michelleB

Oh that's COOL! I'm gonna head over there and order me one (or two, or three, lol)! Thanks for sharing this info!

How long did it take to get it after you ordered it? I've got a show on Sept 30th. Just wondering if I'd have time to get one by then.

Beautiful! I'm loving them ALL but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be that Falling in Love one. What a softly feminine shade of purple! and the wispy swirl is terrific! Wish i could swirl like that!

MMS has some here at the bottom of the page:

http://www.thesage.com/catalog/Accessories.html

Hope that helps ya!

Quick...where's the vanilla ice cream or cool whip??? I need a BIG scoop and a slice of that first soap you've got there! Aw geez...there goes my diet today. Off to the kitchen to look for some kind of CAKE now, thanks a lot.

rofl

Oooh good job! I love that scent from snowtop! It's one of my favs, but I always have to fight with it to make it to the mold in time, lol. Wonderful white base color too! Do you use TD or is that just from your recipe? Mine are always beige-ish.

Ooooh, round would be awesome! I just started playing with these too, but I made mine just like my soap bars. Only thing is...now you can't tell em apart in the shower! LOL. So yep, a different size/shape is a great idea! (although technically they could be used for everything like a reg soap, so I guess it doesn't matter too much).

Hi,

Just wondering if somebody can clarify for me...isn't it illegal to charge a customer for anything to do with accepting a credit card as payment? Has that changed? Or did I just misunderstand that in the first place? There's a supply website (very popular to us here) that includes this very small print as you get close to the end of checking out:

"...Your quote below includes the UPS fuel surcharge, credit card processing fees, packing supply fees and a small .50 cent per box handling fee. By finalizing your order, you agree to the above additional shipping charges. "

This text is obviously on the page where you select your shipping method from the options given (hence the UPS reference). Can they however, bundle back in a "credit card processing fee" as part of their shipping charges or whatever for your order? I mean, does that make sense to anyone? Maybe I'm just seeing it all wrong. I dunno. Any input is welcomed. :-)

OMG I love em ALL!! Those look great!

Thanks Carol! That's the little 'push' I needed to give it a whirl. Assuming I don't overheat the whole batch (been dealing with soap morons a lot lately), or that I don't leave any oils out while making it....I should be able to test it out in just a couple of weeks to see how it does.

Are SILK fibers an ok addition? I always add them to my regular bars, so...how bout for the hair? Anybody use them?

Let the experiments begin!! lol

I've never really gotten on the Shampoo Bar bandwagon, but I can't tell you how many requests I've gotten lately to come up with one. So I've been playing around on SoapCalc and this recipe gives me the numbers I'm shooting for, BUT how do the actual oils & butters look for a Shampoo Bar? I mean, is there any reason why I shouldn't have any of these in here? Or other oils/butters that are better suited for the hair? I have a little Canola, Avocado and Jojoba on hand, but other than that...I've only got what's in the recipe below. Any advice is welcomed, as I hope to have these ready to roll in time to surprise my friends for Christmas.

This is what I've came up with so far (working in grams here):

For a 22 oz test batch:

84 g Castor Oil = 13.46%

104 g Coconut Oil = 16.67% (*Using SAP of Cherry Kernel oil)

178 g Crisco Shortening = 28.5%

28 g Olive Oil = 4.49%

56 g Shea Butter = 8.98%

4 g Stearic = .64%

46 g Cocoa Butter = 7.38%

124 g Lard = 19.88%

200 g Fluid (thinking Aloe juice?) = 32% of oils

80 g Lye = 5.41% SF

The numbers I get for the properties are as follows:

Hardness - 39

Cleansing - 11

Conditioning - 57

Bubbly - 23

Creamy - 40

Iodine - 63

INS - 144

Does this look like a GREAT shampoo bar, or a DUD? I really don't want to disappoint my friends by stripping their hair down to the texture of sun-dried hay. Although they ARE used to me doing that (home perms, ugh!).

Wow, I'm really diggin that! I love the colors, the swirl is awesome (even if it's not what you wanted) and that FO...YUM! I'd just wanna eat em all!

Well... maybe I'd drizzle some hot caramel on top first. And a spoonful of vanilla ice cream! And some pecans! Dang! Now I gotta go raid the freezer!

Ok, I've just gotta ask you all before I go off on a tangent here (because I don't really know everything, lol)...

Is there or is there not such a thing as CONCENTRATED coconut oil?? While still being called all-natural, mind you.

There's an ebay listing for 16 oz of coconut oil for a $19 'buy it now' price. When I saw that, I was like "OMG!! wtf!!" So I emailed the seller and asked them, quote:

Hi, I'm just wondering what sort of coconut oil this is, for it to be practically $20 per pound. Thanks!

Well, the seller just emailed me back this reply:

It is concentrated and natural. No additives. I paid $32 for this.

Hope that answers your question.

What in the world is this person trying to pull?? And how can this be allowed? ALL of the coconut oil I've seen fits the above description, yet wal-mart sells it for approx $1.50/lb (give or take) and online suppliers aren't much higher.

And what's the deal with "It is concentrated..." ???

I will SECOND the "incredibly patient" comment! (well, the creative one too, LOLOL!)

Ida been flinging those sons-a-biscuit-munchers right out the window as hard as I could if it'd been me. Cops woulda picked me up for soapin the flyin squirrels to death. You're to be commended for your perseverance!

ROFLMAO!!! Oh...oh my goodness....<wiping my eyes>...that's a good, er, timing system ya got there...Heee heee!

Beautiful candles! Makes me ready for tossing a couple 'o punkins out in the yard! I love fall!

That is DELICIOUS looking soap! Way to go!

Quick question on this subject (hopefully not hi-jacking)...

With DryFlo being modified cornstarch...isn't it still cornstarch? Or not so much? I haven't had to worry about it before, but I can see this being a very helpful tidbit of info to file away for future use. TIA :-)

ANOTHER QUESTION: Will the seeds be scratchy?

I've never had a problem with scratchies. I don't want to make it sound like the cucumber bits get 'mushy' or anything, but they aren't hard. Hmmm, difficult to explain. I mean, they're 'in' there, but when pureed, they just don't have much volume/Oomph to them. Kwim? I've never felt them. I don't think I helped much with this question, lol.

As for the EO to use...that I'm not sure about at all, mainly because I'm not a big EO user (big FAN, just not a big user), but lemongrass sounds terrific! I think that almost any EO you go with is gonna smell super! JMO

Sorry, I guess I wasn't much help after all.

Oooooo...Kkkkkkk, but you asked for it, lol. These are NOT the purdiest bunch of soaps I've seen, but they'll give you an idea on how the color holds up over time.

These are from a 2lb batch that was made about 8 months ago, and I used cucumber puree as half of my fluid for these, but added it at trace. I SB'd them WAY too long and ended up with almost a bread-dough consistency, hence tons of air pockets & wrinkles. BUT out of egads of batches of this kind of soap, these are the only two bars left. Great stuff! Click on the pics to open them up a little bigger.

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Like I said, they're not gonna win any beauty contests, but the color has been the same from day one, Soft Beige with little specks of muted green cucumber peel that haven't discolored at all. MUCH better than the ones where I added the lye straight to my cucumber puree! Don't have any pics of those though.

Recipes are made for tweakin! LOL

In most of the ones I've seen, you can omit the cornstarch altogether if you want, and just increase your baking soda or other ingredients your recipe calls for. Hope that helps ya to at least get started! And maybe somebody else will pipe in to offer a few more suggestions for you.

Have fun!

When I used cucumber puree as 100% fluid, I got the 'funky brown' thing happening too and it ended up being a light/med tan soap with the cucumber bits being a brownish color. But it was an absolutely wonderful soap anyways! It was a huge hit with everybody I gave it to. Now when I make it though, I use the cucumber puree as only part, or maybe ALMOST all of my fluid...the rest being goat milk, and I wait until trace to add the puree instead of making it part of the actual lye mix. That's kept the 'funky browns' at bay so far and I still end up with this great soap that everybody loves! Hope that helps ya!

Cherry Almond - Wellington

Huckleberry - Aztec (d/c, will be looking for new supplier of this soon)

Love Spell - Tony's

Green Apple - Snowtop

Those 4 scents practically fly outta here whether it's b&b stuff or candles. People 'round these parts tend to prefer the fruity scents.

Then whip the hell out of it. If it starts thinning, back into the freezer.

Yeah! Treat it like a red-headed step-child!! Whip it, Beat it, tear it's ass up!

you BAD influence you! How in the world am I s'posed to sneak off to wally-world at THIS time of night without being noticed? <sigh> Guess I'll just have to act like I got my period (again!). I just did that 2 weeks ago when their storage totes were marked down, LOL! My hubby prolly thinks I need to go to the doctor!