Peachdream

What a gorgeous color! Fantastic looking log!

On their history page its says they are a "hybrid dense glycerine soap" (whatever that means?) so I guess those other ingredients are just additives for the different rocks they make. Must take a lot of time and practice to get them looking that good! Bet they smell good too...

If you are working with M&P base you can use any round container you can get your hands on. You could use a silicone cake tin, or if you wanted it a bit smaller use a lunch box or tupperware container. You just mix up base in the appropriate colour and pour the layers as usual. For the frosting you can buy a special frosting base or whip it yourself in your kitchen mixer. You will need to work out how much the mold holds so you have enough base on hand. They do take a lot of base to make.

Thats no problem:cheesy2: I saw you were in Aussie and as its humid as anything here in Auckland, I thought you might be having the same problems I am at the moment.

Is the slime thick or does it have a kind of wet appearance on the outside of the bar? MP is a humectant and draws water out of the air so if you soap on a humid day you can get 'sweating'. If you wipe it off the bar will be hard underneath and just fine to use. so you just need to wipe and then put into a cello bag or wrap in cling wrap. Thats the only thing I can think of, cause I usually associate slime with too much added oils or fragrance, but then the bar doesnt set up properly either or has definite pockets of oil on top and bottom.

I use aussie pink clay in mine. It does give a slight clay smell so you do need fragrance to cover it. The clay also colors it of course so you might want a cream/white or brown clay if its for a bloke:)

I'm afraid they are all addictive (and make you poor)! I started with MP and really enjoyed it. It had its challenges and made attractive soap. Its a good place to start and you gain a lot of equiment/oils etc to make the transition to CP if you want. I had only MP'd for about two months when I started OHP and love that too. Then yesterday and started making whipped shea, which is really easy and requires little equipment. Gosh...obviously I have this 'bug' really bad.. Welcome to the club!

Do you mean MP or making your own the CP way? I make a MP shaving soap with clay and castor oil added to it. It gives an amazingly close shave when used with a shaving brush. The clay gives it slick and the castor gives a bit of a lather. I add about a tsp of each to 4oz of base. My husband was a real picky shaver, he never used any soap or foam, preferring a 'wet' shave under the shower head. He loves this recipe and uses it all the time now which is saving me money on hot water

I also bought these to paint balls on my xmas tree MP soaps. I gave up using them on the green and red trees for the exact same reason. They only came out bright on a light base like on my white or yellow trees. :undecided

For MP it is much less fo than cp. I usually use 4oz molds and they generally only need 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of FO. That would be about 1-2 Tbs pp, I think. With MP you have a better idea of how the final soap will smell, so I add fragrance until it smells good and then add a touch more to allow for any fading.

Could you make your logo more centralised or a bit bigger? I like the principal Keep It Simple Stupid so a little blankness is not bad in my book. Does your logo have a little pic or image in/under it. With mine I am going to have the logo with a little pic(just clipart) under it then in a different font the fragrance/name. You could use simple stickers like you use for scrapbooking on it also maybe...Just my thoughts..

I have searched for recipes for my dogs and am going to try tea-tree and neem oil, which is supposed to help with fleas. Most of the bases in the ones I saw were pretty standard OO, CO, PO and I will try castor as I think that might be good for their coat. I'll watch this thread with interest for some tried and true recipes. Its spring here and my two furry friends really need a bath after not having had one since autumn. Phew!

Here are a couple of pics of the cut soap. It seems to be hardening up well and I was impressed with the creaminess of the lather. There are a few darker lines/patches, not sure if that is fragrance or colour not mixed in maybe? I used Vanilla FO. Thank you so much for all your support guys! Already planning my next batch, of course, but have some MP soaps my sister has ordered off me for xmas so will be back to that for a few weeks (if I can control myself, of course:drool:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q206/peachdream/Picture002small.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q206/peachdream/Picture001small.jpg

perhaps TKB? they do a great sampler of 20 colors for $25 (from memory). They do some cool neons for MP.

http://www.tkbtrading.com/

I too use my kitchen microwave. I have never heard/read anywhere that it is dangerous, including from my suppliers. If you can use the bowls for cooking again afterwards then I am not fussed about the inside of the microwave....(rushing off to clean my microwave incase)

Most of the embeds I use for my MP are made of soap (curls, shapes etc), but its common for people to use things such as silk petals, plastic ducks, erasers. For melt and pour you can use anything that won't rot in a moist environment. I'm sure a lot of your candle embeds would fit that description too. I'm not sure if the CP soap makers use many embeds but hopefully one of those ladies will add their comments.

I attempted my first batch (OHP) and by the quantity of bubbles in my pot when I rinsed it after pouring I think it may be soap! I was a little worried by how long it took in the oven, so turned it up a bit and put the fan on (was that a good idea?) after an hour. In true newbie fashion I got my first zap before turning it up for the last 15 mins.

I made the recipe from a few things I had in the cupboard PO 25%, CO 25%, cocoa butter 10%, castor 10% and good old cheap canola 30%. It had an INS of 143 which the soapcalc would probably say is too low?

Thank you to DH for stirring like a madman, seeing my SB died a few weeks ago. And a big thank you to AJ (crafty1) whose recent thread on HP I followed, along with all you other guru's that helped me get over the fear of working with Lye. Thank you!

Whew....need a drink and a wee rest now:)

Will post some pics tomorrow if its ok to unmold then.

Thank you Eugenia. I had not come across that link yet. Gosh, I thought I was addicted with the MP but boy I can see that CP/HP bug will be just as bad (and quick at emptying my wallet)!

Guess in a way that answers my question about whether it gives a good result I am sure people would be using it if it was as good as the other HP methods. Being a MPer I like the speed of the microwave, but I think I will go with the OHP method as there are some fabulous threads on that method. Thank you.

Hi

I understand its possible to do the HP thing using a microwave. I not having much luck searching for any tutorials/tips. Can anyone point me in the right direction or share some of their experience.

Thank you!

I find liquid the easiest as you can pour straight into the melted base. Most of the soap dyes I have tried are FD&C. Its suitable for soaps as they are a wash off product. If you use the powder mix it a seperate container first with a little melted base or I sometimes use a tbs of sweet almond oil.

What sort of consistency does it get when you whip it yourself? I imagine it speeds up the cooling process? I've gotta try this myself - (off to make a layered loaf with curls and whipped white base on top - Yummm!)

I would make her a sample bar made out of the base only and see if there is any reaction first. That would be as free of additives or 'hypoallergenic' as you could make it IMO. My girls both get eczema but have had no reaction to the plain base I use. I have since added in some light fragrances and tried a few additives, like castor oil, sweet almond etc and they really only seem to have problems with the fragrance it seems. But everyone's triggers are different.

If DIL is still having a reaction the only thing you could do then would be CP with difference combinations of oils.