What soapy thing have you done today?

[Shelley D]

My soapy thing is R&D for my next soapy project ~ don't worry about the hubby, I'm skirting that issue by saying the the next batch is a special batch for my momma, after all she was just recently diagnosed with Parkinsons and lives halfway across the country so maybe some smell good soap will lift her spirits
I want to make her a lavender soap (one of her favorite scents) and I am dying to try the slurry method of mixing botanicals, clay, EO and castor oil ~ like, hand-clapping excited!
I bookmarked the thread and was reading over it and it says to add EO at 3-3.5%, is that to the batch weight of oils for the soap batch? Like if I make a small batch of soap (1 pound/500 grams), I use the percentage of EO for that batch in my slurry, correct? Or do I use 3-3.5% of the batch oils?
I'm not in hurry, I just ordered some lovely purple clay last night so I have to wait for it to arrive ~ it's supposed to be the kind that's used to make those beautiful clay tea pots so it has a very earthy color So I'm thinking a swirl may be in the works too

 

[SoapSisters]

I started showering two days ago with soap from my first batch of Castile from April. I now understand the term Slimy Castile; fortunately, I don't mind it. The soap lathers like crazy on the scrubby, and seems very mild. I'm not crazy about it compared to my honey soap, but it is nice.

I love Castile-type soaps, but I know I'm in the minority! I find that if I use 100% white vinegar as my liquid, I can cut most of the slime. And I think the vinegar makes the lather better.

 

[Savage Daughter]

My soapy thing is R&D for my next soapy project ~ don't worry about the hubby, I'm skirting that issue by saying the the next batch is a special batch for my momma, after all she was just recently diagnosed with Parkinsons and lives halfway across the country so maybe some smell good soap will lift her spirits
I want to make her a lavender soap (one of her favorite scents) and I am dying to try the slurry method of mixing botanicals, clay, EO and castor oil ~ like, hand-clapping excited!
I bookmarked the thread and was reading over it and it says to add EO at 3-3.5%, is that to the batch weight of oils for the soap batch? Like if I make a small batch of soap (1 pound/500 grams), I use the percentage of EO for that batch in my slurry, correct? Or do I use 3-3.5% of the batch oils?
I'm not in hurry, I just ordered some lovely purple clay last night so I have to wait for it to arrive ~ it's supposed to be the kind that's used to make those beautiful clay tea pots so it has a very earthy color So I'm thinking a swirl may be in the works too

Hi @Shelley D

From that post I made:

• so 1360 total oil weight x 3% = the total amount of essential oils for that batch (using whatever proportions of your essential oils you've worked out in the blend that you like)

You can use 3%-3.5%, or whatever percentage you like, ultimately, calculated in relation to total oil weight. Those were just basic guidelines. If you discover something which is helpful in terms of using this slurry, please update that thread with your comments in relation to your own experimentation. The more feedback / input, the better.
________

On another note, but very much related to making essential oil blends stick for an extended period of time: as I have been pouring, remelting & re-pouring my 'lotion bars' - *bleh* the more I say this term, the less I like it - I am having one HELL of a time with my essential oil blend scent DISAPPEARING altogether....there is absolutely NO LOGIC to this! I even upped my usage rate on the second pour. It's a no-go. I need someone else to give this stuff a sniff-test, because to me, I smell little to nothing. Blend is: ylang-ylang III, orange sweet, lavender, patchouli dark. I hope to god that it's just my nose, which means I need to start 'clearing' my nose using my neti pot with a sea salt / water solution more often.

Finished packaging, labeling & packing up the remainder of an order I am at the tail end of fulfilling, ready to go for the long drive into not-so-civilized 'civilization' tomorrow.

Poured many more self-formulated herbal salves to fulfill orders - yeah, not soap, but People love them, so they have become part of my product line.

Sliced my older slab mold off-cuts into sample sized bars today & bundled them up using hemp twine & selling them as 'travel sized bundles', taking those to my customers tomorrow too.

I intend on making my first 8 pound batch of goats milk soap with no colorants this weekend using one of my Custom Craft Tool molds, which will be a first as I've been exclusively using my beautiful Russian birch plywood slab molds, which absolutely rock One of the best purchases I have made since I restarted this journey.

This past week, I have been sending my signage graphics to my local sign-maker so I have something for my in-store soap displays.

Have also been pumping out more label designs for my soaps, salves, deodorants, as well as designing info cards in relation to my brand & my products.

Oh yes, I also experimented with my natural colorants using various different 'mordants' to see which result in a better extraction of the pigment in the roots / leaves / extracts. I tried lemon juice, raw apple cider vinegar, citric acid, baking soda & even refined sea salt. I then let them sit overnight, on a plate, in a plastic bag to prevent liquid from evaporating, then checked them the next afternoon.

FYI so far - using indigo & madder root - citric acid is hands down the best medium. So I need to make a test batch of soap using citric acid in water to macerate my colorants overnight & see how this impacts my final soap colors. I will be doing more testing like this in the near future, including with body care products, hoping to use more natural colorants in my entire product line.

I also intend on making my first test batch of soap using a faux 'sea water' solution as I love what sea salt is doing in my soap. The lather is even more amazing & my skin feels just as amazing after using these soaps.

Have a good evening y'all

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

I started showering two days ago . . .

It’s so strange how my mind builds up an image with one word on top of the other without expecting more in the sentence. I thought you were making some huge confession here @Jorah. Hooray for showers!

 

[Shelley D]

Hi @Shelley D

From that post I made:

• so 1360 total oil weight x 3% = the total amount of essential oils for that batch (using whatever proportions of your essential oils you've worked out in the blend that you like)

You can use 3%-3.5%, or whatever percentage you like, ultimately, calculated in relation to total oil weight. Those were just basic guidelines. If you discover something which is helpful in terms of using this slurry, please update that thread with your comments in relation to your own experimentation. The more feedback / input, the better.
________

On another note, but very much related to making essential oil blends stick for an extended period of time: as I have been pouring, remelting & re-pouring my 'lotion bars' - *bleh* the more I say this term, the less I like it - I am having one HELL of a time with my essential oil blend scent DISAPPEARING altogether....there is absolutely NO LOGIC to this! I even upped my usage rate on the second pour. It's a no-go. I need someone else to give this stuff a sniff-test, because to me, I smell little to nothing. Blend is: ylang-ylang III, orange sweet, lavender, patchouli dark. I hope to god that it's just my nose, which means I need to start 'clearing' my nose using my neti pot with a sea salt / water solution more often.

Finished packaging, labeling & packing up the remainder of an order I am at the tail end of fulfilling, ready to go for the long drive into not-so-civilized 'civilization' tomorrow.

Poured many more self-formulated herbal salves to fulfill orders - yeah, not soap, but People love them, so they have become part of my product line.

Sliced my older slab mold off-cuts into sample sized bars today & bundled them up using hemp twine & selling them as 'travel sized bundles', taking those to my customers tomorrow too.

I intend on making my first 8 pound batch of goats milk soap with no colorants this weekend using one of my Custom Craft Tool molds, which will be a first as I've been exclusively using my beautiful Russian birch plywood slab molds, which absolutely rock One of the best purchases I have made since I restarted this journey.

This past week, I have been sending my signage graphics to my local sign-maker so I have something for my in-store soap displays.

Have also been pumping out more label designs for my soaps, salves, deodorants, as well as designing info cards in relation to my brand & my products.

Oh yes, I also experimented with my natural colorants using various different 'mordants' to see which result in a better extraction of the pigment in the roots / leaves / extracts. I tried lemon juice, raw apple cider vinegar, citric acid, baking soda & even refined sea salt. I then let them sit overnight, on a plate, in a plastic bag to prevent liquid from evaporating, then checked them the next afternoon.

FYI so far - using indigo & madder root - citric acid is hands down the best medium. So I need to make a test batch of soap using citric acid in water to macerate my colorants overnight & see how this impacts my final soap colors. I will be doing more testing like this in the near future, including with body care products, hoping to use more natural colorants in my entire product line.

I also intend on making my first test batch of soap using a faux 'sea water' solution as I love what sea salt is doing in my soap. The lather is even more amazing & my skin feels just as amazing after using these soaps.

Have a good evening y'all

Wow! You've been busy!
Thank you for letting me know about the slurry ~ when my clay arrives I will mix some up! So excited!
I'm just figuring out scents in soap so I'm no help with with scents in lotion bars
I have noticed people are getting back to salves and balms too ~ it's so much better for skin all together!
Have fun with all your your other projects! I hope all goes well!

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Hi @Shelley D

From that post I made:

• so 1360 total oil weight x 3% = the total amount of essential oils for that batch (using whatever proportions of your essential oils you've worked out in the blend that you like)

You can use 3%-3.5%, or whatever percentage you like, ultimately, calculated in relation to total oil weight. Those were just basic guidelines. If you discover something which is helpful in terms of using this slurry, please update that thread with your comments in relation to your own experimentation. The more feedback / input, the better.
________

On another note, but very much related to making essential oil blends stick for an extended period of time: as I have been pouring, remelting & re-pouring my 'lotion bars' - *bleh* the more I say this term, the less I like it - I am having one HELL of a time with my essential oil blend scent DISAPPEARING altogether....there is absolutely NO LOGIC to this! I even upped my usage rate on the second pour. It's a no-go. I need someone else to give this stuff a sniff-test, because to me, I smell little to nothing. Blend is: ylang-ylang III, orange sweet, lavender, patchouli dark. I hope to god that it's just my nose, which means I need to start 'clearing' my nose using my neti pot with a sea salt / water solution more often.

Finished packaging, labeling & packing up the remainder of an order I am at the tail end of fulfilling, ready to go for the long drive into not-so-civilized 'civilization' tomorrow.

Poured many more self-formulated herbal salves to fulfill orders - yeah, not soap, but People love them, so they have become part of my product line.

Sliced my older slab mold off-cuts into sample sized bars today & bundled them up using hemp twine & selling them as 'travel sized bundles', taking those to my customers tomorrow too.

I intend on making my first 8 pound batch of goats milk soap with no colorants this weekend using one of my Custom Craft Tool molds, which will be a first as I've been exclusively using my beautiful Russian birch plywood slab molds, which absolutely rock One of the best purchases I have made since I restarted this journey.

This past week, I have been sending my signage graphics to my local sign-maker so I have something for my in-store soap displays.

Have also been pumping out more label designs for my soaps, salves, deodorants, as well as designing info cards in relation to my brand & my products.

Oh yes, I also experimented with my natural colorants using various different 'mordants' to see which result in a better extraction of the pigment in the roots / leaves / extracts. I tried lemon juice, raw apple cider vinegar, citric acid, baking soda & even refined sea salt. I then let them sit overnight, on a plate, in a plastic bag to prevent liquid from evaporating, then checked them the next afternoon.

FYI so far - using indigo & madder root - citric acid is hands down the best medium. So I need to make a test batch of soap using citric acid in water to macerate my colorants overnight & see how this impacts my final soap colors. I will be doing more testing like this in the near future, including with body care products, hoping to use more natural colorants in my entire product line.

I also intend on making my first test batch of soap using a faux 'sea water' solution as I love what sea salt is doing in my soap. The lather is even more amazing & my skin feels just as amazing after using these soaps.

Have a good evening y'all

You’ve been very very busy! Just reading about all you did wore me out!

 

[Savage Daughter]

You’ve been very very busy! Just reading about all you did wore me out!

It is very rare I am not busy, to be honest.

I go in long spurts on intense activity, weeks at a time, non-stop from the time my feet hit the floor, and then I sit back for a week or so & reflect on what I have been doing What is working? What is not working? What needs tweaking? What else needs doing? Am I behind on anything? Review notes & commitments I have made, rinse, repeat & revise as required.

Even as I am drifting off to sleep, I am calculating / designing / organizing / tweaking in my mind.

Yes, my activity level can get very intense sometimes, even for me! Meditation is a very good thing, when I make time for it

 

[Shelley D]

It is very rare I am not busy, to be honest.

I go in long spurts on intense activity, weeks at a time, non-stop from the time my feet hit the floor, and then I sit back for a week or so & reflect on what I have been doing What is working? What is not working? What needs tweaking? What else needs doing? Am I behind on anything? Review notes & commitments I have made, rinse, repeat & revise as required.

Even as I am drifting off to sleep, I am calculating / designing / organizing / tweaking in my mind.

Yes, my activity level can get very intense sometimes, even for me! Meditation is a very good thing, when I make time for it

I used to have a similar pattern of behavior, though not quite as intense, usually one project at a time. People used to call me lazy but they didn't realize the wheels were turning until I jumped up in high gear and went all out until a project was complete. Then I rested and reflected. My mom used to tell me I could "avoid all that" with "better planning" and I tried to explain to her that was my planning I'm much slower nowadays, thanks to my old body breaking down on me but my brain is still running marathons! Wish I could keep up!

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

they didn't realize the wheels were turning until I jumped up in high gear and went all out until a project was complete. Then I rested and reflected.

You aren’t the only one! That describes me, too, @Shelley D!!!

 

[Jorah]

It’s so strange how my mind builds up an image with one word on top of the other without expecting more in the sentence. I thought you were making some huge confession here @Jorah. Hooray for showers!

"I started showering two days ago... and haven't stopped yet!"

I love Castile-type soaps, but I know I'm in the minority! I find that if I use 100% white vinegar as my liquid, I can cut most of the slime. And I think the vinegar makes the lather better.

Since that first batch I've learned about Zany's No Slime Castile and made some of that recipe. I'm looking forward to trying it, too. Thanks for the pointer on white vinegar; I'll check that out!

Okay... the oval bar is my first Borax & Pumice try, based on the ‘Borax Handmade Soap Recipe’ at Borax Soap Recipe | Soap Recipes 101

I added a little cedarwood EO to counter the tallow scent (my staff perfumer hasn't prepped the oakmoss yet! ). I'm pleased with the bar, less pleased with the apparently mandatory cat hair. This is a really nice looking bar, and if it works as good as it looks, might be a standard for me. I'm going to try a version with lard instead of tallow, as lard is cheaper and more easily available (and doesn't have the fatty smell that the first tallow I bought has). I added a little castor oil out of habit, but this one might not need it for bubbles.

View attachment 73936

These oval bars of the borax and pumice are not even a week old and already hard to dent with my fingertip. This may be my 'Lava clone' ... if it's as good on my hands as it is easy on the eyes. Very pleased with it... so far. Here it is after a bath to remove some cat hair (from it, not from me!) and with a spritz of 90% alcohol.




This weekend should be devoted to the business side of the business, but I'm tempted to make a version of this with lard instead of tallow and see if it performs as well; plus, I've got to* make the next two batches in my 'high-honey' series. This weekend it will be 10% honey, Mark 1 and Mark 2 versions.


-=-

*want to

(edited to remove 3 instances of a word I never noticed I was using so much!)

 

[SSC Oregon]

I caught up on the thread. Whew!! I loved reading about what you're all up to.
Nothing soapy the last couple days, my body is just limping along to the next shift. Lol
Wow, I got out of shape the last few years. Lol
I'm still here, dreaming about soapy things! Sending love!

 

[KiwiMoose]

Always get mad at myself for forgetting about how rice slurry makes the soap go spotty, especially once gelled. I think it cooks the starch or something. Same when I use oat milk. However, as I’ve called this soap ‘Ocean’, I think I can kinda get away with the spots. Let’s just say it’s plankton or algae, lol.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

Always get mad at myself for forgetting about how rice slurry makes the soap go spotty, especially once gelled. I think it cooks the starch or something. Same when I use oat milk. However, as I’ve called this soap ‘Ocean’, I think I can kinda get away with the spots. Let’s just say it’s plankton or algae, lol.
View attachment 74019

Ya know, the oceans are full of plastics now. You could call it environmental awareness soap.

 

[Jorah]

My Saturday was spent getting my packing and shipping setup organized. I prepped my first set of ingredient labels and sent out my tester survey. Today I'll pack two or three boxes of soap for shipping and hope to make at least one batch of soap. My wife has asked for a batch of the same recipe I used for the Borax and Pumice last weekend but skipping the borax and pumice; she loves how bright white the soap is!

-=-

Sunday evening update: between wrapping, labeling, and packing about 75 bars of soap, my usual platelets donation, and shopping trips to three stores, I didn't get to make any soap! But... there's always next weekend. Maybe this will motivate me to get the test samples out the door to free up time for soaping.

Speaking of sample bars... I've realized that I should have been making tiny bars for testers, not these honking huge hunks. I sawed a couple of the charcoal & pumice bars into thirds... yikes, that's surprisingly hard. I'm thinking of getting a silicone mini-cupcake tray to make tester samples going forward; anyone have any other suggestions? Maybe when I make loaves I can just cut them into 1/3" bars...

 

[SSC Oregon]

Hi everyone
Jonah, can't wait to see start to finish pics.
The restaurant was closed unexpectedly yesterday.. so
I steamed, beveled, heated my soap (thank you, Scent!) And then stamped it. Much better! Going to get through all of these batches and then get some photos for my website.
I haven't made zanys recipe yet, but I'm looking forward to some soaping next week!
I know I need way more soap inventory built up for markets. It will be a busy, fun winter
Be blessed!

 

[SSC Oregon]

Always get mad at myself for forgetting about how rice slurry makes the soap go spotty, especially once gelled. I think it cooks the starch or something. Same when I use oat milk. However, as I’ve called this soap ‘Ocean’, I think I can kinda get away with the spots. Let’s just say it’s plankton or algae, lol.
View attachment 74019

I love the colors and swirling technique! Beautiful Kiwi!!

 

[Garden Gives Me Joy]

Binging on soap making YouTube videos to pass time while in bed in pain. Something soothing about people pouring and cutting soaps. I can't be the only one with that guilty pleasure.

 

[Iluminameluna]

Trying to find out how bad of a pickle I'm in.
I'm in El Salvador again, finally recovered enough from my traveling to brave making soap for my Nanny, and come to find out I don't have my usual complement of oils. LOTS of palm oil. I've got coconut (CO76), Castor. No olive, HO Canola (I couldn't bring it), or any similar soft oils. My house mate is only free tomorrow to help me, but she commonly mistakes my serious demeanor for my "being angry with her", so I only rarely ask her for real help. Cultural differences. So I need to figure this out on my own...
Been on this "soapy treading water" since yesterday.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Trying to find out how bad of a pickle I'm in.
I'm in El Salvador again, finally recovered enough from my traveling to brave making soap for my Nanny, and come to find out I don't have my usual complement of oils. LOTS of palm oil. I've got coconut (CO76), Castor. No olive, HO Canola (I couldn't bring it), or any similar soft oils. My house mate is only free tomorrow to help me, but she commonly mistakes my serious demeanor for my "being angry with her", so I only rarely ask her for real help. Cultural differences. So I need to figure this out on my own...
Been on this "soapy treading water" since yesterday.

Soo just check out the supermarket and see what you can get in the way of liquid oils? Not sure what's cheap there, but I guess I'd go for OO if you can get it. That with the Palm, CO and castor is really all you need at a pinch. Can you get avocado oil? That would be nice.

 

[Jorah]

Binging on soap making YouTube videos to pass time while in bed in pain. Something soothing about people pouring and cutting soaps. I can't be the only one with that guilty pleasure.

I'm hoping that the pain eases soon...