What soapy thing have you done today?

[Malleebird]

I remade my Beeswax & Honey Soap

They are lovely ! Love that they smell of lemongrass too...is that all the fragrance you used ? Is that a bubble wrap impression or do you have the right mold? It's come out so well ! Colour is great too...annatto or turmeric or something else ?

 

[SPowers]

Thanks so much! I used just lemongrass and hope it holds. It's bubble wrap but I didn't press firmly enough all over - some of it is a bit muddled but it's not as noticeable once it's cut. And I subbed out 5% of the palm oil for 5% red palm which is what gives it the beautiful colour! I think this is my best soap in my short career of making soap! I cant wait to start using it.

 

[Malleebird]

So that's what red palm oil does... lovely ! I've seen it in recipes but just thought it was another oil that I didn't need ! Maybe I do after all . Not sure that I can get it here though... checked my suppliers and it only seems to be available in specialty grocery shops.

 

[SPowers]

I just happened to have it in my pantry for cooking (I like trying new things) and it just occurred to me that they might have the same properties as regular palm with the added benefit of the colour. I think I got mine at Amazon.

 

[tammy sue starks]

It's like distilling water with the addition of plant material. That use it in a lot of lotions and creams and cleansers you can do things like rose petals or lavender. You wind up with a distilled water that has been infused with whatever plant material you choose

aha

 

[tammy sue starks]

The first half of my leaf lard has been rendered and is gorgeous: clear, no smell, and very pure white as it cools.

For $2/lb, plus gas to pick it up, and a few hours of my time, I got just under 13 lbs of rendered leaf lard from ~16.5 lbs of leaf fat.

And the chickens got the small pile of cracklins, so everybody is happy.

I am happy for you

 

[cmzaha]

I tried my hand at shrink wrapping today. Just one bar of MP soap. I have some friends who were interested in my recent batch and I HATE wrapping in cling wrap/saranwrap. It went...eh. Mostly ok but I couldn't get the final seam right and then the soap started melting a bit. :/ Another learning curve to get over.

Not knowing what size bar you are wrapping, I use a heat sealer to seal the bags first, then I cut off a tiny corner for expanded hot air to escape and proceed to shrink wrap. If I have something odd shape I will try to seal around the shape then shrink wrap it. When shrinkwrapping m&p goes as cool as your shrink wrap will allow with your heat gun.

As usual I have done zero soapmaking and it looks like this is going to continue on.

So I am going to be playing and setting up my new Exo Terra 45 gallon terrarium that will house day geckos. It will be a Bio Rain Forest setup.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Back at it again. I've been doing a bit more rock painting lately which is cutting in to my soap making time. Yesterday I made a new batch of my Karma Chameleon soap which is my version of the Lush soap (used to pay approx $20 for a wedge of it, and now I can make a whole batch for just over that same cost):

 

[Malleebird]

I just happened to have it in my pantry for cooking (I like trying new things)

Lol... me too ! That's how I ended up with annatto in my additive stock pile. Bought it because I went through a brief Brazilian cooking phase ! It gets more use in soap than it ever did in cooking

 

[Arimara]

I tested a bar of from last month because it is at minimum cure. It feels really nice but I can't find the print out of the recipe anywhere. I also found cornmeal to be a race step below coffee grounds.

 

[msunnerstood]

I took the mini plunge. I was out of stearic and noticed prices were up since I last bought some. I normally only buy a pound at a time but found essential depot had it 5LBs for only $3 more. Love the buckets they come in. Also got my cobalt blue glass bottles in the mail today. love them.. they came really well packaged and not a scratch or ding on any of them. soap cutter finally (I hope) comes on Friday.

 

[SPowers]

Lol... me too ! That's how I ended up with annatto in my additive stock pile. Bought it because I went through a brief Brazilian cooking phase ! It gets more use in soap than it ever did in cooking

That's too funny! That's how I started using Barleygrass powder as a natural colorant as well... sounded healthy but I'm not a smoothie person and didn't like the taste in other things so there ya go!

Awhile back I bought some powders because of their colours to use as natural colorants... not sure how they will work out.
I made a batch yesterday... basically a Bastille soap and used Matcha Green Tea powder as the colorant... someone told me it will turn brown. The colour is more of light olive but there are signs that it will morph with time. The other powders I got are Dragonfruit & Strawberry - time will tell but I'm not feeling hopeful. Here is a pic of the Matcha Green Tea.

 

[tammy sue starks]

I was busy today with soapy stuff! My son cut plywood for 4 molds. Well, let me say I'm happy that someone else besides me cannot cut a straight line! The inside measurements are even but the outsides are off by an inch in some places. Bahaha! I'll be using the jig saw tomorrow to straighten the edges out! My goat milk turned out beautifully but went into partial gel in the middle so there is a shiny circle. The lard I used was from Mangalitsa hogs so it is pure white and my garage fridge is totally full of it. I am so happy! My butcher is getting a few dozen eggs for sure!

 

[tammy sue starks]

I received my order from brambleberry. The coconut creme fo is low on volume and the raspberry mica is all over the place Grrrr. Not happy.
On the flip side, I found a local fresh goat milk supplier. Woohoo!

 

[PressedSoap]

I made two mockup drawings for the next soaps in my series collection and shaved the edges of several dozen bars.

 

[amd]

Ok, my defrosted lard seems to be fine (it was wrapped in 20 layers of plastic and freezer paper), but my week has exploded on me. I'm wondering how long I can keep unrendered lard in the fridge before I can render it. I likely won't have time until Sunday - at which point it will have been out of the freezer a week.

I have more packaging to do from last month's soap frenzy, and finishing up a brewery order, but that will wait until Sunday. I just started laying out my soap ideas for 2021. I'm coming up with a lot of crazy fragrance concoctions trying to clean up my small partially used FO's.

 

[AliOop]

I'm wondering how long I can keep unrendered lard in the fridge before I can render it. I likely won't have time until Sunday - at which point it will have been out of the freezer a week.

I think of it this way: I keep uncured bacon (pretty equivalent to unrendered lard) in the fridge for weeks at a time, and it never goes bad unless the package is opened and exposed to air. Also, your 20lb chunk of unrendered lard probably took 2-3 days to fully defrost anyway, so it's actually less than a week of being defrosted. So I believe it will be just fine till Sunday or even longer, especially since this isn't going into a food product.

 

[Adobehead]

Hi everyone,
I have been reading but not writing much, I am still here, though. I found about 55 bars of Lavender/Goats milk soaps that I didn't remember I had (and so I have made more, never wanting to be "out") so wrapped a dozen or so and dropped them off today at the market. And I recently made another half and half because I am in love with pencil lines now. The brown speckles are spearmint leaf from my garden. One side is white cosmetic clay & leaf bits the other side is french green clay. The EOs are Orange 10X, Geranium and Pachouly in equal parts. It was fun. Too many ideas!

I have been costing out the oils and coconut and olive are so economical for me 13 cents an ounce and 12.5. The tallow is free except for the million hours of rendering and cleaning up after. And I found a brand of lard in the market that looks white, the first kind was icky dark. I am still a beginner with lard, having only one batch. The beat goes on.

 

[tammy sue starks]

Ok, my defrosted lard seems to be fine (it was wrapped in 20 layers of plastic and freezer paper), but my week has exploded on me. I'm wondering how long I can keep unrendered lard in the fridge before I can render it. I likely won't have time until Sunday - at which point it will have been out of the freezer a week.

I have more packaging to do from last month's soap frenzy, and finishing up a brewery order, but that will wait until Sunday. I just started laying out my soap ideas for 2021. I'm coming up with a lot of crazy fragrance concoctions trying to clean up my small partially used FO's.

I think it will be fine. I use lard all of the time and have left it on the counter for ten days

I just made manly man soap lol. Lard soap, coconut oil, castor oil, stout beer and pacific trail fragrance. It's in the oven now

 

[AliOop]

I think it will be fine. I use lard all of the time and have left it on the counter for ten days

I think it's a little different if it is unrendered... that does have to be refrigerated since otherwise, the meat bits will go bad. Once rendered, then yes, no refrigeration is needed as long as it is very clean (no water and no meat residue). I still refrigerate mine, just in case I missed some bits that could make it go rancid.