Tall Blonde

I sometimes use pastry paper, you know the kind you get with donuts and stuff. You can still smell the soap through that. But it's becoming too much work to wrap all that soap, so a lot of times I just put a cigar band on.

From reading the posts on here, I think candles would be way harder than soap. All the wax and wick testing and test burning...I don't too often ruin a batch of soap, and if I do I just shed it and make another soap. The hardest part of soap making is treating your lye with respect.

Looks great. I don't know what its made out of, her ingredienst say goatsmilk soap, liquid soap, fragrance, and color.

Its doesn't look like it has the same consistency that cream soap has.

Could you just melt some m&p and mix it with liquid soap and whip the crap out of it?

I wouldn't be able to stand waiting for weeks to use a new soap! I can't wait to cut it and use it!

Yeah, it was really pretty funny. I lifted the soap out and right down the middle my soap was printed. Fortunately, the way I cut my soap I was able to make the printed part the small sample size which for this batch I'll either keep or give to my family. Lesson learned!

If you use a trash bag to line your wooden mold, make sure that if said trash bag has any printing on it to have the printed side down facing the inside of the mold and not up facing your soap.

And I suck at salt bars. I made 2 this weekend and they did not work out at all. Fortunately they're great for shredding and adding into another soap base to make a confetti soap.

I doubt I'll make another salt bar.

TallBlonde,

Is this the same book?

Soap Naturally(Ingredients, Methods and Recipes for Natural Homemade Soap)

Programmer Publishing, Ltd. Australia

$79.99

There's no Author listed, just wanted to make sure it was the same as you had mentioned.

Thanks

Jennifer

Yes, but it doesn't cost $80. You can get it from Ann Lee for $26.

http://www.annelees.com/books/

I refer to it and this forum all the time. And because I work in the library, remember your local library is a great source to go to before you buy any books!

Soap Naturally by Patrizia Garzena and Maria Tadiello.

I'll go with the emulsified butter. I don't like straight whipped butters (imho pia to make, too greasy and mine always melt), lotions are ok, but my emulsified butter is soooooper thick, and I actually keep a jar of it in my car and it doesn't melt or separate in the heat.

I believe my DH used Fireworks to make my labels. I also have Print Shop for Macs.

I love my Mac:rockon:

I often make 100% oo soaps. I don't find that they're that soft. I usually can cut them the next day, just like my other soaps. They are slimy, but I'm using a bar now that I've had for about a year and it lathers nicely now. These I either don't scent, or use eos. A few months ago I made one that was 75% oo and 25% shea. It's super hard. It's slimy, but I'm hoping the longer I have it the better it'll get.

I think it adds character

I'm trying to figure out what's worse the soda or the lye

That's just what I was thinking!!!

I just hope that he's not making the soap and the jam at the same time! Might get confused and end up with "Pink" flavored jelly!

I have a Delsie also. You just put your slab in and slide it across. I even used it to cut some old soaps into smaller bars. I've had it a couple years now and haven't had any trouble with it and I can cut my soap to any size.

That's funny you should ask this. My DH loves the smell of tires and I was wondering if there was a new tire fo out there. I'll have to check this out!

How about "lavendar-infused ____ oil"?

That's what I do!

So when you say that you have not had to heat your oils at all, do you mean you don't melt the oils at all? Does the lye melt it that good:confused: Just wondering becuase I thought we HAD to melt the hard oils first...

Thanks!

It's just been so hot here that my coconut oil is all melted right now. There's no need to melt it. Nature has done the work for me.

I soap them at about 90. I have done them at room temp in the summer which is about 80 or so ( I do not have air conditioning)

Yeah, I've been soaping RT lately here. The temp has been around 90-100 so I haven't had to heat my oils at all!

What I just realized today (I know, I'm a bit slow!!!) about Soap calc is that it doesn't take into account your superfatting percentage. I've been playing with 100% coconut oil soaps. First was 20%, then 25% and today I made a 30% superfatting. Well, the numbers all stay the same. It just gives the values of the oils but you don't really know how the soap will be until it's done. Olive oil has a hardness rating of 15, but 100% oo gets really hard over time. It's a great tool, but not entirely accurate as far as end result goes.

I wanted to add that I also do 80% CO; 10% babassu and 10% avocado oil. The last 3 batches I've made, I subbed the castor for avocado oil and have so preferred this recipe.

What is your superfatting % when you use this?

I always soap with my milks cold or frozen, oils no hotter than 100 and I stir more than I use the SB. If adding the milk directly to the lye, I use frozen milk and very slowly add the lye to it. You can also hold back part of your liquid (Milks) only adding the lye to the other part of your water or aloe juice. Then at trace, add the remaining liquid (the cold milks). Ex. recipe calls for 12 oz liquid, you'd only add the lye to a portion of that 12 oz with the remaining amount being the milks which are added at trace.

How come sometimes when I pour my lye into my cold milk it hardens into a block of lye milk? Is the milk too frozen? I've tried milk soaps several times and it just never works right.

I would suggest get something in writing, like a contract. If anything goes wrong, at least you'd have it in writing.

Good luck!

Lemongrass eo is another good sticker.

I find lemongrass really strong. I usually cut it with another eo.

Huh. I got some plumeria from Candles and Supplies and it soaped great. I don't recall having problems with it. Maybe I'll try it again.