brydean

Ok, I'm hoping maybe a few of you will help me. I am loving making soap and other B&B. With our tax return, my dh says to take some money and invest in supplies. I'm just not sure where to start. I need a decent soap cutter, some micas and oxcides, essential oils, fragrance oils. A place to find butters and oils in bulk. Packaging supplies etc. I did find the list of supliers, but where do I start? Who are some of your favorites and why?

Thanks!!!!!

I made oatmeal/ honey soap yesterday, OHP. The part I left unscented is a nice creamy color. But I scented the rest of it with Ginger Spice. It smells awesome, I want to eat it. But its a marbly brownish, creamy color. I expected it to turn brown because, the fragrance did say it had vanilla in it. Will it eventually all turn brown, or stay the multi-colored look? I don't know how to post pic or I would. Thanks!!

I thought I was being clever putting my salt bars in stainless, mini-loaf pans. No cutting needed! Since I didn't need to cut I left them in the mold over night. When I unmolded them the next morning, each one had some rust on them and the finish in the pan is destroyed! Oh well, lesson learned! I trimmed off the bad parts and they still look and smell great. I used white ginger and amber.

One of my favorite soaps is 40% cocoa butter, 40% OO and 20% coconut. I love cocoa butter!

I've bought two scales from this company: http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/

I checked out this site. He had some nice kitchen scales that looked decent for around $25. I think it weighed up to 6lb. It seems to have all the above mentioned features. I make small batches, usually between 1-4 lb. I think that would work? Should be accurate enough, shouldn't it???

Thanks!

When income tax comes in one of the things I would like to get a is a good scale. Before I invested I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed making the soap and wanted to continue. I do!!

I want something decent that will last me for awhile. But I can't afford to buy top of the line either. Any suggestions on what kind or where to find them??

Thanks!!!

bry, besides the risk of a lye heavy soap, not having an accurate scale means you will not necessarily get the same results when you repeat a recipe - so any research you are doing now is kinda iffy. Not to say it won't work out for you, but if you are going to invest in the oils not to mention time and energy...

Sounds like you made a nice batch! Love your EO combination. The thing with castile is that it will always be a bit slimy when you "lather" it up (lather is in quotes cause you don't get much), but that will decrease over time. Castile is best left to cure 3 months IME. Even longer is even better.

I know I need a good scale, but right now I'm just doing it for myself and a few guinea pigs(eh, I mean friends:wink2: ). I have tested it's accuracy though and it is amazing accurate for a cheap non-digital scale. I also weigh very carefully and double check everything!

Most of the soap is put away to cure, but I'm too impatient not to give some of it a try!

Good for you! You need to have a really good scale for 1 lb. batches. There is zero room for error on the lye to oils ratio.

e

I really don't, I've just been fortunate so far when I make small batches. I've only had one small batch turn out badly. Even that one is not zappy, just rather crumbly. It's just a "good cook" scale I got a Walmart, not even digital. But for $20, its been a good scale! I'm hoping to get a good digital this spring though!

I am so happy, I made my first castile over the weekend. I did 90% oo and 10% castor. I only made a 1lb. batch. I HP and just added a small amount of tea tree and orange EO. I molded it in a pringles can. When I went to cut it about 18 hr. later it was already really hard. Today I was moving my soap around and it is as hard as a rock! I was expecting it to be soft and slimy for quite some time. So far I love the feel of it also. Not to mention, even my impossilbe to please mother likes it!!

Sure, anyone would use a free bar of soap that's never been used before. I would opt for a bottle of dish detergent too over a strangers bar of used handsoap (nothing personal).

What everyone is saying does make sense. I agree a strange bar of soap can be really nasty. I guess I just assumed she would get over it. As she has been comming here for months and I hope realizes we are not too terribly disgusting! LOL

I have to admit I about gagged, when I was 7 months pregnant. We had to go downtown to file some court papers. The building we were at had no public restrooms, the only bathroom was in the same building that had the county jail. The only soap they had was a bar of soap. I did use it, But rewashed my hands the first chance I had!

Why are people afraid to try homemade soap? I don't get it.

So I did a little experiment with my sons speech therpist. She must wash her hands before each session. I noticed she always used the dish detergent never my soap. So one week I hid the detergent, she stood there looking for it until I pointed out that there was a bar of soap right there! She did use it then and the next day when I again hid the detergent. The following week I made sure the soap dish had a nice new bar of soap and that the dish was sparkling clean. I also put out the bottle of detergent that had 1/2 in or less left in it. It was also disgustingly filthy as I had used it to clean up after I had made soap the day before. I'm a slob, I tend to get coconut oil and lard all over my hands so I get it on the bottle when I clean up! I purposely left it nasty. So guess which one she used?

The EMPTY, YUCKY DISH DETERGENT!

Today I even left out several small slivers of fresh soap. Nope, detergent again. (The bottle was clean this time )

Anyone else find this happens???

ooops... sorry if I posted in the wrong forum!!

And when she talks about drops....... I imagine it would depend on the size of the dropper?????

I usually measure everything in oz... or ml

So I guess my question is how much of each....

TIA

Most of my EO, come with specially designed caps that dispense them in drops. I imagine thats's what she is talking about. HTH

Thought about making the kids share a room, but figured that would be getting my priorities screwed up (it would, right?). Finally I'm trying the attic. We shall see...

That would be promoting sibling closeness and togetherness, thats good right?

Thanks everybody! I didn't think about the boxes and humidity we are also having a wet damp winter. I may need to rethink my storage options.

I have a question about storing soaps. I have several batches that are now cured enough to put away. I have a couple plastic shoe box contianers to put them in. But, since I make small batches. I hate to put a seperate scent in each one. Would end up taking up too much space. My question is can I put different scents in the same box or will that eventually cause problems?

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie!

The only pure cocoa butter, I have seen from Palmers, comes in a 1oz push up tube. All of their other products usually contain other ingredients. I have used the little push up tubes in a pinch. But even at Family Dollar those tubes are $1.50. That works out to $24.00 lb. I usually buy it for around $8 lb. plus shipping on the internet. Much cheaper!

Yep, thats the benefit to it. I only take it apart to release the soap, or to slide the end in a little for a smaller batch.

OK, I just had a duhh moment!!!

I hate it when my soap doesn't quite fill my mold and makes an odd size. I never thought to just move the side piece in a little bit!! I'm a bright one aren't I?!

Thanks for the tip!

I run a home for orphaned patchouli soaps. We will give them a good, loving home here ... fear not.

I don't know not only are these poor little guys majorly over scented. I didn't realize that my goats milk should be frozen! Such a lovely shade of mud! LOL

Ugly soap swap time!

Ok, I'm very new at this. But so far I have been thrilled with my actual soap! I've made some awesome soap, but most of it is major ugly!

My prettiest ones are the ones I have rebatched! They look great but I don't want to rebatch all the time!

Not doing wonders with the scents either. Again my rebatches are better. I'm discovering what smells good in the bottle doesn't always smell so good in the soap. I will never buy patchoili(sp) again!

I had visions of doing all natural colors and EO. Forget that I want pretty soap, bring on the oxides and FO!

I will master this!

Ok, the crazy lady has had her rant, I feel better now! LOL:tongue2:

Thank you, thank you!!

Now I must stalk the mailman as I wait for my wooden mold to come in! So I can try this!

I keep reading and hearing about salt bars and I really want to try one. But I can't find a recipe. I think I am search illiterate. I've tried searching here and I even tried googling it and had no success. Would someone be kind enough to tell me the basic on how to go about it!:embarasse

Thank you!!!!!

I'm still very new to all of this. But I have been doing CPHP, I like the way my soaps have been turning out. I have mastered a fairly nice marbeling effect to my soaps. Its not nice and smooth like CP, but I personally like the rough, rustic appearance the top of my soaps have. I really want to try CPOP also, but I need to get a good mold first. I choose HP soaps because I have small children and I felt it was safer since it would be completely saponified by the time I was done. Less chance of them getting into something they shouldn't.

Hello all!

I was wondering if someone could tell me if my idea makes any sense!

I made a batch of CPHP last week, it is the nicest soap I have made so far! But, I used Lime EO and whil it smelled really good when I first made it but now it has almost no smell left. I'm still trying to figure out how to get my scents right. The color is also a little brighter than I would have liked.

So I was thinking of chopping it all up adding some water and popping it in the oven for a few hours to melt. Meanwhile making a new batch of the same soap with ALOT more EO, and then mixing them together. Does this make sense? Or does anyone have a better suggestion for this newbie!

TIA

I have the mold shown in the tutorial, I did get it at Walmart. But I am finding that I prefer my biscuit pans from the Dollar Tree! Stainless steel so they are safe to use, and I like the size bars, I get out of them. I like the cut look to the bars instead of the molded look from the mini loaf pans. Of course I really want a large wooden mold eventually!

Hope you enjoy your first venture!

Please, forigve me if this is a stupid question! I've never posted pics on a forum before and have no idea how to do it!

Thanks!

Success!! The superwalmart had it! So I bought 3 and a tub of lard! Yippee! I also forgot how cheap groceries were there. I must go more often!