SoapySue

Me and a couple of my soaping friends were talking about doing a co-op type thingy on fragrance oils from various suppliers. We are just wanting to sample the fo's, so we are buying 16 oz and bigger and breaking them down to 1 and 2 oz bottles. Now my question is.....What are the regulations on shipping fo's with ups and usps? I've seen some posts with people having troubles with shipping fo's. I've browsed both ups and usps websites, and couldn't really find straight up info. Maybe I'm just to impatient, and overlooked what I was hunting. Any links or info would be greatly appreciated. TIA, Susan

I have never tried it myself, but Sandy Maine makes a Jewelweed Soap for poison ivy. (and by gosh, she knows a lot more about soap making than I do.) In her book "Soothing Soaps for Healthy Skin" she states .... For soap, jewelweed must be used in either fresh or frozen form. Once you locate a patch, snip about twenty plants at the base. Get them home as soon as you can. Rinse them in cool water and blend them with 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of glycerin. Strain this maceration through several layers of cheesecloth, discarding the remaining plant matter. The remaining mixture that you don't use in your soap recipe can be frozen into ice cubes and stored for direct application on future outbreaks of poison ivy. She also makes calamine soap, camphor and clary sage soap, balsam of peru and benzoin anti-itch soap, and witch hazel soap (decoction made from the bark). These soaps don't cure it, just help relieve itching. Susan

I believe BCN carries them, if not, I know for sure that Atlantic Spice and San Francisco Herb have them. (Same companies, Atlantic spice is East Coast and SF Herb is West Coast.)

YES, their is alot of that going on! Soap Naturally's website removed some of their content because of it being resold on ebay. I think Bitter Creek has had some trouble with their info being resold on ebay also. That is why I refuse to buy recipes collections off of ebay. If someone is going to get my money for a recipe, I want it to pay for their hard work, not because they know how to paste and cut on their computer. So a lot of what comes from ebay are recipes that the seller has NO clue about.

I agree with Peachdream, just wanted to add if you are making MP soap embeds for other soapers, watch those colors that bleed and migrate. ~Susan

I have to agree with Rebecca, because without seeing the whole recipe we cannot be of much help. Each oil has it's own properties, and the use of some oils will subtract certain qualities of other oils. All I can offer you at this momment would be to look for oils with high Myristic, Lauric, Palmitic, and Stearic acids. In addition, also look for oils with a lower Iodine levels. But making a bar only with these suggestions, would make a soap that would be drying to the skin. If you would like to tinker with your recipe on your own, I suggest using the SoapCalc. It is a calculator that helps you to see the qualities of what your combined oils may be. There is a section on soap qualities and an oil list that I recommend reading to help you make the bar you want. ~Susan * aww....ya posted the recipe before my reply went thru

Has anyone tried the Aroma-Lite Wicks? (Made by Atkins & Pearce.) Was just reading a little about them...."specially engineered to burn in candle systems with high levels of fragrance." Hoping for a little feedback before I go wasting more money....lol. (I have a nasty little habit of buying and trying to many new things.) ~Susan

Well gals, feel lucky......at my post office the wicked witch works there. (a.k.a. my ex-husbands wife) Even if she wasn't my ex's wife, I still couldn't stand her. But I have to laugh because the other day I was in there picking up the mail for the office and the girl at the front desk was holding a fly swatter trying to swat a fly. The funny thing about that was she was calling .."Here Sherry....Here Sherry"...then she looked at me and said all the flies around there were named Sherry ... I just laughed because Sherry is my ex's wife. ~Susan

My 10 yr old came from school last week thinking I had baked muffins. When she found out that it was just blueberry muffin tarts, she gave me dirty looks the rest of the day. I tend to forget that the kitchen was meant for something other than making tarts and soaps...lol ~Susan

Kris...you might want to try Sheryl's Graphics. She has several websets that she offers for free, and even allows businesses to use them freely. (The link I used will take you directly to the freebies page.) ** forgot to mention that there are gingham and kraft brown backgrounds in some of her sets. ~Susan

Thank you so much! I had my fingers crossed hoping for good reviews, because I cannot find a better price per pound and that is including shipping. I'm so happy! ~Susan

I want to order some of their white beeswax pastilles, but before I commit to a 25 lb box, I wanted to check with my fellow CT's to see if anyone has tried them. TIA! ~Susan

I use fourbucks.net, and love them to death. I have never had any problems with them, or with my site. They have osCommerce, Zen Cart, and Cube Cart ready for you to add to your site. (Zen Cart is my favorite.) My site is www.reedycreekdesigns.com (it's offline right now cause I am redoing it.) I have an informational site, so I don't have to have a shopping cart. I do run special co-ops in which I do put the zen shopping cart up for. These carts are boxy looking and knowing a little about php and how to change css files will help to change them. They have so much that comes with their packages. I pay by the year, and I pay around $98.00. You don't have to use their shopping carts, there are other options. Mal's e-commerce is a free shopping cart that is very easy to use. Your son could easily add this in with html. Sheryls Graphics has 2 free candle websets that she allows to be used by businesses. If your son knows html, I say do it yourself. Will save money, and you won't have to pay anyone to add products, change prices or anything else you need done. Susan

Rainbow Meadow has 30 blends in their EO blend database using Oakmoss EO. I haven't never tried any, but maybe it's worth taking a look at.

I bought this scent trying to find something that smelled clean and that would be something that my husband would use. OOB - Hard to describe, but was not what I thought Lever 2000 should smell like. It had a clean smell to it, and was very strong. I really don't know what to think of this oil, was okay, but gave me a headache. MP Soap - Very strong, I would suggest using a little less than you normally do. When first soaped, it still gave me a headache smelling it, but soap is about 3 months old now and has mellowed out some. Cp soap - Will soap some soon (will try to remember to post results when soaped) In candles - If my memory serves me right, I used 1 oz pp. in IGI 4761. Has a strong smell in candles, but still gives me a headache. Personally, I won't buy this FO again. I believe my money could be spent better on another FO. I bought this oil because it had some good ratings on WSP's site, but it just isn't for me.

Just passing along a little information on some fixed oils and essential oils good for eczema. For dry eczema: fixed oil: avocado oil, borage oil, hazelnut oil, evening primrose oil, tamanu oil. Essential Oils: Basil(but not for use on children), German and Roman Chamomile, Lavender, Lemon (photosensitizing), Palmarosa, Sandalwood For Moist Eczema: fixed oils: evening primrose, sesame oil, tamanu oil E.O's: Eucalyptus, German and Roman Chamomile, Juniper, Lavender, Niaouli (not for use on children under 10), Patchouli ~Susan

This really isn't in answer to your question, but thought you might like to look at them. Go to Fineartmolds.com coloring tips page, and at the bottom they give directions for decoratively coloring cp soaps made in their molds. They have beautiful molds, but you could do the same in any mold. And you may also want to visit Nizzy's Soap page and check out his soap frosting and cream soaps. I think someone could make some very, very pretty favors using his technique. ~Susan

Although I haven't done it in a while, I plan on doing so soon. When my sister and I use to stay with my grandmother (that's been about 30 yrs ago...whew), she had some lemon soap balls that a friend of hers gave to her. So, my sister asked me to make some. I was waiting till I made my next plain batch of soap. One of the main reasons I wanted to hand mill these, other than them being balls, was some citrus e.o.'s don't hold up (fade quickly) as well in cp soap without being anchored by another e.o. or such. So some of the advantages might be: (I cannot attest to all of them) 1. More predictable color results. 2. You can use less f.o.'s and e.o.'s, because they don't have to go through the rigors of active lye. 3. Herbs won't lose their medicinal properties. 4. Herbs won't turn brown in the soaps as quickly, but eventually they will turn brown. That's about all the information I can give. Hope it helped in some way. ~Susan