ah-soy

Hey all, I haven't been on here in years...so HELLO! Just started making tarts/melts again so began visiting last week. I am running some tests and I'll try to keep this updated as I go. I'll be testing new waxes since my old ones are no longer available. That's how long it's been lol! I have 4 warmers I'm starting with plus have a couple of more on the way. My starting wax is KY Parasoy tart blend (132 melt point)...just using it straight for beginning results with 10% fragrance. Tarts are 1oz in portion cups. All results use the same fragrance. I am actually measuring the melt pool temperature with my infared thermometer. Here are the warmers I have now, those on the way and temp results. OBI 24wt hot plate burner - scent throw detected within 15 minutes -took less than 25 minutes to completely melt tart. 198 degree melt pool at 3 hrs. Illuminations Owl warmer (25wt bulb) - throw detected within 20-25 minutes. Took almost 1 hour to completely melt tart. 174 degree melt pool at 3 hrs. Illuminations 20wt hot plate warmer - took nearly one hour to detect very weak scent throw, over an hour to completely melt tart and throw never improved. Melt pool temperature at 3 hrs was 166 degrees. Plug in warmer with 15 wt bulb - haven't tested yet. Not sure will be a contender with this wax and it's melt point. Warmers on the way: Scentsy hot plate warmer (not sure of wattage until it arrives) Scentsy 20wt bulb warmer Better Homes and Gardens hot plate warmer (won't be sure of wattage until it arrives) As said I'll try to keep this updated as I go ...it may take awhile!

Oh no, canola is certainly one not to do that with! My linoleic numbers with this recipe are only at 5 or 6 so I should be OK when it comes to DOS, but ya never know! I'll have to see what happens with them as time go by.

Other than high coconut oil recipes where you use 15 to 20% superfat, what's the highest superfat you have ever used? I've been making a 50% coconut/pko recipe with shea, olive and castor and figured...what the heck. For my dry ole' skin, I tried upping the SF to 20% just to see what it would feel like. Well, it feels great! I did find a loss of big fluffy bubbles at the beginning, but still got the wonderful creamy bubbles as I washed. So, made a couple more batches and added a TBS of sugar ppo, and got fast fluffy bubbles galore. It makes a nice, hard bubbly bar. This was a tweak of Darwin's basic recipe which I've made for several years now, but as I got older and my skin got dryer, I found a need to keep upping the SF.

Water will certainly effect fluidity and the time it takes for the soap to cure. I think it mostly depends though with your recipe and fragrance oils. You can soap a mover at full water and still have soap on a stick. If your recipe has lots of hard oils, that will accel trace too. I really wouldn't go much above the 38%, which is considered "full water". I still use it when soaping a new scent when I don't know how it will behave. I've gone to using a 30 to 33% solution, depending on which recipe and fo I'm using. Or stick blend just until you have an emulsion, right before light trace and start swirling. Have all your colors in cups ready to go. Using a whisk will also slow down trace.

I read a tip online that says to reduce the static when using the beads, wipe your container down with a used dryer sheet before weighing out the lye. Haven't tried it out, but it makes sense.

I think the magic purple from the conservatorie is supposed to be very close to the grape pop.

I should correct my fragrance to say it is Lavender Flowers from NG, not Lavender Fields.

Bumping to see if anyone else has done this recipe with a higher superfat?

I have cp'd and hp'd Natures Gardens Lavender Fields. It really sticks well and I like it. Lavender EO lovers may not, but I do:) I am using the last little bit of my grape pops with it, but have heard that The Conservatorie Magic Violet mica is a close match.

Thanks!

Thanks. I bought it in powdered form. How much would you say is a capsule? 1/8 tsp? 1/4 tsp? And is what you see colorwise, what you get or does it lighten up and get grey?

I want to try a soap with a bit of a black swirl. I bought some activated charcoal and have a couple of questions. Do you have to pre-blend it with some oil or glycerine before adding to your soap batter? How much generally do you use PPO? I did a search, but must be using the wrong terms.

Here's a link to the baseball card boxes: http://www.bcwsupplies.com/?params%5Bsearch_text%5D=802&params%5Bsearch_module%5D=products_zoom&section=search_results&go.x=13&go.y=8 I love that I don't have to unstack boxes to get to the soap I want. Just slide out the drawer.

I bought some cardboard baseball card storage boxes. Soap fits perfectly, they breathe and have lids. You can get them in single trays, up to four column trays. I bought the singles and the card box house. It has four rows across, three rows down to hold 12 different scents. You just slide the single trays with lids into the compartments. I label the front of the box with the recipe name, scent name and date "born".

Here's a link to the midget glassine bags: http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=3642&SubGroupID=3643&ParentGroupID=19063#3643 I also posted in your other thread. Good luck with your project!

Depending on the look they want...vintage, classy, feminine, unisex etc you might also consider a small drawstring bag. Papermart has a selection from natural cotton, burlap and jute to satin, organza etc. Just stamp the outside of the bags, pop in the soap and pull the drawstring. Here are the glassine from Papermart: http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=3642&SubGroupID=3643&ParentGroupID=19063#3643 They have the midget bags which look like they would fit your little soaps. You could give them a vintage feel by folding down the top and sealing with a wax stamp.

I also posted this in your other thread. Maybe small glassine or kraft paper bags (the flat without a gusset). You could stamp them with a logo, or just seal with a label or hang tag. Or, you could seal them up with an old fashioned wax stamp - probably won't work if you have to ship them though. Another idea, is to fold the bag over and wrap with a decorative stretch cord or ribbon...just brainstorming here.

Just a thought, you might need something more sturdy, but what about small glassine or paper bags (no gusset)? You could just stamp the outside of the bag or seal with a cute label.

If you read your toothpaste ingredients, it will likely be there. I think it would calm down some customers to know this when your trying to sell soap and they say "no way, if it's made with lye". Just have a toothpaste label there to show them what they've been brushing with:)

Did you use the new lye in this batch? If not, how was your old lye stored?

I have had soaps with oil slicks on top. Turned out my lye was old and didn't have the "oooommmppphhh" left to do it's thang!

Oh Barb, thanks! Looking forward to your list. I have many on my wish list from the conservatorie and was wondering how they do in CP!

Try a light olive oil. Very stable and great in soap!

Should add, don't confuse a water discount with superfat%/lye discount. While the superfat%/lye discount is the same thing, a water discount is a separate component. It will lower the actual amount of water you are using in the recipe and not effect the conditioning oils left free after saponification. General rule of thumb is, when doing HP, learning CP, using a new FO without know it's behavior, soaping with "heater" ingredients like milks and honeys - use full water. Once you know your recipe well, you can play with the water discount. A water discount will lessen the amount of time it takes for your soap to harden up because there is less water to evaporate/cure out. I am by no means an expert. I've done HP for a few years and just started CP in the last few months. One of the best things I learned was to soap at room temperature or RTCP. There are several ways to do this. RT lye solution and RT oils. RT oils with freshly mixed hot lye, letting the lye water melt your oils, and lastly RT lye with hot/warm oils. I love RT everything. Unless your FO is a real accelorator, you have lots of time to play with colors and less chance of overheating etc.