What soapy thing have you done today?

[AliOop]

@AliOop cute hearts, but we need a better photo ❤ Is that NS bergamot grapefruit? I used that one for the first time last night. It smells great, but I‘m wondering how it sticks.

I would say that "better photos" are a 2022 goal, but honesty compels me to admit that it's probably a lifetime goal. The awful lighting in my soap room doesn't help, but the real problem is with the photographer. Time to fire her and hire someone with talent!

This Bergamot Grapefruit was an EO/FO blend from Crafter's Choice/WSP. It was from a destash, and my first time trying it. I used it all in one go, was 4g short, and made up the difference by adding 4g grapefruit EO. I am not usually a huge floral fan, but this smells good enough to put up with the moderate acceleration. If it sticks, I will order more.

As for the Sandalwood Vanilla, I want to bathe in it. It's also from a destash, and made by a company that's not around any longer. Sigh.

EDIT: "better" (?) pic attached... even with the cool filter on, the pic still looks brownish to me, and these are definitely a
dusty pink.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@AliOop Nice! Thanks for posting the second photo so we can get a better look. I’ve looked at that heart mold with the decorated edge a few times. I think I need one .

 

[dibbles]

I’ve looked at that heart mold with the decorated edge a few times. I think I need one .

You definitely need one.

 

[AliOop]

Yup, just like I *need* the small dahlia molds. And a whole bunch of other soapy stuff.

Made more soap tonight, but forgot to take a pic before it went into the food saver bag with the heating pad. As usual, things changed mid-stream, and it looks nothing like the plan, nor like a soap that would be scented with OMH. But it is pretty, smells nice, and has a Valentine-ish feel: a white and black ITP, with red and gold oil swirls on top. I did use some BCN vanilla stabilizer; time till tell how well it works against the OMH.

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

You definitely need one.

Enabler!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

I can't keep up when it comes to colouring soap dough, but I'm learning. It's a pity how difficult bright orange and red hues are to obtain with mineral colours (I'm attempting to get these colours running with non-bleeding pigments. Cadmium/lead/chromium pigments are out of question for obvious reasons).

Titanium yellow PY53 was rather disappointing, too easy to notice its close relationship to titanium white (TD) how it is “dull” rather than lending the dough a truly vibrant yellow. Red oxides (Venetian/English red) are fun, but not saturated enough for my purposes. Alizarin lake (synthetic madder) is just crazy, and today's undoubted winner .

I'll give it time to dry up, to judge the colours in the final soap. To know which is which, I've kneaded them into the respective initials (The “x” is half-half alizarin+english red, the tiny blob is a test if titanium yellow is any good to blend a viable orange. It isn't ).

 

[Martha]

I cut my Victorian Rose soap. Very happy with the result (was worried I might have a contender for the meat soap thread).
*awaits dig from @ResolvableOwl about glycerin rivers*View attachment 63528

It’s a pretty close contender. It’s those lovely swirls that disqualify it.

Wanted to make something simple and soothing after all the holiday dust settled. This is my first aloe gel soap. It’s uncolored and I was going to do unscented too, but in the end I added lavender EO and a yuzu FO. I really like the simplicity of it.

On a side note, I put out a call on my Buy Nothing Facebook page to see if anyone had aloe leaves. I got leaves from 2 people and even a cutting, so I can grow my own aloe. I love the Buy Nothing concept. If anyone read an article in The NY Times about it, that was my group.

 

[AliOop]

Rearranged the soap room/home office so that the cabinets are now directly behind my webcam. That means the curing rack and oil buckets are now out of view, and a sheet to cover them is no longer needed when I'm on a video call for work.

While moving the cabinets, I found the backdrops for taking *better photos* (nod to @Mobjack Bay). It does make a huge difference! Although the bars are still too soft for clean-up, I snapped a couple pics and posted them in the photo thread. I may retake these after they've been all cleaned up. Or not. You guys are my only audience for soap photos, and it's way more fun making soap than photographing it.

 

[gww]

I rendered about 1 lbs of lard last night off of a value pack that my wife bought. I went to town to buy chicken food and so bought four lbs of armour lard and 60 oz of coconut oil and had 4 lbs of lye come in the mail today. Game on?
Cheers
gww
Ps Coconut oil price has went up at my walmart.

 

[Soaped]

On a bit of a break for the last week so have been able to do tons of soap stuff that I wanted to try:

- mixed a yellow and pink bath butter from a base I made ages ago, scented in volcano ( thanks to someone on this forum for recommending DIY Bath & Body Shop on etsy)
- made a lotion from the lotion concentrate I made previously scented in a Brazilian bum bum dupe
- made a lotion bar in a deodorant tube
- made 2 batches of 1lb soaps ( one turned out okay and the other everything that could go wrong went wrong.... starting with my scale saying low battery as I was measuring my oils but I guess I will see if it turns into soap or not lol)

 

[bookworm]

I made soap after a month. And went slightly crazy, made 14 types.
I used sodium gluconate for the first time and PKO. Was happy with the performance of the PKO after worrying it might harden too quickly, thank you @AliOop.

And used Zany’s recipe for one bar, thank you for sharing @ zany.

Today my Black Friday order from Nurture Soap finally arrived, Yay.
I have soap to wrap and printed out my labels.

Looks like the weekend ahead will be wrapping soap; cutting soap and washing soap dishes.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Ohh, these Turks! Today, they sold me pomace OO:

First time I actually saw that this sold somewhere. Of course I had to buy a bottle .
Back when I had visited that Turkish supermarket for the first time, they had a meagre choice between two EVOO and sunflower oil. Now they have >10 EVOOs alone, many from Turkey, but also Greece, Spain, Tunisia…

I'm not a great olive oil connoisseur, but enough to notice that the culinary value of this oil is quite limited; my cuisine will rather stay with EVOO (which even isn't more expensive). Does anyone around here have an idea if pomace OO has any non-food applications?

 

[Misschief]

I made soap after a month. And went slightly crazy, made 14 types.
I used sodium gluconate for the first time and PKO. Was happy with the performance of the PKO after worrying it might harden too quickly, thank you @AliOop.

And used Zany’s recipe for one bar, thank you for sharing @ zany.

Today my Black Friday order from Nurture Soap finally arrived, Yay.
I have soap to wrap and printed out my labels.

Looks like the weekend ahead will be wrapping soap; cutting soap and washing soap dishes.

And I thought I'd gone nuts making 10 batches in about a week. Well done!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Does anyone around here have an idea if pomace OO has any non-food applications?

You can use pomace OO in any bath & body recipe that calls for olive oil. I've been using it since the beginning of my soaping journey and never looked back. This one of course:

Zany's No Slime Castile Soap

And a non-soap fun one that easy to make & use.

DEEP CLEANSING OIL

ETA: Olive Oil straight out of the bottle is great for removing waterproof mascara and ballpoint pen marks on clothing. I once bought a silk blouse at an upscale store for 75% off because it had a blue ballpoint pen mark in front, near the collar. I rubbed a little OO on it, let it sit for a bit, then washed it by hand, rubbed again until it disappeared.

 

[Guspuppy]

Trying to re-find my soaping mojo. First I apparently had bad lye, and all the soaps I was making for Christmas in Oct/Nov were soft and got badly messed up in the unmolding, then I was going to make lotion bars instead and ordered stuff for that, only to come down with covid on Dec 18, totally ruining Christmas for me since I was in quarantine and missed every single family event. Not to mention two weeks work, since my job has a mandatory 2 week requirement from the day of your test, not the day your symptoms began. I'm recovered and back to work and I think all the bad lye soap actually turned out ok, (though ugly due to unmolding too soon/soft) but since it was not actual Christmas presents I now have enough soap for myself for several years. Maybe I'll give it to the shelter people though. My soap area in the basement is still a mess from the last batch I made in early Nov and I can't seem to care enough to clean it up. I need a good soap challenge or something to fire me back up before all my oils go rancid!!

 

[maryloucb]

Is it weird that I was inspired by my son's smoothie this morning? I put blueberries, plain yogurt and carrot-orange juice in a jar and before I blended it, the colors were amazing! (Not actual photo of smoothie, was not awake enough yet to take a photo!)

 

[gww]

Got up planning to make soap. was going to do a lard 75%, castor 5%, coconut oil 20% but then figured what the heck and pulled one of my wife's aloe plants up and just put it in the freezer in cube trays. So, no soap yet but prepped for it as soon as the aloe freezes. I did soak the aloe this time but did not see it leaking any of the yellow stuff. My plants are smaller and pretty tender. We will see if I get pink again. No hamburger fat this time.
Cheers
gww

 

[AliOop]

Made an attempt at the January Challenge soap. Without giving away too much, the moderately accelerating fragrance in the first layer did not accelerate at all. It was a small batch, and took almost a minute of stick-blending to get it to medium trace as needed.

The second layer was going to have three swirl colors in another base color. Unfortunately, the second fragrance, which was supposed to discolor during curing and not supposed to accelerate at all, turned the batter bright yellow and instantly thick. As I quickly divided it and beat in the colors, it began to rice. There were also some large clumps. Fortunately, it also started heating up pretty well, which helped me beat out the big lumps. But in the end, the ricing had a partial victory, and the four-color swirl turned into a single color glop, smash, and bang. It will no doubt have some gaps between the textured bottom layer and the lumpy riced top layer. I'm leaving it uncovered and watching for cracks since it it so warm.

Weirdly enough, it was all kind of fun. I was determined that the soap would not prevail. It won't look like I planned, but gosh darn it, it's in the mold and will be soap tomorrow!

 

[gww]

Ok, this aloe soap did not turn pink.

I am probably going to adjust my process from here on out though. I am almost positive the middle dark will mellow closer to the outside cause it is still hot. I got to where I was rushing the process by putting the mold into a preheated oven and then turning off the heat. This one was actually close to volcano-ing. It still took me 5.5 hour to cut when I used to cut the same recipe closer to four hours though really soft then too but not just in the middle. No more heat next time. Doesn't really hurt it though as far as soap goes.
Cheers
gww

 

[lianasouza]

Tested a new melt and pour base. The dark one has jaborandi glycerite, patchouli and Himalayan cedarwood essential oils. The Light one has cucumber glycerite, basil and Texas cedarwood essential oils.