What soapy thing have you done today?

[The_Phoenix]

@The_Phoenix
MUCH better contrast and colour depth! Indirect lighting is worth so much! A bit fiddling with the white balance might be appropriate (yellowish appearance at the left side – in the worst case, you'll have to swap lights). But it's SO much better.
The soap is gorgeous too! Red cabbage alarm! For presentation purposes of the front side, the arrangement of the old photo is actually a bit better, but you now have plenty of occasion to try out what looks best anyway.

Placing the soap is a bit of a head scratcher. It’s not the sort of skill that comes naturally to me.

 

[The_Phoenix]

@The_Phoenix the new photos look wonderful. Definitely worth the effort to make the light box. ❤
And I have to respectfully disagree with ResolvableOwl - I prefer the 3 bar arrangement.

I don’t think I could fit more than three bars inside and I like having a view of the top of the soap. For now it’ll have to do.

Ok, one more! This is another batch that was very difficult to photograph because the colors are so dark. It’s not a beautiful soap anyway. Used OT’s Egyptian Musk in it so I was going for an “exotic” look.

New photo is the last photo

 

[Adobehead]

I'm hoping it will naturalize in our garden over time and I'll have a ready source of natural purple dye

View attachment 58935

I have land! You have just given me such a good idea! Now to see if it grows well in this climate and altitude.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

And I have to respectfully disagree with ResolvableOwl - I prefer the 3 bar arrangement.

Now I have to disagree with you! My aesthetic eye likes the more casual, relaxed 3-bar arrangements more as well! – It's just from a, so to say, bureaucratic point of view that the stiff and boring 2-bar arrangement does better in displaying (read: not distracting from) the actual swirl design. In neither of the 3-bar layouts, a front side of a soap bar is completely visible.
It really comes down to what @The_Phoenix intends to do with the photos. Either presentation is technically alright for presentation purposes, but the aesthetic progress is undeniable.

Btw, how much time has passed between umoulding and either of the photos in #22,307? The purple bottom layer seems so much darker/further into curing in the new photo. Or is this just the lighting ?

 

[dibbles]

Now I have to disagree with you! My aesthetic eye likes the more casual, relaxed 3-bar arrangements more as well! – It's just from a, so to say, bureaucratic point of view that the stiff and boring 2-bar arrangement does better in displaying (read: not distracting from) the actual swirl design.

Then I guess she has to do the 3 bar arrangement and skew one to directly face the camera to keep everyone happy. Because we are, I'm sure, her main priority.

 

[Zing]

I converted my husband’s Milennium Falcon ice mold to a soap mold. A few air bubbles in there, but there’s definitely A New Hope! (Or maybe more appropriately…..A New Soap!)
View attachment 58962

OMG!! Hands down this wins the Challenge of the Month/Year/Decade Award For All Time!! Love love love this A New Sope!! The first (fourth) Star Wars movie is my very favorite movie ever. I'm of the generation that had to explain to my children that I had to wait entire years in-between episodes!! Way to go, @VikingChick and @VikingDude!!

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

I converted my husband’s Milennium Falcon ice mold to a soap mold. A few air bubbles in there, but there’s definitely A New Hope! (Or maybe more appropriately…..A New Soap!)
View attachment 58962

My husband and boys all want soap like this- I looked for the mold on Amazon but didn't see it. Where did your husband get this??

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

Nevermind- found them, they ARE on Amazon!

 

[The_Phoenix]

Now I have to disagree with you! My aesthetic eye likes the more casual, relaxed 3-bar arrangements more as well! – It's just from a, so to say, bureaucratic point of view that the stiff and boring 2-bar arrangement does better in displaying (read: not distracting from) the actual swirl design. In neither of the 3-bar layouts, a front side of a soap bar is completely visible.
It really comes down to what @The_Phoenix intends to do with the photos. Either presentation is technically alright for presentation purposes, but the aesthetic progress is undeniable.

Btw, how much time has passed between umoulding and either of the photos in #22,307? The purple bottom layer seems so much darker/further into curing in the new photo. Or is this just the lighting ?

It’s all lighting. A handful of months between the two photos. I did make a slight adjustment to the exposure.

These photos will go up on my website. Honestly, my customers couldn’t care less what the photos look like. But there wasn’t consistency, so it looked sloppy and chaotic. Not that I’m a professional, mind you. But at least now every setup will be the same. I’m not a perfectionist. I’m an enoughionist. As in, it is “enough.”

 

[Catscankim]

Yesterday, I eventually jumped on the salt bar hype train as well. 50/50 palm kernel/babaçu, 20% lye discount, salt at 100% TOW, CPOP.
Looking at the bars 12 hours later, they sweat like crazy (no particularly moist weather here). It's for sure aqueous lye/brine/glycerol (no soft oils or EO/FO added).
View attachment 57995
Should I give the liquid a chance to reabsorb, and wait with unmoulding? Or doesn't make it a difference?

My salt bats don’t sweat like that, even with the humidity here. However i have a couple of Himalayan salt candle holders and they sweat...they even get a crust that i need to brush off of them...like they are growing more salt lol.

I haven’t scrolled through the hundred or more so pages of soapy things to find if you got a good answer, the topic of salt and sweating just resounded with me and I figured I’d reply lol. I am pretty sure i might not find your message again lol.

 

[Catscankim]

I started my soaping day by dropping some soap I had made yesterday and taken great pains over. It was very soft and it is pretty well mangled but I tried to revive it with a palette knife. Then I went to work making a mini T&S mold out of my jerryrigged T&S mold. I was cutting up some corrugated plastic with a utility knife, and the knife slipped and I sliced through the top of my fingernail. Saw the blood and went over to the house and told my husband. Then very dramatically had to lie down on the floor because I felt faint. He fetched a bandaid and I took a look. It really wasn’t that bad and I realized my drama was because I was imagining it was much worse than it actually was. Phew. Back to the T&S mold, made my version of blue ombré soap inspired by @The_Phoenix in an attempt to make an ocean soap. Oh! And some great news, I had made soap in a column mold but had forgotten to line or treat the mold. But I did as others have suggested, stuck it in the freezer and then let it thaw out partially, and it came right out! So, other than the soap ruining and finger mangling, a great day.
View attachment 58056

I was talking to a neuro dr one day (not about you lol), and we were discussing weird things that the body does.

He said that the reason some ppl pass out at the sight of their own blood is a very primitive reaction of their brain...you see YOUR blood, your brain interprets this as “omg i am loosing blood, we must get closer to the floor/ground to avoid injury and death” lol.

So its not drama causing you to feel faint and lie down, its your brains completely normal reaction and its trying to save your life lol

 

[Catscankim]

Sorry admins, just realizing that im posting three times in a row. Feel free to merge them lol.

Other than catching up on forums....

I cut my white, colloidal oatmeal and gm soap with lavender eo and kaolin clay added. Supposed to be an all natural soap (although i was going for whiter, next time i will use some td)

Just started cutting it, and the soap smells SO BAD. Like lavender scented rotten meat. At first i thought the smell came from the trash can since i made salmon this morning and the packaging is in the trash. Put my sniffer on the soap...its definitely the soap. How disappointing!! The soap smells worse than the fish in the trash lol lol.

I assume its the goats milk, although I just checked the exp date on the can, and it says its good until 2014. The leftover gm smells and looks ok, so i dunno.

I cpoped, and its been sitting for about 48 hours in the cold oven. It looks pretty lol. As soon as i cut it, it was like whoa!! Pretty offensive. Mostly upset that I wasted EO on this loaf. This might make me never use gm in any other batch lol....although i have used it before with no problem.

waiting for lye and oils to cool for more salt bars. A previous couple of posts inspired me to make them. I really need to make them more often.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I assume its the goats milk, although I just checked the exp date on the can, and it says its good until 2014. The leftover gm smells and looks ok, so i dunno.

I assume you mean 2024? Otherwise it's the GM
lol.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

The hue and the subtle stearic spots make it really look like grana padano or parmesan. Still I couldn't resist carve out some Emmentaler-style holes

 

[Angie Gail]

Sorry admins, just realizing that im posting three times in a row. Feel free to merge them lol.

Other than catching up on forums....

I cut my white, colloidal oatmeal and gm soap with lavender eo and kaolin clay added. Supposed to be an all natural soap (although i was going for whiter, next time i will use some td)

Just started cutting it, and the soap smells SO BAD. Like lavender scented rotten meat. At first i thought the smell came from the trash can since i made salmon this morning and the packaging is in the trash. Put my sniffer on the soap...its definitely the soap. How disappointing!! The soap smells worse than the fish in the trash lol lol.

I assume its the goats milk, although I just checked the exp date on the can, and it says its good until 2014. The leftover gm smells and looks ok, so i dunno.

I cpoped, and its been sitting for about 48 hours in the cold oven. It looks pretty lol. As soon as i cut it, it was like whoa!! Pretty offensive. Mostly upset that I wasted EO on this loaf. This might make me never use gm in any other batch lol....although i have used it before with no problem.

waiting for lye and oils to cool for more salt bars. A previous couple of posts inspired me to make them. I really need to make them more often.

I have a lavender FO (Lavender Vanilla from WSP) that smells awful while it's curing ( I also add goat's milk) and then by the time it's ready it just smells like the FO. The first time I made it using CP (I had been using that FO in HP soap) I was so confused and disappointed because it's one of my bestsellers.

 

[Misschief]

Sorry admins, just realizing that im posting three times in a row. Feel free to merge them lol.

Other than catching up on forums....

I cut my white, colloidal oatmeal and gm soap with lavender eo and kaolin clay added. Supposed to be an all natural soap (although i was going for whiter, next time i will use some td)

Just started cutting it, and the soap smells SO BAD. Like lavender scented rotten meat. At first i thought the smell came from the trash can since i made salmon this morning and the packaging is in the trash. Put my sniffer on the soap...its definitely the soap. How disappointing!! The soap smells worse than the fish in the trash lol lol.

I assume its the goats milk, although I just checked the exp date on the can, and it says its good until 2014. The leftover gm smells and looks ok, so i dunno.

I cpoped, and its been sitting for about 48 hours in the cold oven. It looks pretty lol. As soon as i cut it, it was like whoa!! Pretty offensive. Mostly upset that I wasted EO on this loaf. This might make me never use gm in any other batch lol....although i have used it before with no problem.

waiting for lye and oils to cool for more salt bars. A previous couple of posts inspired me to make them. I really need to make them more often.

Give it a few days. My last batch of Goat Milk & Lavender soap was the same. It reeked of lavender and ammonia. After a couple of days, it smelled like the lavender it should smell like and the ammonia smell was completely gone.

 

[amd]

Placing the soap is a bit of a head scratcher. It’s not the sort of skill that comes naturally to me.

My criteria as a shopper is that I can see all three sides of the soap (length, width and thickness) in the picture. It doesn't have to necessarily be on the same bar. I've purchased soap online and been disappointed because the soaps that came were very long and wide, but not very thick, which makes them a bit of a pain to use as they break easily as they wear. I also don't like props, but that's my minimalist mindset.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Playing around with soap dough has been the perfect soapy activity for my time at my son's house!

 

[melonpan]

View attachment 58984

The hue and the subtle stearic spots make it really look like grana padano or parmesan. Still I couldn't resist carve out some Emmentaler-style holes

This is brilliant and makes my Italian soul very happy!

My soapy thing of today is that I made a couple of 100% coconut oil, 0% SF unscented bars that I use as stain remover bars.

 

[The_Phoenix]

My criteria as a shopper is that I can see all three sides of the soap (length, width and thickness) in the picture. It doesn't have to necessarily be on the same bar. I've purchased soap online and been disappointed because the soaps that came were very long and wide, but not very thick, which makes them a bit of a pain to use as they break easily as they wear. I also don't like props, but that's my minimalist mindset.

Thank you for your thoughts. Would you say that this arrangement of bars meets your criteria? I am also not a fan of props. And it seems like way too much work .