What soapy thing have you done today?

[LynetteO]

On that note I made a 14oz ZNSC batch today. As many of you already know ZNSC soaps are notorious for not really holding color but seems the addition of the additive, activated charcoal, makes for a lovely black & white bar. I just made and cut the bars today so time may change the color but I’m hoping they don’t change much.

 

[KiwiMoose]

It's a ZNSC trifecta!

 

[earlene]

For those of you who have used red palm oil, does it fade much?

I have not had red palm oil fade at all, but I suppose the amount used + other ingredients in the same soap might influence that. But I have not had red palm oil soaps fade. Perhaps a tiny bit of mellowing of the dark shade. But then again, I don't think I ever used it as low as 5% like @dibbles did. I'll have to take a look back at my notes. It's been quite a while since I used it. I did not like the odor of red palm and also the red palm oil soap bled color when in use, which I also did not like.

 

[dibbles]

@earlene I think it must be something with my red palm oil. I'm pretty sure @Zing uses it at 5% of oil weight without fading, although I may be misremembering that. I used the low amount to avoid the bleeding issues with higher usage rates.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@earlene I think it must be something with my red palm oil. I'm pretty sure @Zing uses it at 5% of oil weight without fading, although I may be misremembering that. I used the low amount to avoid the bleeding issues with higher usage rates.

I use red palm as a full replacement for 62.5% regular palm in my Palm Olive Bars. Lovely color. I've never noticed any bleeding or fading.

 

[dibbles]

No bleeding? At 62%? That's interesting. Yours is the first experience I've seen with that much red palm and no color bleeding/staining.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what’s-with-the-halo.83880/page-3#post-899187https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...ve-you-done-today.42556/page-1221#post-925360https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/do-you-hate-any-oil-in-particular.63682/page-2#post-648270
Oops - it seems that @TheGecko had no bleeding at 20% https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/red-palm-oil-test.87066/

 

[Zing]

@earlene I think it must be something with my red palm oil. I'm pretty sure @Zing uses it at 5% of oil weight without fading, although I may be misremembering that. I used the low amount to avoid the bleeding issues with higher usage rates.

Good memory! Yes, 5% is PLENTY for me. No bleeding, and again, no fading going on over 2 years.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

No bleeding? At 62%? That's interesting. Yours is the first experience I've seen with that much red palm and no color bleeding/staining.

Maybe because i soap at 120-135°F; 3% SF; 38% water.
It's one of the soaps I made regularly for a wholesale customer in Mobile. No complaints.

Also, DH's favorite shampoo bar -- made his silver hair bright, shiny and manageable with no trace of ugly yellow.

 

[dibbles]

Maybe because i soap at 120-135°F; 3% SF; 38% water.

That's definitely hotter and more water than I use, but it kind of doesn't seem like the answer to me. I have no idea.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

That's definitely hotter and more water than I use, but it kind of doesn't seem like the answer to me. I have no idea.

Me either!

ETA: My thinking why I don't get soda ash. Lye needs the hydrogen in the water to fully react. If there isn't enough water in the lye solution, it takes hydrogen from the air which results in soda ash... maybe. I don't always use "full water'. It depends on the recipe.

 

[dibbles]

Me either!

ETA: My thinking why I don't get soda ash. Lye needs the hydrogen in the water to fully react. If there isn't enough water in the lye solution, it takes hydrogen from the air which results in soda ash... maybe. I don't always use "full water'. It depends on the recipe.

Except I get more ash when I use full water than a discount. It's the reason I changed.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Except I get more ash when I use full water than a discount. It's the reason I changed.

I hear ya. I hear that all the time. I think it depends on the FAs in the recipe and what you want to accomplish.

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

Last night I saw an appeal on Facebook from a teacher at one of the local schools. She works in one of the poorer schools and is setting up a cabinet for the children to take personal hygiene products home with them if they need them. One of the products needed was soap. Not only did I package up a bunch of my own soap, I also gave her all my leftover bars of store bought soap that I'm never going to use. My son wants some for his friends, my neighbor's mom bought a dozen bars, and I'm visiting my in- laws tomorrow and they want some too. I'm about to be out of stock! Whoo-hoo! Time to make some soap!

 

[Jersey Girl]

Except I get more ash when I use full water than a discount. It's the reason I changed.

Same results here.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Same results here.

Except I get more ash when I use full water than a discount. It's the reason I changed.

@Jersey Girl @dibbles - Not making any judgment here... just analyzing results. I'm wondering if the difference may be due to "soaping cool" or "room temp oils" vs soaping at 120°F- 135°F ?

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Jersey Girl @dibbles - Not making any judgment here... just analyzing results. I'm wondering if the difference may be due to "soaping cool" or "room temp oils" vs soaping at 120°F- 135°F ?

I don’t know. I soap routinely at 100-110 sometimes a little higher as I use a lot of hard oils

 

[dibbles]

@Jersey Girl @dibbles - Not making any judgment here... just analyzing results. I'm wondering if the difference may be due to "soaping cool" or "room temp oils" vs soaping at 120°F- 135°F ?

I soap cool, but don't get ash with a 33% lye concentration. It's definitely water amount related for me. It's been so long since I've used either full water or soaped at 120+ I don't clearly remember. I did both of those things early on - trying to eliminate ash was one of the searches that lead me to SMF during that time. I would have soaped at 120-125. I don't remember using much higher temps though.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I don’t know. I soap routinely at 100-110 sometimes a little higher as I use a lot of hard oils

I soap cool, but don't get ash with a 33% lye concentration.

I soap 100-110° for liquid oils. Lye concentration varies. No ash.
I soap 120-135° for hard oils. 38% Water as % of oils. No ash.
Too soon to draw any conclusions, but it would seem at first glance, that, depending on the oils in the recipe, using higher temps may also prevent ash.
Like I mentioned above...

 

[dibbles]

@Zany_in_CO ditto

 

[therealshari]

I bought the fiberglass ones too. (I think you recommended them from webstaurant, I couldn’t remember who it was.) These metal ones will work for bath bombs, but I’ll probably put down some parchment paper.
I’m not sure how much of these racks I’ll use for soap curing, and how much for bath bomb drying.

I've placed perferated sheet pans on my wish list at webrestaurantstore. I'm thinking that should allow enough air to circulate. If not, I'll order cooling racks for half the pans. At this point, I'm only doing soaps, lip balms and paw wax.

I'm getting a newly built soap studio next spring, so I will have all the room I need. For the past 5 years, I've been sharing our commercial kitchen with my caramel sauce. We're officially out of room now as everything we touch, we have to move something first.