What soapy thing have you done today?

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Lol! I’m guessing it’s pine. I even checked my Home Depot app shopping list and it doesn’t say what type of wood it is... They are the cheap 1x2 furring strips that I use for most of my diy projects.... They serve their purpose most of the time. It’s funny because the Pin that I found with the diy curing rack said that you can spend $50 on wood and a couple hours building. I’m wondering how old the post is because I’ve spent a wee bit more on lumber!

I'd guess its pine too. Yes agree Lumber Prices has gone through the roof & a short supply. I'll blame it on "Covid" lol

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Zing, I thought I discovered that Bergamot in a 50-50 ratio kicked up the Geranium scent but now I think 75 geranium, 25 Bergamot is the ticket. I also add 1 teaspoon of Pachouly in addition as a base note and to hold the scent better. It is not discernable as pachouly but it enhances the others.
Geranium is like geranium and has many fans, not all women. It can be said to be floral but I think comes from the leaves of the pelargonium. If you haven't tried it, get a sample, quick!

sounds like a beautiful combo.

 

[TashaBird]

Barely got them made, when I’d planned on packing for my trip. But the hustle was super worth it!

 

[AliOop]

My shampoo bars are rock hard, and the sweating on the conditioner bars stopped, so I shrink-wrapped them to retain the lovely OMH scent until I use up the ones that are currently in the shower. Hubs is using those now, too, and really likes them. With his PD, it is much easier for him to rub a bar on his head than to manipulate the liquid without it spilling everywhere.

My previous soapy thing this weekend was stopping in a thrift store, just to have a look. After picking up some nice glass pieces and a mini-crock pot for $2 (perfect for melting syndet ingredients), and finding some pants for the ever-sprouting grandsons, I wandered back to the furniture area. I recently learned about restoring leather finishes, and this place had high-quality leather couches for $25 - $55. All they need about $50 worth of leather restoring/repairing stain to look amazing. However, I resisted until I finish my current leather project ( the driver's seat in our truck).

And that rabbit trail through the furniture section brought me to a folding craft table in great shape -- FOR $20! I'd been eyeing these new for about $350 and hoping to find a used one someday. This one has some wear and tear but is completely functional. It is now in my office/crafting room, allowing me to craft somewhere other than the kitchen counters and all the issues that come with that.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Today i'm researching' Oatmeal soap & waiting on my Colloidal Oatmeal to arrive' working on Improving my "Signature Peachy Scented Soap" I did order different peachy FO'S its a matter of trial & error finding a perfect FO & EO that behaves well.
Also I'll be working on a Body Lotion & Body butter, Ive got the containers w/ a pump lid for Lotion & for the body butter i'll use a thin mint soap mold cause its tiny flat round disk shape that I'm thinking would be perfect for a one time use body butter disk' is my mindset. This will entail enrolling in a pay level course @SwiftCraftyMonkey to better understand skincare' chemistry & making products.
My first love Is creating soap' I dont think I'll ever grow tired of the magical transformation between "Lye & Fat" = Soap!" It's truly magical in every scene of the word.

( It's a soap thing' they don't understand )

Make It a Great Day Friend's

 

[AliOop]

Today i'm researching' Oatmeal soap & waiting on my Colloidal Oatmeal to arrive' working on Improving my "Signature Peachy Scented Soap" I did order different peachy FO'S its a matter of trial & error finding a perfect FO & EO that behaves well.

Peche de Vigne is a soft, light peachy scent from Oregon Trails that I find amazing. Not super strong, but absolutely beautiful.

 

[Tara_H]

Yesterday ended up being a very soapy day, due to hailstones (in May, what?!)

Husband helped me to do 2 rounds of 10 fragrance tests. Expected results: lilac, ocean, coconut and lily of the valley accelerated a lot! Unexpected results: chocolate dream discoloured to a vivid yellow, fresh brewed coffee decelerated, Mediterranean fig got quickly to medium trace, backed up to a light/medium for a while, then started thickening up again after about 25 mins. That seems like it could come in pretty handy!

 

[amd]

Peche de Vigne is a soft, light peachy scent from Oregon Trails that I find amazing. Not super strong, but absolutely beautiful.

Have you used it in soap? That was going to be my recommendation as well, but I've only used it in shampoo and conditioner bars. I got my bottle from another soaper who was destashing during a move across country, so I might have enough left for a very small batch. It's a fantastic peach scent!

My soapy adventures for the weekend involved getting everything done but my OPW soap. By the time I got to it my foot was very angry. I should be able to handle it tonight - maybe. So what I did get done was 4 types of shampoo bars (I could do those sitting down), succulent embeds, and the soap cupcake to place the embeds on. I also did the dishes from two weeks ago, but I'll need to do them again, probably not tonight.

 

[AliOop]

Have you used it in soap? That was going to be my recommendation as well, but I've only used it in shampoo and conditioner bars. I got my bottle from another soaper who was destashing during a move across country, so I might have enough left for a very small batch. It's a fantastic peach scent!

I have, and I absolutely love it, although it is not strong at all (a plus for me, but maybe not for others). I was going to try it in a lotion next. I didn't think about using shampoo bars, but it would be perfect in those, too.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

This is my goal:

With or without the cat?

the magical transformation between "Lye & Fat" = Soap!" It's truly magical in every scene of the word.

( It's a soap thing' they don't understand )

I do understand what is happening during saponification (with “understand” in the sense of chemistry textbooks/lectures). But still I'm with you, it has something magical about it, if you want to call it that way. The more I know about soapmaking is mostly the more I know that I don't know, and won't ever know. There are so many things that can't be explained by a scientific approach! Soapmaking will always resist being squeezed into the category of science, craftmanship, or (black) art – because it is always a blend of all three!

In soapy news, I'm currently challenging another pet theory with on-paper-appeal with soapmaking practice: An attempt for (a very cumbersome detour to get to) a shortcut to the elusive soap-without-lye phantom.
I had precipitated free fatty acids from soap scraps + excess citric acid + some purification magic. The current step is filtrating off some activated charcoal I had added to clear off impurities. Needless to say I have to do this in the oven to keep the FFAs from solidifying at RT … Uncertain ending…

 

[Tara_H]

With or without the cat?

With, clearly. All the best plans include cats.

 

[Ladka]

Now that I've taken photos of my entry soap and posted them I was able to tackle bevelling and planing the bars of my two previous failed batches and transfer them to the wooly&soapy room to cure.

 

[Zing]

Barely got them made, when I’d planned on packing for my trip. But the hustle was super worth it!

Can you be my grandma?

My previous soapy thing this weekend was stopping in a thrift store, just to have a look. After picking up some nice glass pieces and a mini-crock pot for $2 (perfect for melting syndet ingredients), and finding some pants for the ever-sprouting grandsons, I wandered back to the furniture area. I recently learned about restoring leather finishes, and this place had high-quality leather couches for $25 - $55. All they need about $50 worth of leather restoring/repairing stain to look amazing. However, I resisted until I finish my current leather project ( the driver's seat in our truck).

And that rabbit trail through the furniture section brought me to a folding craft table in great shape -- FOR $20! I'd been eyeing these new for about $350 and hoping to find a used one someday. This one has some wear and tear but is completely functional. It is now in my office/crafting room, allowing me to craft somewhere other than the kitchen counters and all the issues that come with that.

SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! I love thrifting and still looking for a decent store in my new city. I loved the two in Chicago in wealthy neighborhoods and getting clothes with the tags still on.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

These are the soaps I made recently to estimate the strength of the botanical colorant infusions I started in March. From left to right, but excluding the soap in the lower left, the colors are paprika, rhubarb root, alkanet and indigo. The indigo pigment is not oil soluble so I use the suspended powder in oil, whereas for the other colors I just use the oil. In each case, the colorant is 1/2 strength compared with the soap above. The indigo bars were planed on the bottom to reveal the inner beauty. Why oh why does indigo have to go grey on the outer edges? I used the oil from the unshaken indigo infusion to get the pale pink color of the soap in the lower left. The pink is from a secondary plant pigment, alizarin, that is oil soluble.

 

[GemstonePony]

Unmolded and cut my Lily of the Valley soap, which was very soft, and I should probably have waited. Way too soft to bevel, and I might need to do touch-ups on the surfaces I smudged, but I'm fairly pleased. Not exactly a glamour pic, but they aren't cleaned up yet, either.

 

[The_Phoenix]

Unmolded and cut my Lily of the Valley soap, which was very soft, and I should probably have waited. Way too soft to bevel, and I might need to do touch-ups on the surfaces I smudged, but I'm fairly pleased. Not exactly a glamour pic, but they aren't cleaned up yet, either.

I LOVE Lily of the Valley. What company is your FO from? And did it perform well?

 

[GemstonePony]

I LOVE Lily of the Valley. What company is your FO from? And did it perform well?

Brambleberry, and it's fantastic! So, my FO blend was 3:1 Lily of the Valley : Earth meets Sky (sweet/Patchouli), which does not accelerate. My first time soaping Lily of the Valley, and I doubt it decelerates, but it took 2 hours to get all 3 mini-batches mixed and layered (starting once I had 3 little pitchers of oil with FO and mica added, and 3 little pitchers of lye solution with it's additives).
I attached a screenshot of the recipe I used, because I didn't think it was likely to move that slowly, but I had to use a mini-mixer for a few minutes to get each batch to medium trace, and then they took a while to set up after that, which I felt was unreasonable. I do love longevity, though, so maybe my sense of reasonable trace progression is skewed.
Oh, no ricing or discoloration, and haven't seen any FO seeping, either.

 

[Quanta]

I finally tried the lollipop swirl. I may or may not post pictures once I cut it, but one of my colors got noticeably thicker than the others and it got difficult to pour, it was more like blobs sliding down the inside of the can, than a smooth steady stream. I am glad no one is counting on a pretty soap out of this batch. I might be embarrassed to show it.

The FO I used is Baby Bee Buttermilk from Nature's Garden. It smells just like almonds to me. It behaved well, but my green mica didn't - it turned yellow once it hit the batter. I added a bit of darker blue-ish green after that so we'll have to see what it looks like once it's cured. I know colors change in the batter sometimes and might cure closer to the actual color of the mica powder, but I have barely used this one in soap before and didn't really know what to expect. The only other time I used it in soap was with some TD in a bar that I wanted to be a very pale green, but it barely had any color at all. I need to experiment some more with it. I usually use it for syndet bars and it's great for that.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Have you used it in soap? That was going to be my recommendation as well, but I've only used it in shampoo and conditioner bars. I got my bottle from another soaper who was destashing during a move across country, so I might have enough left for a very small batch. It's a fantastic peach scent!

My soapy adventures for the weekend involved getting everything done but my OPW soap. By the time I got to it my foot was very angry. I should be able to handle it tonight - maybe. So what I did get done was 4 types of shampoo bars (I could do those sitting down), succulent embeds, and the soap cupcake to place the embeds on. I also did the dishes from two weeks ago, but I'll need to do them again, probably not tonight.

Oh That scent sounds great.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Peche de Vigne is a soft, light peachy scent from Oregon Trails that I find amazing. Not super strong, but absolutely beautiful.
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