What soapy thing have you done today?

[LynetteO]

I made a 16 oz batch of soap in my tiny silicone molds for hand soaps. I pre-greased them with mineral oil for 1st time ever to see if I can prevent soda ash.

 

[KiwiMoose]

When you add lye to sugar water, does it heat up A LOT, bubble, fizz, etc. Anything that could be hazardous.

I have never had a true accident but I did have an unexpected occurrence that could have resulted in an accident. I added lye to half-ice water, the crystals didn't totally dissolve. I discovered this after I added the lye water to the oils. Saw some undissolved crystals. I panicked (which I shouldn't have, but I did) and added some water to the undissolved lye crystals. Big mistake. Not supposed to do that. Nothing happened but I still consider myself lucky.

I like to be forearmed with any possible reaction that can happen with lye. Plus I try to be in a calmer state when I soap.

I get what you mean about 'lye anxiety'- I totally had that when i first started soaping. And in a way it made the soaping session a very tense experience because I was being overly cautious. Now, similar to @Zing I treat it as I would a strong bleach - with respect but no more fear or anxiety. One thing I do have is a very large jug for mixing my lye solution. The jug is a 2 litre capacity and I only mix about 350g of lye, so even it it were to volcano it probably would not reach the top.

 

[AliOop]

I would have to use hot water to dissolve the sugar then chill it back down for the LYE addition. I think that what I have is very soft water that comes from a limestone well. The same type of water used to make Jack Daniels. I don't have any trouble making soap bubbles.
The soapy thing that I did this afternoon is render my grease for the 3rd and final time to have LARD for Monday morning to make my 6th batch.
Added: I think I just un-molded batch 5 too early. It will still be soap 7 weeks from now though...

I do slightly warm my water for mixing in citrate and sugar (sorbitol actually), but just slightly. I don't worry about cooling it down for the lye. You can always separate out just enough for dissolving the sugar, and only heat that portion. Then mix it with the rest of the cool water before adding lye.

 

[DianaMoon]

I get what you mean about 'lye anxiety'- I totally had that when i first started soaping. And in a way it made the soaping session a very tense experience because I was being overly cautious. Now, similar to @Zing I treat it as I would a strong bleach - with respect but no more fear or anxiety. One thing I do have is a very large jug for mixing my lye solution. The jug is a 2 litre capacity and I only mix about 350g of lye, so even it it were to volcano it probably would not reach the top.

I'm actually not nervous anymore - after doing it a few times I narrowed down the moment of true lye anxiety - for me it's when emptying the crystals into a plastic cup before adding the crystals to water. That's really the *only* time you can truly mess up, and if you do it gently with the proper precautions you're OK. It really is like handling bleach or ammonia.

That said, I'm still fanatic about finding out beforehand whatever reactions could occur when additions are made.

Also, since I'm sticking to CP from now on, gonna master batch.

 

[lalam]

I made a 16 oz batch of soap in my tiny silicone molds for hand soaps. I pre-greased them with mineral oil for 1st time ever to see if I can prevent soda ash.

Oooh! I'd love to hear how it works for you! I've had a serious ash issue every time I've used cavity molds!

 

[Zing]

Oooh! I'd love to hear how it works for you! I've had a serious ash issue every time I've used cavity molds!

I used to unmold my single cavities after 24 hours like my loaf molds -- but they would soon develop a lot of ash. Now I unmold cavities at 4-7 days and I no longer get ash. I too want to try the mineral oil trick. Love this forum!

 

[BWt]

I made soap today! I used a variation of the famous @earlene 's blacksmith soap, Borax Hand Soap for Blacksmith or other dirty work. I used borax but left out pumice. For scrubbies I added coffee grounds, poppy seeds, sea salt, and shredded loofah. Scented with marjoram, bergamot, and cedarwood essential oils -- smells really nice. Two loaves are cozy and gellin' under towels. Thank you to @Zany_in_CO and @AliOop for their last minute assistance. Waiting not so impatiently for my post-soaping cocktail....

Post soaping cocktail. Yes I am adding that to my routine!!!

 

[TheGecko]

Made the last batch of Wedding Soaps. I'm a week behind where I wanted to be, but I had allowed a little extra time into my schedule.

Going to go make some more soap with my new molds.

 

[soapnstuffllc]

Wow now I’m REALLY jealous! I was already jealous about the SS table.

Wow now I’m REALLY jealous! I was already jealous about the SS table.

I made soap, infused some oils for future products and made oatmilk, and tweaked my coffee lotion.

 

[Dan9250]

I received my supply of Chlorophyllin a modified form of Chlorophyll that is high pH stable, water soluble, and used in all forms of food, medicine, baked goods, and has anti-oxidative properties.

I plan to test it this week by making up a lye water solution with the added Chlorophyllin. I will put the mixture in a window to see if the lye monster will eat up the color in direct sun light. If the color holds for a week, I'll make a small batch of soap with it to see what happens. I'll report back the results.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I plan to test it this week by making up a lye water solution with the added Chlorophyllin. I will put the mixture in a window to see if the lye monster will eat up the color in direct sun light.

Hmmm You may want to rethink that.

Shelf life: Minimum 6 months when stored tightly closed away from direct light and heat. Ambient temperature up to 80 deg.F should be fine.

SOURCE: Chlorophyllin - Camden Grey

 

[Dan9250]

Thank you @Zany_in_CO, I read the description on the provided link. They indicates a good color in CP soap. My supply of chlorophyllin is in the powder form, I will make a solution, and if the lye fails to destroy the color after a week test, with local temperature in the 50's. I will test it in a CP soap make. My first idea is to see the resulting color, and then cure the sample for about 20 weeks. I hope it holds the color for that long. I do not sell my soap and only my family will use it. If it hold color that long I doubt if any of the future soap we use will still be unused in that time frame. I do a normal cure of four weeks then start using the product. Again Thank you.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@Dan9250 I've tried a lot of natural colorants -- but never heard of chlorophyllin. I'm intrigued. I'm looking forward to seeing the color(s) you come up with.

I rarely hang out in this thread unless I'm bored. I hope you post results in a new thread so I don't miss it!

 

[mx5inpenn]

I ordered a cheapo lightbox from Amazon and spent a couple hours taking pictures of soap.

 

[sunshine90]

Its getting more humid in Texas, so I decided to turned my 2 gallon dehumidifier into a 5 gallon using a bottle and garden holes. Now I feel more at ez knowing the soaps aren't gonna get wet and rancid quick.

 

[~Dragonfly~]

I haven’t had much time to be on the forum lately, but I am making a little progress with my colorant testing. From left to right: gromwell 1:10 at 20% of oils and gelled; rhubarb (palmatum) 1:10 at 20% of oils, partial gel and with a discoloring FO (oops); rhubarb 1:10 at 5% ungelled (bee mold), red oxide 1/4 tsp ppo and ungelled, paprika 1:10 at 20 or 25% of oils and gelled.

View attachment 65725

I'm catching up after having family here and being away from the forums for a bit, so if this is answered further down, I'll delete my post after I find it. What do you mean with the 1:10?

 

[Catscankim]

I ordered a cheapo lightbox from Amazon and spent a couple hours taking pictures of soap.

I need to do that

 

[AliOop]

My photo set-up is way more ghetto: a black poster-board and a white poster board from the Dollar Store ($1 each). The floor lamps on each side of my soaping table are angled to direct the light as needed in order to snap pics with my iPhone. It's definitely not pro level, but I was surprised at how much better my photos look with those simple changes. I have too many other hobbies and priorities to spend on photography equipment. Ok, ok, let's be honest, I'm just TOO CHEAP.

 

[BWt]

I'm catching up after having family here and being away from the forums for a bit, so if this is answered further down, I'll delete my post after I find it. What do you mean with the 1:10?

These are all splendid colors. Especially like the gromwell. Had to look it up and learned something new Thank you for sharing. Am going to try natural colors soon.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I'm catching up after having family here and being away from the forums for a bit, so if this is answered further down, I'll delete my post after I find it. What do you mean with the 1:10?

That‘s the shorthand for the ratio of botanical powder to oil, by weight, in my infusions. For example, for 10 g of rhubarb powder I add 100 g of oil to make a 1:10 strength infusion. If I wanted a 1:20 ratio, I would use 5 g of powder and 100 g of oil or 10 g of powder and 200 g of oil. There’s more details about the method I’m using lately, here. In that thread I wrote that the infusions were 10%, but they were made 1:10, which means the plant powder was 9% based on total weight (10 g powder + 100 g oil = 110 g total; 10 g powder/110 g total = .09; .09 x 100 = 9%). I hope that all makes sense .

@bwtapestry thank you! If you’re interested in delving further, @Vicki C posts beautiful soaps made with botanical colorants and has gromwell that makes a bluer purple that is really pretty. You can find her posts using the search bar.