michelleB

Ok yesterday morning I got an order from an address in Japan. At first I was skeptical (naturally) but the paypal payment was processed ok & it's a small order (around $20). No sweat, right? But I just got ANOTHER one from the same town or whatever in Japan. Different person & slightly different address, but same general area. What's up with that? Again they paid by paypal and again it's a relatively small order (this one's $30) but how do I make sure these are legit?? What are the odds of two within a 24 hour period in the same vicinity of Japan?? Is there somewhere online where i can verify some of this information before sending out these orders?

oh crap, we posted at the same time mystical! I'll check out bayousome (funny name!) before I go on through with the order at WSP. I'd like to compare their prices & product reviews if they have em. Thanks both of ya, for the recommendations! :-)

Hey Thanks Candle Man! I agree that their shipping absolutely SUCKS & always has...but did you happen to see what they've got on their website now?? It says "Flat Rate Shipping $6.95" !!! OMG, I'm so excited! Course, it IS for orders of $25 or less, so I'll just order 50 of these for now to try em out & save a little on shipping. Thanks again! Off to place an order! :-)

I just soaped a batch with this fo and I'm confuzzled as to what it smells like, but not Pot (erm, from what I've heard). OOB it smelled like pot, with an undertone of men's cologne (& sorta faint alcohol-y smell). I figured, what the heck, that part will probably fade out/evaporate/burn off, whatever. Well now that I've soaped it, that's the ONLY part you can smell...the men's cologne, and every trace of the pot scent is gone. The soap is only one day old, so it's too soon to tell what'll happen for sure. I'm hoping the scent will return to what it's supposed to be. Anyone soaped this before that can give me an idea of what to expect? Right now the smell is taking over my whole house & it reminds me of sitting in church when I was little, next to ole men who wore too much aftershave. Ick! I was gonna call this "Hillbilly Hemp" soap cuz it's got 15% Hemp butter in it, but I'm thinkin now I'll name it "Southern Baptist Deacon".

Revamping my current packaging & I need help locating soft-touch malibu bottles to put my thick lotions in. Right now I'm using the Grand Ovals from MMS and I LOVE them cuz they're so easy to hold & easy to label...but the lotion is still sorta difficult to get out when you're after the last 1/3 of it cuz the bottom of the tube seems to be a little "stiffer" than the rest. (if that makes any sense?) Where's a good place to find some REALLY SOFT "soft-touch" tottles/bottles that come in 4oz size? Should I just get regular bottles and use a pump top dispenser?? I'd love to move on to the heat-sealed tubes & that would fix the whole problem, but I'm not quite financially ready to take on that expense just yet for a good heat sealer. That's my dream for later this summer/fall, lol. Any tips & info is greatly appreciated! TIA!

You mean ya'll LIKE it??? *faint* Gosh you people sure know how to make somebody feel better!! Or are you just being enablers? lol. You KNOW that I'm just gonna keep making more funky swirls now, right? Thanks a bunch for all the great comments! And my ego thanks you too. :-)

Try this link: http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/soap/product.asp?product_id=fobergcoriander Hope that helps ya! :-)

Here's another first for me...using powdered Buttermilk instead of Goat Milk. I'm very pleased with this one because it actually turned out exactly the way I had it pictured in my head. And it smells sooooo good! No FO added, just the sweet honey scent coming through. Ah, life's good!

Ok, I've already fessed up to this batch not turning out quite "right", and now you'll see what I mean, lol. Too much black oxide, took me too long to get it mixed and swirled, too many distractions while soaping, couldn't pull off a gel, yada yada yada...and here's what ya end up with: Here it is in the mold. Scented Axe Tsunami from Serendipity: [ATTACH]10635[/ATTACH] And here's some cut pics from today Looks like a friggin BAT invasion in my soap, instead of swirls. They're already ashing on top too, but hey, what's one more thing going wrong at this point? lolol. But ya know, all things considered...I had a BLAST! I'm gonna keep playing with these colors until I get em figured out. Many thanks again to everybody who gave me advice & support this first go around! It's hard to tell how bad things would've gotten if I'd been left to my own devices.

Hi Devil Woman! Go right ahead and make this without the silk! I got in the habit of adding silk fibers to my recipes a while back, but it's not necessary. It's just a personal preference for me. What really makes a soap is the combination of oils/butters and achieving the right balance of cleansing vs. conditioning. All the rest is just icing on the cake so to speak. Without the silk you'll still get pretty much the same effect, so go for it! :-)

Ok I did it. It's far from fantastic, but I did it. How the heck do you gals have the patience for this? lol Anyways, I had an unexpected "glitch" that caused me some aggravation. I was mixing the colors a little too slowly I guess and the main pot of soap behind me was turning to a solid form. I noticed it, but not as quick as I wish I would've. As for my colors, I changed my mind and decided to go with Black, and Gray on an uncolored base. Well, you obviously don't need much black oxide at all (I was warned) and I ended up with black and...black. <sigh>. So I layered my swirl colors and base in my log mold and used a crochet hook to do my zig-zags. Where the soap was so daggone thick at that point though, I had gulleys and ravines where I'd dragged the hook through, LOL. Found me a good solid place to bang the crap outta the mold til it settled, and then covered with a piece of saran wrap so I could watch for gel. Four hours pass and no sign of gel, the mold isn't even getting warm. So into the oven it goes for about another four hours. Still no gel. By now the mold is very very warm & lots of heat coming from the top, so I wrap it in thick towels to help it along...still no gel. Weirdest thing ever. Now it's unmolded and sitting on my kitchen table but too soft to cut just yet because of it not gelling. It also looks like it's got semi-translucent white "bubbles" (not like lye pockets) here and there througout the log. Evidently I didn't get all the air pockets out. <another sigh> OH and don't let me neglect to tell you that the phone rang just as I turned around and noticed the solid soap in the pot. I had to wrestle with that, then do the layering, mold-banging, etc...ONE-HANDED from there on. I tell ya, this was one unforgettable experience!! Can't wait to do it again! LOLOL I'm gonna do some sort of purple soap this evening. Maybe a lilac blossom? I'll post pics of this black/black & white Tsunami (and boy does it look like one!) as soon as I can cut into it. Prolly another day or two. Thanks to everybody that helped me along with this!

nothing really didn't work...that I noticed anyways. I just read on their site where .php extensions was listed under Linux (for Windows, they listed .asp) and my website is built in php. I was afraid there would be problems with the contact forms and/or pages or whatever, down the road somehow. So I just had them switch me over to be safe. It may be that the Windows would have been perfectly fine, I just didn't want to take a chance. Plus other website owners I knew had recommended that I switch to the Linux version because of the stability & reliability of it. Sorry I can't tell you more about it, but that's about the extent of my knowledge on those two, lol. Good luck with it, whichever way you decide to go! :-)

I'm hosted with them and I ran into this same quandry when I first signed up. I picked Windows at first (not knowing it wasn't referring to my OS "Windows XP" duh!). When I figured it out a few days later, I emailed them asking to be switched over to Linux and it was done within an hour. No problemo! So I'd say just pick whichever one you want and if it doesn't work, do like bravo suggested & like I did, and just let them know you need to be switched.

Thanks Diamond! That's what I was looking for - a guideline of some sort that I could follow. :-) And thank you too carebear! I did a search before posting this, but I used all the wrong terms apparently (swirl+oxide+soap or somethin like that) cuz I never stumbled across that thread. That's DA BOMB! Perfect thread for what I'm needing to learn! Thank you thank you! Off to Swirly-Land!! Wooohoooo!

I just got my oxide & um sampler pack from KB and I'm itchin to go soap me somethin SWIRLY!! Only one little problem...I haven't a clue how to incorporate these buggars into my soap (i've played with micas before but been told these are way different). So...can someone please explain to me how I'd go about swirling oxides and UM's into my cp soapies? How much do I use for the average amt of color? I'm gonna do a 20 oz (oils) batch to practice on, and let's see, I wanna use the UM Blue and maybe the Black oxide (depends on how brave I get). Base will be left uncolored. FO will be AXE-Tsunami from Serendipity. I'm assuming from what I've found in my search for info that I should take out 1/4 cup for the blue color, 1/4 cup for the black color (based on the 1/2 cup ppo ratio I read) and I should do this at thin trace. But do I need to do anything special with these powders first? Or will they simply mix right into the removed portions with a little stirring? I also read where someone mixed their oxides and UMs with an oil (avocado I think) and bottled it that way for later use & dispensing. Is that a common practice? It sounds easy enough. ANY help at all is greatly appreciated! I can't wait to try these out!

Hi Carol! Is it diywebkit.NET or diywebkit.COM ?? When I googled it, I came up with diywebkit.NET and that page comes up for me. But the ".COM" one says page not available. I've never heard of them before, but seems like they've had time to get a CD out in the mail to you by now (it's been 25 days!). So at this point, I'd be a little concerned as well. Try out the ".NET" site and see if that's the right people. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but I sure hope it turns out ok for you. :-)

Not sure where to post this, as the Classifieds seemed like they weren't for finished goods...so here goes: I'm looking for information (prices, options, etc) from those of you who do "Remembrance" pillars. I don't know the first thing about them and yet my step-mother has asked me if I knew where to find one. We recently lost my dad & my step-mom's grief counseling group suggested that she get herself a candle to light on special days or when she'd just like to have a little extra "something" to fill the room (I know it sounds lame, but we're grasping at straws here, for dealing with the grief). So I'm wondering if you guys/gals here make these things and if you could please clue me in on them. Step-mom definitely wants one & if they're affordable enough, I might be interested in buying one for myself and my two brothers as well. Please don't post your pricing info here though, cuz I don't think we're allowed and I'd hate to see this post disappear. But feel free to PM me with your prices & web links so I can take a peek! :-) TIA

OMG Carrie those are AWESOME! I'm extremely partial to round soapies for one thing...but that color swirly is DA BOMB! Way ta go girl!

Hi Rachel! Not stupid questions at all. Really good ones actually. :-) I add sugar because I like to think it adds a little "sum-n sum-n" to the lather. I normally go 1 T. per pound of oils, disolved into whatever the fluid is (mixed REAL well) before adding the lye. I add salt because it appears to give me a slightly harder log of soap which allows me to handle the soap earlier for cutting & trimming. Opinions vary on whether the additional hardness is temporary or permanent & I don't know 100% for sure myself...but I can definitely tell a difference in those "whoops!" batches where I forgot to add the salt & had to wait an extra day or two before cutting because the log was too soft. If you think of it in terms of the salt bars & how quickly the higher amt of salt makes those babies get rock-hard, it makes sense that this works at least to a small degree. Best way to see is to try it both ways...with and without the additives. Compare and see if you can tell any measurable difference & if not, you can save yourself the trouble of adding that step into your soapmaking process. Either way, you'll have fun making soap! :-)

Oh those are so cool! I love hurricanes! I'm way too chicken to try that just yet, but maybe someday... Way to go!

I know you've already got your answer, but I just wanted to cheer you on for making a salt bar! You're gonna love it, even if you don't like it. If that makes sense, lol. It's a HUGE sense of accomplishment once you're done, no matter how it turns out, even if you find that it's not something you want to use on your skin. You'll learn a lot about soaping & your endurance while making a salt bar, but it's loads of fun! Enjoy & keep us updated on how it goes (with pics if possible, we love pics!)

Yep, I'll be eye-balling the results from the Crisco change cuz I just love using that in soaps! (and sometimes even in my deep fryer for FOOD! lol) I'm thinking somebody posted that Columbus Foods' veggie shortening is, and I guess still gonna be in the future, 100% hydrog soybean?? I dunno, I can't find that post. Hopefully I'm remembering correctly though. Jennie...please please please post your results if you use Kokum with this recipe. I'd just love to know about the differences that makes because that's one of the butters I didn't ever get around to trying out with this...yet. :-)

I came up with this recipe last spring to use for a presentation in my college marketing class & it was a HUGE hit! So I made up tons more to give out through the holidays to friends & family. ANOTHER huge hit! (and they're so picky, it's infuriating!) Everybody loved this soap. Since I've always gotten such helpful tips & stuff from the peeps here, I figured I'd better do some giving back, starting with this recipe. :-) It's really easy to make & gives lots of creamy suds! I just hope you enjoy it. Here ya go: Shortening & Shea Sudsy Soap by MichelleB Vegetable Shortening = 40% Coconut Oil = 16% PKO Flakes = 15% Castor Oil = 12% Rice Bran Oil = 10% Shea Butter = 7% (or sub with Mango butter, it's delish!) Additives I used for 2 lb batch: "Q" of Silk Fibers (I call it a "Q", it's a Q-tip amount) 2 T. Sugar (dissolved in the milk prior to mixing w/Lye) 1 tsp. Salt (dissolved in the milk prior to mixing w/Lye) Subs: If you don't have RBO, you could sub some Olive oil or omit it altogether and increase your other ingredients (maybe split the increase between the shea and pko). Just be sure you double-check your amounts through a good lye calculator. Superfat: I did a 4.5% superfat on this recipe because I used full Goat Milk as the flluid and didn't want the extra fat from the milk to interfere with my suds negatively. This way, I got a really creamy lather with a lot of bigger bubbles too, instead of just the creamy by itself. Hope that makes sense! If you decide to try this, I'd love to hear what you think!

I make a laundry bar/stain stick soap out of almost all coconut oil (and a small percentage of stearic). This gives me the high cleansing numbers, rock-hardness & bubbles that I like for working out the tough laundry "issues". Works great! I keep some of it pre-grated up in a ziploc for adding to the wash, and the bars are used for rubbing directly onto the stains. As for putting these in push-up tubes...I haven't done it, but my thoughts are that there wouldn't be enough soap inside of the tube (volume/density wise) to generate enough heat to be a problem. To be safe, I'd take extra precautions to avoid gel, like maybe sitting them in the basement or even the fridge. Like I said, I haven't tried that (yet) but that's my two cents on how it might go. If you try it, please keep us posted on the results! :-)

OMG you peeps are too much! LMAO! I decided to go with a "sherbet-y" orange color that's similar to the coloring that Clinique uses on the packaging. Not too bad actually, although I'm not much of an "orange" person. Normally it's not this big of a deal, but I'm making this candle in this scent to be part of a gift basket for a special friend who really needs a pick-me-up right now (lots of terrible med. problems) & I want it to be super-duper nice. Actually, by going with an orange-y color, it ties in with my fall "props" and basket trimmings extremely well! Once I get the basket finished, I'll snap a pic to show ya what I'm talking/rambling about. Thanks everybody! And Top, I guess I should ask...does the color orange bring back any traumatic memories, or is it ok??? LOLOL