Tea

I have just discovered that the lid was not put back on properly on my container of lye, and as we have had a lot of rain, I know from past exerience that the lye has lost some of it potency. Is there any anyway that lye can be dehydrated again?

I have though about putting some in my SS frypan on a low heat, and seeing what that does. As I have almost 20lb, I was really hoping that I could do something before I buy a new lot.

Any help much appreciated.

I have found that if I add a little salt, it helps in unmoulding from plastic single mould, especially a detailed one. Around a tblsp for every 2-3 pounds otherwise the soap become brittle. Dissolve the salt in your liquids before adding the lye, otherwise the salt dosen't dissolve in the soap.

Don't use this usually when soaping, only when using a hard to release mould.

HTH

The all coconut bar is for salt water. Normal soap does not lather in salt water, but a coconut bar does. Also superfat the coconut bar between 15-18% and it won't be drying.

Tracey

We are in winter here and just had two weeks of rain. My soaps are going through menopause, and the salt bars are crying.

Even those that are wrapped have pools of water in there. Makes is very difficult to prewrap bars when I can't stop the sweating.

I was wondering if shrink wrapping might me better. I might give that a go and see if it makes a difference.

Humidity here during summer is usually around the 80-90% so it is always an on going battle.

Very depressing at times.

Tracey

I made a 45oz soap with 40oz salt, sf at 10% last week. I put mine on a heating tray that is designed to keep food warm. I left it for two hours. The tray ended up being very hot, and scorched the blanket, but in the end the soap was too hard to cut without it splitting. Could have probably left it 1 hour before cutting.

How did yours turn out Vio?

Tracey

Can;t wait to see them cut.

Looks good.

T

As Louise said, hit the help button on the top left hand side of the screen and read through.

I also have the professional version, and was confused for a while too. Sat down and read through, printed off areas that were tripping me up, and slowly worked through it.

I love the program now.

Keep trying, you will get there.

Tracey

You would need to make sure that you were using an extra light olive oil, and not a virgin olive oil, that would be fine for a white soap.

Also tallow makes for a lovely white soap base. But I agree with the others, you must use very light coloured oils to get a white soap.

Just my experience.

Tracey

That looks really chic, even a bit retro.

Well done.

Tracey

Well it is over a month since I first poured my candles, and at the moment I still don't have any wet spots. Weather here has been unbearably hot, and friday we had the flood to beat all floods. Supposed to have been a 1 in 200 year flood, but as they weren't keeping records then, I have no idea how "they" know that.

The coconut oil that I use is a hard block that has to be kept in the fridge. I use it for soaping as well as I can't get the oil here.

Still happy with the results, and was thinking that I may never face the brittle or cracking of the wax as it doesn't get that cold here. Will be interesting to see.

Thanks again for all the help.

Tracey

I don't know the chemistry behind it either, but what I can say is that the wax definately feels harder when I run my finger over the top. It feels harder and has a glassy (if that's a word) feel than the candles with out it.

But now the wix that I used are not burning as they usually do. not quite getting a burn to the edge.

So going to remelt and rewix up and see what happens now.

Thanks again for the help everyone.

Stella, the humidity here is around 95 to 98% and is stifling. I was thinking that the results might be different through winter, but then again, we have a very mild winter, so it will be interesting to see what the difference will be.

I posted a little while back my dismay and disgust at the lastest soy advanced container that I made. Sweating was unbelievable, FO pool around the wick, and wet spots everywhere, and virtually no hot throw. Admittedly the weather here is as hot and humid as can be, but these were very discouraging.

Then I read a post about adding some coconut oil to help wet spots. So I have been trialing some candles. I put about 1/2tsp in about 9oz and difference is amazing. No wet spots, the tops are beautiful and smooth, no sweating or Fo pools, and the wax looks so smooth and creamy, and I burned one yesterday, and I have a hot throw. I can't believe it.

Just wanted to post my results, and for me, this has restored my faith in soy candles. Never thought that so little of an additive could make so much difference to a finished product.

Thankyou everyone for the incredible advise and help that you all give. This has taught me that if at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

Tracey

Good heavens, looks that those colours. I can only dream for nice brights like that.

Waiting to see them cut.

And I look at your candle and think, if only I could make something like that.

I keep dreaming. Maybe one day.

Tracey

This orb is for my sons fiance, and personaly I think it is beautiful.

As always, your work is an inspiration to us all.

Many thanks,

Tracey

I had a recipe recently do something very similar to me. Again it was a new recipe, can't remember the % of hard and soft, but when I added the lye it set almost immediately. As I still had conditioning oils and the fragrance to add I quickly added them, and low and behold, it turned to normal thin trace soap again. Didn't want to push things, so I quickly dumped it in the mould. When unmoulded, it had white spots through out, which turned out to be lye.

So lesson learnt, if it does that again, I need to spend more time making sure all the lumps of hard soap are gone.

Still don't know why it happened, but thought I would share.

Great looking soap, and love the swirl.

I used a cookie heart shape for my daughters wedding. The only thing that I didn't like was the wasted soap.

Just me.

As always the palm has a charm of it's own. That one is beautiful.

Hope it burns as you want.

Tracey

Love the soaps, and love GM in soap.

I thought though that the nature of the beast, that being GM, is that no matter how cool you keep everything, it will still turn a light shade of antique cream?

Just wondering.

What I would give to have talent like that.

T

Beautiful

Wow I like those, they are beautiful.

T

I have used a couple of Essential oils in a pillar and in a container. Both threw fine for me. Used a Frank/myrrah and allowed the oil to colour the wax. Turned out a beautiful golden colour.

Just my experience.

Tracey

I only add yoghurt just before trace. Personally I think that yoghurt would be too thick to add as a water count. Maybe you could try watering it down, but then you would still have to treat it like you would milk when adding the lye.

I usually add 2-3 tblsp to a 6lb batch. Probably could try more, but thats all I have experiemented with.

HTH

Tracey