
John Harris
Well-Known Member
Yes, the resinoid was a deep brown thick liquid.
@TheGecko
Decided to call it a night. I had three more soaps I wanted to make, but I messed up on the Bl Rasp Vanilla GMS and it’s now a Oatmeal & Honey hybrid. I use frozen Evap Goat Milk and distilled water and was using a new silicone ice tray that I was freezing the GM and some leftover Coconut Milk. Wasn’t paying attention to anything but the scale and so I didn’t notice that I had popped out the lone Coconut Milk cube until I started adding my lye. Oh well. In the midst of adding my Olive Oil I realize that I’m using the wrong recipe for my GMS. I’m about in tears when hubby walks in and asks me what is wrong and I told him the above and he asks if the soap is ruined. Not ruined, just not right. He still didn’t understand so I said, let me grab a set of bass strings off the shelf and put them on your Jazz. He looked horrified!
We’ll start again tomorrow.
John Harris
Well-Known Member
So, it has been six weeks since I have returned to soaping. My first effort was a 40 bar batch of Patchouli. It came out perfectly and has retained its scent very well. So I tried a bar in the shower this morning. It took a few minutes before it started lathering, but once it got going it was fine.
I came to work this evening smelling of Patchouli. My co workers were coming up to smell me. I'd say this one is a success. The only problem is that the bars are too big. Even with my big hands, the fit was not good. I'll have to resize, I suppose, but I don't like doing that.
I came to work this evening smelling of Patchouli. My co workers were coming up to smell me. I'd say this one is a success. The only problem is that the bars are too big. Even with my big hands, the fit was not good. I'll have to resize, I suppose, but I don't like doing that.
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 15,087
- Reaction score
- 6,766
That looks very pretty Mobjack. You owe @Relle a Christmas present for making her merge three posts! You wait - you'll wake up tomorrow and they will have magically (!) be merged into one single post.
Magic and a Christmas present.
Merge, merge, merge. Mobjacks not the only merging I'm doing, a few for a moose that's a kiwi too. Magic and a Christmas present
.
Adobehead
Well-Known Member
Is it hard to get that thick resin to blend in? Do you just use the stick bender or is more required? It looks fabulous.
John Harris
Well-Known Member
The stick blender worked fine.
Sometimes you just have to put the SB down and regroup. I know from experience and have the soap to prove it
ETA: when I started making mistakes or leaving things out, I decided it was time to use a worksheet. It takes an extra 5 minutes before I start making soap, but it allows me to work through my list of ingredients and do a mental step by step of the process. I check every ingredient off as I add it and haven’t left anything out since I started using this approach. The worksheet is also how I keep track of how the soap behaves, Trace behavior, etc. I’m taking more consistent notes now as a result of the prompts on the worksheet. I use the back of the worksheet to sketch out the soap design, or list additive variations if I am splitting a larger batch.
here’s the link in case you’re interested: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/soap-making-journal.76006/
Last edited:
I made 72 soap packs for the local homeless shelter outreach. I was thrilled when they said they would take them.
Fantastic! Did they end up taking them without labeling? I noticed that soaps in the hotels I’ve been in recently didn’t have ingredients listed. And, as a sidebar, I opened one of them to wash my hands before I had a chance to pull my own soap out of my suitcase. Nice hotel, awful soap!
This is the overheated soap I made yesterday, with the obvious silicone rash on the sides. It’s scented with Forest Hike from Nature’s Fragrance, which is nice and more fresh smelling than piney. I’m super happy with the base color. It’s Alpine Green from Nuture, but at what I estimated would be half strength (0.5 tsp ppo). I might go even lower the next time. I need to work on getting my tops to pop more, for example the way @Michele50 gets her’s to pop
. I would love to hear how others do a mica drizzle because they always seem to turn ashy on me. On closer inspection, the spots in the body of the soap look like stearic & palmitic spots and are not bubbles. 
Ladka
Well-Known Member
Just poured a smallish batch into my handmade toy car mould, the carnation flower mould and four tiny shallow moulds to use for inclusions or gifts.
They went into the oven to gel before I remembered to take a photo - will take them tomorrow.
They went into the oven to gel before I remembered to take a photo - will take them tomorrow.
I went to a Craft Bazaar yesterday as a vendor. We were the "Unjunked" zone! I did not have a pretty table cloth on the table provided, I had my soaps all nicely set into plastic shoe boxes, lids under the box. It had a good turnout and I made the cost of the table/entry fee plus $100.00! My soaps were selling at 5 to 7 dollars each with the Lotion Bars costing 10. There was a M&P vendor, but she was sending people to us because my soaps are Vegan and Cruelty free. Everyone loved the Lavender/Rosemary sent to one of my soaps. The guys liked it alot and 3 bought one each because they liked the "Manly" smell of it. I gave a "Taste" to the wood turner who had shaving bowls and brushes. He told me he turns his bowls to 3.5", because "Artisan" soaps are a bit wider from the molds. He said he would send over anyone who wanted a soap for shaving - he has had good soap made for him to shave with, and was looking for a new provider in this area.
DKing
Well-Known Member
Congrats on your great day!
What is it about lavender that men love so much? I gave my nephew a few soaps the other day and specifically included ones with more masculine scents for him and then more feminine ones for his girlfriend, and the soap he was most excited about was the one that was mostly lavender. My husband also loves anything with lavender (or patchouli)
This is the overheated soap I made yesterday, with the obvious silicone rash on the sides. It’s scented with Forest Hike from Nature’s Fragrance, which is nice and more fresh smelling than piney. I’m super happy with the base color. It’s Alpine Green from Nuture, but at what I estimated would be half strength (0.5 tsp ppo). I might go even lower the next time. I need to work on getting my tops to pop more, for example the way @Michele50 gets her’s to pop
The second soap (the first was tossed) has a ‘silicone rash’. Do you know what can be done about it? I had wash my molds between uses.
And I used Alpine green with just a dash of TD and got a lovely green color.
Sometimes you just have to put the SB down and regroup. I know from experience and have the soap to prove it
ETA: when I started making mistakes or leaving things out, I decided it was time to use a worksheet. It takes an extra 5 minutes before I start making soap, but it allows me to work through my list of ingredients and do a mental step by step of the process. I check every ingredient off as I add it and haven’t left anything out since I started using this approach. The worksheet is also how I keep track of how the soap behaves, Trace behavior, etc. I’m taking more consistent notes now as a result of the prompts on the worksheet. I use the back of the worksheet to sketch out the soap design, or list additive variations if I am splitting a larger batch.
here’s the link in case you’re interested: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/soap-making-journal.76006/
Very interested.
When I first started soaping, I would print put the recipe and then make notes on additives, colors, scents and misc stuff. But once I got my recipes down, I quit printing and just made notes in my journal as to what “soap” I made and when.
I know that I need to be more serious about better manufacturing processes. Thank you.
Last edited by a moderator:
At the market, my best selling soaps usually have lavender in them. It doesn't matter that it's a floral; it seems to be more of a unisex fragrance than any other.
Similar threads
