Tall Blonde

You could soap with it, but since it's fat-free, it won't be as creamy feeling as a full-fat milk (I think). You could always give it a try and report your findings! Or, just pour it in some bath water and take a nice, long milk bath.

I seriously want one for my sister. She LOVES elephants, and for her 50th a few years back we sent her on a safari. Are you going to be selling these? I so want one!!!

Don't bother with the Honey Bear. I got it hoping it would be a good honey scent. YUCK!!! It has kind of a powdery scent (DH says it smells like baby powder). I would never use it in a lip product! And I got the Traquil Sleep which is suppose to the the B&BW Lavender Vanilla, and to me, it smells nothing similar. Does MMS have a good honey? 'Course, I'll have to use up this stuff first. (When #2 son smelled the honey bear in some lotion, he held his nose and said "Yuck! What's that smell!" He didn't like it at all!!

Ok then. :smiley2:

Here's a stupid question- How is emulsified butter different from a really thick lotion (cream)?

I mix my honey with a little bit of my oils, warm it up a bit, then add in at light trace. I've never had a problem with honey doing anything wonky to my soaps. Yesterday I made a lavender and honey shampoo bar, I mixed the honey with a little jojoba, then added it at light trace. I'll take it out of the mold tomorrow, but so far it looks great!

The site looks great and I love that you include the ingredients list. As someone with sensitive skin, I like to know what I'm getting in case of allergy. I won't buy stuff if I don't know what's in it. And your soaps look beautiful!!!

This is really great! Thanks for the help. I'm going to play around with some recipes and see what I can come up with. I just love experimenting!!!:highfive:

Ok, so I'm now on this stearic kick. I found in an old thread someone saying to use 1-2% stearic in soap. Is that correct? Do I add it to the lye calculation or is it something extra that I don't have to calculate? I've never used stearic in soap and for some unknown reason I now want to give it a try. Anybody use it and have any words of widsom to share?

So, do you use stearic to harden it up? What percentage do you use? What would a typical recipe be like? You've got my curiousity up now! I'm going to have to give this a try!

If you go to WSP's sister site Flavor & Fragrance (or something like that) they have free shipping on orders of $50 or more. I do most of my ordering from them (MMS and Oils by Nature being the others). A lot of people do have complaints about WSP, but I've always had good service from them, and I like being able to get all my supplies from one place. But that's just me.

What percentage do you generally use RBO? I use pomace usually a minimum of 50%. Can RBO be used in the same way?

I make CP and I agree. My soaps are ugly. However... I like to experiement with fruits and veggies, teas, milk, yogurt etc. Coloring soap is not important to me. But I also don't make soap for my livelihood. Yes, I do sell some, but that's after giving away several bars to lots of people, and one person coming back for more. Personally, I don't buy a bar of soap for how it looks, I buy it for what it's going to feel like on my skin. If your customers want "pretty," then do what someone else suggested and wrap it up in some nice packaging. Or become a soap wizard and create magic like Grumpy Girl!!!

I have the same kind of skin. I make up a sugar scrub with a lot of honey (antibacterial) some oil (grapeseed, or orange infused olive oil) and some liquid soap (with tea tree) so that the oil doesn't stay on my face. I actually use it almost every day. If I go for too long without the scrub, I just get all bumpy and rough and icky. It was really helpful with the winter rash I had on my arms. Using the scrub and then castile soap got rid of my winter itchies. I also use either witch hazel or rose water as a toner. The weirdest thing though, is that my skin gets oilier at work than it does at home. What's up with that?

I use 1 label, but it wraps all the way around the bottle, so the ingredients and other necessary info appear in the back. I was doing 2 labels before, but it was too time consuming for me.

I made some lotion once and did the same thing only with color. I thought the bottle had a pipette top, found out it didn't. Poured almost the whole bottle of green into the lotion. When you rubbed it on, your skin turned green. Needless to say, I no longer color my lotion!

I was using PrintShop (for Mac) and printing on a full sticker sheet then cutting the circles out, which was a time-consuming pia, so when I got the circle labels, my husband used Fireworks to configure the labels.

I decided to have a go at making a shampoo bar and I love it! First I gave up using conditioner on my hair. My hair is extremely fine and straight. When I stopped using conditioner I didn't notice any difference. Then I made the shampoo bar. I used shea, avo & hemp butters (I gotta use up the hemp before it goes bad), upped the castor oil to 7%, and boy, is my hair soft & bodyful! I'm never buying shampoo again! It's also been great on my face. My skin feels really smooth for the first time ever, and less acne.

I hate to say this, but lotions gave me an excuse to buy a new KA. I bake bread for the family at least once a week and I reasoned that the 6 cup model wasn't large enough for us. So I put that one in the garage for lotions and butters, and bought myself the grande 12 cup version.:embarasse

I prefer CP because I like the smoothness of the soap, and I like to use fruits, veggies and milk in my soaps.

Well, from what I've read of OHP, yes. With CP, after you reach trace, you pour it into your mold, then insulate with blankets (or not, some people don't insulate to avoid the gel stage). What I do is, I have a wood mold, I put some freezer paper and a piece of wood on top, then throw an old sleeping bag over it. You have to understand that I do my soapmaking in the garage, so it's a bit chilly in there, so I have to insulate pretty well. Then the natural chemical reaction (saponification) takes place. You can really feel the heat from it! After 12 hours or so, I take a peek. Usually I give it a little poke to see how it's hardening. Then after another 12-24 hours I take it out of the mold and let it sit. Then depending on how hard it is and how eager I am I cut it. And then, because I am impatient, I cut a small slice, run inside and start washing with it. As long as my hands don't itch and burn, it's ok. A lot of people do hot process because they don't want the waiting time. Like I said, my mold doesn't fit in the oven (it's a big slab mold my dh built for me) and I make 41/2 to 7 lbs of soap, depending on the recipe. I'd just say, try different things and see what you like best. I also use a lot of fruit, veggies and milk/yogurt in my soaps, & the temps for those ingredients are best kept low. Just make some small batches using different methods, take lots of notes and see what you like!

Others will be able to answer this better, but as I understand, HP you subject your raw soap to a heat source (like the stove). It gels faster and forces saponification faster. There are several different methods of HP, such as crock pot, direct heat, double boiler, oven process, etc. You're basically cooking your soap. With cold process, after you melt your butters and oils and bring your lye temp down you mix it all together until you reach trace, pour the raw soap into a mold, then insulate it. The chemical reaction causes its own heat and produces saponification. The 6 week or so curing is to ensure saponification is complete and to allow water to evaporate, hopefully hardening your soap. I tried DBHP & DHHP a couple times and didn't like the way it turned out. I prefer the smoothness of CP. And I don't have any molds to fit in my oven, so I haven't tried OHP. I hope I explained this all right?:undecided

I'm probably too late for you, but from what I understand, PKO can be drying and irritating to the skin if used at more than 20%. You would probably be better off upping the olive oil. Remember, that although olive oil is considered a "soft oil," it acutally creates a very hard, long lasting bar, and it good for all skin types. Personally, I never use palm or PKO. I've found that if I up the castor oil to 7% and the coconut to about 23% I can get a really nice lather going. I use as close to half olive as I can get for hardness.

Can I take the Stormwatch:drool:

I totally agree with you about the ingredients!!! I always list mine, because you never know what someone may be allergic to. I can't believe that woman was selling those icky soaps. I wouldn't even give them away, or let my family use them! That's just irresponsible!