giedre11

I like their soap too, just not as much as SFIC. The only thing I didn't care for was their shea which to me anyway, seemed to have a bit of an oily smell.

Gosh, sounds like we all have a bunch of hobbies! I too used to sew quite a bit. Actually had to as I was so broke, I had to make my own uniforms! They weren't too bad, but I did get pretty wild with them! I also knit, crochet, do the soaps and candles and a little bit of beading. I'm also gettint into cutting cabochons, which is a lot of fun. I think someone else here mentioned they do the same. I think it's way cool, because you never know what you're going to end up with! DBF and I love going to Tucson for the annual "rock" show. We have a ball! He is in to faceting {sp??} and recently made me a ring. I have dabbled in many other hobbies, but soaping and candles are my main thing!

I added some sodium lactate to my HP to make it more pourable, then on top of no water discount, added extra coconut milk. This stuff was soupy and I didn't think it would ever harden up, but I also added the SL at the rate of one oz. per pound of oils and let me tell ya, it hardened those bars right up!

Well, to answer one of your questions, I have several wooden molds and yes the bottoms are thinner than the sides. I don't see why you couldn't just make it whatever thickness you wanted to?? Now I do have a Kelsei mold also, gosh I just love that thing! The plastic divider slats, are well, I guess just a very thick plastic, and very smooth. There are notches in it with little arrows pointing in the direction of how they should be inserted. There are also notches in the sides of the mold. I would think that once you got a thick trace, you could just insert your dividers and they would stay put? Good luck!

Yes, another one that does this is Scent Works Bamboo Ji. I just love this FO, but it will discolor mauve in such a way that it doesn't go through the whole bar of soap, say as vanilla does. It just leaves a deep mauve shell all around. It is rather pretty though. I did color it green, ended up getting a mauve rimmed soap with green on the inside!

I think you are so right. My batches used to trace super fast also, I always blamed it on the FO. It's only recently when I went back to basics- olive, coconut, palm- that I started getting much better behaved batches. I'm slowly adding or subbing different oils from this and it's working out a lot better!

Here''s one supplier of sodium lactate: http://www.bestdeal.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc? The sugar sounds good, I've never tried table sugar, but I do use the sorbitol. Oops, wrong link. Anyway go to Camden-Grey and just do a search for sodium lactate. http://http://www.bestdeal.org/essential-camden/17.html

I've always said, my passion is making candles and soap. I can get lost in it for days! I have gotten so engrossed with it, I sometimes forget to eat.

Ok, did my second ever batch of HP last night. This time I added SL at the end of the cook. Let me tell you, it makes a BIG difference in the "pourability" of the soap...it'll never be {I believe} as pourable as CP, but the SL in HP is superb! I was even able to add my beloved grapefruit fo, once the batch cooled down enough. I do love yuzu, but to my nose it's just not the same. Anyway, I'm making friends with HP!

I've sorta gotten over being mad at my first attempt at HP, lol, and am willing to try again. I've done a lot more reading and I've come across these hints...now mind you, I have not tried any of these myself as yet, but plan to today. Ok, try adding a little bit {how much is anyone's guess??} of glycerine at the end of the cook, or try adding some sodium lactate or sorbitol, also at the end of the cook. These things are supposed to help make the HP soap more pourable, and so shouldn't come out as funky looking...again, I have not tried any of this yet! I'm not sure about the glycerine as I heard it can make the soap feel sticky, but then maybe just a little?? bit won't do it that way. The sorbitol I have is in solution, so now I'm wondering just how much extra water that will add to the HP. The sodium lactate sounds best to me and I think that's what I'm going to go for. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I've found that while the oils you use may accelerate trace some, it's usually the fragrance oil that does what you described. Some eo's do the same thing.

I've read where adding a little ROE will help in preventing DOS. There are additives like BHT and EDTA that will also help, but these are not "natural" like ROE. One interesting thing I found was a bar of soap I made 2/6/2003 and shrink wrapped it. No fo...I had forgotten it. I just unwrapped it maybe two weeks ago and it got DOS in about two days! Don't know what this proves, if anything.

I can't say I've used their flavor oils, but if they are on par with their fragrance oils, you should be ok.

I just bought some of these jars at Walmart.

Why don't you just try adding peppermint eo? It's lip safe and you can add to your desired strength.

Excellent choice!! I couldn't cut a straight bar to save my life before I got one of those!

Very interesting! I however, never add my liquid coconut milk to the lye. I always add it to the oils only, and while it's not supposed to mix, it does. As a matter of fact that's how I soap...everything goes into one pot and gets stick blended very well. Then there's the lye and when the two cool off and are pretty much the same temp it gets mixed. I don't believe that adding anything at trace makes any difference, but that's just my two cents worth!

Thanks Carolgrant for those specific instuctions. I too tried the hanger method, as I understood it. I just used the hanger in the long part of the mold, and while I can't say my soap is swirled, it gave some very interesting designs in the soap. My problem is that if I even got to step 6, my soap would already be setting up and there's no way I'd be able to do this. If I pour at very, very thin trace, then all swirls fall to the bottom, but if I wait even a couple of minutes, then it sets up and there's no way I'm gonna swirl that sucker. It seems like there is a very tiny window of time to get all this done, so I guess I just haven't quite mastered it yet. It seems like you can have all these great techniques at your fingertips, but if you don't time it right and move fast enough...well. I've got to admit it's a lot of fun trying, just a bit disappointing when it doesn't come out the way you planned, yet you can get some very interesting effects anyway!

Hibiscus reading your post made me laugh because I just made my first HP about a week or so ago...I went through the same panic when the oils seperated and I caught myself stick blending right in the crockpot at this stage! Ya, I knew better but I still panicked! You know though, my whole batch only took about 30 min from start to finish, but it was only a 3 pound batch. OK, just read my notes and I actually made this batch 6/25/06. I didn't discount any water, and the bars are still soft! They definitely are hardening up, but at this point still dentable with your finger. They turned out rather ugly but once I shaved the bottom of the soap off, it made them much more presentable. I've got to suck it up and try this again as those scents that morph in CP, should not in HP. I've read that adding a bit of glycerin in the end of the process makes the soap more "pourable". Haven't tried this yet though. Now if I could only get rid of the air holes! Bottom line is even though you can use this right away, they still need to dry out, and it's taking a while,lol.

Hey what about the FD&C colorants? I had bought a sample pack some time ago...years actually! I did not know they were water soluble...I had some lakes in there and I do remember trying to mix it with water and it didn't work so I gave up on the whole thing. I have used some of these colorants for swirls and the ultramarine blue came out beautifully and never morphed to another color. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was that some of these colorants speckled in CP. Just the other day I took these powdered dyes and mixed them with water {need preservative} and I've got some beautiful dyes! I mixed the sample packets in about 6 oz of water and just labeled the bottles. I don't have a lot of knowledge about these dyes, but I'm going to do some experimenting as they are very cheap to use. Only thing to remember is that FD&C or D&C are water soluble and the lakes and oxides??? are not...supposed to mix these others in glycerin and knead the plastic bag as they do not actually dissolve, but color by dispersion { I think that's where the speckling comes in!} However the water soluble dyes seem to be great...only thing with them is that you would have to do some mixing to get the shades you want. Bottom line is that they are way cheap compared to some of the soap colorants you buy online, and very concentrated.

Carolgrant, have you possibly checked Columbus foods? They are in Chicago...my old hometown! From what I've read on the forums everyone seems to like them. Of course, they are for buying in bulk and I have not tried them yet. Just a thought.

You know, it's not just the cheapie candles that burn poorly and have no hot throw. I just bought a couple of higher end candles whose cold throw was fantastic and they smelled divine, so when I went to burn them I was dumbfounded that there was no hot throw!

Has anybody ever tried using evaporated {canned} milk in any of their soaps? I was just sorta wondering about this, but don't really know if it would add anything to the soap. Just for the heck of it, I may give this a go, just don't think it would ever replace my beloved coconut milk! Oh, and to hijack my own thread...I recently ordered some coconut cream, but don't have it yet. Anybody try that?

OTC hydrocortisone helps the itching, so does benadryl if you are not allergic. ALWAYS remove any residual PI off skin with rubbing alcohol, then wash with water and soap. Throw all clothes in washer on hot water. My cat rubbed against my BF shoes which had the PI oil on it still and then rubbed against me...guess how I got PI?? lol How about some oatmeal baths too? Good luck!

Carol, I personally love this scent, but I don't have anything to compare it to...I haven't sniffed any others but CCs. I think the scent is very strong, but I always add 1oz./ppo. It is a sweet scent, but the fig definitely comes through, and no scent morphing!