fancyschmancy
Member
aw thats sucks, am sure itll still be beautiful though.
What soapy thing have you done today?
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Hawksquill
Well-Known Member
Well the university where I work is closed until January 2 and our house guests from Xmas are gone, so I'm trying to focus on hobbies - writing and soaping, primarily! Unmolded and cut the soap I made for my dad today, plus formulated two more recipes to make over the next few days. Also finally bit the bullet and converted all of my sloppy notes and links into a well-ordered spreadsheet 
Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
I got an order for a batch of my Anise soap today--I haven't made soap since Oct 22nd and have been fighting back the urge till at least the middle of Jan. it felt so good to make soap and my house smells simply amazing--the soap is under the blankets for the night. I have been making a lot of bath products since Oct and its satisfying to see the finished product as soon as I am done with it--but while its kind of frustrating with soap to have to wait, its almost exciting at the same time needless to say I am a happy camper
I made some cleaning soap today, 100% Coconut Oil, 0% superfat, lavender fragrance. I mainly use this for dishes, and kitchen cleanup. First time I used the heat transfer method. I figured no colors, good time to play around. Wowza, this batter thickened up really fast because (I'm sure) the lye solution was screaming hot. I stick blended for maybe 10 seconds, before I had medium trace.
Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
I have used this method quite a bit with lard, coconut oil and safflower oil and it didn't get thick any faster--I wonder if it was the coconut oil?
fancyschmancy
Member
Yikes I had been thinking about trying this method soon cause I am going to be moving house soon and might not have a cooker for a couple of weeks and had been wondering about how easy this would be to work with, did you wait till your coconut oil had all melted in the lye solution first or just go ahead and stick blend straight away, that's what I was most worried about lol
Possibly and since it was only coconut oil, there were no liquid oils added to cool the solution down. That would have helped I'm sure.
I waited until all the coconut oil was completely melted. As I mentioned above, I think if some liquid oils had been added the oil solution would have cooled somewhat and may have been easier to work with. For me it was fine, I didn't add color, just poured into individual molds.
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Cut the Fig and Rhubarb soap today, might make some beer soap this evening.
Got a new job this month and have lost time for making soap.
I made a few salt bars, only three, and I think I may be regretting it. If the salt is only for exfoliating... I’m disappointed, oatmeal is a great exfoliant, coffee grounds are a great exfoliant... and now I’ve got six months to wait on 60+% CO salt bars.
I have an 11lb slab mold waiting for me. That’s my next adventure.
I made a few salt bars, only three, and I think I may be regretting it. If the salt is only for exfoliating... I’m disappointed, oatmeal is a great exfoliant, coffee grounds are a great exfoliant... and now I’ve got six months to wait on 60+% CO salt bars.
I have an 11lb slab mold waiting for me. That’s my next adventure.
Salt is a natural exfoliant, but I also add in oatmeal to my salt 100% salt bars.Got a new job this month and have lost time for making soap.
I made a few salt bars, only three, and I think I may be regretting it. If the salt is only for exfoliating... I’m disappointed, oatmeal is a great exfoliant, coffee grounds are a great exfoliant... and now I’ve got six months to wait on 60+% CO salt bars.
I have an 11lb slab mold waiting for me. That’s my next adventure.
Gorgeous!
Coconut Oil bars don’t need a 6 month cure. The usual 4-6 weeks is fine. Only soft oils need a longer cure.Got a new job this month and have lost time for making soap.
I made a few salt bars, only three, and I think I may be regretting it. If the salt is only for exfoliating... I’m disappointed, oatmeal is a great exfoliant, coffee grounds are a great exfoliant... and now I’ve got six months to wait on 60+% CO salt bars.
I have an 11lb slab mold waiting for me. That’s my next adventure.
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Our daughter’s boyfriend will not use my soap for the same reason. He says his grandmother used to make soap and it burned. I told him it was because it was lye heavy and that all soap is made with lye-even the brand he uses. Sometimes ya just can’t win. Our daughter loves my soap
I’m thinking about soap and hoping to make some soon. First, I will need to reduce the chaos in my soaping area.
I cleaned my soaping area recently because of Christmas and my kids were visiting. My soaping area is my dining room table, so it doesn't get cleaned off very often, They left on Friday and I've already made 2 soaps and a lotion, so it's messy again!
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amd
Salt bars made with a high amount of CO will need a longer cure to become milder. Higher CO soaps are a higher cleansing soap, so a longer cure will help them become milder. A high CO soap made for household cleaning or laundry, wouldn't need the long cure, but for bathing it is better to wait.
I made pine tar soap over the weekend. First time making it in a loaf mold and it went surprisingly well. It was really soft and slightly greasy when I cut it on Sunday. I haven't checked it today to see if it's hardened more with air exposure, but it seemed quite odd. I suspect a mismeasurement on my part if it isn't set properly. I'll confess that I was multi-tasking while measuring out the oils, and quite nervous during the actual making (pine tar moves so fast, I was worried I wouldn't have time to get it in the mold). The fact that it went so smoothly worries me that I did something wrong.
I disagree. A salt soap needs a good 6 months to be a good bar of soap. CO soap doesn't need that long of a cure if you're using it for cleaning or laundry but skin use absolutely. It's so much better and gentler on the skin after 6 months. I prefer much longer than 6 months. But I only make salt soap not just 100% CO soap except for laundry on occasion.
Hawksquill
Well-Known Member
Got the scale I ordered for myself as a Christmas gift today! Got the KD8000 and very excited to start using it - I had previously been using a lightweight kitchen scale that I use for baking (I think the brand is Zerla) but I wasn't confident in the accuracy for soapmaking, and this one seems much sturdier.
Plus, today I noticed at my grocery store that the store brand has finally started carrying gallon containers of distilled water! We boycott Nestle and had a really hard time finding distilled water in larger quantities - woo hoo!
Plus, today I noticed at my grocery store that the store brand has finally started carrying gallon containers of distilled water! We boycott Nestle and had a really hard time finding distilled water in larger quantities - woo hoo!
Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
cut an order of hunting soap and am getting ready to make some Love soap
I don’t cure my coconut oil soaps longer than 4-6 weeks. I super fat at 30% which makes them milder right off the bat. The only soaps I cure for a long time are my high olive oil bars. The 100% olive oil bars I cure for 12 months, the 80% olive oil bars I cure for 4 months, sometimes longer, depending. I have some older Coconut Oil bars (3 years old) and they aren’t appreciably milder.Salt bars made with a high amount of CO will need a longer cure to become milder. Higher CO soaps are a higher cleansing soap, so a longer cure will help them become milder. A high CO soap made for household cleaning or laundry, wouldn't need the long cure, but for bathing it is better to wait.
I made pine tar soap over the weekend. First time making it in a loaf mold and it went surprisingly well. It was really soft and slightly greasy when I cut it on Sunday. I haven't checked it today to see if it's hardened more with air exposure, but it seemed quite odd. I suspect a mismeasurement on my part if it isn't set properly. I'll confess that I was multi-tasking while measuring out the oils, and quite nervous during the actual making (pine tar moves so fast, I was worried I wouldn't have time to get it in the mold). The fact that it went so smoothly worries me that I did something wrong.
Unmolded and cut my beer soap:
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