michelleB

Awwwww shucks Thanks ya'll! Strongest scent so far seems to be the Green Irish Tweed (front and center). First time trying this and it's awesome! Barely discolored at all. Nice and clean, and sorta masculine but easily unisex. Lightest scent so far is the Mango Papaya (back right) but I'm hoping it'll regain it's strength after a good cure. Jeana - the dark ones on the right are Raspberry Dream and they do have just a tad of a dark pinkish tint around the edges for some reason. Hoping it'll either go away or take over the whole bar LOL. I think those were the ones you were referring to. They just started doing that after they were cut, so they might change back to brown when dry.

I sure don't have any info on it, but I'll help you to BUMP the post so we can all find out if there's somebody here that uses/used it. I saw it on their website and it piqued my curiosity right away, so I'd love to know if it's really "all that and a box of twinkies".

I just can't quit, I tell ya! I've got test batches running out my ears and I keep buying up more FOs anyway! I knew this was addictive. I'd read enough posts in the years spent researching this to figure that out...but when does it STOP??? I've been cp'ing long enough now that you'd think at least the newness of it would've worn off, but NO! Here's what all I've been doing these last few days while I was supposed to be studying for Marketing tests and Business Law quizzes (another one tomorrow, btw). Keep in mind that these are only the recent ones. There's MORE stored all over my curing rack. Sheesh! [ATTACH]4813[/ATTACH] And Bunny...you've got me hell bent on trying a batch of cucumber soaps now LOL. Already got me a couple of cucumbers (ok, get your mind outta the gutta!) and I'm just waiting on my oils to get here from the co-op. Then I'll be at it again. Anyways, thanks for lookin! P.S. they're all goat milk soaps and I didn't use color on any of them so I could see what the FO did. Some of them are showing signs of a reaction, but it's a little too early to tell.

Thanks Kimberly! I'll have to jot that down and keep checking back there. Yep, I know what you mean about following up on the suppliers to make sure prices haven't changed. I keep a list of what I spend on every pound/gallon of ingredients and break it down to ounces/units, divide it by the number of soap bars/candles/tarts it makes, blah blah blah, so I can get a better idea of my cost per bar of soap or candle. It TRULY does pay off and keep you from giving stuff away or even worse, losing money. Makes me feel like I'm being fair to myself AND my customers because the pricing is accurate. Anyway, I digress lol. I still want to thank you all again for being soooooo helpful! This place rocks!

ooh, ooh...me too! I'd love to have a good strong pear scent for CP. Your soaps look wonderful, btw! Very creamy looking and pretty swirls!

Castor for me! It's in every recipe. But like Brenda said, now I'll have to check out the Babassu to see how it does. (like I NEED something else to have to stock up on around here! lol)

OMG that first pic makes me want Caramel Cheesecake soooooooo bad I can hardly stand it! Great pics and LOVE dem swirls! You go girl!

Thank you both very much! I've just finished making my order from the sage, and I found a few other goodies I was needing while I was there! Wooohooo! Gonna have me some FUN later this week when boxes start rolling in! I wanted the shea oil to use with my shea butters that are on their way (from the co-op), plus I wanted to try a couple of other things with it, and I was desperate to find it. You two have really made my day! Thanks again, bunches! Oh...and for anyone else looking for this, the sage is really affordable (at least I think so) and the shipping is very low considering it's coming to me from Utah. I'm a happy camper!

I'm looking for a good (affordable) source of Shea Oil by the pound or 5 pound quantities. Anybody know of one or two companies they'd recommend? I'm on the east coast but I guess I'd order from anywhere in the US as long as they're reasonable. I'd just prefer to find an east coast source if I can so that it wouldn't take so long to get here, without paying extra shipping charges. Any info will be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

Oh my goodness...will ya just look at that pretty color and texture!! Love it! Love it, love it, love it! Great job! Edited to add: you posted the cut pics as I was typing this, and I wanted to add how much I really dig the "chunky" look. What's the weight of them bars? They look hefty!

Haven't tried any from the candlemakerstore, but I use the soy from Snowtop, and IMO it ROCKS! I'm not as much of a pro chandler like some of the others here on the board though, so maybe more peeps will chime in with info. Main reason I like it is cuz it's a little more fool-proof than some others I've tried out. Still get the occasional not-so-smooth top, but that's easily fixed with a heat gun. Haven't had a problem with frost, with the jar candles or the tarts either one, but I'm careful to pour at a very cool temp. I'm sure there's a wide variety of waxes out there that people love and stick with, but I've always been loyal to products that don't let me down. And for me, that's the Snowtop soy wax. Hope that helps!

Oh wow! They must be so proud! Both soaps look absolutely terrific! Is the whipped pink sugar one made with M & P too? It looks so decadent and PINK! Yummay!

Oh cool, that's what I want to hear! Thanks! I unmolded earlier today but it's still just a little too soft to cut, so I'm gonna probably give it til tomorrow evening or night and try again. Looks fantastic though! I do Goat Milk soaps, so I've gotten used to all the different shades of tan and brown that I normally get, but this one is LIGHT. Very pretty off-white color. I'm just tickled to death over it so far. I used the meat shortening at 47% of the recipe, with 13% coconut oil and 8% cocoa butter and the rest soft oils, but I did add 1 tsp salt ppo at trace (hoping that'll help). I'll let ya know how it turns out tomorrow.

Thanks Carrie! I'll have to head over there and take a peek at what others have experienced with this stuff so I'll know what to expect. It's already sitting in the mold, gellin', so hopefully nobody will warn me *not* to use it, lol.

Ok I'm gonna run it through as Crisco and drop my superfat to 4% to be safe. Plus I'm gonna toss in a little stearic just in case it tries to make a mushy mess. I guess this stuff is strictly for cooking with or something (eeewww!) because you'd have a devil of a time identifying what it is if you needed something specific...like me right now, needing just plain crisco. Hubby is grounded, btw. Bad hubby! Bad! Thanks gals for the input! Now I'm gonna go try soapin this can of goo and see what happens. If it turns out all wrong, it'll be part of hubby's punishment, having to use it. Maybe that'll teach him to read the labels.

Good question, but about as clear as mud. Here's what it says... INGREDIENTS: Meat Fats and Vegetable oils with mono- and Diglycerides aded; BHA, BHT added to help protect flavor. That's is. They might as well have just said "Stuff", lol.

My hubby brought this home to me after I specifically asked for pure Crisco vegetable shortening (I know, I know, that's what I get for not doing it myself) and I don't know what this is cuz I've never used it before. Says "Shortening" on the can, but it also mentions Meat Fats. I'm getting ready to make a batch of soap and now I gotta figure out what to run this through the SoapCalc as. Can anybody tell me if it's Lard, Tallow, or Crisco? [ATTACH]4689[/ATTACH] Thanks a bunch!

Bunny you'd be amazed how grateful I am for even that simple answer! That suggestion of shredding up another 5oz of soap will work perfectly and I'm sooooo embarrassed for not thinking of it myself, and yet tickled pink that YOU did, lol. I actually make 5-5.5oz bars anyway, so that solution couldn't be any easier for me. Thank you SO very much! Now I'm off to pick another bar for the shredder! (and please don't tell anyone about my "blonde moment" LOL)

ok I'm gonna try to clarify if I can so that maybe my post will make better sense because I just know that somebody here has "been there, done that" and can help me... I have a lot of soap that I'm saving for rebatch (approx 60 oz) and it's almost enough to fill up my smaller mold, but not quite. I need another 5 oz and I'll be good. So to make this work out right, do I CP a 5 oz batch as usual, and then incorporate the melted shreds?? Nah, that doesn't sound right. Reason I'm confused is because with all of the other rebatches I've done, I've never had to add lye water again and I'm not sure when/how that part is incorporated. Should I just rebatch as usual, while in a seperate pot adding lye to the 5oz oils, and then combine everything? Sorry for the dumbo question, but I've looked high and low for info on that one particular thing and can't seem to find any pointers. Thanks for any input!

Oh this is killing me!! I have GOT to make me some of this stuff! It sounds absolutely wonderful! Glad you had such success with yours & please send me a 50 gallon drum of it at your earliest convenience. lol

Cool, Thanks! I'll definitely pass that along and may even give it a whirl myself!

Straight shea oil huh? Hmmm...what a terrific idea! Is it very greasy? Or does it sink in fairly quick? I've got a friend who's always begging me to fix her up with something to help her with her dry skin woes and yet she doesn't want to cross the line into the greasy area (picky, I know LOL) so if this is relatively fast-absorbing, It will make her day to know about it!

Ok, I've done some rebatches (never by choice, lol) but it's been a while since the last one and I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Plus this one is different for me because it's not just a matter of melting it back down & putting it back in the mold this time. I need to increase the overall batch size, which will mean figuring out how much more oil and lye to add. That's where I could really use some input. For figuring the amount of oils needed for the mold size, isn't it width x length x desired depth x .4 ?? See, I've got these two seperate batches of soaps that I'm gonna rebatch together, plus I need to increase by approx 5.5 oz of oils to make it give me the bar size I'm after in the mold I'm using. I THINK I could just run a 5.5 oz batch of soap through the soapcalc, using whichever oil I'm gonna use for the addition (probably olive or canola), and have it give me the lye amount that way. Sound right? I'm sorry if these are really dumb questions, but I've been soaping all evening/night so far and my mind is completely worn out. And I do mean COMPLETELY. And did I mention that my mind is worn out?

Oh Thank you all so much! Unanimous suggestion of the Aqua Blue, so I'm gonna go with that. Ya know, I'd have never thought to use a blue shade. Hmmm...I was already stuck in the mode of white or yellow, because my brain was wrapped around the whole "pineapple/coconut" idea (that's all that comes to my mind when I think of Hawaii cuz I've never been there). Thanks again soooooo much!

I just got my samples in from Green Leaf and the FO is "Hawaiian Breeze" (LUV those tropical scents!), and I'm wonderin....should I even bother with adding color for this scent? Or would the white un-colored look be more appropriate? Should I maybe do a layered look with white and a pastel yellow or something?? I'm totally open to suggestions. Thanks in advance!