brydean

I always HP my Castille. I do a slight water discount as I'm not overly worried about pourability since I leave it uncolored and quite often unscented or just EO's. I just put in my PVC mold and bang away! LOL I never have a problem with it being soft, its always ready to cut within 24 hr. plenty hard enough. Give it a go!:smiley2:

Thanks you all make me feel better! Glad to know I"m not the only one that has dealt with this! LOL Yes, it was the fact that she gave it back that upset me. My own father and stepfather won't use my soap either, that doesn't bother me. I tease them, but I figure thats their choice. I think I would have prefered her throwing it away, at least I wouldn't have known about it! LOL I do realize she is not the homemade type of person. Actually its a wonder we have been friends for so long. We are complete opposites in so many ways! Such as I don't think a dust bunny would even dare set foot in her house, were as mine has never turned one away! The friendship will endure. I just won't give her any more soap! LOL:p

Ok, my dh and mother don't understand why this bothers me. So I decided to get the opinion of a completely non-biased group of people! Other soapers! LOL:laugh2: One of my best friends lives in another state. She knows all about my soap but had never seen it. So last summer I sent her 3 bars and a lipbalm as a gift, she had recently remodled her bath so I thought it was approppriate. I know she has very sensitive skin so I was very careful to choose lightly scented items, with EO. Same soaps that my dh use, with his sensitive skin. I think she normally uses Dove or some such product. We went for a visit a few months later and she handed me the package back. Said that she knew she couldn't use it and didn't want to waste me gift.:undecided It really hurt me feelings. She couldn't even give it a try? Just use it for decoration? Heck, give it too someone else! This is still bothering me several months later! I keep telling myself that I'm being ridiculous! But, I haven't listened to myself yet! LOL:D

Maybe either save some of your water or your superfat oil/ butter, to add after the cook to keep it more fluid. I HP's most of EO soaps, I add it with my super fat as soon as it turns mashed potato, and I never have a problem encorporating it in. HTH:D

Took me much longer to learn CP, my first couple of attempts were disasters! I did much better with HP. But since I want to be able to do nice swirls, I kept at it and have finally mastered CP! LOL:o

Thanks, JoAnn, you have been very informative! LOL My dd is terribly sensitive,to any of the sugar alcohols including sorbital. Amazing how many products they use it in. But, no one even the ped. every told me why! On the subject of soap, I probably do 1/2 and 1/2 HP & CP, depending on what I'm looking for. It takes more practice, but I can turn out a pretty nice looking HP.

MP must be bought! It is made commercially! I dont' know what makes it so liquidy and easily melted. But, NO you cannot make it at home. HTH:smiley2:

I've never tried theirs, but I have heard there are some really nice MP bases out there. I've seen people do really beautiful things with them. But, I've never heard of anyway to make one yourself from scratch. I don't know of anyway to get the fluidity, that MP bases have, yourself. If someone knows different please let me know!

Sorry, but I don't think it is possible to make your own melt and pour. Those are usually syndet bars I believe. You can make large batches and then rebatch, but its alot of work and won't ever be smooth and easy to pour. Most of us save that for salvaging botched or ugly soaps. HTH:grin2:

will chili pepper (as in pepper spice) help color? hmmmm...maybe i will heat some aloe vera with that in it. I would be afraid of that irritating to the skin! How about scorching a milk soap! That always turns it a nice orange for me! LOL:laugh2: I couldn't resist!

When I did melt and pour, I found an empty trial size hairspray bottle worked best. I just bought one of the little non-aresol trial bottles emptied it out and washed it real well. It gives off the fine mist you need. HTH

One of the librarians, remembers when I was checking out soap making books by the dozens! LOL She asked me last week if I was still making soap, this has been a couple of years now. Today I'm taking in a little bag of samples for the librarians!

Interesting question???? Or would it have a tendancy to burn like milk?? Hope someone knows!

I made soap last night and decided to use some mica's I had gotten off classified, I knew it was skin safe just didn't know what it would do in CP soap. The color looked like a kelly green, well once I mixed it in it started turning a brownish orange color! But by this morning it has settled into a a nice pinkish color! Not exactly what I was aiming for but pretty nonetheless!LOL Of course I used Lookout Point FO, which I thought I had a rather manly scent. Planned on focusing it toward men. Not sure how many would want pink soap though!! LOL Maybe I'll try some more tonight see what colors I come up with!!

This seems to work for me also. If I leave the oven on, it always seems to overheat! Of course sometimes that can be a good thing. I had one overheat and form these interesting looking beads on top! My dd called it my coral reef soap! It was a great soap and everyone loved it, because it loked so unique! Not that I will ever be able to duplicate it! LOL:cool2:

I make mine with 90% OO and 10% castor. No scent or color. I HP mine, and don't seem to have the problem with the bars being soft, obviously they still need a cure. But I can cut them within a few hours. I hate to tie up my molds I only have 2. My mother takes care of a 91 yr. old woman and since she has got her to use that instead of of the commercial bar, her skin is SOOO much better. Even the woman who does her manicures commented on how much softer and smoother the skin on her arms has been.

That's my problem! My 3 may have been in bed, but I tend to forget that I now have mommy brain! It should no longer be relied upon to remember more than if I actually took a shower today! I have since gone to soap calc and just printed out the larger recipe!

My recipe wasn't my problem, my brain was the problem! Tried and true recipe. I got a bigger mold so wanted to make a bigger batch. Decided to double my normal recipe. If it called for 6oz, I put in 12oz etc. But, I must have messed up somewhere and forgot to double. I should have taken the time to rewrite or reprint it.

I learned a valuable lesson this week. When you are changing something in your recipe, in my case doubling it. Don't just go on memory WRITE IT DOWN!! I was just doubling the numbers in my head and must have forgot to double an oil. Ended up tossing a 5lb. batch. If I had written the doubled amounts down fist, I could have saved myself an expensive loss! Just wanted to share!

I rebatched it. Sort of a ugly soap, but so far so good, seems OK. But, I definately think this soap will be strictly for personal use to be on the safe side!

I'm trying to decide if I soap I made Wed. night is lye heavy? It's my usual recipe, nothing different. I added JS shimmering pink FO, first time I've use it. Last night I uncovered it and went to cut it and noticed that they were drops on the top of the log. I checked it, yep lye!! Ouch!! I blotted it off and left it over night. This morning no new drops, but a dampness around the outside, also lye. So I cut it and the inside seemed fine. No zap, no lye pockets. The color on the inside was also better. Creamy off white with pink swirls. But, all around the outside, it had more of a bright yellow color. Weird looking. The smell is a little off also, I can smell the FO, but also a little bit of sharp smell also. Right now I have it chopped up and remelting, wanting to rebatch it. I'm just racking my brain too remember if maybe I weighed something wrong? I did do double my normal recipe, did I forget to double an oil? But back to my original question, isn't lye heavy soap normally crumbly? This isn't, very soft almost a rubbery feel actually. I'm just trying to decide if a rebatch is worth it. But I hate to waste 5 lb. of oils!! TIA!!!!!!

I did a small festival in my own town this past weekend. I didn't expect big sales. As they are completely tearing up and redesigning the main street in town. So they didn't advertise this year. I knew it would be small, but I figured local I'll do it anyway. Day started out great, had 3 big sales within 15min. Then the DJ set up right accross from me! I could barely talk to the customers as the music was so loud. Then he kept having contests, so people would gather near my booth but not to buy. Music blasted from 12-6. Then everytime someone, got dunked in the dunk tank down the street a stream of water came rushing down the street, so I was standing in a puddle of streaming water! LOL had to move my main table forward which messed up my display. Then some lady picked up one of my bath salts and I could tell she was bad mouthing one of my ingredients or something to her friend. But, I couldn't hear what she was saying due to the music. By that point I didn't even care anymore. Oh well, I made back my booth fee and a little extra. I just had to share with people who would understand! Of course that same Dj will be at another festival I am doing in 2 weeks. If I see him setting up near me, I'm dragging my booth in the opposite direction!

Just for informatinal purposes. Never use a metal (non-aluminum) loaf pan for salt bars. It destroys the finish and leaves rust marks on the bars. Don't ask me how I know this. LOL;)

Check out places like Goodwill also. I got a huge stockpot, I think it probably at least 15 qts. for $7. The biggest I've ever made was 6lbs. and it didn't even fill it halfway.

The only place I've ever been able to find it around me, is the Family Dollar. I think its by Palmer?