Tall Blonde

Incense and Peppermints?

Cranberry Plum from Candles and Supplies!

Sorry. The Chemistry Store also has the MSDS.

http://www.chemistrystore.com/sodium_thiosulfate.htm

Here's another link:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-sodiumth.html

I don't know. It seems an odd chemical to put into soap. I don't know that I'd use that soap, regardless how it feels.

ETA:

The Chemistry Store sells it to remove chlorine from water.

From Free Dictionary:

sodium thiosulfaten. A white, translucent crystalline compound, Na2S2O3·5H2O, used as a photographic fixing agent and as a bleach. Also called hypo1, hyposulfite, sodium hyposulfite.

Maybe it's to keep the soap white? Doesn't really seem like something you'd put in soap. What else is in it?

I have hempseed and avo butter in my freezer! So far, so good.

Well, I use a tall kitchen trash bag. It's so much easier for me to get into my molds, I don't even have to tape it down, and I can re-use it several times and then I can put trash in it!

I use a tater peeler. But then, I don't make a huge amount of soap at a time. I use a little plastic drawer, make 40 oz which nets me nine bars and some little sample sizes. So I don't mind using the peeler to bevel my soaps.

I agree with you about simple being best. I recently made a 100% oo, 40% lye solution, 7% superfat, and I fell in love all over again. I'm thinking of changing all my stuff to this! (Except for the occasional coconut salt bar!)

It's just that I've been making this exact same recipe for over a year and haven't had any problems. I even left some in my car during a hot California summer for a month and nothing. It's just really weird.

So, a couple weeks ago I made my standard 100 oz of olive lotion. I divided it into ziploc bags, approx 20 oz per bags. I week later I went to scent them and package them and one of the bags had grown mold!!! I never had this before. The bag had definitely been closed. I squeezed it to see if there were any holes, but didn't find any. I threw that bag out, then I look some lotion from a different bag, put some in a dish, and it's been sitting out for the last week. No mold has grown in the dish sample (it just dried out). It was all from the same batch, and only one bag got moldy. Why would this happen. Something in the bag, maybe?

if its a nice scent i usually mix up rock salt, color, and the scent, put it all in a ziplock baggie over night, then put it in little sachet drawstring bags and give them to people as car air freshners (i secretly hang some in my 14yr old sons room) since i can never find the sorce of "THAT SMELL" in there LOL

I'm going to start doing this! I have 2 boys and there always seems to be a funk about them. I'll have them start wearing a sachet around their necks and tell them it's a spirit bag!

No, my bars were not 100%coconut, in fact the majority was olive oil. I think mine are okay but I have no idea. I am sending them to a few people to check out and give me their opinion of them.

Why do you say they aren't any good?

They're coming out too soft. It feels like washing with Crisco mixed up with salt. The first time I made salt bars they were fine, now ... I don't know what's going on. Tomorrow I'm going to try just coconut oil and see what happens. I just am concerned about all that coconut oil being too drying.

You can create your own salt bar recipe but make sure there is atleast 50 percent Coconut Oil the other 50 can be a combo of hard and liquid oils.

I like to do 60 coconut oil 5 Babassu 5 Palm, 10 Olive oil, 10 Shea, 5 Crisco, 5 Castor.

Barbara

Then what do you superfat at? I'm trying to conquer the salt bar, but so far it' whipping me!

So, why do my salt bars keep coming out like crap? My last 3 batches of soap have not come out right at all and I feel like throwing in the towel!!! Do most of you make salt bars 100% coconut? I'm feeling somewhat worthless right now, someone help me redeem myself!

It all seems pretty crazy to me. But, you know, I've really taken to reading all kinds of labels now. I remember last year at Easter picking out chocolate bunnies for the boys and of couple of manufacturers didn't even use cocoa butter! Now really, who wants a chocolate flavored bunny? But as far as personal care goes, people just want whatever they think may make them younger looking. Forget about diet and exercise and healthy living! Just shoot me up with botulism and wrap my cellulite thighs in Saran wrap!

Snake oil.

I'll just stick to my simple recipes.

how sugar is moisturizing? I've been looking into adding sugar scrubs to my very limited line, and the stuff I've found for sale is amazing! $45 for one that says "moisturizing sugar," $50 for one that was only 200 ml and filled with ingredients I couldn't pronounce!!! I found one made with brown sugar that gives the impression that since its made with brown sugar it will help with melanin production! I've read some pretty interesting claims with soap, but this stuff... Are people really this gullible?

Just a 'heads up" regarding the hardness numbers on the SoapCalc-- I've found that they can be a little misleading where Olive Oil is concerned. I can go as low as 26 or 27 (for my 80% OO Castile-type) and it always comes out good and hard. Another case in point is that I just recently made my very first 100% OO Castile, and the SoapCalc said it had zero hardness. Well, in reality, it's actually pretty darn hard if I do say so myself. lol. So, if you are using high amounts of OO, just be aware that on SoapCalc, anything from a zero hardness and on up should be good to go.

From what I've read and understand (although maybe I'm talking out of my back end!) olive oil, while a "soft" oil (liquid at room temp) as far as soapmaking goes it is considered a "hard" oil. Because I don't use palm, and because I sell my soaps in a olive oil store, for my base recipe I use at least 50% olive oil, and I ignore what soap calc says about hardness because I know it'll be just fine. Probably half my soaps are castile (100% oo) and they're rock hard after a couple days. The longer I keep them curing though, the better the lather.

Well, after some quick research, Damp Rid is apparently calcium chloride, which is available at the Chemistry Store and I think at pool supply places. Might be worth checking out. Thanks!!

Snowdrift Farms has a ton of info:

http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/formulary.html

Well, it hasn't affected the scent so far. It's just so unbelievably soft! I've never had this problem before!

I thought I saw this on here before, but now for the life of me I can't find it. I'm trying to dry out some of my soaps and I thought I read on here using that gel kitty litter to help draw out moisture. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I think it's working, but does anyone have any info, or have you done this before? The funny thing is I added sodium lactate according to the MMS directions to get a harder bar, and it's the softest soap I ever made!

I love soap with avocado oil. Next favorite would be macadamia. But my fav all time bar of soap was made with mink oil. I personally didn't make it but I received it from a friend and I sure hoard that bar, its by far the best bar of soap I've ever tried.

According to Wikipedia, mac oil is a good sub for mink oil and actually has a higher percentage of palmitoleic acid than mink oil. And the minks like it better, too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mink_oil

I just ordered Lovespell from Tonys. Well recommended on the scent review board, so I ordered some. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. I've never used Lovespell before, so I have nothing to compare it to.

I like to save expensive oils for leave on applications like lotions or even scrubs. I cringe when I see a soap recipe with EMU in it! I wonder how someone can afford that and it the wonderful Emu qualities can possibly be used to thier full potential after saponification? I mean really, what's left? Cost aside I just wonder what the point would be in using oils with such healing properties.

My two cents,

Bethany

I agree with you. I'm loathe to use my hempseed butter and avo butter in soap because it seems like such a waste. I'd rather use it in lotions and stuff like that. Not too long ago I made some soap and accidentally put corn oil in twice (ended up 20 oz corn instead of 10!) It's actually turned out to be my favorite! The feel of the bar is soft and the lather feels really soft and creamy. Now I'm just watching it for DOS. I may try that again!