fruit.tart

Would you recommend, as another way of getting a harder bar, a strong water discount if I don't want to change my oil blends? Would there be any downsides to doing this besides my mixture coming to trace more quickly?

Ahh wow I did not know of this! I'd never cured soap for this long without using before, such a good learning experience haha. I'm fairly certain the oils I used when I made the soap were fresh. Could it possibly be trace metal exposure from the fact that I used tap water instead of distilled?

Ah yes! Thank you for reminding me that I have a new container of sodium lactate for this very reason. Will try it out! I have another question though on these one-year old soaps...almost all the bars I created have this yellowish discoloration. What might be the cause of this? Is there any way to avoid it? These bars were left out on a shelf in the garage for a very long cure! 🫣

Hi everyone! After a long hiatus, I'm venturing back into soapmaking. The benefit of my time away has allowed me to really judge some very fully cured bars of soap I created last year, and now I want to improve on them. I use an olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, and castor oil blend for my soaps. I like this blend for how easy it to unmold and how it feels in the hand when being used, good lather, hard but not too hard that if I dropped it, an edge would chip off etc. However, while it's perfect consistency for my tastes as a shower bar soap, it fails pretty spectacularly as a hand soap when it's constantly being used all day long. It ends up like a soft mush by the end of the day. Ultimately, I'd like to create a recipe that works as both a hand and body bar. Does anyone have tips on how to make for a harder bar? Would I need to explore using other oils (like palm) to achieve the consistency I want? Thanks in advance!

Yes, I'm now thinking it's a combo of air bubbles and stearic spots. For these two batches in the photo, I had melted the solid butters/oils just to the point where it became clear or so I thought, but then I would immediately mix in the room temp oils. Maybe the butters need to be heated for longer (and then cooled to my normal soaping temp, as you suggest?) If these are in fact stearic bubbles, is it still safe to use? Would hate to waste them! I've been melting the hard butters/oils separately too so that may not be it. Also agree the sieve idea is great!

Yes, they look like tiny little air pockets. My formula is 45% olive oil, 30% coconut oil, 15% shea butter, and 10% castor oil. It doesn't seem like there's a ton of stearic acid in that recipe, but what do I know? I am now wondering if it's related to your point on the oils not fully melting though. Lately, I've been just melting the solid butters and oils and then lightly mixing the room temp liquid oils into that. Could it be that they are not incorporating well enough before I start blending the lye mixture? Also, a side note, but I really have to thank you @TallTayl! I think I was requesting help in a candle-related topic last year when you introduced the concept of water discounting to me and it's made a world of a difference in getting back into exploring soaps now that I'm not waiting months for them to cure :)

Hi there! I've been a soap hobbyist for the better part of the last year, but am recognizing that it's a never ending learning journey! With that in mind, I'd love to know how I can avoid these tiny little bubbles that appear when I blend my oil/lye mixture (and sets with the soap)? I'm using a stick blender at the lowest setting and only blending for about 5-10 seconds at a time. I also mix a bit with a silicone spatula by hand to avoid the bubbles. It's never happened to me before and my recipe hasn't changed much so not sure what's happening! Thanks in advance!

These are all genius. Thanks so much!

Hello! Does anyone have tips/advice for the best way to try blending FOs? I've been concocting mixes in my head and trying them in tiny batches in my container candles, but would love to hear of more efficient ways to even see if a combination of scents is promising before I bring it into the wax. Thank you!

I actually recently reached out to Calwax to see if they offered small quantities since every supplier seemed to be out of stock. The rep told me they do sell directly...with a 500lb minimum!

!! I haven't tried that before. This is life changing information haha. CBL130 sounds like a dream right now, but I have about 40 lbs of 6006 to try to make workable so I'm in it for the long haul. Thanks to you both for the suggestions. Going to wait another week before retesting the batch I had made above, and also just created another blend with more soy that I'll let cure for a few weeks and see how those perform.

@TallTayl I think once I get the hang of wicking this blend, I'll be more mentally equipped to return to soap making and endure its painfully long cure times! @bfroberts This is an 85% 6006 / 15% 464 blend. I had actually tried blending in hopes that it would be easier to wick than standalone 6006, which I've been struggling with because of all the soot. Now I'm finding that I like the way the blend looks with the creaminess the extra soy adds, and I might want to explore adding a tad more 464, like an 80/20 blend. I was not in love with the CDs in the 6006 either, but thought it was more acceptable than ECO even though I personally preferred the way the ECO wicks burned (it just soot far too much, way more than the CDs did). I also tried LX in the standalone 6006, which was underwhelming, so didn't want to try it in this blend. I think I may have read in the archives that you've played around with this blend before — was there a wick you found more successful than others?

These have been curing for a week, which I thought would be enough for wick testing, but I'll let them sit for another week and revisit. And to think, I had turned to candle making from cold process soaps in hopes of finding a hobby with a quicker return on investment Once cured for two weeks, if I'm still finding soot from the naked wax (having been burned in a room without a draft), is that immediately an indication that I would need to wick down or is some sooting okay given that this wax is in the lower half of the glass jar? Thanks so much!

I've been combing through the archives of this form for the last few months and have been learning so much more about candle making than I could've ever imagined (so a giant thank you!) From what I've garnered so far, I began conducting some burn testing on a naked wax blend (no FO) of 6006 / 464 to try to determine my baseline wick. These are 11oz jars with a 3" diameter that I filled halfway for testing's sake. The photo below is from the end of a second three-hour burn. I think the CD10 is sooting too much, the CD6 is too small, and I've also tried an ECO8 that I loved (no curling wick!) but it burned too hot and discolored the wax. Questions: Should I be concerned about the sooting on the CD8? It's burning well and I'm confident the hangup will melt down, but there's still a streak of dark soot on one side of the jar. Once I settle on a good baseline wick, would the next step be to test a fragrance using this wick size and then go up and down from there? I think I'm confused about how to determine if you need to change the FO load as opposed to changing the wick size.

Are these differences in wick performance pretty notable, enough so that I should stick to one supplier for all wick orders? And it also makes me wonder if there would possibly even be variations from batch to batch when ordering from the same supplier?

I have a silly question about heating the jars before pouring the wax. I’ve wanted to put them in the oven to warm them (because sinkholes), but have been unsure about the best order of operations. Would you typically heat the jars and then continue with the wick assembly? I think that makes the most sense but I’m afraid of the jars being too hot to the touch. How hot should the jars be?

Ahh yes..I just hadn't experienced this with other wax before but that makes a lot of sense. Would I be able to remedy with using a heat gun or would you recommend a better way to get a level surface? Thank you so much for the help (on this post and throughout the forum!)

Hi all, I'm relatively new to candle making and recently discovered this amazing forum. I've been trying to comb through previous posts but couldn't find anything on this, so apologies if this is repeated somewhere. I've been noticing that as the wax dries in my container candles, it's doing this odd thing where it's pulling away from the wick. I'm using IGI 6006, pouring at 170 F, adding FO from Candle Science (White Tea at 10% and Cactus Jade at 8%), and using ECO 2 for the votive and ECO 8 for the larger container. This wax/wick issue has affected mostly the small 2.5oz votives, but it happened for the first time on the larger 8.5oz Libbey jar too. This hasn't happened with any of the other waxes I've tried so not sure what I'm doing wrong here! Thank you in advance for any help.