I love Vanilla Sandalwood, and those are beautiful!
Pssst.... it's cold processed, not pressed.
What soapy thing have you done today?
- Thread starter FlybyStardancer
- Start date
Help Support Soapmaking Forum:
Pssst.... it's cold processed, not pressed.
A soapy evening indeed!
First, I cut my hot cocoa special order, Hot Cocoa and was greatly relieved that it was not a disaster. My emulsion went to pudding in a hot nanosecond.
I also made soap! First time with patchouli essential oil -- and lime EO. The dishes smell soooo good!
Not sure why I'm recently getting plagued with stearic spots!! Erg! The last coupla sessions I was soaping with very warm oils and got stearic spots. Tonight I waited until room temp and think I saw stearic spots in the batter. Not sure because I also added colloidal oatmeal.
First, I cut my hot cocoa special order, Hot Cocoa and was greatly relieved that it was not a disaster. My emulsion went to pudding in a hot nanosecond.
I also made soap! First time with patchouli essential oil -- and lime EO. The dishes smell soooo good!
Not sure why I'm recently getting plagued with stearic spots!! Erg! The last coupla sessions I was soaping with very warm oils and got stearic spots. Tonight I waited until room temp and think I saw stearic spots in the batter. Not sure because I also added colloidal oatmeal.
AAShillito
Well-Known Member
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Nice close-up on the flowers! Well done!
Next up for me will be Christmas/holiday soaps. Making a fir needle scented "O Christmas Tree" with a secret feather (tree) swirl, and the other will be "Wintermint." Trying to decide between a one pot wonder or an ombre for that one. I won't actually be able to make it for a couple of weeks since I'll be traveling all over the state and beyond with my son for hockey for the foreseeable future
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Can't wait to see that! Sibirian Fir is one of my all-time-fave EOs! I can already "mind-smell" it!
I'm also on Team Fir Needle essential oil!
I soaped today! If you've been following my drama lately with a sudden pandemic of stearic spots and seizing batter -- today was perfect!! Thanks to my peeps here, I heated the problem palm oil (new problematic brand) to 180. I was so happy with my emulsion which gave me time with a complicated design. And I will say there were no moments of panic, no screaming for Mrs. Zing for her moral support and frosting skills. I made it all by myseff! It's a 2 phase soap and the last of 2 loaves. Hurray!
I soaped today! If you've been following my drama lately with a sudden pandemic of stearic spots and seizing batter -- today was perfect!! Thanks to my peeps here, I heated the problem palm oil (new problematic brand) to 180. I was so happy with my emulsion which gave me time with a complicated design. And I will say there were no moments of panic, no screaming for Mrs. Zing for her moral support and frosting skills. I made it all by myseff! It's a 2 phase soap and the last of 2 loaves. Hurray!
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
I was hoping for this exact emoji!!
Today started with non-soapy things... harvesting our rhubarb! It went into the turkey roaster with some home grown apples from one friend, and some home-grown pears from another friend. Neither the apples nor the pears were wonderful for eating, but combined with rhubarb, cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup, it turned into 10 quarts of pretty great rhubarb-pear-apple sauce, if I do say so myself. 
THEN I remembered the fridge full of beef fat trimmings that needed to be rendered into tallow. A friend brought it by earlier in the week, but work has been so busy, I forgot about it. Ack! Most of the rest of today was spent trimming, chopping, and rendering. Sadly, the meat grinder attachment on my KitchenAid was just no match for this batch (lots of leaf fat), so hand chopping it is.
After all that, half of the trimmings are still waiting to be chopped and are taking up most of the garage fridge!
But it won't be tonight. My back is tired, and one hand has a pretty good blister from all that chopping. Thankfully, 12 quarts of rendered tallow are on the counter so far. I'm way too tired to clean this stuff tonight, so it will go into the fridge for a few rounds of cleaning some other time.
Meanwhile, my hands are very soft from all that very natural tallow "balm" they've been stuck in all day. 
THEN I remembered the fridge full of beef fat trimmings that needed to be rendered into tallow. A friend brought it by earlier in the week, but work has been so busy, I forgot about it. Ack! Most of the rest of today was spent trimming, chopping, and rendering. Sadly, the meat grinder attachment on my KitchenAid was just no match for this batch (lots of leaf fat), so hand chopping it is.
After all that, half of the trimmings are still waiting to be chopped and are taking up most of the garage fridge! But it won't be tonight. My back is tired, and one hand has a pretty good blister from all that chopping. Thankfully, 12 quarts of rendered tallow are on the counter so far. I'm way too tired to clean this stuff tonight, so it will go into the fridge for a few rounds of cleaning some other time.
Meanwhile, my hands are very soft from all that very natural tallow "balm" they've been stuck in all day. 
Today I diluted some soap paste for LS & made a 22oz batch of orange patchouli CP soap. Everything went great 
.
.squarepancakes
Well-Known Member
I was supposed to make 2 embeds today but under prepped, so could only fill one. Need to finish up my soaps for Christmas soon!
I kept the excess in a tub + ziplock to use as soap dough next time and took some out to touch up on my logcake soaps (added some sprinkles and stuck a "santa hat"). They were made from some leftover batter a couple of weeks ago and frosted as if they were actual logcakes!
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/soap-show-tell.87784/post-952077
Oh gosh that sauce sounds absolutely divine!
I kept the excess in a tub + ziplock to use as soap dough next time and took some out to touch up on my logcake soaps (added some sprinkles and stuck a "santa hat"). They were made from some leftover batter a couple of weeks ago and frosted as if they were actual logcakes!
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/soap-show-tell.87784/post-952077
Today started with non-soapy things... harvesting our rhubarb! It went into the turkey roaster with some home grown apples from one friend, and some home-grown pears from another friend. Neither the apples nor the pears were wonderful for eating, but combined with rhubarb, cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup, it turned into 10 quarts of pretty great rhubarb-pear-apple sauce, if I do say so myself.
Oh gosh that sauce sounds absolutely divine!
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
I got bit by the Just-Git-'er-Done bug yesterday. I haven't made just-for-fun soap since I retired in 2017. I promised myself then that I would gather up all my leftover oils and soap them before they spoiled. I gathered from the basement, the laundry room, the fridge, and the kitchen cabinet and made a list.
Thankfully, all bottles, buckets and boxes were labeled with the amount they contained so I was able to produce a list of how much of each I have to work with.
Then I went to my recipe file. Progress came to a grinding halt. It hit me that it's going to take more creative thought than motivation and high energy to go forward! Lord help me!
Thankfully, all bottles, buckets and boxes were labeled with the amount they contained so I was able to produce a list of how much of each I have to work with.
Then I went to my recipe file. Progress came to a grinding halt. It hit me that it's going to take more creative thought than motivation and high energy to go forward! Lord help me!
Wanted to try something different today so I made a small loaf of a very simple 75% lard soap. Added a little bit of coconut and palm kernel oil split and a bit of castor and sorbitol cause I love some good bubbles 
Also used dual lye 95/5. No color but I did scent it with a very light clean scent…Cool Citrus Basil. I love how creamy it looks. Tucked away to gel. Looking forward to cutting and trying this one out.
Also used dual lye 95/5. No color but I did scent it with a very light clean scent…Cool Citrus Basil. I love how creamy it looks. Tucked away to gel. Looking forward to cutting and trying this one out.Attachments
Last edited:
So far today I have cut my 1st attempt at the challenge for this month. I cut it both ways to see which I prefer and wow Nelly, I have a strong preference! So I'll shortly be making another batch to cut only that way. I received the last few scents I've been waiting on for holiday soaps and need to get those made also.
AAShillito
Well-Known Member
I made soap today! Yeah, you heard right, that's two days in a row! I blended the most beautiful purple (BB's magenta and blue micas). Alas, the batter was muddy gray because the EO blend was equal parts patchoulie, anise, lavender, orange (a variation of EOcalc's South of France.) The patch and orange are very dark. We'll see what the final product looks like.
And was fighting for dishes because like @AliOop , Mrs. Zing was canning a lot this weekend. She made one of my faves, rhubarb and raspberry jam. Today it's applesauce. All fruit from our yard. If she cans something from our garden, the label gets a heart.
And was fighting for dishes because like @AliOop , Mrs. Zing was canning a lot this weekend. She made one of my faves, rhubarb and raspberry jam. Today it's applesauce. All fruit from our yard. If she cans something from our garden, the label gets a heart.
Catscankim
Well-Known Member
I get that all the time at work. "you guys have room for me right now?" "I'm the only one here and they just called a trauma alert". Ok, I will call upstairs..... Then they call back to inform me that nobody is answering upstairs. "I will repeat what I told you during our last phone conversation. I am the only one here." "Oh, ok, can you guys take me after the trauma alert? But I'd rather go upstairs. Can one of you meet me up there after the trauma?"... I am the ONLY one here and I am not firing up the other scanner and leaving the EMERGENCY ROOM to go up there. "oh, ok, can you send somebody up there?" smh...I sold at an all-day too long market yesterday. I did okay but the afternoon dragged. Most customers were great, but I am always surprised by people who look at my products and comment to each other “oh look they have…” I get that instinct but I always want to say “what ‘they’? It’s just me. I’m standing right here.”
Yesterday two women were doing the same thing, I tried to greet them but they just treated me like I wasn’t there. They were looking at my shampoo bars and one said “oh look they have shampoo bars, have you ever tried these?” and the other woman replied snarkily “no I’m not a survivalist…” Then they sashayed off. Uhh… okay bye ladies.
Thats using my newly acquired customer service voice LOL. I have been there for seven years. In the past my answer would be more along the lines of "is the overhead paging broken on your floor? They just called a trauma alert, did you not hear it? No, I am by myself down here and I will call you when the room is available. Please do not call back I will not answer the phone" Usually that answer was more effective LOL.
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Similar threads
