LovelyLathers

I wish you well. It must feel good to know you can do things you didn"t have the time to do.

I am the only one who works at my store. I am open 3 evenings a week and all day Saturdays and most Sundays. I work full time during the day at another job. I do have a sign on the door that says if and when I need to close. If it is for a Show or the farmers market I tell them where I am. I do take days off but I make sure I have a sign up as soon as I know I need a day off, usually on a Sunday. I have been doing this for a year and have never had a complaint about it. If someone tells me they stopped by and I was closed then I give them a 10% discount got their trouble that makes them happy, i have had to do that twice so far.. As far as being sick I have not had to take time off for it yet thanks goodness. But if it arises I will put a sign up. It is not easy doing it alone but it is my dream and I will make it work. Sure I am exhausted working 40 hours and then doing the store.

They are beautiful. I also have started to add more color to mine due to the fading. also I use the neons and pop colors which help.

What did you mix the pink mica with? It could be you mixed it with more oils or glycerin (or what ever you used) than the green and it will take longer to harden up?

Please give us your recipe it would help. Also the brand of colorants. Was it layered coloring? Maybe one type of color did a funky thing to the soap if it is layered. Doesn't sound like overheating, did it crack on top?

Without a recipe it is hard to say but maybe you weighed something wrong? Scale was off for some reason. Sounds like maybe too much oils and not enough lye or too much water. Does it have any zap? I would leave it sit longer. I have a batch here that was the same way in Sept. It is finally hardening. It lathers great, very mild, not drying at all. I figure maybe I added an oil twice. I will not sell it but I will use it for myself.

Congrats!! Wishing the best with it.

Don't add more lye!! You can not add soap flakes to it either. You have a lot of water in the mixture. Also there is no superfat in that recipe. Just keep stirring maybe 5 or 6 hours.. It will take a long time with out a dtick blender. Do you have a crock pot? You can toss it in there and do a hp with it also it will speed it up. Is this your first batch of soap?

Take it out of the mold and stir more. Did you use a water discount. I always do Olive Oil at 40%. It is separating because it has not reached trace yet. Trace will be like a creamy thickened pudding that will leave trailings that will not sink into the soap. Olive Oil soap takes a long long time to trace if you are doing it by hand a few hours sometimes. A stick blender will help it move quicker if you have one. If no stick blender try a whisk that may help make it go quicker.

I had a great year. I opened my own store and did a few festivals. Sales were up about 15% at the festivals. The store was slow to begin with but sales have sky rocketed beyond what I could have excepted. The past 3 weekend have been very good to me! I have only 3 batches of soap on the rack curing as the customers coming in continuously have prevented me from making any. Orders for gift baskets have been crazy. One was a corporate order for 50 baskets. I am thrilled with holding on to my dream this year!

I wouldn't add water with out adding a preservative to it, it will grow mold and "Yuckie" stuff in it. I add little castor oil and rosehip oil and eo's to mine. I do not have the percentages here, they are at my store. But they are very small amounts. I also sell it as is and it does not seem to be too thick when it is put on.

I only use Elements boxes. I love them! Did you get any of the small natural ( they actually look more orange to me) boxes? They are great for half bars and make great sample boxes. I love the customer service that Tammy offers as well as the quality of all her products. I have never been disappointed with them.

Did it stay together before adding DSM? I have never used soy oil in soap or do you mean soybean oil? I can not find any references about Soy in soap making in a search. Also I always use PKO in mine. I wish I could be of more help to you.

The ones from Tammy are great. I wouldn't get them anywhere else but from www.arizonavanilla.com.

What is your recipe, it would help to figure out what it could be. Did you weigh your lye and/or water correctly? Did you have a high amount of olive oil? It can cause a very slow trace. Oils were separating because you did not have trace most likely or not enough lye. I add DSM to only a protion of my soap and swril it in at medium trace, when did you add it?

Thanks for the info. I love these for the same reason as you. They are so much easier to use for scrubs and shea butters.

I use silk in all my soaps except herbal or ones I want to be vegan, do you? It could make a difference in the lather too. The sugar or honey in the soaps with silk makes for great "bubbly" lather! Are you getting more of a "lotiony" type lather? I also add salt to every recipe but that should not make a difference in the lather as I only use 1 Tbl pp.

I use both and like both depending on my recipe. I use honey with most of my oatmeal soaps, it seems to add more lather and mildness to them. I add about 2 teaspoons pp. I warm my honey so it incorporates easier at trace. I think it does make some soaps stickier and I have to leave them cure a little long by 2 weeks or so. I love honey in my soaps that I use goats milk in and any pureed fruits and veggies in like mango, carrots, applesauce, etc. I use sugar in soaps with any lard or tallow. For some reason the honey makes them not glide as nice, smells different to me also but then again my nose is shot from the FO's. I add both to some but i do not make it with any milks, or heater FO's. I see no difference in using both except I have to put them in the refrigerator so they will not over heat. I have not put the honey in my herbal soaps because I want to keep them vegan but have been thinking of experimenting with them also.

I use orange 5x eo. I don't have a problem with it fading.

Very nice. I love the colors.

I wear them from start to finish as well as gloves, long sleeved shirt, apron and shoes.

I love Connie's fo's. I haven't had a problem with them sticking. I have some soaps from 2 years ago and they still smell. I love the coffee hazelnut, amazingly graceful, honey gingerbread. .

Very pretty!

Very pretty, It's the first time I have seen them.

Do you have someone local who does pottery? If so take the pic of what you want to them. They can do them in the colors and size you want. I know i saw some online, if you search pottery mugs but when I did they were out of my price line. I think they ran about 16.00 and up.