michelleB

I'm not sure how much help I'll be to ya, but I'll give it a shot. ;-) First off, you're gonna LOVE a honey soap! The smell is indeed awesome & yummy. I add anywhere from 1T - 1 1/2 T of honey ppo in my recipe. As for beeswax, I've never used it personally, but if I were to add it, I'd figure it in as a hard oil. Maybe somebody who's soaped with it can chime in with the benefits of it & the percentage to use. Hope that helps a little bit! Edited to add: I add my honey at trace with no problems getting it mixed in.

They all look wonderful! That Angel Wings is awesome! But I would love to get my hands on that Dreamsicle one! That's a personal favorite. Great job!

Oh Maryann!!! You are one Full-Blown NUT! ROFLMAO!!! :laugh2: I'm gonna have to whip up a little 'surprise' for my own dh, just cuz I'm such a stinker and that sounded like such fun!

AWww. how SWEET that she did that for you! It's a lovely site for a lovely name! And I'll certainly keep her in my prayers. Please keep us posted & congrats on getting a site going. What fun!

My wally-world does, but it's in the health & beauty department, around the aisle with all the health supplements & vitamins. 4 oz bottles are all I could find (little brown bottles) and they're $1.97 here. I've also found that my Kroger carries it in the same department in a blue bottle, 4 oz for about $1.50. It's cheaper to order it online, but I get it from these two places all the time when I'm in a pinch. Hope that helps ya!

Ya know, the more I look at it, the more I'm thinking I WILL rebatch it. I'm not much on rebatching though, so I'm not sure if I'd help it or make it worse, LOLOL. Might just go for a totally colored bar though, instead of the swirl. Another thing I noticed though is how much darker the "main" part of the soap turned out compared to usual. I finally dipped into my Agbanga Karite Shea for this soap (instead of the other shea I'd been using) and it's a lot darker to begin with, so I'm thinking that did it. I used the shea at 11% in this recipe, plus put oodles of silk fibers in it. Mmmmmm! I dunno, I'll think more on the rebatch. If I do it though, it'll be tonight. If I'm gonna do a rebatch, I've found it easier to do em when the soap is fresh. And as for the coffee soap, I need to get that batch in the pot & get started! I finally decided on the recipe, and got everything here I needed for it, but I played with it first (made a whipped butter out of it) and didn't get around to soapin it. That stuff is so heavenly! I swear, I just can't AFFORD all these new addictions!!

Well, I was proceeding merrily along last night, with my batch of Strawberry soap that I was wanting to swirl with a little bit of pink/red. Soap was at thin-med trace and I took about 1 1/2 cups out to color. Medium trace was close at hand so I was trying to hurry so I could get it in the mold...BUT...the phone rang at that moment. I had NO choice but to get it because everybody else was outside and I knew it was my son, who was supposed to call when he was ready to be picked up from a shin-dig he'd went to. So I get it. I kept telling him "Ok, ok, I'll leave in a minute to get ya, but I've gotta go right now and finish my soap". Needless to say, the soap in the bowls was NOT waiting on me and it was practically setting up before my eyes. UGH! So I glopped and banged to get it in the mold, then beat the mold on my floor several times to try & get rid of air bubbles. It was a nightmare! Here's what I just now cut into (with a LOT of disappointment) As you can see, I didn't get swirls. The globs of pink soap (which didn't even get mixed good) acted more like embeds and I couldn't swirl them to save my life!: [ATTACH]6389[/ATTACH] And the AIR HOLES...my gosh! This batch is gonna have to be for personal use only, for sure! [ATTACH]6390[/ATTACH] Don't try this at home! LOL

Ok that did it...NOW I'M HUNGRY! That looks gorgeous! I'd be one proud mama! Fantastic job!

Oh thank you patricia!! Yep, that'll do. That'll do NICELY! Off to turn my kitchen upside down again! Woooohooooo! Will post pics in a bit & a glowing testimonial from my lil doggie in a couple o' weeks, after the curing. Ladysj...I know we do diff kinds of soaps, but once in a while, I DO enjoy playing with m&p so if it's not too much trouble, could you maybe explain to me what you add to your base for a doggie soap? I'd like to at least try it out and compare all the diff recipes. Maybe I could send you a bar of this CP doggie soap I'm getting ready to make...as a BRIBE! LOLOL! Then you could compare em too. Edited to add: I see now why I couldn't find that thread earlier. I went to look for more info, using search, and ya know how it "autofills" as you type...well, I'd typed in DOUG SOAP earlier today! What a DOOF! So if anybody's looking for DOUG SOAP, don't bother searching THIS forum, cuz there's no recipes to be found! ROFL

Howdy all! I'm in the mood to do some SOAPIN right now and I'd like to do a doggie soap. I already make one kind (cp soap recipe, w/added neem oil, no FO) but thought I'd go for somethin different today and compare their lather/scent. The neem oil in this last bar of mine...I think it STINKS. I could've sworn there was a doggie soap recipe listed somewhere around here that showed either an eo blend, or different oils to make it smell better, but I can't FIND IT!! Anybody know of one? Willing to share a "starter" one that I could tweak? Or even just point me to where I might find a recipe/thread discussing it? Any help is greatly appreciated. My dog needs a bath!

Do you have olive oil, by any chance? Or castor oil?

And aside from the terrific suggestions already listed here, you could opt to give website-building a try yourself since you say you're familiar with html. You could do a google search for "free web template" and just start browsing at the literally ga-zillions of free websites out there for you to download, customize with your information/pics/shopping cart/etc and then upload the whole thing to your web host. You don't have to use css to use a template. Most prefer css because it eliminates the need for repeating yourself when customizing page after page, but it can definitely be confusing if you've never used it before. You WILL need an html editor of some sort if you truly want to be able to do this yourself, because otherwise you'll pull all of your hair out. I use Dreamweaver, but there's free ones out there that work just as well. It's been a while since I've fooled with templates, but if I remember correctly, the only price you "pay" for them is in the form of either displaying the original designer's logo somewhere on the site (it's usually tiny), or giving credit somewhere at the bottom of the page in the form of a link. Hope this info helps you a little! Good luck with whichever way you decide to go! OH...P.S. You asked about getting to your site's "Back Office". Technically, you don't have a back office at the moment. There's no site at all or anything that goes with it...until you upload something. For instance, to get a shopping cart on your website, you'll need to set that up yourself by adding lines of html code next to each product on your individual pages, then upload all pages to your host. Then, depending on which cart you've decided to use, you'll need to follow whatever steps they give you for reaching an admin area or back office. BUT...if you're talking about your control panel for your website, you CAN get to that. Your host should've emailed your information to you about how to get in there, and if not, contact them and they'll help you.

What type of recipe are you looking for? There's soooooo many ways to use mango butter (and I LOVE them all!!!), like soaps, lotions, body butters, and such. What were you in the mood to make?

Oh Michi, I'm sorry dear! Can you strong-arm the stores into carrying it? My grandmother does that ALL of the time...alas I'm not too successful. She's a tyrant though, and not many people tangle with her, whereas I'm more easy-going and I get told no a lot. She needed creamed coconut ONE time just for ONE lil ole recipe, and nobody round here carried it. Well, she called EVERY grocery store in town & by the end of the week at least 4 stores had it on their shelves!! Want me to have her call your wal-mart??? LOLOL

That looks great! Glad you jumped in and did another batch! It looks very creamy and lush. I'd have a hard time keeping my hands off of the bars, lol. But then I have that problem with every batch. I aggravate 'em to death around here, lol. The scent sounds great too! Keep us posted on how firm it sets up for ya.

Okey dokey, I FINALLY found a picture of it. Boy that was hard to do, too! They didn't even have one on the Lou Ana website! Got this one off ebay: This is the 31.5 oz canister I was talking about. Hope that helps ya to find it! Edited to add: The ebay-er is trying to sell this for a starting bid of $3.99!! My goodness! I thought ebay was for finding BARGAINS, not rip-offs! Sheesh! I'm in the wrong business, LOL!

They've got it in the aisle with the other oils like the olive oil, crisco, etc. It's in a white plastic round "canister" with a green lid. Sells for $2.77 around here, for 31.5oz so that's where I've been getting it. That way I only get as much as I need and don't have to store lbs of it that I've paid sky-high shipping on. I'll dig around for a pic of it and if I find it, I'll add it here so you'll know what to look for. Hth!

I'm just wondering what difference, if any (cuz I sure don't see one), there is between this oil from any "supplier" and this oil when bottled on the shelf at Wally world (LouAnna brand)?? Cuz I see people paying upwards of $3 per pound for it online, and around $2 or so per pound at co-ops, and yet you can get almost 2 pounds of it (31.5 oz) locally at wally-world for less than $3...with no shipping. Can somebody 'splain please? Or is is just that some peeps don't live close to Wal-mart? Cuz if there's a legitimate reason behind not using the local coconut oil, I'd like to know more about it so I can decide where to get mine from now on. Thanks a bunch in advance!

I used those rectangular pencil boxes as slab molds & they worked great! I think they held 1.5 pounds of soap and I lined them with wax paper cuz I wasn't ready to "splurge" on freezer paper LOL. Those pencil boxes/molds were on sale at my local CVS pharmacy for .20 a piece. Still use em from time to time when testing small batches to see if I've got naughty fo's or not.

Congrats on the new soap mold Ashlie! Here's a log-mold-lining tuturial that Eugenia posted a while back, and it's GREAT because there's pics of each step along the way to really help you make quick work of lining any log mold. I notice you've got the grooves where you simply cut it once it's cooled, so what I'd recommend is....line it exactly as shown in the tutorial, and then after it's set up, take it all out (paper & all) and put the log back in the mold for cutting. Probably what you'd planned on doing anyway, but thought I'd mention it. Here's the link for the log-mold-lining tutorial (it's a god-send!): http://www.candletech.com/cgi-local/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=bathandbody;action=display;num=1088130010;start=0 Hope that helps ya! Have fun soapin that new mold!

Wow those are pretty! Great job! Such a soothing mauve/pink color, I love it!

ROFL!! Well...the recipe is sorta an important part, LOLOL! You crack me up. And yep, that's a good idea about the swappin of the bars when we get em done! I'd love that. I've got a scent in mind for mine too, so just figuring out the % of ingredients now and I'll be ready to dive in! pssst...<whispering secretly>...I think TB is an undercover recruit for some of these suppliers. She seems to inspire us to go buy stuff we'd have never thought of before, LOL!

I'm sooooo glad you chimed in! It's totally YOUR fault I'm tryin to do this! LOLOL. It's that dang coffee butter soap you sent in to the swap that got me hooked, and now I've gotta pull my hair out til I can get the recipe just right. That soap was just awesome! Sherie...I was thinking maybe I could use that "coffee bean" option on the soapcalc, but not sure. What else could it be for??? Maybe that IS the right thing. Might try it on a couple of different calcs to see if it comes out the same. Maryann...looks like we're in the same boat then, lol. Thanks so much for finding that info! I tell ya, I'll GET this if it kills me! I'll post more info as I find it, in case somebody else needs to know later and does a search at this forum. Thanks soooooo much everybody!

I know, the thread title is confusing, but I couldn't figure out how to sum up my question/quandry in one little sentence. I want to figure up a recipe using some coffee butter, and I use SoapCalc for my batches, but I don't know what to do about the coffee butter since it's not listed as an option. I've never worked with it before, so I'm clueless as to what properties it brings to the soap...hence my quandry. I don't know how much I need to use to make a good soap. Is there another soap recipe calculator out there that lists coffee butter and the values for it? Thanks a bunch in advance!

Ohhh, what pretty soaps! And I certainly know how you feel right now...100%. My dad just passed away 3 weeks ago as of today, and I've been a horrible mess without him. Soapin has been my only salvation, so I pray that you'll be able to get the same amount of comfort from it that I do, or more. (((((Hugs)))))