Candybee

That sounds like a good combo. I love cinnamon and cedar anyway never thought of adding clove to it.

Vicky those are gorgeous! You are truly gifted.

Haven't tried it but it sounds divine. I love a good lime scent. I'll give the name thing a try: Pucker Up Lime Kissin Kousins Sunshine Gingham Live, Laugh, Lime Angel Dew Starshine Crystal Morning Yella Dawg Punch Starlit Barn Moonshine Kick

One of these days I have been meaning to try out both techniques of making my own coconut milk. I think I wrote about some of it. The 1st is to buy a bag of coconut shreds; soak the shreds in distilled water overnight, and squeeze/strain the coconut milk out. The 2nd is to buy a coconut, retain the coconut milk inside it, then shred the meat to soak in water overnight. Then squeeze/strain out the milk. You can add in your coconut milk you retained from the coconut. This is a more intensive method but you get 100% fresh coconut milk. Haven't made coconut milk but I have made my own almond milk and sesame seed milk before. This was back when I was on some health kick that included nut and seed milks in the diet. They are actually very good for you and taste good too.

Thanks for the tip about the gloves Steve. I am going to Wally's today so I think I will check out the gloves. I buy my lye mostly from ED too. I love their packaging and 2lb containers. For lye in a jiffy I run over to my local hardware store. They have the Rooto brand in 1 lb containers. They are expensive but when you run out of lye and need some in a jiffy it will do until I can order from ED.

Its possible. I have heard of red silicone molds turning soap reddish. Did you wash the mold out with warm soapy water before you started using it? I have a red silicone mold from ED and it came with instructions to wash out first before using. I washed mine and never had any soap discolor. I don't use it in the oven for CPOP just regular CP. Did you use any other additives? Colorants? Fragrance? Did you use extra virgin olive oil? Have you used this mold before?

Oh pretty pretty! I am dying to see the cut butterfly wings!

I had a bad experience from old M&P too. Someone gifted me some old 1lb bases they got from a friend who quit using them. I had no idea how old they were and neither did my friend. So I melted one down and like you mentioned it was kind of gummy and I could not melt it entirely as there was a thick film on top that wouldn't melt. I even tried adding a sprinkle of water and some glycerin to moisten the base but to no avail. I ended up throwing the whole batch out and the rest of the 1lb bases. Lesson learned.

Lard doesn't normally make soap turn yellow. So I couldn't say what did. Could be anything from one or more of your oils or the mold, lye. I am sure you will figure it out. BTW-- For the Thermal Transfer method I don't add my lye solution to my solid fats. I add my solid fats to my lye solution and I add them in one at a time. The hardest fat first. Then I add the liquid oils, fragrance, color, etc. and SB to emulsify.

Hmmm.. where do I begin? First I want my best selling soap fragrance back.. sandy stones from C&S. It was similar to cool water but had much more depth with deep notes of patchouli, amber, sandalwood, and musk I think. For fall I want a nice pumpkin apple spice blend.. notes of crisp red apple and buttery pumpkin, with ginger, clove a lots of cinnamon spice. Next I want a sultry, sweet, exotic, bare naked scent... with white musk, tropical white florals, a hint of vanilla orchid and amber, hawaiian sandalwood, and sweet night blooming jasmine. I am also tired of making my cranberry orange spice cause I have to buy several oils just to make it. I want a sweet cranberry marmalade with strong notes of fresh juicy orange, orange peel, and lots of clove, cinnamon, and maybe a hint of star anise. If I think of more I'll post them.

Amanda a pumpkin apple spice sounds really good! With those FOs on hand I think I would try 30% each of macapple, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin souffle. Then add 10% cinnamon stick. That should be enough to tame the strong apple and still give you lovely pumpkin and spice notes: 30% MacIntosh Apple 30% Pumpkin Pie 30% Pumpkin Souffle 10% Cinnamon Stick

I'm so glad you got your money back! Good for you. That was pretty quick going through your Attorney General's office. I wonder what is going on with Silvermoon that they would do something like that to their customers?!!

Lordy! Just reading that made my tongue hurt! I'm so glad you did not give up making soap. You make awesome soap and have great advice.

Ditto-- those are awesome Talltayl!

I don't have either of these oils. But now I am intriqued. Waiting for Trappeur's review.

I should have included the steam distillation method too. Thanks for reminding me Old Glory. As far as I know I have only bought EOs that are steam distilled. But I still want to have an understanding of how each works, pros and cons, and the environment aspect. Hope someone here can explain it better for me. Or at least add what you know of each.

I am so confused. Can someone here explain in layman's terms the difference between extracting oils using the hexane method vs the CO2? What are the pros and cons of each method? Is either method less or more environmentally friendly?

Someone mentioned (Old Glory) in another recent thread their initial fear of using lye in soapmaking. I know she's not alone and that most of us if not all have had to contend with that fear at least in our first batch of soap. I know I did. I thought it might be interesting to talk about your first time making soap and how you overcame that fear. For me, being afraid of working with lye kept me from making CP soap for almost 2 yrs. I was making M&P at the time and my excuse was I didn't have time to learn it now so I kept putting it off. But the truth was I was just afraid of handling the lye. I am really a big klutz and always have been. I trip over my own big feet, fall down stairs, drop things on my feet, walk into things, on top of things, etc, etc, etc. So I thought I was going to mess up and burn myself somehow. What got me over it was when someone reminded me that lye is what we use to clean our toilets. Now I know I can clean a toilet without hurting myself and that got me thinking I might just be able to handle this. Anyway, that little tip is what gave me the courage to try. Even then, when I was making my first batch I didn't realize I had been shaking all during the time I was handling it up until I finished adding my lye solution to my oils. Once I got that done I took a breath to relax and then SB'd the soap batter and poured into my mold. Done. I wasn't dead or horribly disfigured or burned. I had done it without injury. I was so proud. I was never afraid of lye after that. Well, almost never afraid. I think its good to be wary enough to always respect the lye.

How about: I just love your candles but my husband is allergic. This after she has walked around smelling every single candle.

Trappeur container paraffin can be sliced through with a knife. Its the pillar slabs you can break up with a couple of hammer shots. Its actually quite easy to work with once you know how. You should try paraffin sometime even if you don't want to sell it. Its hard to explain but some FOs work best in paraffin, while some work best in soy. Making a parasoy blend you get the best of both. Moonshine I know what you mean about making the scent strong to your nose in your candles. I like mine the same. I still get some people who complain its too strong and some are the opposite. You just can't please everyone so I make what I think is best and what my customers tend to buy a lot of.

I used to use a parasoy blend and had no problem with her honey gingerbread at 6%. It is strong in my parasoy. Now with palm I have to cut back its so strong or blend it with something else to tone it down. I've used other oils but mostly in soaping so don't know how they work in soy.

Don't forget mulberry + amish harvest = mulberry chutney spice. I came up with this a few years ago and it sold like hotcakes. It is a sweet spicey berry scent and during the holidays I could not keep it stocked.

Thanks for the ideas. I have a small line of "milk & honey" scented soaps. Not to be confused with oatmeal, milk and honey additives in soap. This line is about the scent. So far I have a pumpkin type and OMH scent (from SGS). I am thinking of also trying gingermilk and rosemilk. I think both are from Soapalooza. I heard the her rosemilk is wonderful in CP. I have been thinking of switching out my OMH scent for an almond milk type scent. I have also been contemplating going with coconut milk. Peaks has a good one but don't know if it hold up in CP. Another coconut milk type is Thai Coconut from Soapalooza but the description makes it sound like a coconut lime scent which I don't want for my milk line.

I've never smelled that one. Do you know how it compares to SGS/PFO version?

Moonshine-- I think the one I am using is actually rocky mtn. I knew it was mountain something. Its the old flicker's Christmas Pines. There is a Smokey Mountain Pine at Purefragranceoils. It used to be from Old Mill and when OM closed it went to SGS. It was the very first pine scent I used in soap back when I made M&P. If you want a fresh pine scent on steroids this one is it. It has a deeper, richer, dark green pine scent with hints of smokiness to it. Haven't used it in a while because it was just too strong for me. But it was perfect for scenting my embeds in soap.