What soapy thing have you done today?

[Savage Daughter]

I love some of the ones from Wild Plantanica, but I don’t know how the soaps will look. I need pictures of finished product.

They work well, and if you watch Chas's YouTube channel, you can see more there. She is the freakin' MASTER of pull-throughs, I swear! That's how I fell in love with the technique I find that with hers, you definitely need your batter to remain more fluid, but not *too* fluid, in order to get a successful design out of them. It takes more skill to use them, I think, plus a good recipe. She sends that information with her customer orders, which is super helpful. My skill level with them began at ZETO, which means I had several fails before I pulled off my first successful batch, which I was shocked to discover looked so much like Holly's coffee pull-throughs I nearly cried LOL THEN I was doing a happy dance around my cutter LOL

Yup. Did they perhaps send the wrong size?

At the time I bought the disks, I seem to remember there being only one size?....although I could be wrong. I would need to look through my order confirmation emails as it has been quite a while since I ordered.

 

[katili]

I made shae oatmeal soap today, and for some reason it came to trace faster than I expected before I even added the colloidal oats or fragrance, so I think my oats may be a little clumpy in spots due to my panicked rapid stirring to try and get it in the mold on time It turned this neat yellow color, I’m excited to see what it looks like when it’s all done.

 

[AliensrReal]

I got all my fragrance oils in today. They all smell so dang good! There are only two I’m not a fan of. I’m going to use my color wheel cards and start writing down colors for each one.

 

[2lilboots]

I made 4 batches of soap today. The first three I wrapped up and put to bed. But this batch can sit on the table until Monday. The other three I can cut tomorrow morning.

 

[Zing]

I made gift bags for 2 superiors including soap, lip balm, and lotion bars.

You know who had a really soapy day?! Mrs. Zing! She had a staff retreat. They made lip balms and salves. They spared no expense because they had -- sit down -- sandlewood essential oil. Am feeling all the feels as the kids say. Yay, more people know how easy it is to make lip balms and stuff! But also, uh, Mrs. Zing, can you just stay in your canning and preserving lane and let me do my thang! And you know I lubs you!

 

[Misschief]

I made gift bags for 2 superiors including soap, lip balm, and lotion bars.

You know who had a really soapy day?! Mrs. Zing! She had a staff retreat. They made lip balms and salves. They spared no expense because they had -- sit down -- sandlewood essential oil. Am feeling all the feels as the kids say. Yay, more people know how easy it is to make lip balms and stuff! But also, uh, Mrs. Zing, can you just stay in your canning and preserving lane and let me do my thang! And you know I lubs you!

Mr. Zing? We really need to meet Mrs. Zing. Just sayin'

 

[katili]

It turned this neat yellow color, I’m excited to see what it looks like when it’s all done.

Cut this loaf just now, the outside has turned this darker almost oat-y color. The inside is still fairly yellow but I’m hoping it turns the same color as the tops.

It also got stuck on my wire cutter, which I have never seen before so now I’m about to go on a deep dive to see what that’s about! I got about halfway through it then could go no further, and it didn’t want to come off either. I eventually got it and turned it around and finished the cut the other way, but there was definitely more resistance than I’ve ever felt.

 

[AliOop]

Nice! The outer rind is vanilla discoloration, and will spread to the entire outside surface of the bars.

As for the cutter issue, did you check the tension of your cutter strings? Having even one or two of them too loose can cause the problem you described (ask me how I know). If that wasn’t it, your soap may just have hardened a bit too much before you cut it.

 

[Cindy D.]

Cut this loaf just now, the outside has turned this darker almost oat-y color. The inside is still fairly yellow but I’m hoping it turns the same color as the tops.

It also got stuck on my wire cutter, which I have never seen before so now I’m about to go on a deep dive to see what that’s about! I got about halfway through it then could go no further, and it didn’t want to come off either. I eventually got it and turned it around and finished the cut the other way, but there was definitely more resistance than I’ve ever felt.

It looks like cheese with an outer rind. Do you have a lot of coconut oil in it?

 

[katili]

Nice! The outer rind is vanilla discoloration, and will spread to the entire outside surface of the bars.

As for the cutter issue, did you check the tension of your cutter strings? Having even one or two of them too loose can cause the problem you described (ask me how I know). If that wasn’t it, you bar may just have hardened a bit too much before you cut it.

I'm thinking it must have gotten a touch too hard, I left this one longer than I usually do. It was a new recipe to me, guess it just moves quickly! This one sat somewhere between 24 and 36 hours and I read about people waiting 2-3 days, do you think they aren't using wire cutters or just softer recipes?

The yellow parts are already much closer in color to the rind, I like it. The color suits the oat-y FO! This scent is new and doesn't have any soaping notes yet so I had no idea what to expect from it.

It looks like cheese with an outer rind. Do you have a lot of coconut oil in it?

My Photos app automatically tagged it as 'food' so I think it agrees that it looks like cheese hehe! This recipe does have more coconut oil than I usually work with, I usually keep it at 20% and this one is 35%.

 

[AliOop]

I'm thinking it must have gotten a touch too hard, I left this one longer than I usually do. It was a new recipe to me, guess it just moves quickly! This one sat somewhere between 24 and 36 hours and I read about people waiting 2-3 days, do you think they aren't using wire cutters or just softer recipes?

I cut my soaps at 12-18 hours in most cases, but my recipes are fairly high in stearic and palmitic FAs, and I use a high lye concentration (low water) so I can unmold sooner.

The only time I have to wait longer is when I use more water, or when I make a recipe that is higher in oleic, linoleic, or linolenic FAs.

 

[katili]

I cut my soaps at 12-18 hours in most cases, but my recipes are fairly high in stearic and palmitic FAs, and I use a high lye concentration (low water) so I can unmold sooner.

The only time I have to wait longer is when I use more water, or when I make a recipe that is higher in oleic, linoleic, or linolenic FAs.

That’s my usual time frame too, it sounds like our soaping is fairly similar

This one didn’t want to come out of the mold so I (perhaps mistakenly) assumed it needed a little more time. Then I had to leave and didn’t get back to it for many hours lesson learned!

 

[Zing]

Not a whole lot. Made more of @AliOop 's shower cleaner with my fave essential oil, lime. Turned my curing soaps. And my best friend just got back from Vietnam and brought me artisan soaps and essential oils including curcumin, smells awesome.

 

[dibbles]

Regarding SL v salt, I've gone back and forth but stayed with SL because I had read somewhere that SL is good for for bubbles, and because I like to keep my coconut oil levels low-ish I do whatever I can to maximize that (I also add sorbitol.) Has anyone else heard about the SL-bubbles connection, or am I just mis-remembering?

I have also read somewhere along the way that SL helps with bubbles.

 

[AliensrReal]

Using my base recipe I made Sun & Sand soap yesterday. I’ll make a 1lb batch of Lush dupe for celebrate today.

 

[katili]

I made coffee soap today! Gosh, I hope the awful smell of mixing lye and coffee ice cubes dissipates a little lol

 

[AliOop]

I made coffee soap today! Gosh, I hope the awful smell of mixing lye and coffee ice cubes dissipates a little lol

It does!

 

[AliensrReal]

I used brown oxide and walnut shell powder for the sand. I was able to use a spoon and make bumps. I didn’t use enough soap for the sand but I went with the flow. I had premixed some neon blue and TD a few weeks back and decided to use those as the sea colors. I did a one pot swirl with them to hopefully get a little sea wave look. I’m very happy with how it looks.

Sun & Sand fragrance oil is known to cause issues during soaping. It can rice, accelerate and separate. I’ve only experienced acceleration and mild separation. I’ve decided to put down my stick blender for all my recipes except my swirl one. This time there was no ricing or acceleration. I would say maybe a little separation as the top was a little oily when I took the soap out the oven. The scent stays strong and true during cure which is why I still use it.

 

[ackosel]

Really????



If you can't handle essential oils either, try infusing some herbs into your base oils & see if they leave a nice, mild scent. try some dried sage, rosemary, things like that. You could even try some cedar leaves or bark.

You can strain or not strain the plant material out later. Your call. It's all play

Can you infuse any plant? I imagine some might be unsafe or cause a weird reaction in the soap. How do you infuse it? I'm wondering if I can use peppermint leaves. Is it necessary for them to be dried, or can fresh be used? To state the blaringly obvious, I'm a beginner...

 

[AliOop]

I thought the bubbles were more associated with vinegar?

As you found, vinegar works mostly to speed up the hardening of the bar, allowing for earlier unmolding. To the extent that vinegar also acts as a very mild chelator, and thus allowing the soap to lather more easily in hard water, possibly you could see more bubbles.

To really increase bubbles without increasing the bubbly-but-stripping oils (CO, PKO, babassu) in the recipe, you will want to dissolve some form or sugar or starch in your liquid, or use a liquid that already contains sugars.

Examples are plain sugar, sorbitol (my fave), honey, maple syrup, milks, milk powders, rice starch, etc. These all increase lather by increasing the soap's solubility. You can also use dual lye for this purpose. Either way, the numbers in the soap calculator won't change, but the soap will definitely lather more easily and freely.