Sponiebr

Come one! Come all! WITNESS THE BIRTH of a BAD IDEA!!!! Seriously, though I have some of this Duck Brand EZ Start Clear Packing Tape which is REALLY heavy duty stuff and I was wondering, have any of you just used Clear Packing tape to make a plastic soap band before? I mean like what should I expect to happen to the mastic that is in contact with the soap? I mean it's going to not be sticky anymore... Anything else? I was thinking of either a piece of wide ribbon under the tape and touching the soap or a the tape touching the soap and a ribbon and label on the tape and under the ribbon. Help! I know it's a bad idea, but I can't STOP myself!!! "'Cause I'm a train wreck. Waiting to happen. Waiting for someone to come pick me up off the tracks. A wild fire born of frustration." Yo! Give it up for Sarah Mclachlan folks!!!! Sponiebr the proving ground of Bad Ideas, Disastrous Concepts, and Confused Realities.

There's a LOT about making soap and the smells associated with it that keep me from making my soap where I sleep. Apparently I did a good job cleaning up my mess because the person that I relieve didn't punch me out, (I called ahead to make sure I could come into the building with no harm to my person), and when I walked through the door I was shocked, (SHOCKED I tells ya), that it didn't smell like ploo! Anywho, here's the mess all rough trimmed up and out of their molds. A Disher called it Dino poo and I think that is just about as apropos as it gets. And so without any further ado I present to you DINO POO!!!!!! (Singular faint squeeky "yay!") Side note: Those crappy silicone $3.97 dino molds from Walmart, kick arse! They're nice and heavy, release well and have nice cavity sizes. The brand is "Way to Celebrate" Dinosaur Silicone Pan. ETA: The black tints are charcoal swirls... I was TRYING to save it at some level.

I'm like a train wreck! You don't WANT to look, but you you HAVE to look... Yeah, there's NO way I did this at my dad's. I usually make soap in my spare time at, erm, "a facility that I have access to 40 hours per week..."

I think... (gasp) This may be the end (cough) of ( gasp) me... I... I spilled... half... a ( gasp) ounce... (wheeze) of... (GACK!!!) plooooo.... (gasp) plumeria... Yep. I spilled 1/2 of 1 ounce of plumeria FO on the table top... Somebody PLEASE SHOOT ME!!! I'm in plumeria HELL!!!! Oh gawd it's BAD!!!!! It's in my NOSE, it's in my BRAIN, I can THINK the smell of plumeria... It's EVERYWHERE... (shudders) So, when the cops find my body on the floor, somebody's gotta tell'm that the photo below is actually "supposed" to be soap... M'kay? Promise? Come on! Pinky swear on it!!! I swear it's not what it looks like!!! Oh... Didn't I learn some things tonight! Here are some of the highlights: 1. DO NOT SPILL PLUMERIA FO EVER!!!! (note to self: Self: When you open a bottle of FO and have gotten what you need out of it you DO NOT SET the bottle DOWN again until AFTER the cap is back ON the bottle and SCREWED DOWN TIGHT!!!! 2. High temp fluid HP soap has GREAT potential, IF I can figure out how to do it without killing, or maiming myself and/or destroying the building I'm working in. GREAT POTENTIAL. YUGE!!! THE BIGGEST! 3. Honey is evil. Stop using it in soap. (Seriously Mr. Executor of Bad Ideas... ENOUGH with the honey! It turns everything orange and then brown. STAHPPIT!!!! ) 4. Actively beating back a batch of volcanoing soap is one EXHILARATING and EXHAUSTING experience! I might also add that it is an experience that one must be FULLY committed to, and FULLY aware of what the consequences are. When in doubt on this one: RUN!!!! (I should have.) 5. That lye stays active in the HP soap A LOT LONGER than I thought it would! (See items 3 and 4 in order) 6. The fragrance of a soap should in some way match it's color and or texture... That soap above in a Chocolate Brownie, a Brown Sugar Fig, or Apple Butter would be WELL received. In plumeria... Not so much! The soap was SUPPOSED to be light cream colored with wisps of bronzish green/teal mica highlights and tint, but it's 5H!7 brown (see above bullets No.'s 3-5) Yeah so... One of those insightful 28 hour days for me... Interesting on the whole, if slightly traumatizing in many aspects... Still, I really like this super fast and fluid HP idea, and now that I see that it is possible to do, I should like to dabble a bit more in this area. Anyway, if the cops ask; That's the story, or at least ALL of the story that I'm willing to confess to. Have my remains thrown into Kilauea, Pele outta get a kick out of my plumeria embalmed body. Slainte! Sponiebr: The Executor of BAD Idea's IS BACK and there is HELL to PAY!!!!

Oh! They TRIED that... I picked the lock and got out 'cause I'm just like honey badger. Total number of that batch is 3.25. There is another bar (turmeric bars) that was next to these fig bars that has a similar blotch, but that's it. Screw it. I'm gonna wrap'm and send'm. I'll keep the one that is in the picture for a long term test. I'll just send it to her with the admonishment that "If it get's acne and starts to smell bad just kick it to the curb and whatever you do don't feed it or do it's laundry. You've already got 2 teenage boys you don't need any more acne covered sources of stink'n 'tude." That ought to go over well... It's a PLAN! (stares at the soap) Well soap I think it's time for you to get put away... (GREAT! Now they're whining) "UUUUAGHHHHHHHHH!!! JUST 15 MINUTES MORE!!!! PUUUUUUULLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEZEEE!!!???! IT'S NO FAIR!!!! THE OTHER SOAPS GET TO STAY OUT ALL THE TIME!!! I HATE YOU!!! I'M NEVER GONNA TALK TO YOU AGAIN!!!! UUUUUGHH!!!"

Oh yeah. It was all up against turmeric soap, and pine tar soap, so there was definitely yellow in that I've-got-to-clean-these-up-and-wrap-them-but-dammit-I-don't-wanna-it's-a-pain-in-the-ass box. Don't stare at them!? Oh... geeze! I wish I'd known sooner, it's all I've been doing for the last 2 days. (It does kind of explain my paranoid hallucinations of soap laughing at me though... So maybe I'm not nutz? *giggles from the corner of the room* NOPE!!! They're definitely talking about me and laughing at me!!! FARK'N SOAP!!!! Oh Hi there! I didn't see you reading this... o.O (And no, they DON'T make a medication for my condition...)

Excellent question! I don't know if this is a systemic thing or if it's a moldy cheese thing...

So... You've just basically increased your lye discount for CO using other natural SAP values? Yeah, OK... I can see the value in that. Sometimes those tiny tweaks produce pretty substantial results. Were you ever able to reverse engineer the exact SF% for optimal results?

Odd you should mention this. Dad said that the spot smelled more strongly of the fragrance than the rest of the bar. The depth of the spots are only on the outside of the bars and are about (I'm guesstimating at this point), not more than 3/16th's of an inch deep. It'd be just one swipe across the mandolin to get rid of it. I don't know how fast DOS will spread, but I found another nub of the same soap on my desk that I used to test for color bleeding in the bathroom (I used a bit too much bronze mica in this soap) and it seems to have a dot as well. They were all cured in a plastic baker's tray next to some vanillin heavy soap and next to pine tar soap.

Does trimming the crap spot off work? I mean isn't DOS kind of a systemic thing? It's not more than 1/4" deep and probably closer to an 1/8 or 3/16 th's tops. I can honestly put a bet that if this is DOS then it picked it up during the hurricane while the power was out and the humidity was 100% for a week. ETA: I just lined them up and it's a perfect line down the side of all three, this really might just be a transfer stain. That ONE bar has that oh so slight translucent start to it though...

That particular one smells a little like old veg oil in that one spot, but it could also be the smell from the other soap, I honestly can't tell. I've got the possible contaminated bars out on my desk right now and I'll tarp them with a napkin, toilet paper, or I dunno---- something that will hide my shame, frustration, and disappointment...

Um... Do you think this is what I think this is? I'm really hoping that this is some sort of transfer from some of the other bars that were packed in tightly with this Mediterranean fig and brown sugar fig... The bars packed in next to it were that turmeric colored Jamaica Me Crazy and they were touching this Med fig batch... 3 bars have a couple of lighter bits and it's on the same edge as this bar. All the other batches have been just for kicks, this is the ONE batch that I made especially for the good look'n blonde gal I went to college with for her Christmas gift... THIS IS THE ONE FRICK'N BATCH. (Seriously Murphy, KNOCK IT OFF!) I didn't see anything odd with the other 4 bars, they look just fine, and the Jamaica Me Crazy batch looks just fine. Sponiebr: Finalist in the World Championship of BOHICA.

Oh I don't remember but it was about 6 weeks minimum and now it's been around 6 months and they're still very drying to me. Other people love them. One person was not impressed with the lather. That particular formulation is a thing of my past. NO MORE! I'm moving forward into the bright, bold, (OW! Bright... hot... painful... ugh..), future.

Usually I use soapcalc.net. So in CP soap super fating ends up being a lye discount. HP you can actually add fat to the soap at the end of the cook to gain a specific emollient, but in CP the lye decides what it will and won't turn into soap. So, what ARE you doing to make it less harsh, lye discount + high water and a long cure? PH buffer? Iz veeery interestinks. How ist ju doingz zeezs? Ve vant to know... Hmmmmm.... "Bohemian keeper of the magic hat." I dunno... Something seems... Off... Limes and coconuts and mixing... I dunno...

AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!! Magic!!!! It's BLACK MAGIC!!!!! Shari turned into Scented!!! RUN!!!!! Off the top of your head, do you remember how much CO you were able to get away with and what the SF ended up as? I did some 100% CO Oatflour, Goat's Milk, and Honey bars at 20% SF and 1 oz PPO Honey and they were still quite drying to my skin. It seems that if I go above the number 17 in cleansing in soapcalc It's too drying for me. (with CO that is.)

@Clear Black@KrisS, I don't know that molecular water would sizzle or pop necessarily. I wonder if either they didn't just mix some air into the batch by accident, or if maybe one of the plasticizers has a lower than expected boiling point. You could put a cold plate over the top of the pot and it will collect the evaporant. Which might make it easier to figure out what the stuff is, methanol, water, light fractionated oil...

CO, as in Coconut oil? Wow that's creeperific... If you can get DOS in 100% CO soap with 0 SF there really must be some sort of black magic involved in making soap. (TBH, I always suspected as much...)

How hot is the wax? I'm thinking water? I don't know much about these things but isn't this a pre-blended wax that has like (for lack of a better term) plasticizers in it? If that plastizier happens to be an organic oil it might be water. I have no idea, to be perfectly honest.

Thank you all for your help. I've been able to read the comments over the past couple of days and I appreciate it. I'd like to write more, but life has become a "tad busy" at the moment and bad soap is the least of my concerns. Slainte, Sponiebr: leading competitor in the grand championships of BOHICA.

Happy Thanksgiving all' y'all. I've seemed to have survived the onslaught of very small nieces and nephews on 3 hours of sleep. Yay! So, on to my trolling... I'm trolling here and other forums for these issues, not because it's actual "trolling", even though I AM a Troll, (technically EVERYTHING I post is trolling), I just need some concise input on these issues. These issues may not seem interconnected, but I sense that they are in fact very connected to each other. 1. DOS what it is, where do it come from, how to not get it, and most importantly how to intentionally develop DOS in a consistent manner. So as I understand it DOS is basically rancid oil in soap, which is to say that the oils have oxidized and are now in a more acidic state than they were. In other places and arts oxidized oils are wonderful highly desired things because most oxidized oils produce a plastic like substance, that in woodworking we call varnish, but plastic/varnish spots in soap doesn't seem to sell well. As I understand it soap that can not breathe combined with heat UV exposure, and moisture all cause accelerated DOS formation. There also seems to be a direct link to DOS formation with formulations that have high linoleic &/or linolenic content. I have heard that it was wise to keep the numbers on the combined total of these 2 fatty acids below "x" in your lye calculator. I have heard it vary from 15 to 12, and I think I remember seeing one post that the OP tries to keep that total below 8. What do YOU say X is as the magic number to keep the linoleic & linolenic acids content below to prevent DOS formation? 2. Canola oil: I've got a mixed review on this fat. Some overwhelmingly approve of it's use to sub for Olive Oil, other's think it's a trashy oil with no lather character, and still other's that believe it to cause DOS. I've got some of that oxide test batch made where the OO in my Standard formulation was replaced with Canola Oil. I didn't just use ANY Canola oil folks, I used the bottom of the barrel 1 pint at $.76 so off brand that the label read "Canola Oil 16 oz. Product of Canada". My numbers for the linoleic & linolenic totaled 13. That soap seems to be actually quite nice, good fast white bubbly lather, good hardness, it is a slightly softer than my standard formulation with OO, but it seem's like a nice soap. This is causing me upset, as I also found 25 lb buckets of Armor Brand Lard at $.09/oz next to the insanely cheap they're-really-only-charging-you-for-the-plastic-bottle-and-paper-label $.04/oz canola oil. What to DO? What to do...? 3. What is the fastest and most efficient manner (without having to buy steaming equipment) to clean up and polish/shine/buff/make-them-so-that-at-least-they-don't-look-like-crap bars of soap? I was wondering if literally just rinsing the little chips and smudges off under running cold water, pat dry leave for a few hours to dry a little wouldn't be an acceptable method? Is damp pantyhose and the tedium of spit shining soap the only method out there? I've made a beveler and I just use a knife as a scraper to get that weird leathery white stuff off the top of the soap (I think it's soda ash, but it's tough and it only forms on the tops of my soap that are exposed while in the mold. 4. Back to that oxide test batch, there were 3 uncolored bars that I got out of that batch, nice pretty white bars of lightly scented peppermint EO soap made with as I mentioned canola replacing my standard formulation to get 40% GV Tallow/Palm Shortening, 33% Canola, 22% CO, 5% Castor at @38% Water to Oil and 5%SF, Linoleic at 10 and Linolenic at 3. (My standard uses 35% OO and 20% CO) Anywho, I'm thinking I should abuse the hell out of the remaining 2 uncolored bars e.g.: individually seal them in saran wrap and put into ziplock baggies one exposed to sunlight and heat and all the weirdness of Florida life that my car can offer, and the other kept inside my bedroom laying on my desk. I want to see if this is a viable soap option with the canola or not and there is a reason behind my curiosity regarding this and DOS formation. Last Sunday I was in my Hardware store and they were selling "lye soap" which was sealed up in a damaged plastic shrink wrap and SHOT THROUGH with DOS. The wrapper was all tattered and the soap was covered in grimy black hardware store dust, and it was just gross, but by the Mo-Jaal's hairy left butt cheek they were still trying to sell'm at $7 a bar!!!! Not really the point... My point is those bars in the AC developed DOS, so how do we get a solid case of DOS? Would that rinse I mentioned above increase the likelihood of DOS formation? Repeat my mantra: If you know what a bad idea is, then it's exact opposite must be a good idea. It's not always that easy to execute... Your advice and experience, as always, is greatly esteemed. Slainte, Sponiebr the Executor (actually I'm still suspended... but I'M TRY'N t'get back in the game!!!! )

HELLS YEAH TT!!!! Give'm Hell!!! o.O O.O o.O

You might be able to get away with using some mica's for the metallic look... Like a ruby red mica and a little opal to increase luster? Personally I would probably skip the duct tape and go straight to chip board and paper mache. You can use hot glue to run lines and other features. Looking at that picture, I would guess fiber glass and polyester resin. (That's also a REALLY good option. (Bondo...)

Um... Are you going to wear these shoes? I think Mod Podge is just PVA (elmer's glue). What kind of painting are you going to do are you painting designs for fashion or are you just trying to cover the duct tape? I dunno... I personally would use a PVC rubber like Spray on Plasti Dip. Walmart carries the brush on type and the spray on type. I also comes in varrious colors. I'm not too sure how plasti dip would handle paint, and you would REALLY need to air the things out to get all of that solvent out of the shoes before wearing them... Kind of an expensive endeavor TBH. HTH, YMWV! Sponie

Those electric cat beds have been around for quite a while! You might not be used to calling them electric cat beds though... Most people call them: (wait for it) Laptops. Bah-dum-bah-Ching!

My GAWD ladies... So, uh... Like how long would something like that take? Theoretically? Also out of curiosity, if you are getting jugs or pails for individual batches, where are you getting them from? I've got 35 lbs. of Palm and 35 lbs. of CO I need to weigh out into more manageable containers. I'm not 100% sold that my standard formula is going to be the one and only for all time formula. I mean I LOVE how it works, but I really don't like the concept of basing a formulation off of a premixed store product, because they could change their formulation at anytime. I really need to try a regular OO-CO-PO-Cas mix and see how I like it. What have I done? I've been at Church and putzing around all day. I'm fix'n to go make a picture frame for a world map 44"x31"... yay...