What soapy thing have you done today?

[NewlyCreative]

I made my fourth batch ever - with 30% cocoa butter. I was inspired by a chocolate cinnamon fragrance oil. It’s my first time using both a fragrance oil and titanium dioxide.

The non-white section will discolor to a dark brown according to the fragrance oil notes.

I came up with the recipe based on advice from this forum through the years for using cocoa butter. I was surprised that this batter took the longest to come to trace (of the four I’ve tried) and stayed liquid the longest despite the high cocoa butter percentage and relatively high temperature for me (120 F). Once it started to harden it was ready to unmold in less than 12 hours. The other modification was replacing water with aloe vera liquid to hopefully increase bubbles. Here’s the recipe

 

[Misschief]

I only made salt bars because a relative says it's hands down the only thing that has cleared up her seriously bad acne over the years after a lot of money spent on dermatologists and doctors. I figure she's been using salt bars long enough that she'd be an excellent judge of my recipe and it also made for easily knowing what to gift her for holidays.

My granddaughter, who gets cystic acne, swears by my salt bars. They are, hands down, her favourite soap.

 

[Servant4Christ]

My granddaughter, who gets cystic acne, swears by my salt bars. They are, hands down, her favourite soap.

I made the recipe from a YouTube video from I Dream in Soap. I haven't made Obsidian's recipe to compare. Have you tried both recipes by chance? I scented with 2% of your eo blend suggestion and will increase to 3% next time.

 

[Misschief]

I made the recipe from a YouTube video from I Dream in Soap. I haven't made Obsidian's recipe to compare. Have you tried both recipes by chance? I scented with 2% of your eo blend suggestion and will increase to 3% next time.

I use Obsidian's recipe and love it.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I use Obsidian's recipe and love it.

I'll try that one one next, then. I think the only reason I didn't before was because I've never made a soap without a little castor to support lather.

Oh, before I forget and definitely off topic: If I buy palm kernel flakes unrefined, is there a smell? And if so, does it stay like cocoa butter does? I don't want another nasty shea butter type experience. Lol

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I made two batches of gardener’s/scrubby soap today. Despite using palm, OO pomace (for the first time!), clays and other additives, both batches behaved remarkably well. I’m looking forward to unmolding them tomorrow.

 

[AliOop]

Oh, before I forget and definitely off topic: If I buy palm kernel flakes unrefined, is there a smell? And if so, does it stay like cocoa butter does? I don't want another nasty shea butter type experience. Lol

No smell

 

[Servant4Christ]

I made two batches of gardener’s/scrubby soap today. Despite using palm, OO pomace (for the first time!), clays and other additives, both batches behaved remarkably well. I’m looking forward to unmolding them tomorrow.

Pictures? Somehow, I've got a feeling even your gardener's soap is a visual masterpiece.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Pictures? Somehow, I've got a feeling even your gardener's soap is a visual masterpiece.

We’re both going to need to wait until I unmold them tomorrow

 

[SSC Oregon]

Hi all
I should probably properly introduce myself, I will find that thread soon.
Today I ordered fragrance oils from a new supplier. Fragrance has been my struggle lately. I'm trying to find ones that make me feel good about the final product.
The other soapy thing I am doing tonight is cleaning up my workshop for the soap making binge on the horizon.
I'm just about at the design/recipe stage with the purchase of my fragrances. Praying this works out.

 

[Jorah]

Hi all
I should probably properly introduce myself, I will find that thread soon.
Today I ordered fragrance oils from a new supplier. Fragrance has been my struggle lately. I'm trying to find ones that make me feel good about the final product.
The other soapy thing I am doing tonight is cleaning up my workshop for the soap making binge on the horizon.
I'm just about at the design/recipe stage with the purchase of my fragrances. Praying this works out.

Welcome, it sounds like we're at similar stages. I also struggle with scent. I would probably sell exclusively unscented soap, but my wife has pointed out that everyone we've watched pick up a bar of handmade soap sniffs it! So, I've recruited her to be our 'perfumer,' and now she's studying perfumes and scent construction.

I had a dream last night where I chopped up all my offcuts and mixed them into M&P oatmeal base, so I got up this morning and did just that. Not at all sure it will work, but it's just for me to use around the house, so no biggie either way. 363 grams of chopped offcuts and leftovers, 588 grams of M&P. The bars look like they're going to be ugly as sin.

Looking at the soap just after I spooned it into the blue mold, you can see why I said it looked ugly, but they turned out okay looking. It's nice to have a super-easy way to use up scraps and off-cuts. It will be interesting to see if these try to break up during use. If so, the next time I have a quart of scraps I'll look into some of the rebatching methods I've seen mentioned here on SMF.

 

[Shelley D]

Welcome, it sounds like we're at similar stages. I also struggle with scent. I would probably sell exclusively unscented soap, but my wife has pointed out that everyone we've watched pick up a bar of handmade soap sniffs it! So, I've recruited her to be our 'perfumer,' and now she's studying perfumes and scent construction.

That's great that you guys work as a team! It might be a good idea to leave a couple varieties unscented for weirdos like me who, when at a market, give the soaps a sniff to check for the "natural" smell of soap without fragrance
I know, I'm a weirdo

Looking at the soap just after I spooned it into the blue mold, you can see why I said it looked ugly, but they turned out okay looking. It's nice to have a super-easy way to use up scraps and off-cuts. It will be interesting to see if these try to break up during use. If so, the next time I have a quart of scraps I'll look into some of the rebatching methods I've seen mentioned here on SMF.

They almost look like fluffy clouds

 

[Jorah]

That's great that you guys work as a team! It might be a good idea to leave a couple varieties unscented for weirdos like me who, when at a market, give the soaps a sniff to check for the "natural" smell of soap without fragrance
I know, I'm a weirdo

Nay, nay... you don't seem weird to me, or perhaps we're of a similar strain of strange!

 

[SSC Oregon]

My struggle with scent has been cost and amount. I live rural and so I didn't want to make solely boutique priced soap and price people out. I want to make something very affordable, a go to quality soap for the locals.
After markets and what sold vs didn't, and getting everyone's opinion... People like strong fragrance and EO's are what I like, but don't sell as well
Lesson learned so far in scent: no matter how professional and how many promises that this fragrance oil has been tested with no issues on cp soap... Don't buy FO off Etsy. I've wasted time and money trying to save money.
I bit the bullet and ordered from Nurture. My goal is STILL to make quality and affordable soap, but with prices and sourcing suppliers - not as low priced as I was aiming. It's ok just happy to be here.

15 pounds of scent should be here by Friday. I'll write reviews. I appreciate those when they are honest!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

The SMF July 2023 Challenge thread has been posted!

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...-fun-with-color-pick-a-side.90901/post-977635

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

I’ve been MIA for months now because I had too much soap. Last month I went to a music festival and gave away all my soap so I can start creative so projects again. I have spent many hours the last three days reading through posts I have missed (does that count as a soapy thing?) and I am happy to see so many of the people I recognize along with some new folks.

I restarted soaping with something easy, shampoo bars and conditioner bars using Syndopour and Stephenson’s conditioner. Tried them in the shower yesterday, and was very happy with the results! I didn’t add anything to the base except one percent fragrance, giving me a baseline for testing. The conditioner bar may be a little hard, so the next batch I will try some other conditioning additives. I’m also looking at using Syndopour for gentle bath and beauty bars. I like the idea of less plastic packaging, except the tubs the conditioner and Syndopour come in are heavy plastic! I was thrilled to find a long thread on using Syndopour.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Cut my Fig and Cassis soap - made yesterday. Very happy with the outcome.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Here are the two scrubby soaps I made yesterday, with palm and OO pomace. Both batches behaved well, which surprised me, because really, what was I thinking when I combined them and then added clays in the mix… The one thing these batches did not have is castor oil. Maybe the castor with palm thing has been my problem all along. I left it out because I made these soaps with 25% CO instead of 20%.

The scrubiness in this one is from pumice and sea salt and it’s colored with clay and oxides. This batch is scented with EOCalc’s Revive (tea tree, peppermint, lavender and eucalyptus).



The scrubiness in this one is from a blend of coffee, cornmeal, orange peel and powered chamomile and calendula flowers. The colors are from the additives and clays, including some that I dug myself from a friend’s property in central Virginia. The clay colors ranged from yellow to red so I’m not exactly sure how I achieved that bronze green color. This one is scented with a blend of Orange 10x and BeScented’s Volcano. I probably should have done orange and cedar, but I was very worried about acceleration(!) and picked scents I knew would slow things down.

 

[Servant4Christ]

@Mobjack Bay Those are too beautiful to use, as I suspected. How do you like Revive? I'm planning to try it in a charcoal soap for a friend soon. I just can't decide on first or second distill for the peppermint.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@Mobjack Bay Those are too beautiful to use, as I suspected. How do you like Revive? I'm planning to try it in a charcoal soap for a friend soon. I just can't decide on first or second distill for the peppermint.

Thank you so much for liking my soaps! Revive was one of the first EO blends I ever used and I still love it, plus it seems to stick pretty well in my soaps. I‘m not sure what kind of peppermint I used in the past, but lately I’ve been using this one from Camden-Grey.

@Servant4Christ
ETA: I checked, and the most recent peppermint I have is Willamette Valley Peppermint from Majestic Mountain Sage. It smells just like the peppermint I grow in my garden. I can’t do a comparison with the CG peppermint because I used it up, but the peppermint eo I bought from WSP during a relatively recent sale seems very dull in comparison.