What soapy thing have you done today?

[MGM]

Thank you. My non-soap making friends are really impressed.

So are your soap-making friends here!

 

[ShirleyHailstock]

So are your soap-making friends here!

Thank you.

 

[Ashleigh]

I made two batches of soap today. Lard, olive oil, castor. I made one batch with slightly more castor oil than the other to do a side by side comparison. I even did a swirl on one batch (I've been only doing solid colors for months). Definitely rusty on the swirling, and I don't like the extra dishes to wash LOL.

Ugh, the soap dishes that come with swirls! Since i'm working from home, I used my lunch hour to wash up yesterdays dishes and decided to reward myself by making more soap. What was going to be a simple two tone coconut lime turned into two shades of green and a beige lightened with titanium dioxide to lighten up the coconut FO. Then I decided to pipe the top, using even more titanium dioxide. So now I have a soaping bucket, three pitchers, two containers for my FO, more for my micas and TD, spoons, spatulas and a piping bag. Oh, and a gear tie. I guess I know how i'll be spending tomorrow's lunch hour!

 

[ShirleyHailstock]

Ugh, the soap dishes that come with swirls! Since I'm working from home, I used my lunch hour to wash up yesterday's dishes and decided to reward myself by making more soap. What was going to be a simple two tone coconut lime turned into two shades of green and a beige lightened with titanium dioxide to lighten up the coconut FO. Then I decided to pipe the top, using even more titanium dioxide. So now I have a soaping bucket, three pitchers, two containers for my FO, more for my micas and TD, spoons, spatulas and a piping bag. Oh, and a gear tie. I guess I know how i'll be spending tomorrow's lunch hour!

I have a hard time cleaning the plastic. The oily residue remains. Yesterday I allowed everything to stay overnight and cleaned it 12 hours later. When they dried, I still have an oily residue on the plastic measuring cups and even on my spoons and spatulas. I use DAWN Ultra to try and clean the grease. I bought a degreaser (Go Orange) and that didn't work well either. What do you use?

 

[Zing]

I make a soap with a similar profile and love it. I use Cut Grass Fo Dirt FO, Cedarwood EO, Pine EO, with a titch of Lavender. I love the damp forest floor type smell the dirt fo gives.

The scents really are dirt and cut grass.
The cut grass is so good I could almost feel my allergies coming on.
The dirt is more of a loam smell than clay. Musty potting soil almost?
Still pretty spot on.
)

LOL, I thought @Dumfrey was joking about the scents but I guess there really are FOs with those scents! I haven't used FOs, just EOs so didn't get the reference. The gardener and hiker in me wants to smell it!

Thank you. My non-soap making friends are really impressed.

AND YOUR SOAPY FRIENDS are also impressed! @ShirleyHailstock , you have to be quiet. This soap is super cool with the plain bottom and swirled top!

 

[Ashleigh]

I have a hard time cleaning the plastic. The oily residue remains. Yesterday I allowed everything to stay overnight and cleaned it 12 hours later. When they dried, I still have an oily residue on the plastic measuring cups and even on my spoons and spatulas. I use DAWN Ultra to try and clean the grease. I bought a degreaser (Go Orange) and that didn't work well either. What do you use?

I leave overnight too (or a week, or... ) I've found Dawn to work pretty well, i've also made my own dish paste using d-limonene which is pretty good (I can't remember for sure, but I think the recipe might have been from Humblebee and Me). That said, I still have some plastics that seem to have an oily residue no matter how much I scrub or rinse. My soap buckets are plastic and clean well, but my big plastic measuring cups are impossible to get absolutely perfect. I find letting them sit overnight, then soak for a bit, do a quick wash to get the worst off, leave to soak again and doing a good thorough wash has worked the best for me. I've found cheaper plastics are definitely worse for this too.

 

[Zing]

I didn't exactly DO something soapy today. BUT I manage a food pantry and today received 25 pounds of soap ends and scraps beautifully packaged. I like to think that it was the result of my plea on this forum that pantries and shelters are desperate for soap during this COVID-19 crisis and a Twin Cities, Minnesota fellow soaper heeded the call! Each day is lasting a week and this generous donation was a real pick-me-up. I know so many of you are impacted personally and professionally and I send well wishes.

 

[msunnerstood]

I didn't exactly DO something soapy today. BUT I manage a food pantry and today received 25 pounds of soap ends and scraps beautifully packaged. I like to think that it was the result of my plea on this forum that pantries and shelters are desperate for soap during this COVID-19 crisis and a Twin Cities, Minnesota fellow soaper heeded the call! Each day is lasting a week and this generous donation was a real pick-me-up. I know so many of you are impacted personally and professionally and I send well wishes.

Im a former Minnesotan and your post got me thinking so I called my local shelter and will be dropping off 75 bars of soap and all the 1/2 oz lotion samples I made for the conference that was postponed.

 

[rdc1978]

I cleaned 200 and eleventy million soap utensils, pots, pans and bowls. I may have fudged the numbers there. I think there was more. Felt like it anyway . Cleaning up because the Mother-In-Law is coming to stay. She will be doing her not so subtle inspection. Kill. Me. Now.

Protip - find a large closet. Put dirty utensils in said closet. If MIL finds closet, put MIL in closet. Problem solved.

 

[SoapSisters]

I have a hard time cleaning the plastic. The oily residue remains. Yesterday I allowed everything to stay overnight and cleaned it 12 hours later. When they dried, I still have an oily residue on the plastic measuring cups and even on my spoons and spatulas. I use DAWN Ultra to try and clean the grease. I bought a degreaser (Go Orange) and that didn't work well either. What do you use?

If you leave dishes for a day or so, the leftover batter on them becomes soap. Then you can wash it off pretty easily. I leave my soap utensils alone for about 3 days, and the batter (soap, by then) comes right off.

 

[Misschief]

I played with a little bit of the cream soap I made at the end of 2018 and forgot about (first pic). In reading a bit about cream soaps again this morning, I came across someone who had added a bit of thick lotion to the cream soap base so I thought I'd try that, using a lotion base made with a DIY Bath & Body recipe (second pic). I lathered it up on a shave brush to see how it would hold up. The third pic was taken an hour after lathering up. I scented it with Candora's Stormy Nights with is quite hyacinth forward; 10 drops was almost too much for the amount of croap I made (about 75 grams total).

Right now, all I can do is experiment. With our market being an uncertainty at this time, and having enough soap to last most of this year's season, I really can't justify making a lot of soap. At some point, I'll be making some more salt soap because of the cure length but that's about it. Experimenting will have to do for now.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Today has been pretty soapy for me. Most days lately have been under the circumstances. I cut my soap from yesterday ( could have waited a few more hours as you can see but I’ll clean it up in a few weeks). When I made the first cut I was disappointed as it didn’t look very good, but as I cut another bar it turned out ok. I decided though that I need to venture into more bold colors (I gravitate towards pastels) and I want more definition,

so I made a new batch this AM with some bright blues accented with white. But the best soapy thing is I got a delivery from NS and I am so excited to try out this new mold. I’ve been trying to make homemade dividers and although my last design worked pretty well, this is the bomb! I really love their wooden molds. The little two pound loaf I’ve been using is my go to mold so I’m sure I’m going to love this 2.5 lb with a LINER! Woohoo!

 

[cmzaha]

The scents really are dirt and cut grass.
The cut grass is so good I could almost feel my allergies coming on.
The dirt is more of a loam smell than clay. Musty potting soil almost?
Still pretty spot on.

The pine is well, pine. More resinous than green or this one, but still nice.

The bar is not a pure white, but close too.
Recipe is almost exactly what @cmzaha listed, but I am using palm (fruit) oil instead of PKO.
(Local "natural" grocery store went under and I managed to buy 4 lbs of Spectrum PO shortening at serious discount.)

I just like PKO/CO mixed. To me it seems a little milder than all CO. I use regular palm in my vegan and it will not be quite pure white. Musty Potting is a good description and I love that musty potting soil smell you get from the Dirt Fo's.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I played with a little bit of the cream soap I made at the end of 2018 and forgot about (first pic). In reading a bit about cream soaps again this morning, I came across someone who had added a bit of thick lotion to the cream soap base so I thought I'd try that, using a lotion base made with a DIY Bath & Body recipe (second pic). I lathered it up on a shave brush to see how it would hold up. The third pic was taken an hour after lathering up. I scented it with Candora's Stormy Nights with is quite hyacinth forward; 10 drops was almost too much for the amount of croap I made (about 75 grams total).

Right now, all I can do is experiment. With our market being an uncertainty at this time, and having enough soap to last most of this year's season, I really can't justify making a lot of soap. At some point, I'll be making some more salt soap because of the cure length but that's about it. Experimenting will have to do for now.

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Croap! I love it!

 

[cmzaha]

I have a hard time cleaning the plastic. The oily residue remains. Yesterday I allowed everything to stay overnight and cleaned it 12 hours later. When they dried, I still have an oily residue on the plastic measuring cups and even on my spoons and spatulas. I use DAWN Ultra to try and clean the grease. I bought a degreaser (Go Orange) and that didn't work well either. What do you use?

Spritz them with alcohol after washing and drying, it will really cut the oil residue.

I didn't exactly DO something soapy today. BUT I manage a food pantry and today received 25 pounds of soap ends and scraps beautifully packaged. I like to think that it was the result of my plea on this forum that pantries and shelters are desperate for soap during this COVID-19 crisis and a Twin Cities, Minnesota fellow soaper heeded the call! Each day is lasting a week and this generous donation was a real pick-me-up. I know so many of you are impacted personally and professionally and I send well wishes.

And here I cannot even get a response from a food pantry or shelter. I gave up guessing they just do not want my donations.

 

[Misschief]

Croap! I love it!

What do you do with yours? How do you use it?

 

[Jersey Girl]

What do you do with yours? How do you use it?

No, no...I haven’t made any I just think it’s a cute name. I do want to get in to making liquid soap but I have hesitated as it seems complicated. Then again I put off making my first CP soap for months as I felt the same.

 

[Ashleigh]

Spritz them with alcohol after washing and drying, it will really cut the oil residue.

Doh! Why didn't I think of that?!? I use it on my workstation when i've spilled oils and never even occured to me to use it on the dishes! Thanks @cmzaha for the tip!

 

[Misschief]

No, no...I haven’t made any I just think it’s a cute name. I do want to get in to making liquid soap but I have hesitated as it seems complicated. Then again I put off making my first CP soap for months as I felt the same.

It isn't necessarily complicated but I did find it was a learning curve. I did a lot of reading before I tried it.

 

[Purplereignz]

I bought some wood at Home Depot and they cut it to 2 foot lengths for me. They were a little off on the length but I was able to make it work just fine with a little bit of hand sanding. Check them out...they may still do the cuts for you.

Thanks, but the nearest Home Depot to me is about 2 hours away. I'm so sorry that they moved from where they were near me because they were my go-to place for homemade projects.