hem06

I don't get a false trace. Actually the soap traces very well. I don't know why you don't understand the cold water, you are essentially cooling the soap the minute you mix the lye mixture with the melted oils, that has to happen to make the soap solidify.

But the reaction of lye+oils produces heat. If you stop or retard that heat from occurring, it takes longer to saponify. So, putting your mix in a cold bath is just going to retard the saponification process, not speed trace.

My Ginger flower seized as well. I love the oils I got, they smell great--they just all seized.

max usage for them is 2%---so much less than I am used to!

Yours look lovely.

How about:

Coconut: 25%

Castor: 8%

Crisco: 45%

Olive: 22%

Hardness:35

Cleansing: 17

Conditioning: 60

Bubbly: 24

Creamy: 25

...and you can add sugar to the water prior to the lye to up bubbles if you are not happy with the bubbles. You can also add sodium lactate for hardness (or a couple of tablespoons of salt ppo, that is what I use)

This is a much more conditioning recipe

I don't see CO, PKO or Babassu as a sub for Crisco--they are what I use for bubbly/cleansing oils.

I use lard, and love it...so I am no help for subs unless you just use olive oil.

All the mixing you do to achieve trace is about emulsifiying the ingredients to kick-start saponification. If you do less of it and pour at a thin trace, the whole process can go much slower. If you mix a lot and get it to a thicker trace, that will give it a bigger kick-start and you might get more accumulation of heat in the mold.

That is really interesting! I had not thought of that. I know when I do my 100% coconut salt bars (even without salt, if I do 100% coconut with high super fat), I get the batter quite thick so I can mix the salt in, and I have to take great care that it doesn't over heat.

Those are beautiful!

That's gorgeous!!!

Oooooooooooh. Now I get it!!

Those are confusing directions. You must have thought we were all dim bells!

I have never added color to my lye water, altho I have seen suppliers recommend that procedure for testing a color.

So, use some of your water (before you put in lye) and mix the color to a slurry--use a cup or whatever.

Then add emulsified soap batter to your cup when you are ready to colour.

I usually just take a small scoop, put it in whatever I am going to use for swirl (disposable cup, small pitcher, whatever) and mix it with some oils. I always mix oxides with oils, someone told me that long ago, so that is how I do it.

I use that small amount of oil, mix it up so there are no clumps, then when I have emulsion, I scoop off a small amount for swirls and put it in the mix.

Does that make sense? Or do I need to go to bed?

If you are looking to color your base, I always just take out some uncolored portions to swirl first.

Thank you for sharing! They are completely lovely!

I went through this too--I got sucked in by her "going out of business" then found out she has had the same thing up for over a year!

My oils took 6 weeks to arrive, and all the bottles are caved in. She didn't respond to ANY of my emails, either.

Hmmm, that is a tough one. Can you post your recipe? Could you have weighed the lye wrong, or used the wrong amount?

:tiptoe:

How would you answer this if it were a soaper posting this in the candle section?

I am the same...Goodwill and Value Village are so expensive. V.V books are half of cover price! Whatever. I will go support a good used book store that actually pays people for their books.

The clothes are disgusting and way over priced.

Back to topic, we have a store here called "The Bargain Store" that I LOVE....I got stainless steel stock pots for under $10, all kinds of cool stuff. Kids clothes are dirt cheap, too.

There is a list on the old board:

http://www.candletech.com/archivedforum/YaBB.cgi.195.html

Cold Process Soap:

Rose Bouquet: keeps its lovely fresh scent. Doesn't morph, accelerate, or change color

Green Tea: no problems

Spiced Cranberry: no problems

Mango & Papaya: separated. May work if you keep temps down and take finicky FO preparations. Smelled wonderful (sigh)

Edited on 2/5/5: Eugenia summarized all these results up through page 4 - thank you! I'll assume all these are CP - if you want to try a "No Good" one, double check for posts to see if anyone found a way to make it work.

Good:

Almond Pastries

Apple Blossom

Asian Sandalwood

Baby Powder

Black Canyon*

Blackberry Sage*

Cabernet Grape

Canteloupe

Cherry

Clean Cotton

Cool Citrus Basil

Country Garden

Country Heather

Cucumber Melon

Eucalyptus Leaf

Freesia

Fresh Linen

Fruit Slices

Gardenia

Gigner Passion

Green Clover & Aloe

Green Tee

Hyacinth*

Jamaica Me Crazy

Jasmine

Keylime

Lavender

Lemon Pound Cake

Lemongrass Sage

Lilac*

Love Spell

Mandarin Plum

Midsummer Night*

Moonlight Path - CP @3/4 oz ppo. No accel.

Mountain Lake

Ocean*

Patchouli - CP 1 oz.

Plumeria

Red Currant

Rose Bouquet

Spiced Cranberry

Spring Rain*

Strawberries & Cream*

Strawberry Kiwi

Sugar Plum Berries

Sunflower

Sweet Pea

Tall Grass

Tuscan Nights (at .5 oz ppo, accelerates)

Vanilla Hazelnut

Vanilla Mint

Warm Apple Pie

Wild Raspberry

* take precautions

No Good:

Blueberry Muffins

Coconut Milk

Crème Brulee

French Vanilla (fades @ 1 week w/ 1 oz)

Georgia Peach

Juicy Pineapple

Mango Papaya

Mediterranean Fig

Orange (plastic smell)

Pomegranate

HTH

I would buy some, should you choose to "price to sell"--I only do soap for myself, so I don't care. I think if you price it right and are honest in the description, people would take it off your hands.

Sorry about your divorce-they suck.

I wanted to order but you are too grumpy to ship international.

Depends on who is doing it. could range from 200 to 2000 or more:shocked2:

Holy crap! My friend TJ does them for half that---the whole site!!!!!

My friend latisha owns a hosting company, her rates are dead cheap too. Pm me if you want her email addy!

I don't sweeten either-dh EATS it if I do, then bitches. So...they smell awesome but taste icky.

i do my castile in a crock pot. I love CP but I hate WAITING!!

It does take longer to cook-but traces faster than CP (the heat, I think.)

I do find that you may not get the same "white" color from it as you would doing CP tho. Mine usually end up off white or green-y. But they lighten over time.

Thank you!

I haven't been lining the pan, but it is really hard to get the soap out! I haven't used CP, I've been doing the crock pot HP!

I soap the same way (CPHP and loaf pan). I grease w/olive oil, making sure I generously get it in corners. Then, when soap is ready to come out, I take an exacto knife, slice (carefully) up the sides, and turn the pan over, give it a good whap, and the soap falls out. yes, the tops may be oily...just dab them with a paper towel as you put them on the rack. well worth not having the "stuck in the damn pan" syndrome.

HTH!

I would search the boards here for types of molds to use for BW. I've never used it, but have read where others have gotten their BW candles stuck in certain metal molds.

Ya...a taper one!!!

Thank you all for the great ideas....I couldn't figure out how to have one that didn't melt!