Good point.
What soapy thing have you done today?
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ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
Don't seduce me…
Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
Tried some different soap-adjacent things today.
Of course I had to have a go of @ResolvableOwl's crazy boxes since I have many round flat soaps from the last challenge that are a pain to store! I'm happy to report that the technique worked nicely:
View attachment 56877
(Yes, there is actually a soap in there!)
And I'm halfway through trying this concept for making silicone inlays for soap moulds. My individual moulds don't get much use since they're kind of boring, so sprucing them up with some plant-based designs.
View attachment 56878 View attachment 56879
View attachment 56880 View attachment 56881
I'm having a break for lunch now but if all goes as planned I may get to try out the silicone this evening. (Not 100% sure if it will, since that's not actually plaster of Paris but some wall filler that's been knocking around the shed for years, so it may be a bit old, or it may not like being diluted at 2:1 instead of 2.5:1.
Our vibrating table is broken and we haven't got around to making a new one, so I improvised! (Also an excuse to test the video upload feature) You'll probably want to mute sound before playing it though...
View attachment 56882
Love your round box' it turned out fantastic.
I haven't made soap in a couple of weeks's Ive got an over load of soap' but I'm having soap W/ draws
so ive convinced myself Ive gotta improve my last citrus soap w/ the one prior which I was kinda trying to duplicate but decided to switch up a few EO & FO @ the last minuet. In any case sounds convincing enough 
. I'll look for a Shelter & donate some soap.
.
ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
Y’all are always just the inspiration I need. My soap making obsession is second only to my turkey hunting g obsession. So, for the last month I’ve only made soap once, and done almost no soapy things. After obsessively consuming and producing all things soap making, as a therapy, for the last year, this break was interesting. It kind of turned into a rut that I’m trying to break out of.
This coming Sunday I have a farmers market. I’ve still got 5 new soaps I need to put on my website. Today I steamed some ash off my mother’s day soaps, and trimmed up some other soaps that are ready. That was motivating. Waiting for my label guy (DH) so I can package them.
This week will hopefully be a social media blitz of newly packaged soaps posted to my website and ready for the farmers market.
And I’m starting to get jazzed about getting back in the studio to make more.
This coming Sunday I have a farmers market. I’ve still got 5 new soaps I need to put on my website. Today I steamed some ash off my mother’s day soaps, and trimmed up some other soaps that are ready. That was motivating. Waiting for my label guy (DH) so I can package them.
This week will hopefully be a social media blitz of newly packaged soaps posted to my website and ready for the farmers market.
And I’m starting to get jazzed about getting back in the studio to make more.
Attachments
Where can I learn more about these boxes for round flat soap?!Tried some different soap-adjacent things today.
Of course I had to have a go of @ResolvableOwl's crazy boxes since I have many round flat soaps from the last challenge that are a pain to store! I'm happy to report that the technique worked nicely:
View attachment 56877
(Yes, there is actually a soap in there!)
And I'm halfway through trying this concept for making silicone inlays for soap moulds. My individual moulds don't get much use since they're kind of boring, so sprucing them up with some plant-based designs.
View attachment 56878 View attachment 56879
View attachment 56880 View attachment 56881
I'm having a break for lunch now but if all goes as planned I may get to try out the silicone this evening. (Not 100% sure if it will, since that's not actually plaster of Paris but some wall filler that's been knocking around the shed for years, so it may be a bit old, or it may not like being diluted at 2:1 instead of 2.5:1.
Our vibrating table is broken and we haven't got around to making a new one, so I improvised! (Also an excuse to test the video upload feature
View attachment 56882
Fanfreakingtastic!!!
Well, I gave it a try. Let's hope it turns out ok. There are some white specks in the white part.
Attachments
That looks great!
ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
That's some vinyl record collection! Do they get along well with soap, or are they now all smelling like a tipped over FO shelf?
Great job - it is really pretty!
ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
I learned today why Soapee, and the SoapmakingFriend and soapcalc.net lye calculators have troubles with cupuaçu butter: the fatty acid numbers add up to mere 87% (for most other oils they end up above 96%).
Cupuaçu is a pretty abundant source (7–8%) of arachidic acid C20:0, which, in terms soapmaking is very similar to stearic acid (for hardness, creamy lather, comparatively low solubility, stearic spots).
My Portuguese skills aren't sufficient to extract all the other exciting information about cupuaçu and cocoa butter from this amazing scientific paper.
It also means that soap calculators underestimate the “hardness” and “longevity” numbers of cupuaçu butter. Heads-up to not blindly rely on soapcalc numbers! Cupuaçu would be better rated S=43 rather than S=35 (+20%!) to reflect its impact on soap hardness.
This somewhat nullifies my efforts to vary P/S without varying P+S.
Once more I wish that the characteristic property numbers of soaps were more flexibly calculated/manually revised than just “longevity = P+S”.
The time at which I'll write my own calculator isn't far, I guess
. It'll keep track of minor fatty acids (MCT, exotic poly-unsaturated FAs, palmitoleic, arachidic, erucic, butyric, trans fats, odd-chain FAs), unsaponifiables (sterols, fatty alcohols, squalene), data sheets/publications as sources for as many numbers as possible, and eventually employ proper error propagation to better estimate uncertainties/natural variations.
Cupuaçu is a pretty abundant source (7–8%) of arachidic acid C20:0, which, in terms soapmaking is very similar to stearic acid (for hardness, creamy lather, comparatively low solubility, stearic spots).
My Portuguese skills aren't sufficient to extract all the other exciting information about cupuaçu and cocoa butter from this amazing scientific paper.
It also means that soap calculators underestimate the “hardness” and “longevity” numbers of cupuaçu butter. Heads-up to not blindly rely on soapcalc numbers! Cupuaçu would be better rated S=43 rather than S=35 (+20%!) to reflect its impact on soap hardness.
This somewhat nullifies my efforts to vary P/S without varying P+S.
Once more I wish that the characteristic property numbers of soaps were more flexibly calculated/manually revised than just “longevity = P+S”.The time at which I'll write my own calculator isn't far, I guess
. It'll keep track of minor fatty acids (MCT, exotic poly-unsaturated FAs, palmitoleic, arachidic, erucic, butyric, trans fats, odd-chain FAs), unsaponifiables (sterols, fatty alcohols, squalene), data sheets/publications as sources for as many numbers as possible, and eventually employ proper error propagation to better estimate uncertainties/natural variations.
That’s the hubs collection, and you can only see part of it!
Thank you so much for your advice and encouragement. And for the kind words of all the other posters. Much appreciated.
Ugh. I have soooo much going on right now. Carved out some time to take photos of soaps that are well past their 8-week mark. Posting them to my website today. These are the most photogenic of the lot.
Wow, those are phenomenal! The colours are something else...
Thank you, @Tara_H! I enjoy playing with color, particular pairing warmer tones with a surprise of color where you have to give it a second glance.
They're all great but the green one in particular I keep looking at! It feels like it should clash, but then it doesn't, and the sharpness of the different greens is stunning.
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