Why do you like making soap?

[Relle]

@AliOop
Since I can't look it up, then unless @KiwiMoose DMs me the answer, I will have to wait until you tell me what it is. But with those names, I'm just not sure I really want to know.


I have absolutely NO idea. Some things obviously never make it out of Australia - even though we understand most of their slang here in NZ.

Thought you lived in Oz for a while.

 

[Relle]

Since I can't look it up, then unless @KiwiMoose DMs me the answer, I will have to wait until you tell me what it is. But with those names, I'm just not sure I really want to know.

It's nothing nasty, rhyming slang. An easy meal that dh didn't have to cook, but just heat up. Go on look it up.

 

[AliOop]

It's nothing nasty, rhyming slang. An easy meal that dh didn't have to cook, but just heat up. Go on look it up.

Ok, I looked it up and feel sooo much better now!

 

[KiwiMoose]

For a year in the early 80s and another six months in the early 2000s. I never ate anything by that name.

 

[Relle]

For a year in the early 80s and another six months in the early 2000s. I never ate anything by that name.

You might have and not known it, unless you are vegetarian.

 

[Shelley D]

Well.. I mean there are solid and liquid cleansers that contain surfactants + moisturizers that are gentler than real soap on the face for example or very dry skin..The best recipe for me was without coconut oil and very little olive oil, I found that I can't tolerate these oils in soap, they dry me out.Yes, I can tolerate them in small amounts on my body but not my hands or face..


I seem to have fallen into the trap ‍ Does it seem like an incomprehensible sentence? I am writing with Google Translate and maybe this is one of his creations
Rephrased: The great thing about soap making is that you never have a lot of soap left over. It uses up a lot of soap.

Well, for me, I made one batch after another trying to figure out the "perfect" recipe so I actually do have a huge basket full of bars of soap that I have to use up before I make more (or my husband might have a soap induced stroke). And since nobody in my circle of friends and family wants to try soap with no colors or fragrances, I did end up having soap pile up!

I got frustrated with the lack of transparency in regards to ingredients in soaps and detergents here in the US. Some of the undisclosed ingredients caused allergic reactions for me and years ago even caused all my oldest child's cloth diapers to suddenly repel liquids instead of absorbing! The tipping point for me was back when I was on the fence about whether to invest and start making my own soap. A friend told me about a soap that she loves that has cocoa butter in it.... I looked it up and contacted the company for an ingredients list and guess what? It's literally your typical palm/coconut triple milled soap. I contacted the soap company to ask about it and got a dumbfounded response of, "sodium cocoate isn't cocoa butter?" No, it's coconut oil. Yet, 3 years later the company still proclaims cocoa butter as a star ingredient on their website. By making my own soap, I control the ingredients and percentages to get the characteristics I personally value in a well made bar of soap and all of the natural skin-loving glycerin is retained. If I happen to get creative and make a beautiful soap in the process, yay! I value performance over beauty and so do my testers and customers.

That right there!

Keep us posted on the lotion bars.

For soap, I use shea butter, palm oil, coconut oil, rice bran oil, avocado oil, and castor oil. Wanted to get it under 6 ingredients but no dice. My superfat is 3%.

That's interesting about 6 ingredients being your "ideal" combination because I once thought about doing a 10/10 soap (10 ingredients/10% each ingredient), you know, out of curiosity. I tried to keep a balance of hard & soft oils & butters ~ it was ok, but not spectacular. And I already knew the Holy Trinity soap wasn't a good recipe for me either. So I've been experimenting and it looks like 5 or 6 ingredients will be the sweet spot!
Funny how things work out

 

[bookworm42]

No to worry, many of us here have freely shared our recipes, and are happy to do so. My personal favorite is some variation of the following:

60% lard
20% coconut oil
15% liquid oil of choice (olive, avocado, sweet almond, HO sunflower, HO safflower, HO canola, rice bran)
5% castor oil

40% lye concentration
2% superfat
sorbitol and sodium citrate added at 1% of oil weight

If you don't use animal fats, instead of lard, you could use shea butter, or a mix of shea butter and soy wax or palm oil.

I'm mostly just replying to this so I can find it easier when I get my hand on some lard. It looks like a great recipe to try.

 

[AliOop]

I'm mostly just replying to this so I can find it easier when I get my hand on some lard. It looks like a great recipe to try.

You can read post #13 in this thread for how I get "free" lard from my pork roasts.

 

[bookworm42]

You can read post #13 in this thread for how I get "free" lard from my pork roasts.

Do you cook you roasts plain or with stuff? Cause when we cook roasts like that it's either with ingredients (spices, onions, salsa, etc depends on the recipe) or my husband likes to either cure them and turning it into bacon or smoke it for pulled pork.

 

[AliOop]

Do you cook you roasts plain or with stuff? Cause when we cook roasts like that it's either with ingredients (spices, onions, salsa, etc depends on the recipe) or my husband likes to either cure them and turning it into bacon or smoke it for pulled pork.

I like to do add Hawaiian Red Alaea salt to my pork roasts, along with some smoke flavor and garlic. By keeping it simple, that lets me do different flavorings for different dishes when I pull a serving out of the freezer: carnitas, enchiladas, pulled pork with gravy and mashed potatoes, etc. It also means that the rendered fat isn't as hard to clean. I learned the hard way that some spices like chili and cumin always leave a scent in the lard, so I wait to add those later.

 

[bookworm42]

Lol! So apparently you can bookmark specific posts! Had no idea you could do that! Much better way to save recipes and info.
Found out by accident when wrangling my toddler while reading the threads.

 

[Pastel]

No to worry, many of us here have freely shared our recipes, and are happy to do so. My personal favorite is some variation of the following:

60% lard
20% coconut oil
15% liquid oil of choice (olive, avocado, sweet almond, HO sunflower, HO safflower, HO canola, rice bran)
5% castor oil

40% lye concentration
2% superfat
sorbitol and sodium citrate added at 1% of oil weight

If you don't use animal fats, instead of lard, you could use shea butter, or a mix of shea butter and soy wax or palm oil.

Thank you so much
you are one of the people who convinced me the most about animal fat for soap, I never thought about it, I have 1000 grams of fat , I will try to divide it into very small batches of 250 grams per batch, so I can try all the ideas

 

[Pastel]

Well, for me, I made one batch after another trying to figure out the "perfect" recipe so I actually do have a huge basket full of bars of soap that I have to use up before I make more (or my husband might have a soap induced stroke). And since nobody in my circle of friends and family wants to try soap with no colors or fragrances, I did end up having soap pile up!

The truth is that I don't like unscented soap either, but I convince my family of its benefits

 

[Pastel]

Well, for me, I made one batch after another trying to figure out the "perfect" recipe so I actually do have a huge basket full of bars of soap that I have to use up before I make more (or my husband might have a soap induced stroke). And since nobody in my circle of friends and family wants to try soap with no colors or fragrances, I did end up having soap pile up!

That's interesting about 6 ingredients being your "ideal" combination because I once thought about doing a 10/10 soap (10 ingredients/10% each ingredient), you know, out of curiosity. I tried to keep a balance of hard & soft oils & butters ~ it was ok, but not spectacular. And I already knew the Holy Trinity soap wasn't a good recipe for me either. So I've been experimenting and it looks like 5 or 6 ingredients will be the sweet spot!
Funny how things work out

That's right, we don't have palm oil readily available but I ordered it to try and made the standard recipe. I didn't like it, it's too drying, although the bubbles are great. I find that the recipes I like have at least 5 oils in them.

 

[Pastel]

Lol! So apparently you can bookmark specific posts! Had no idea you could do that! Much better way to save recipes and info.
Found out by accident when wrangling my toddler while reading the threads.

Please tell me how

 

[Servant4Christ]

Please tell me how

If you look at the top of each post, you'll see the date and time on the left side. On the right, you'll see the triangle type icon that allows you to share a link to this post. Next to that, you'll see a vertical rectangle type icon that means bookmark. If you click that icon, a box will appear that allows you to name the bookmark for easy reference or leave 'as is' and hit save. Later, you can go to your profile and view all of your bookmarked posts in one spot. Hope this helps.

 

[Pastel]

If you look at the top of each post, you'll see the date and time on the left side. On the right, you'll see the triangle type icon that allows you to share a link to this post. Next to that, you'll see a vertical rectangle type icon that means bookmark. If you click that icon, a box will appear that allows you to name the bookmark for easy reference or leave 'as is' and hit save. Later, you can go to your profile and view all of your bookmarked posts in one spot. Hope this helps.

Thank you

 

[bookworm42]

If you look at the top of each post, you'll see the date and time on the left side. On the right, you'll see the triangle type icon that allows you to share a link to this post. Next to that, you'll see a vertical rectangle type icon that means bookmark. If you click that icon, a box will appear that allows you to name the bookmark for easy reference or leave 'as is' and hit save. Later, you can go to your profile and view all of your bookmarked posts in one spot. Hope this helps.

Pics for those who need them.

 

[melinda48]

I was totally in it for skin issues ~ and I learned a LOT about how to actually formulate a gentle cleansing bar ~ because it wasn't exactly what I thought it was supposed to be!
Now I'm busy using up all my not quite perfect soaps and will soon be making more

I had been making soap for “fun” for some time and then our son asked if I would want to do so to supply their business (they own the largest lavender farm in Missouri). I said “sure” thinking they would be selling a couple of dozen bars a week. Sold over 7000 bars last year! I love the process itself. I love making soap that people love to use. I especially love the feel of my soap on my body. I love learning how to make my soaps better - always learning and loving it. I also turn out body butter, salves, balms - I thought I was retired - now I am putting in as many hours as when I was working full time and loving it!

 

[Shelley D]

Lol! So apparently you can bookmark specific posts! Had no idea you could do that! Much better way to save recipes and info.
Found out by accident when wrangling my toddler while reading the threads.

I got excited when I first figured it out too! I did a bunch of searches to find those posts and tagged them!