What soapy thing have you done today?

[KiwiMoose]

Where's that thread again??

Here: Linguistic Ponderings....

 

[Whillow]

My junior high choir director told us that it is common to pronounce the word "you" as "choo" and always called us out when we were singing the word "you." She said "It sounds like you're sneezing!" Ever since then -- and I'm old -- I hear singers sing "choo" all the time and it totally gets under my skin. Especially pop singers.

Side note to my side note. When my now elderly choir director was dying, her children reached out to former students asking for emails and notes that they could read to her. I was glad to share my gratitude and it inspired me to reach out to other former teachers.

That’s a beautiful story

Amazon seems to believe people are drunk enough to pay over $100 for these things I mean, really, how drunk can somebody get

Found a total of 1 in stock at a more local supplier online....a total of ONE! But the price was actually reasonable. $30 I believe? I need to get in touch with them via email / phone ASAP.

Yes, I will need to source some of these for sure. I am waiting to unmold some cavity molds & am scrambling to clear shelf space for this batch, as well as the next.Th

That is a ridiculous price. Even the $30 seems a bit steep. Good luck finding something.

 

[SSC Oregon]

I haven't gotten to do anything soapy except for business stuff the last couple days.
Been visiting friends who are leaving Oregon.
My 3 longest female friends are all moving at once. Blows my mind and heart some
I ordered the planer, beveler, and had my soap stamps made and ordered.

 

[Feelin' Soapy]

I haven't gotten to do anything soapy except for business stuff the last couple days.
Been visiting friends who are leaving Oregon.
My 3 longest female friends are all moving at once. Blows my mind and heart some
I ordered the planer, beveler, and had my soap stamps made and ordered.

A little retail therapy always helps coping with a loss

 

[Savage Daughter]

I haven't gotten to do anything soapy except for business stuff the last couple days.
Been visiting friends who are leaving Oregon.
My 3 longest female friends are all moving at once. Blows my mind and heart some
I ordered the planer, beveler, and had my soap stamps made and ordered.

My best friend & I, who have known each other since childhood / primary school days, have always lived quite a distance from each other since we have been adults. It's hard, for sure, but we are both very grateful for the time we do get to spend together when we are able to. She is closer to me than my sister. She IS my sister. I truly love everything about her, even the things that might drive some other people crazy,, and likewise her with me.

On the other topic you mentioned: can you, or anyone, recommend a good place to get soap stamps custom made?

I know there are a lot of people offering this service, but that doesn't necessarily mean the end product or customer service is any good. Both are equally important to me.

Also, for anyone who has tried various types of soap stamps, who can speak to which they prefer in soap stamps - 3D printed or acrylic? Which gives the cleanest impression? Which is more effective / efficient in terms of end result? Have you found any other viable options which give good results every single time?

I purchased a basic 3D printed stamp simply to see if I liked how it worked on my test batches...not so sure I do, although that might be either the specific design OR the fact that it's 3D printed OR the fact that I use a lot of clays & botanicals.

I know you can also use metal stamps - like those wax seal stamps - if there is a barrier between the stamp & the soap, but I don't even know if that's on my list of possibilities.

I wish to get my logo custom made into a stamp but will have to simplify the line work in the graphic as the detail is fine, which may cause soap to get stuck in the little crannies, disfiguring the soap.

Thank you so much

That is a ridiculous price. Even the $30 seems a bit steep. Good luck finding something.

How about a 6 pack for $350 or so odd dollars?? And no other option to buy other than in a 6 pack? That website went on my 'never visit again' list. Thieving buggers....

Sure, 'specially since it's not mine! I followed the instructions here:

Easy DIY Clear Soap

Easy Transparent Soap- Learn How to Make DIY Clear Soap in Less than Ten Minutes!

I got really excited about that website after seeing your results, clicked immediately....then saw their recipe includes propylene glycol

No transparent soap for me....at least not using that specific recipe. Disappointing as it's beautifully clear

 

[Servant4Christ]

I think there should be a Soapers Anonymous. I plan to do some serious soaping this weekend (serious for me is 3 5lb loaves). I'd already have them curing but I ran out of lye again. I've gotta start ordering larger quantities or more frequently, haven't decided which yet. Anyway, more lye was supposed to be here by Friday, but I got a notification this morning that shipment was delayed and now my lye won't be here til Monday. Nope, not having it. I drove straight to the local hardware store and bought a pound to get me by til Monday because I. Can. Not. Wait. That. LONG!

 

[2lilboots]

I'm tempted to just buy the 50 lb bucket of lye. I usually only buy 6 lb at a time, but I go thru it so fast.

 

[Savage Daughter]

I'm tempted to just buy the 50 lb bucket of lye. I usually only buy 6 lb at a time, but I go thru it so fast.

I just did exactly this last week as I was nearly out of lye after buying around 12 pounds or so, along with another 100 pounds of coconut oil. So much cheaper per pound / gram / oz whatever compared to what I was paying before. Almost time to stock up on cocoa butter again as well.

I ran across a blog comment somewhere this past week from somebody saying they were doing a 50/50 mix of coconut & olive & I believe 10% or 12% superfat ?? which was giving them great results. I am going to try a very small batch of this & see if it's something which is sufficient for the times when I'm running low on supplies.

 

[Savage Daughter]

First small goats milk & oatmeal test batch today - only 1 pound in cavity molds as goats milk is new to me. Tested out my natural colorant infusions again today. The only problem I had was getting absolutely ZERO result from using dry dock soaked in avocado oil as well as in the lye solution for an hour or so, other than plain old green, which should have turned a beautiful fuchsia pink! So bloody disappointing Should have cracked open my dock oil infusion instead. I am so grateful it was such a small batch. 2 different types of indigo oil infusion seemed to give a decent result- we shall see after gelling - and fustic seemed to give a nice color.

No problems with goats milk soaps at all but I am definitely going to be playing around with my water ratios in the near future since I use so much clay in my soaps, which thickens things up more quickly than I like, even when using extra virgin olive oil. I do like the soaps with the extra virgin, for sure! I also love the clays, which give such a nice feel, and which help anchor essential oil scents with the castor oil.

Still finding my groove Much life the rest of life, it's a never-ending learning process

 

[SSC Oregon]

I ended up having a few hours to spare today, so I played with some embeds and used my Avalon from NG fragrance that had sat in the slurry blend for about five days.
I'm looking forward to cutting tomorrow!
I also did a soap with dark patchouli, lemongrass and lavender. That concoction went
Soap on a stick pretty quick - didn't get my beautiful color way I had planned.
It might be the prettiest soap ever, won't know for a bit more.
next time I use that EO combo I will leave out the clay and NO sb'ing - I'll see if that buys me a few more minutes.

This was the last of my FO purchase testing. I am headed next week to buy at Shay &Company.

I'm going to test a couple more of their FO's out.
That Brazilian mango fo I purchased from them seems to be a universal "smells good" from everyone.

 

[Servant4Christ]

I ended up having a few hours to spare today, so I played with some embeds and used my Avalon from NG fragrance that had sat in the slurry blend for about five days.
I'm looking forward to cutting tomorrow!
I also did a soap with dark patchouli, lemongrass and lavender. That concoction went
Soap on a stick pretty quick - didn't get my beautiful color way I had planned.
It might be the prettiest soap ever, won't know for a bit more.
next time I use that EO combo I will leave out the clay and NO sb'ing - I'll see if that buys me a few more minutes.

This was the last of my FO purchase testing. I am headed next week to buy at Shay &Company.

I'm going to test a couple more of their FO's out.
That Brazilian mango fo I purchased from them seems to be a universal "smells good" from everyone.

I didn't see Avalon at NG (Nature's Garden). Did you mean Nurture?

 

[SSC Oregon]

I didn't see Avalon at NG (Nature's Garden). Did you mean Nurture?

I did! Used the wrong acronym

 

[VikingChick]

My junior high choir director told us that it is common to pronounce the word "you" as " Ever since then -- and I'm old -- I hear singers sing "choo" all the time and it totally gets under my skin. Especially pop singers.

SAME!!

 

[Jorah]

This week was too busy with 'real work' to do much other than weigh my soap for my cure cards. But I have plans! After running an errand or two this morning, I'm planning to make another batch of the Bastille I made a few weeks ago, the one I put madder root in, and molded in cubes. I think they may be my favorite-looking soaps so far. One of my sisters called last night & we talked soap (of course) and she told me she can't use anything with scent in it, so I'll be skipping the berry scent for this second batch and sending a few of the cubes to her. This past week I finally settled on the inventory/raw materials tracker I want to use, and signed up with them (yes, one of the Soapmaking Forum sponsors) and hope to start doing data input this weekend. I'm also going to wash a bunch of milk crates that have been gathering dust in the corner for years; it occurred to me, finally, that I could use those as drying racks! They're taking up space anyway; they might as well be serving a purpose.

Oh, and this weekend I'm making the next in my honey-soap series. This will be the 8% batch. I'm changing up the base recipe to increase hardness, using nearly all solid fats. I know... changing the base recipe in the middle of the series means I'm not really testing right, but the 6% batch is still really soft, and if this is going to be anything but a stunt soap, I need it to firm up a bit more quickly, for sure.

Next weekend I have 5 days off in a row, and I'm hoping to do a bunch of soapbiz-related work (and, naturally, make some soap). If I have any energy after all that, I will spend some of it organizing my work space.

 

[Jorah]

On the other topic you mentioned: can you, or anyone, recommend a good place to get soap stamps custom made?

I can recommend 'PrintedbyRay' on Etsy. He did a great job making my custom acrylic stamps.

I got really excited about that website after seeing your results, clicked immediately....then saw their recipe includes propylene glycol

No transparent soap for me....at least not using that specific recipe.

If I end up making lots of transparent soap, my plan would be to switch to the slow cooker recipes. Those involve, if I recall correctly, several solvents mixed with your soap base, then sealed into the pot with plastic wrap and kept hot for 24 hours or so. No propylene glycol, I don't think.

 

[Servant4Christ]

Thanks to some of the posts I've been reading, I've decided to chance all that honey in @earlene's blacksmith soap recipe once again. I just recalculated everything in the original recipe to fit my 5lb mold and WOWZA, no wonder it overheated on me last time. That's 10.5% honey and I tried to insulate and CPOP it!

 

[SSC Oregon]

I went with Remarkable Stamps on Etsy.. But only because I was looking for Jorah's suggestion, and got distracted when I saw a Oregon company.

 

[AliOop]

Thanks to some of the posts I've been reading, I've decided to chance all that honey in @earlene's blacksmith soap recipe once again. I just recalculated everything in the original recipe to fit my 5lb mold and WOWZA, no wonder it overheated on me last time. That's 10.5% honey and I tried to insulate and CPOP it!

Wow is right! Honestly, I believe the effectiveness comes from the borax and pumice more than any of the other ingredients or process of the famous Blacksmith Soap recipe.

I’ve always used my own base recipe, used sorbitol instead of the honey and dual lye, and added her recommended percentages of borax and pumice. I also add d-limonene and orange EO for extra grease-cutting. My base recipe varies a bit but is never more than 20% CO, and is usually at least 50% lard or tallow.

The resulting soaps lather easily, aren’t drying, and work super well to remove grease and dirt. In fact, our mechanic just called my husband to order two more loaves. His son and his brother (who both work in his shop) have started using “his soap” so he needs more.

 

[Zing]

Wow is right! Honestly, I believe the effectiveness comes from the borax and pumice more than any of the other ingredients or process of the famous Blacksmith Soap recipe.

I’ve always used my own base recipe, used sorbitol instead of the honey and dual lye, and added her recommended percentages of borax and pumice. I also add d-limonene and orange EO for extra grease-cutting. My base recipe varies a bit but is never more than 20% CO, and is usually at least 50% lard or tallow.

The resulting soaps lather easily, aren’t drying, and work super well to remove grease and dirt. In fact, our mechanic just called my husband to order two more loaves. His son and his brother (who both work in his shop) have started using “his soap” so he needs more.

I agree. The pumice was a game changer and drastically cut down on the time needed to scrub my hands clean.

 

[Jorah]

Oh, and this weekend I'm making the next in my honey-soap series. This will be the 8% batch. I'm changing up the base recipe to increase hardness, using nearly all solid fats.

Please chuckle in my general direction as I'm using this afternoon's soap disaster as a chance to experience a very light case of hubris-correcting failure. Thankfully, not much money lost, but yeah... humbling failure. Thankfully, I know enough to learn from the experience, not just sit here being embarrassed (as I might have, a decade ago).

Tomorrow I go back to the recipe that was working!

-=-
Update a few days later (for those reading the threads later...) it seems likely that it was a particular ingredient in the batch, a vastly too-large amount of stearic acid, and not the preponderance of hard oils, that lead to this particular mess (my thanks to everyone who helped me analyze this!).