What soapy thing have you done today?

[LilianNoir]

I can’t wait!!! Made my first batch of salt soap and it went great! I’ve been super into all things salt since before I started soaping. So when I heard of this magickal sounding concoction I was SO intrigued. %80 CO %20 avo oil, %80 salt PPO, added some indigo, peppermint and lavender oil at %8. Blended at about 125f. Used my new plastic containers, no more glass!!!
But how on earth can I wait 6 whole months?!!! Anybody wanna sell or trade me a properly cured bar of a similar-ish salt soap?

With the angle and lighting, the photo of your soaps reminded of a particular fossil, often encased in black stone.
Google search says Orthoceras fossil is what I'm thinking of. It looks neat!

 

[TashaBird]

With the angle and lighting, the photo of your soaps reminded of a particular fossil, often encased in black stone.
Google search says Orthoceras fossil is what I'm thinking of. It looks neat!

That was fun! Thanks.

 

[AliOop]

Made a big batch of my standard goat-milk-lard-oatmeal recipe but with AVJ instead of vinegar, then divided that into two batches:

Batch 1: 8 decorative cavity mold bars colored with light purple and scented with lavender. It's part of a wedding gift box that my daughter and I are putting together for my nephew and his bride-to-be for their August wedding. They love handcrafted items, and she loves lavender, so now my curing room is overwhelming me with lavender. My daughter is going to make him some beard oil for his part of the gift. Not sure yet what else we will do, but probably some bath bombs and shower steamers.

Batch 2: approximately 5 lbs in a slab mold scented with the EO blend "Reason" from EoCalc. The plan was a drop swirl with a hanger swirl. I had just poured the base into the mold when I realized I'd forgotten the fragrance. Poured that right into the mold and used the mini-frother to incorporate it with the batter. Fortunately it stayed fluid enough to add the three colors and some decent swirls on top. Then I put it in the oven to CPOP for a few hours.
AND just realized I never did the hanger swirl.

 

[AliOop]

@Jersey Girl the soap AND the jam look GREAT.

 

[AliOop]

not really what I was going for.

I think they look cool - kinda celestial!

 

[Rachel M.]

I finally used soapcalc to make my own recipe. It's the first batch I've formulated myself and it is also a Soleseife bar. I used dead sea salt in my water, and I scented them with Bergamot Tea FO.

 

[Catscankim]

I finally used soapcalc to make my own recipe. It's the first batch I've formulated myself and it is also a Soleseife bar. I used dead sea salt in my water, and I scented them with Bergamot Tea FO.

when I first started posting here, I got a very stern finger waving about learning soap calc, lol. All good intentions of course. It made drastic improvements on my learning.

 

[Catscankim]

I love the color of your bars!!

 

[TashaBird]

I finally used soapcalc to make my own recipe. It's the first batch I've formulated myself and it is also a Soleseife bar. I used dead sea salt in my water, and I scented them with Bergamot Tea FO.

Beautiful! What is the colorant?

 

[MGM]

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!

....
I made a batch yesterday... basically a Bastille soap and used Matcha Green Tea powder as the colorant...

I just did the opposite....I was listening to a podcast on Matcha and they made it sound so good and I knew I had some in my soaping stash....so I used the Matcha for the first time to...gasp...*drink*!

 

[cmzaha]

at least you tried

no no no... you call and demand this be corrected. You can send back the mess and they can re-send out to you. If you happen to be a member of the Guild mention filing a report. Do not take the first answer from customer service. It is unacceptable. Hopefully, you took pictures. BB is getting sloppy and hateful. They do not like Guild complaints, but I think you have to be a member to file one although I am not 100% sure. Did they replace your CO?

I have done nothing but I do have a market opening up July 13th or possibly opening. It is not my good market but it is better than nothing.

 

[cmzaha]

I finally used soapcalc to make my own recipe. It's the first batch I've formulated myself and it is also a Soleseife bar. I used dead sea salt in my water, and I scented them with Bergamot Tea FO.

You do not want to use DSO in salt bars. If you used the 25% salt you might not be happy but only time will tell. Just give them a very long cure of 6-12 months. DSO contains too many minerals. It will make a sweaty, waxy non-lathering salt bar. I found the max that could be used was 5% DSO but it still did not make a quality salt bar, in my opinion. It was something I played with for a long time and did sell when DSO products were selling well, which sold well at the time, but finally, sales died down. Probably because even the 5% added to my regular salt bars cut lather.

 

[MGM]

I had great fun today doing an experiment with crayons as colorants!

I used purple crayons in a lard soap about a year ago. Even though the crayon was fully melted, it gathered in spots and then, it morphed over the months from purply-pink to more reddish. Now that I look at it up close, it looks measles-y
I don't mind it, but I wouldn't consider it a stable colorant, especially to sell/give away, since it changed so much over 6 months.
The black is activated charcoal and it's looked the same all the way through.
You'll have to keep us updated on what your soaps do!

 

[jcandleattic]

I just put in a small order for some FO's I needed to replenish.
Crazy I needed to place an order since I just got about 100 lbs of FO's (all in various sizes) from a friend that is moving and gave me all of her remaining stock because she won't be doing much once she gets settled in her new place. Unfortunately in all the product she had, she didn't have these 5 scents which are basically the only ones I will reuse often.

 

[Rachel M.]

You do not want to use DSO in salt bars. If you used the 25% salt you might not be happy but only time will tell. Just give them a very long cure of 6-12 months. DSO contains too many minerals. It will make a sweaty, waxy non-lathering salt bar. I found the max that could be used was 5% DSO but it still did not make a quality salt bar, in my opinion. It was something I played with for a long time and did sell when DSO products were selling well, which sold well at the time, but finally, sales died down. Probably because even the 5% added to my regular salt bars cut lather.

Oh, I already knew it wouldn't have a good lather. I was making them as a super conditioning bar of soap for my sister that gets eczema rashes on her hands.
I appreciate the input, I generally do a lot of reading on what I plan to do before trying. But I also am using cheaper oils/butters so if it fails, it's just a learning experience.
I did 20% of the salt in the water after separating out the amount I needed to dissolve my lye. That's what I read that someone else was doing when I went cruising through the forum for Soleseife info at least.

 

[Rachel M.]

Beautiful! What is the colorant?

So I used a purple from Brambleberry that I already knew was prone to morphing into grey in the main batch and added a mica that I bought off Etsy to the top portion. Their shop is I think, Dragon Dust Micas. (All of their colors have been beautiful)

 

[luluzapcat]

I used purple crayons in a lard soap about a year ago. Even though the crayon was fully melted, it gathered in spots and then, it morphed over the months from purply-pink to more reddish. Now that I look at it up close, it looks measles-y
I don't mind it, but I wouldn't consider it a stable colorant, especially to sell/give away, since it changed so much over 6 months.
The black is activated charcoal and it's looked the same all the way through.
You'll have to keep us updated on what your soaps do!

Oh that is very good information to share! Thanks for the warning! I would have thought if anything it might fade over time, which I could live with, but gathering in spots is really off-putting!

I made 6 samples in different colors. I'll just keep them for a year and see what they do. I'll post photos so far in a separate thread that I can update over time.

 

[Rogue-Soaper]

I used purple crayons in a lard soap about a year ago. Even though the crayon was fully melted, it gathered in spots and then, it morphed over the months from purply-pink to more reddish. Now that I look at it up close, it looks measles-y
I don't mind it, but I wouldn't consider it a stable colorant, especially to sell/give away, since it changed so much over 6 months.
The black is activated charcoal and it's looked the same all the way through.
You'll have to keep us updated on what your soaps do!

I bet kids would love this, it made me smile. Then I wondered if you have used it? What happened with the spots? About ten years I purchased soap in Portland at the open air market (I like to try other soaps creations), It was so pretty and had several colors in it. However, when I used it, the colorant left a yellow tint on my skin and dyed my washcloth as well, the spots in you soap made me think of this. I am just curious.

 

[msunnerstood]

I ordered Glass beakers from the Ax-Man today. A small one to mix mica in and a medium for fragrance oils and 2 large ones for making lotion or body wash batches.

 

[SPowers]

I tried my hand at bar for sensitive skin... Turmeric & Carrot Soap - 1/2 the lye water is goat's milk. I also included some colloidal oatmeal and a bit of honey too. I subbed out 5% of the Palm Oil for Red Palm Oil. It smells overwhelmingly of turmeric even though I used a honey FO. I made this in my homemade mold which I think it too wide... I was going for tall skinny but the bars are almost square... heafty indeed!