CareBear

My children had horrid eczema. It cleared up when I started using handmade soap but I am the first to admit it could have been coincidence since we made many changes. First and foremost I left my ex, which reduced stress for all immeasurably. Other things - Laundry detergents without enzymes in them. Tiny print on the bottle. All Brand works (we get Free & Clear, but dyes don't seem to bother us) Double rinse laundry. Cotton cotton cotton. Rinse sweat off immediately. It's immensely irritating. I love my gentle soap for our skin now. It's a very mild formula with tomato juice (fresh) for the liquid. It's marvelous.

I make 75/25 paraffin/soy candles and a friend and I were discussing lilac and how the scent brings us to our childhood homes. I'd love to make candles for us; can you suggest a realistic lilac FO?

It would be a percent of the oils. Soapbuddy swears by it (or used to, I've read nothing recently) but I've had no luck with it. Too much BW can accelerate trace but not at that level. Just make sure it's fully melted.

Some call it room temp (RT) soaping, but that gets confusing because other of us use that term to describe the method in which both the lye solution and the oils mixtures are at room temperature. Thermal transfer is a much better term. I have used it on occasion, but even with easily melted oils like coconut I got uneven results. Do those of you who use it melt your cocoa butter or other hard butters?

Anyone remember these? http://www.kcsg.com/view/full_story/10339561/article-Sandle-%E2%80%93-The-New-Age-Candle-?instance=spotlight_business1 But they weren't real candles - no wick, no burning - they didn't even melt.

HT is hot throw. The scent throw while the candle is burning (related to scent, wick, temp, wax, and size of mp aka melt pool).

Yes. And no. What you do not want to do is keep changing the temp. Cold, warm, cold, warm actually promotes degradation. If you use something fairly often and have a large amount, pour off a smaller amount to keep at room temp and chill the remainder. If you have a smaller amount you use less than once a month then keep it chilled. If you use something more often than once a month it's better to keep it (a reasonable) room temperature. FOs at room temp are good for a year or more (essential oils vary greatly).

it's soap that's drying. the oil itself isn't.

Oh, I'd have said it was standard written orders. I've seen it as SWO maybe once, so I suggest sticking with SAO (or, for clarity, writing it out!)

I prefer The Scent Works Karma over DS's. Other than that I've only tried the DS ones. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

are they back again? they rocked at first but then disappeared, reappeared, disappeared... anyway, I have some of their molds from several years ago and the silicone is amazing (thick and sturdy and doesn't sag at all). Never had trouble getting the soap out of them. Looked at site - do they no longer have the boxes for them?

Grew up in Geneva, and was just there visiting my mom (came back yesterday). I'm up there fairly often. Now I'm down in NJ, though.

I use the Low Smoke votive wicks. But WSP is no longer carrying them, methinks.

I'll be butting mahogany woods in candles (blend) and soap this coming weekend, I hope. I'll be doing 6% in the candles and 3% in soap and will happily report back. I'm sad that Connie's isn't listed on the Scent Review Board for B&B/soap.

plain mineral oil has no scent. it's actually marvelous stuff, despite that some don't like it. it will leave you very greasy, though, so you might try cutting it with something lighter like isopropyl myristate or fractionated coconut oil. for hair i know some like it - but I still prefer coconut oil as it washes out more easily.

cocoa butter gives me back acne.

fabulous. I just wish it was less expensive - I get mine elsewhere.

To play with that stuff is fine, but my skin hates the craft store MP soaps. This said, the kit's a bit overblown. You don't need a mask, hair net or really even gloves for the MP soap they have in mind. And poppy seeds are TOO SHARP in my opinion. But if you want to try them you can get them in the grocery store. Lime for fish odor I hadn't heard. I though it was anise that was suggested, or lemongrass - I forget which.

canola, safflower, sunflower are all similar to soy also corn oil is very close but I don't like the way it smells cottonseed is a good replacement too, but it's a little hard to find

I think the candlescience spiced pear is close to hers - but going off of memory.

She has a checkered history. She has some neat stuff but her customer service is - well she's downright rude when challenged (even if something as obvious as sending the totally wrong thing) and has been known to take forever to ship. I stopped using her at all when I TWICE found pet hair in stuff. But that was years ago so perhaps that's resolved by now. She has a lot of sales on ebay, but has several neutrals and negatives in the past 12 months. I'd call this one "buyer beware".

unfortunately like someone above said, temp shifts can bring the frost out. so while soy candles might be fine at home - once you get them into your hot (or chilly - love AC) car and then to the shop which has its own temp shifts all sorts of things can happen. i no longer color my candles. glad you found something that works - hope it stays working!

I'd love some suggestions.

It's not your recipe. If it's curing in a humid environment, then there's not much you can do about it. You can blot and wipe but it could easily recur. Since the soap is brandy-new it might just be that it over-heated or was over-wrapped and wiping it could be enough, but as I said - in warm and humid it could probably come back. Soap does not like warm and humid. Rancidity and DOS, however, do like those conditions.

It's typically best to first try to address the concern with the supplier, and only raise the red flag about it if you don't get satisfaction.