What soapy thing have you done today?

[Relle]

@Andy7891, please don't give this to an elderly person, their skin is thin and fragile, I think it would be too harsh. I used wintergreen many moons ago and have never used it since.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Yep, I bought it on Amazon. It's stamped underneath as 304 stainless, but I'm suspicious. Here's the link to the exact one I purchased.

homEdge Espresso Steaming... Amazon.com

There are different grades & 'families' of stainless steel.

Some information:

https://www.unifiedalloys.com/blog/stainless-grades-families
Anyone can put a stamp of anything on any material. Keep that in mind

As far as good brands of stainless steel which should not cost a fortune, I have found Zebra brand to be very good. I used to buy stainless pots & melting vessels of this brand for making salves & such in a local Asian supermarket for a *very* good price. The stuff is heavy duty, nice & thick, and will probably outlive the majority of the world's population the way most of us are going

At the time I was buying that brand, I believe it was still made in Thailand ??
_____

EDIT: my god, I have become the queen of typos lately...I feel like my brain is going through a 'rewiring', almost dyslexic for lack of a better term, because this is not something I have ever had an issue with....neuroplasticity...fascinating field! Therefore, my slurry is now slutty in another post LOL

 

[Savage Daughter]

I have recalculated all of the soap formulations I use - I now have 3 standards for different situations - into 1 pound, 4.4 pound, 8 pound, 16 pound batches. This was necessary for my soap making for the upcoming year.

Dear baby jeebus, what a mind numbingly boring task .... but it's done ... and now I can get back to making soap after taking a break for a couple of months...I think it has been that long. In that time I have learned a few more things based on the research I have been doing...was it @dibbles or @Mobjack Bay who shared a link to a post on Auntie Clara's blog which spoke about the effect salt has on soap...and suddenly, differences between batches I had noticed began to make sense...soap opacity, vibrancy of natural colorants maintaining itself over time, SCENT RETENTION, and so on...that woman is amazing. Super knowledgeable. I have tucked this info away in my noggin now!

I am about to put my brand spanking new Custom Craft Tools loaf molds to use in the next few days....they've been sitting around gathering dust since I spent a fortune on them, along with the slab & cylindrical shaped molds I bought from them. Well built, and they have excellent customer service, but I am still not sure if I am going to keep them

Ya may see me put an advert up for them in the near future, we shall see....

 

[Servant4Christ]

There are different grades & 'families' of stainless steel.

Some information:

https://www.unifiedalloys.com/blog/stainless-grades-families
Anyone can put a stamp of anything on any material. Keep that in mind

As far as good brands of stainless steel which should not cost a fortune, I have found Zebra brand to be very good. I used to buy stainless pots & melting vessels of this brand for making salves & such in a local Asian supermarket for a *very* good price. The stuff is heavy duty, nice & thick, and will probably outlive the majority of the world's population the way most of us are going

At the time I was buying that brand, I believe it was still made in Thailand ??
_____

EDIT: my god, I have become the queen of typos lately...I feel like my brain is going through a 'rewiring', almost dyslexic for lack of a better term, because this is not something I have ever had an issue with....neuroplasticity...fascinating field! Therefore, my slurry is now slutty in another post LOL

I had at least three different reactions to this post and had to pick one. Thankyou for the information.

 

[AliensrReal]

I got a bunch of samples from Indigo fragrances and I’m probably gonna make some individual soaps to test the ones I like. I think their lemonade is nice, but I’m still looking for a replacement to Snowdrift farms sparkling lemonade. I’m also looking for a dupe of Snowdrift farms cranberry and pomegranate that I liked.
I also have several fragrances from WSP that I need to soap, but am running a blank on how I want to color the soap.

Samples I got from Indigo:
Avocado & Sea Salt
Bamboo & white grapefruit
Blood orange
Cactus & sea salt
Country hayride
Cranberry
Cranberry Mango
Fresh Squeezed Oranges
Hawaiian Punch
Kumquat
Lemonade
Macintosh apple
Peach Nectar
Pink Champagne
Pomegranate
Satsuma

 

[Jorah]

Ya may see me put an advert up for them in the near future, we shall see....

<holds up hand> I'd like Right of First Refusal, please!

 

[Servant4Christ]

I keep sniffing and resniffing one of my FO samples (OMH from Lonestar) and I still can't tell if I like or dislike it. It definitely is not what I expected this to smell like, but I can't place exactly what it does smell like.

 

[Zing]

Just placed orders at 3 vendors. Am cutting it super close for ingredients to make lotion bars and lip balms. Many thanks to @not_ally for the tip on Abyssinian Oil!
Gah, that darned inventory guy, again, as always! Smart inventory staff would pay attention to Black Friday sales. But I can't let him go during this holiday season!

 

[AliOop]

I keep sniffing and resniffing one of my FO samples (OMH from Lonestar) and I still can't tell if I like or dislike it. It definitely is not what I expected this to smell like, but I can't place exactly what it does smell like.

A fair number of OMH FOs have a cherry smell and an almond smell. Could it be one of those?

 

[Servant4Christ]

A fair number of OMH FOs have a cherry smell and an almond smell. Could it be one of those?

Maybe? I'm picking up something floral along with a touch of vanilla and oddly enough, that fake cinnamon broomstick smell.

 

[AliensrReal]

Made green tea soap today. Fragrance is from WSP. It smells heavenly. I put it in my massage bar mold and added poppy seeds for exfoliation. I need to make more glow in the dark soap. Everyone has already claimed a bar for themselves.

 

[AliOop]

Maybe? I'm picking up something floral along with a touch of vanilla and oddly enough, that fake cinnamon broomstick smell.

Fake cinnamon, yuck. That's not one I've smelled in OMH before. Thankfully!

 

[Servant4Christ]

Fake cinnamon, yuck. That's not one I've smelled in OMH before. Thankfully!

I keep resniffing because I just can't tell what I'm actually smelling. I've had one friend say it smells like wood, another says it smells floral, and another says maybe a cookie? Then again, this is just sniffing the open bottle. Maybe it'll smell different in soap or lotion.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Just placed orders at 3 vendors. Am cutting it super close for ingredients to make lotion bars and lip balms. Many thanks to @not_ally for the tip on Abyssinian Oil!
Gah, that darned inventory guy, again, as always! Smart inventory staff would pay attention to Black Friday sales. But I can't let him go during this holiday season!

Abyssinian oil is a beautiful thing I just had some bakuchi seed oil come in recently which is also amazing Still waiting on a few other orders of oils to arrive!

<holds up hand> I'd like Right of First Refusal, please!

@Jorah I had to look that term up because I had no idea what it meant LOL I'm thinking....why does dude want to REFUSE something he wants....or am I just clueless...or is he taking the p*** as the British say....or? Turns out I was just clueless!

Is that a legal term used only in the US? Or elsewhere? I've never heard it uttered before

We don't know what we don't know

 

[Misschief]

@Jorah I had to look that term up because I had no idea what it meant LOL I'm thinking....why does dude want to REFUSE something he wants....or am I just clueless...or is he taking the p*** as the British say....or? Turns out I was just clueless!

Is that a legal term used only in the US? Or elsewhere? I've never heard it uttered before

We don't know what we don't know

It's here in Canada as well. I/we encountered it about 20 years ago when we were involved in opening a restaurant here.

 

[Savage Daughter]

It's here in Canada as well. I/we encountered it about 20 years ago when we were involved in opening a restaurant here.

Ah ok, thanks for clearing that up....I never had to deal with any actual 'laws' when I had my small restaurant because I lived in a 'lawless' place - so to speak - at the time

 

[Relle]

Not usual to hear that here.

 

[Jorah]

Today I unmolded some of my second batch of salt soap. I liked making the first batch so much that I grabbed some salt and coconut oil at Wally World Sunday morning and started weighting and melting and mixing. This time I went with a 2.0:1 water:lye ratio and it was pretty thick batter by the time I got it all into the bar molds. I will probably bump up the water a bit next time 'round. The earliest bars (the oval is an example) look solid, except for some salt I failed to mix in (another thing to fix), but the rectangle bars have some air pockets. I am thinking of the 'shakers' we used in the foundry to settle the sand, and wondering if something like that could help me with these air pockets. I'll put these on the shelf as 'seconds' or perhaps as 'rustic' bars (har har) and hope for the best. I won't tell you the total weight of the batch because I don't want to scare anyone.*

Edited to add a photo of the 42 bars of soap sitting on top of my freezer, starting the cure.

I put it on top of the towel so that show up for the photo, and now I'm going to move it onto paper so that there's no chance of the towel transferring dye or something.
-=-
*that's a joke

Component	%​
Coconut Oil (Great Value & BJ’s)	100​
	​
Non-Iodized table salt	100​
	​
Water	​
Lye	​
Sodium Citrate	1​
EDTA	.1​

 

[Jorah]

Ah ok, thanks for clearing that up....I never had to deal with any actual 'laws' when I had my small restaurant because I lived in a 'lawless' place - so to speak - at the time

Yup, it's like hollering 'FIRST DIBS!' but in a workplace-acceptable tone.

 

[AliensrReal]

A little disappointed with my OT scents. Strawberry patch has completely faded. My mother couldn’t even smell it when I was making the soap. The soap was made for a friend and she’s still excited about it as it’s still pretty. I’ll try MMS Kalahari watermelon next time and see if that sticks better. Satsuma Guava smelled so good and strong the first week, but is starting to fade a bit. This one was my favorite too. Maybe the scent will come back after curing. I’ll have to just use it in melt and pour soaps if it doesn’t. Peche de vigne still has a scent but I had to use 4oz in a 3lb batch to get it to stick. Not really a fan of it as it smells more floral than anything peach to my nose. The only scent that has not faded is Caribbean Pineapple and I realize now that I’m not a fan of pineapple.