michelleB

Yep, I've had to test this out growing up, so I can vouch for the lady. Lye soap (meaning 0% superfat or even lye-heavy by 1-2%) can offer some relief from poison ivy if lathered up REAL GOOD and left on to dry. It's quite possibly the nastiest, slimiest, most gross feeling in the world, to have this greasy "gook" layered over top of itchy blisters that already feel bigger than they look, but it does seem to help dry it up. I'm assuming that it's 'eating' away at it by drying up the oils, but that's just my perception. I'm highly allergic to poison ivy and poison oak, so I find myself testing this theory at least once every year. It's never failed me yet and now I pass it on to my daughter who's also highly allergic. Calamine lotion does nothing for either of us except 'stir up' the itchies by rubbing it on. So it's lye soap and nothing else for us. My step-mother uses it on her psoriasis and swears it gives her relief for that as well. Results will vary depending on the soap recipe and the individual. OH...and using it anywhere else on the body will cause noticeable dryness of skin almost immediately! (learned that the hard way) So whatever ya do, don't get em mixed up in the shower, lol. Karen B, that's incredible that someone makes her own lye! How fascinating! I'd read up on the process of doing that some time back and there's a LOT to it! Bravo for her!

Holy CANNOLI hibiscus...you made a 200% GM soap then! (the canned gm from wally-world is evap/concentrated) Wooohoooooo! That must've absolutely ROCKED! Ida...yes you're right. Once you've reconstituted it with equal water, it's officially 100% goat milk for your ingredient list. As for the benefits, one is that the goat milk has a ph level that closely resembles that of our own skin, making it gentle enough for those with skin "issues". Plus the creamy feel it lends to the lather, and the way your skin feels afterwards...ah, heavenly. It's no miracle bar, but it's definitely good for your skin. Course, the entire soap recipe affects whether or not you get the full benefits from the goat milk. I mean, a harshly cleansing soap made with 100% gm will STILL be harsh, just slightly less so. What worked for me was to play around with recipes til I got a super gentle/bubbly soap withOUT gm first, and then I turned it into a gm recipe later to make it even milder. Honey is a terrific addition to soaps because it's a lather-booster like all get out! Just keep your eyes peeled though because it can cause overheating, especially with a milk-soap that's already prone to that same problem. I don't know of a specific site that lists the benefits of each additive, but hopefully somebody else here can help with that. I'd love to know that too! Happy soaping!!

I make my goat milk omh soap by adding the milk, honey and oatmeal all at trace. Using canned goat milk, you have to add equal parts water to 'reconstitute it' so I use that water to mix my lye with. For example, if my recipe called for 8 oz fluid, that would mean 4oz canned goat milk & 4oz water, right? So I'd mix my lye with the 4oz water, then wait til trace to add my 4oz canned goat milk. Everybody's got their own way of doing things & you'll figure out what works best for you in no time. Me, I like doing it this way most. I've also done it the way Carrie mentioned, adding the lye directly to frozen goat milk cubes. That DOES work. I just don't do it because I always soap on the fly and don't have enough goat milk frozen when I need it. Whatever is easier for you, go for it! Glad you didn't let the first go-round scare you off! Go have some FUN! OH....and about the FO, I don't use one for this type of soap because I just LOVE that bit-o-honey smell that comes through on its own. Yummy! Maybe try a batch with no fo and see how you like it?

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey...hands down winner here. Runner up would have to be Carrot & Honey. angiestaff, that's very interesting about the calamine powder helping with your dd's problem skin. I'll have to give that a go and see if it helps my son. He's 16 and having skin 'issues' too. Thanks for sharing that!

Awesome soaps! That chocolate top-swirly one looks good enough to eat! YUM!

Thank you for this post. I needed this to motivate me to tighten up my own safety procedures a notch or two. I used to wear my goggles and gloves all of the time, no exceptions. Then one day I couldn't find my goggles (I'd cleaned my soaping area & moved them). Well I HAD to make a batch of soap and couldn't spend all day looking around for my goggles. So I did it. Nothing happened. I actually found that it was a huge relief to not have the band going around my head. Didn't get a headache from the tight strap. So next day I soaped even more...no goggles. And so on. I found my misplaced goggles after only 2 days of soaping without them, but still haven't worn them since because I've enjoyed the freedom from the nuisance of it. But it's NOT WORTH THE DAMAGE THAT CAN BE DONE and I thank you so much for reminding me of that. Back on my head they're going, from now on! I hope your eyes are feeling much better and that there's no lasting damage. ((((HUGS))))

Wow, that SO makes me wanna try out my pringles cans! Hubby just brought a whole friggin CASE of pringles home 2 days ago because 'they were on sale'. And they say women are bad about sales! HAH! Anyways, now I've got plenty of soapin molds. If mine turn out anything at all like yours, I'll be one happy camper. And that crinkle cut is a fabulous touch!

BulkOils has a good one too. Haven't cp'd it, but it does well in lotions and bath melts...and the throw is great in soy wax. Hth

Yep, I've seen the Palmer's version too, but it's more like what AJ and mbrown were talking about (not 100% cocoa butter) and it probably is nowhere near as brittle. The actual 100% cocoa butter sticks come in two different brand names around here and both are sold for $1.00 each stick. Both are hard as rocks (but melt on contact). Here's a pic that might help some of you spot them in a store near you: [ATTACH]8154[/ATTACH] Hope this helps!

My first thought (which isn't always the best, lol) is...why would she want you to re-invent the wheel so to speak? What I mean by that is, the 100% cocoa butter sticks are sold hand-over-fist at the dollar stores for $1 per tube and they're exactly as she described. I would think that making them yourself on a small scale would mean you'd have to charge more than the dollar store in order to make it worth your while, right? It's a fantastic product and there are lots of people that swear by them, but it might be a little hard to sell if there's no difference in quality (cuz you can't really get any better than 100%), yet a difference in price. Kwim? Not trying to discourage you at all, so don't let me, lol. Just sorta thinking out loud. If it were me, I'd steer her towards the sticks at the dollar store. THEN I'd make up a BETTER cocoa butter stick like AJ suggested (mixed with other oils & such) and say "If you liked that, you're gonna LOVE this!" and let her feel the difference for herself. The 100% cocoa butter sticks are hard and somewhat crumbly, yet people put up with that in order to get that terrific moisturizing effect. If you harness that quality of cocoa butter, but blend it with other oils to improve the glide and intensify the moisturizing, you will have given her the best of both worlds. Just my two cents (& sorry for rambling). Good luck either way that you decide to go!

Wonderful array of colors and scents! I love how shiny and smooth they turned out too!

Holy Cow Patties those are Amazing! That Vanilla Spice bar is truly an inspiration...and just HOW you came up with the fortitude to do THAT at 1 am is incredible! I couldn't manage that with a week of restful sleep and then a pot of coffee under my belt, LOL! Fantastic job!

Now let me start by saying that I'm FAR from a highly organized person LOLOL...but here's how I do it & it works for me. I only keep 3 types of wicks, so it might not be such a hot idea if you've got ga-zillions of diff styles. Anyways, I use the plastic flip-lid storage boxes from wal-mart. The ones you can see through. When my wicks arrive, they're in plastic bags with the ID label sticker on the outside of the bag. I simply remove it & stick it on the outside of the plastic box. This way I can find em at a glance and I can see when I'm running low. Hth! I'll be watchin this to see how everybody else does it!

Hello, I'm just curious (this doesn't have to be scientific)...how many soaps/bars per day can most of you produce on a regular daily basis? I mean, of those who have a steady business selling soaps, whether wholesale or retail, what's your max capacity as far as what you're able to turn-out in a day's time? I haven't really pushed myself to the limits yet to see how much I can squeeze in if working 'round the clock for a full day, but I'd guess 50-75 bars per day would be the most I could do because of my limited number of molds to use & the sizes that they are. What about you?

Beautiful! I would have LOVED to have had something that lovely at my wedding! They should be thrilled!

I am sooooooooo craving strawberry jello salad right now after seeing that bubblegum soap! They ALL look delicious! Er, I mean Pretty!

Hmmm....makes me wonder if maybe I passed on a good deal or not with my own HomeOwner's insurance. Last fall, they'd quoted me $500,000 worth of coverage for an additional $48 per year, and I immediately thought "Nah, they don't understand what I'm needing" because the figure was so low, so I went elsewhere. Now I'm thinking I'll give em a call back and go over the papers a little more closely. Could be that their coverage IS enough. Wouldn't that be great?! Then again...(and here's where I'll be looking at the details closely) they COULD be thinking I meant only to increase insurance on my HOUSE by 500,000. I dunno, but I can't help but be skeptical when I see such low numbers like that. I'll call em Monday and rehash it to see what I can find out. Thanks for bringing up this thread!

Those are stunning! How did you do that with the soaps? That's so cool!

The only Cherry Almond I've ever tried is from Wellington....safe for soap & candles both if you get the manufacturer's grade or premium grade. I had the premium and it ROCKED in CP soap & soy candles! Love love love it! Smells like Jergen's lotion. My most popular scent by far! That reminds me that I've gotta re-order asap! sorry, can't be of much help on the other two fo's.

Well, ok I'll take a stab at this before everyone gets riled. :-) First and foremost...Research. Research EVERYTHING...waxes, wicks, fo's, jars, labels, insurance (very important!), and the laws of your state pertaining to business. That sounds like a lot and it IS, but it's a must before ever opening up shop and selling something to the public. Too many risks to name if you were to go about it otherwise. When you *think* you're finished researching, research some more. Seriously. I'm not being a smart-a. There's a whole lot more to selling candles than just mixing up a little wax, color & fo and pouring it in a jar. Safety is crucial! :-) After the researching stage, you must TEST. Test for burn times, scent throws, melt pools, ... everything. Take notes of every test candle you burn and learn from your mistakes. There WILL be mistakes, which is what makes testing so important. You want the mistakes to happen BEFORE you sell to someone who could wind up injured and sue you. This forum is a wealth of information for you to use in your research, should you choose to do so. Use the search button at the top and type in almost anything and you'll more than likely find what you're looking for. Everyone here who sells candles has spent a LOT of time researching and testing. There's no shortcut around it, so there's no answer that will speed things along for you in that respect. Please do NOT jump in and sell an unsafe candle that hasn't been thoroughly tested. There are people that do that, and when accidents happen due to their inexperience, it makes ALL homemade candles appear unsafe and ALL chandlers appear inexperienced. I hope this gives you enough information to get started with your research. Enjoy!

Wow! Those sure look wonderful! Nice even distribution of the ground apricot seeds too!

Yep, I sorta realized that as I was typing, lol. I'd just read my KB email, so tried updating the thread as I went. Plus I've got a bad habit of thinking out loud, meaning I'm HARD to follow sometimes, lol. Sorry for the confusion. I'm gonna keep playing with this stuff and see what I can come up with, but I think that once it's gone...well, I probably won't fool with it again. I was hoping for something that was 'quick & easy' (aren't we all!) and yet using this is every bit as complex as my own lotion recipe. Hmmm. And with my 'regular' recipe, I've got a relatively short & easy to understand ingredient list, which I like. I'd hoped maybe I'd be able to completely convert over to bases so I could spend less time making lotion, now that I started a new semester at school. But not at the expense of how it makes your skin feel! <sigh> Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Thanks Meredith Yes that's what I'm trying to do, make sure I don't compromise the preservative. I actually did contact KB already...just not specifically about adding oils/butters to the base. I asked them what the current % of goat milk was and if I could add more goat milk without causing preservation issues. Their response was that I could add more if I want, but for me to "add the appropriate amount of preservative to compensate for the added goat milk to it". So following that line of thinking, it stands to reason that I'd also have to add extra preservative for any oils/butters I mix in with it. I'm perfectly ok with doing that & for safety's sake that's what I'm going to do. I was just hoping that somebody who already uses this base (or a similar one) & adds ingreds to it, could point me in the right direction for tweaking this into something nice & creamy. Now that I've gotten some info on preservation, all I'm really wanting to know is what a good % is (a starting point) for adding extra oils and butters, to create a skin-softening lotion that lasts longer than a few minutes. Or should I have gotten a different type of lotion base altogether? Mostly I'm wanting to add either Avocado, Jojoba or both...and possibly either Shea or Cocoa butter. Ya know, it just hit me...what's the point of using a base? I mean, you can't just add water & use it, unless you're not picky about it working good. So you're still having to calculate an entire lotion recipe, right? Sheesh. I shoulda just bought more lotion oils.

I just got a pound of the goat milk lotion base and I've been playing around with it to see if I can get the right "feel". Just mixing it up straight (adding nothing but water) doesn't seem to create a lasting effect. Sinks in immediately and after 1-2 more minutes...you'd never know you'd even put it on (and you could use some more). Soooo...I'd like to add to it but there's no examples/recipes for the lotion bases on KB's site. I've searched through the forum and couldn't come up with any clear guidelines. For any of you who use bases, especially this one, would you mind sharing with me a good percentage of additives and how that affected your preservation? For example, I currently like the 1:3 ratio of base to water. If I were to add...say .15 oz of oil/butter per 4 oz of base, would that be too much? Too little? Gosh I thought using a base would make it EASIER! LOL. I could've done whipped up 5-6 batches of my usual lotion in all the time I've spent trying to figure out how to mix this stuff up.

THAT looks FAB-U-LOUS!! Love it!