Years ago I quit making soap

[2lilboots]

That's right. I moved and got rid of all my soap stuff. Well last month on my yt feed I saw the first soap making video that I had watched years ago. The lady doesn't make videos anymore. Well now I am back at it. I realized how much I loved making soap.

 

[Misschief]

Welcome back to the obsession!

 

[SSC Oregon]

Beautiful! I love those!

 

[AliOop]

Beautiful! Welcome back

 

[dmcgee5034]

Hi and welcome (back)

 

[CloudShave1487]

That's right. I moved and got rid of all my soap stuff. Well last month on my yt feed I saw the first soap making video that I had watched years ago. The lady doesn't make videos anymore. Well now I am back at it. I realized how much I loved making soap.View attachment 73338

Looks amazing =) My soaps are just bars, so much respect for this piece of art.

 

[BWt]

Wow. Love your soaps. They’re amazing. Glad you found your way back.

 

[Savage Daughter]

That's right. I moved and got rid of all my soap stuff. Well last month on my yt feed I saw the first soap making video that I had watched years ago. The lady doesn't make videos anymore. Well now I am back at it. I realized how much I loved making soap.View attachment 73338

Yet another skill I need to work on....those are beautiful

Do you have any advice as far as piping goes? Because clearly it's something you have going on. I don't know why, but this intimidates me more than pull-throughs first did Although when I think about it logically, I suppose it shouldn't.... I have researched quite a bit but still not feeling comfortable with this.

• Using soap which is quite thick for this kind of thing is a good thing as far as I understand it....but too thick? This is what concerns me before I even get started.
• Could I just use my usual soap formulation & simply blend to a much thicker trace than I normally do, then get into the piping bag ASAP & go to town? If so, it suddenly seems less intimidating I see so many people insisting a special recipe is needed for piping.
• Which tips are your favourite for making flowers? What about other shapes?
• How different is it from making flowers etc from icing, vs flowers etc from soap? If you happen to know this....

I also would want to use a piping bag/s which are reusable & would hold up for a while. No disposables. Not ever having been into decorating cakes & such, this is something completely outside of my realm of creativity & comfort zone at the moment.

I know for sure that one of my customers who sells my soaps in her store would stop whining - lord I would hope so - if I came & dropped off soaps with embellishments such as this. If not....time to do the deed again

 

[MelissaG]

Welcome back!

 

[2lilboots]

@QuasiQuadrant I use a basic soap batch of OO, CO, PO, and Castor Oil. Blend and stir until emulsion. Add FO, separate into containers and stir in colorants. Then it becomes either a waiting game or a quick OMG I have to pipe right now, depending on the FO. Usually I keep stirring the batter until I can plop it from my spatula and it holds a peak. I try not to put too much soap in my bags as it can warm up with handling and gets liquidized again. Air bubbles in the bag can mess up the piping so you have to be careful with that. Soap is not as forgiving as icing. I plan on purchasing reusable bags once I use all the single use ones that I have. I like using the larger stainless steel cupcake piping tips. Petal tips are great for roses, small petal flowers, and peonies. Leaf tips for leaves. I recently purchased a tip for making chrysanthemums. It is time consuming, but the results are cool.

The roses in the picture were piped too soon and flattened out. I didn't have a proper piping nail at that time either so they were tricky to do. I cut freezer paper or parchment paper to fit on the piping nail and use a touch of soap to hold it on. You have to be careful removing the flower as it can get messed up.

 

[2lilboots]

And, half my lye liquid is goats milk that I stick blend with my oils.

 

[Savage Daughter]

@QuasiQuadrant I use a basic soap batch of OO, CO, PO, and Castor Oil. Blend and stir until emulsion. Add FO, separate into containers and stir in colorants. Then it becomes either a waiting game or a quick OMG I have to pipe right now, depending on the FO. Usually I keep stirring the batter until I can plop it from my spatula and it holds a peak. I try not to put too much soap in my bags as it can warm up with handling and gets liquidized again. Air bubbles in the bag can mess up the piping so you have to be careful with that. Soap is not as forgiving as icing. I plan on purchasing reusable bags once I use all the single use ones that I have. I like using the larger stainless steel cupcake piping tips. Petal tips are great for roses, small petal flowers, and peonies. Leaf tips for leaves. I recently purchased a tip for making chrysanthemums. It is time consuming, but the results are cool.

The roses in the picture were piped too soon and flattened out. I didn't have a proper piping nail at that time either so they were tricky to do. I cut freezer paper or parchment paper to fit on the piping nail and use a touch of soap to hold it on. You have to be careful removing the flower as it can get messed up.

Awesome, thank you so much for the information! Hugely helpful getting someone else's take on stuff like this

Knowing it can morph to a liquid state again in the piping bag is a VERY good thing to know. I have never heard anyone else mention this when talking about piping. I will definitely be starting small.

How large of a batch do you make - at the maximum - when doing piping? At what size of a batch do you find things become problematic?

Thank you again

 

[2lilboots]

@QuasiQuadrant I make a 35 oz oil batch (not including lye solution). When I do a 70 oz oil batch I tend to run into issues. Now if I am just using one color and piping cupcake soaps the larger batch isn't a problem. But if I am doing flowers it takes longer so I half my batch.

 

[Savage Daughter]

@QuasiQuadrant I make a 35 oz oil batch (not including lye solution). When I do a 70 oz oil batch I tend to run into issues. Now if I am just using one color and piping cupcake soaps the larger batch isn't a problem. But if I am doing flowers it takes longer so I half my batch.

Good to know, thank you. 35oz is approximately 1kg, which is still a fair amount of soap to be piping!

Yeah, gotta get me a decent piping set which is 100% reusable.

Thanks again

 

[dmcgee5034]

@QuasiQuadrant - the times I’ve done frosting, I did just what mentioned - used my usual batch at a thicker trace and piped it. I’ve only tried it twice, but it worked fine for me.

 

[Savage Daughter]

@QuasiQuadrant - the times I’ve done frosting, I did just what mentioned - used my usual batch at a thicker trace and piped it. I’ve only tried it twice, but it worked fine for me.

Awesome, thank you for adding your own experience. I'm glad to know that this is not something which requires complications to make it work

 

[2lilboots]

@QuasiQuadrant I have my eye on Russian piping tips. I want to try piping several colors at one time by layering the soap on plastic wrap and putting it in the piping bag. I also want to make roses where the tips of the rose petal are a different color than the bottom of the petal. I just need a day that I can focus on just piping soap.

 

[Savage Daughter]

@QuasiQuadrant I have my eye on Russian piping tips. I want to try piping several colors at one time by layering the soap on plastic wrap and putting it in the piping bag. I also want to make roses where the tips of the rose petal are a different color than the bottom of the petal. I just need a day that I can focus on just piping soap.

I am definitely open to playing with this. Russian piping tips are something I have looked at, but I should probably start at the beginning, with much simpler tips. I've heard some people say they hate those piping tips, and others say they love them. I will find out which camp I'm in once I give this a shot

 

[mutinyintl]

I've never done ANY piping...so are they just normal frosting piping tips? Where do I get such things? It's something I've considered doing.

 

[2lilboots]

Make sure you get stainless steel piping tips. I think you could get plastic ones as well. Walmart, Amazon, and even dollar general sell them.