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soapari

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  1. I love the scent review board, this boards "scents that rock" thread to get a launch point for candle/soap fo's. My friend does candles and I thought I could use his fo's but after some research-not so much. I didnt want to trash an entire batch so I made a 3lb basic batch and used plastic cups to put some raw soap and then a little fo in each cup for testing scents. The morph possibilities are color, scent, texture and some volcano's. I decided those were the visable morphs and had concern about what chemical things could be going on that I couldnt see. I now just buy cp tested fo's (by supplier testing or several thumbs up by soapers) for my soaps. I have found some nice ones here at peak and gemlite that are considered candle fo's and have seen some soapers reference the suppliers you listed. It is hit or miss but if you can find ones others have tested, test them yourself in your recipe then you have a candle/soap winner. If I did candles I would be tracking down dual fo's too making a spreadsheet for the ones that work in both-I cant imagine buying expensive fo's for both products!!
  2. I do that and I love it! I read about the turkey fryer a while back on the candle forum and thought it would work with soaping so I bought one (making sure it was one with a spout at the bottom). I put all my oils in there for the "master batch" and then melt them. I have small plastic painting buckets w/lids from home depot and I measure out enough for one batch in each bucket. I have 10 buckets stacked in the corner and when I am ready to soap I pour in my measured premixed lye into the bucket and get to soaping. It is a huge timesaver! Before the turkey fryer I did try some "on sale" oil fryer thing-no spout and man what a mess trying to scoop the oils into the buckets even after cooled. I am a huge spout advocate lol.
  3. wow! Pretty soap and now, of course, I have 2 more peak fo's on my wishlist.
  4. I put them in the grocery store brown paper bags or use the cardboard shoe box things they sell at craft stores for vhs or dvd storage. I was told once to put a bit of cardboard or cottonball with fo on it inside with the soaps but I have not tried that yet. I dont think plastic would work for me (high humidity area) and I fear funky soap from that option. I tracked my faders for a while and phased them out or blended them with an eo/fo that would stick better in soap. I use about 1/4 tsp per pound of cosmetic clay (kaolin, rose etc) in a batch just on the rumor/hope it helps retain the scent a bit. Some soaps I care for and store them knowing they will mellow but once at their new home they kick out the strong scent again once they are being used. An older lady told me she shaves off a thin bit of the soap with a vege peeler when the scent starts to fade. She only uses handmade soap as a sachet (I know, I tried) and that was her solution to fading scent.
  5. I second the syringe, kv vet supply 60cc feeding syringe. One full syringe fills up my malibu no leaking or mess. the feeding one has a long tip on the end that goes right into the malibu, no mess or funky clean up. I suck up soapy water into the syringe and shake it up a bit and use a baby bottle brush to clean out any residue when I finish a batch then on to the next scent.
  6. http://www.celestialcolors.com/ http://www.brambleberry.com/basic12.html (lab colors) http://tradewinds.mainsecure.net/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=15 (select shades) http://soapsillywholesalesupplies.com/misc_supplies_pg2.htm (dragon lily) lab colors and select shades have a basic set of 12 or so you can buy and with their charts make any color you can imagine-kind of fun and different. I used them in cp and my sister in her mp and really liked them. Now I guess I am going more simple and direct and letting go of the charts and blends for the dragon lily or celestial colors approach. I think it is going to work better for what I want right now but I wouldnt have passed up being able to play with the ss or labcolors for anything!
  7. soaplady, I dont know if the companies state it that way but for what it is worth there is an herbalogist (sp) in town who does reiki, tinctures, balms etc and swears by atlantic spice for quality.
  8. BBLC member and Jenny shrine owner here too. You know there are no variables in my lotions, scrubs and soaps. What makes them one day will the next but with these bath bombs ugh! I have been down the witch hazel, alcohol, butters, tro, Ziplocs, baking, dry days and more recipes to count road. I would pop out one bath bomb only to have the next attempt go wacky. I would hear John Travolta yelling BATTLE in my mind and stay up very late trying to make them work. One morning when I looked at my quarter sheet of ever expanding bath bomb cake I saw my DH had taped a printout of Jenny’s wholesale page to the tray. Just a quiet statement to me that I should defer to those who can when I can’t and let it go. For gift sets to teachers, friends, families I use Jenny’s bombs (she is very flexible with making mine no colors etc). When I have to have handmade by me for craft fairs I make “Bubbling Bath Salts” and get such good therapy pounding heck out of my failed bombs to make those salts too.
  9. Mine are a bit balm like too, but I like them that way. I use: 1/3 soy or beeswax-I like a blend of the two, 1/3 butter stuff and 1/3 oils (fo at 1-2%) I only make/use it in the winter so melting hasnt been an issue for me. My friend makes hers based on a basic recipe of 50%brittle (beeswax, soywax and she says cocoa butter) 25%hard oils/butters and 25% liquid oils and does her eo's only at 1% they melt on the skin but kind of drag a bit for my taste. I have read that people use cornstarch to counteract the greasy feel but I am not sure at what percentage or when it is added.
  10. OK, just a thought here and not sure if I am making sense but if this is for just you...you could keep lotion and sugar seperate until shower time and then just mix enough in a cup that is good for a one time use and scrub away. Keeping the lotion and sugar stored as intended until you need them cancels the need for additional preservative. If it is to mix lotion and sugar together and store over time or to sell yes you do need the preservative. Does it sound like a good idea? The fluid lotion scrub does sound great but not putting sugar in a standard lotion. The water and water based products in the lotion will dissolve the sugar over time and create the preservative issue and goo that wont be scrubbing. One thing to get the same shower result might be to take your favorite lotion recipe, use only the oils and preservative part (maybe at a higher limit of use and ensure it is ok in oils) and then experiment with the amount of sugar you want to add to that like 3x the amount of oils in sugar etc. That way the preservative isnt an issue, the water parts of lotion wont dissolve your sugar and you still get the end result when the shower spray hits the scrub on your body it mixes with the oils/emulsifiers in the oil part of the lotion recipe and turns into a lotion. There are a few "emulsified scrub" recipes floating around that do the same thing but seem to be a bit thicker for application, if you want the more fluid lotion like scrub maybe try to tweak an emulsified scrub to be less stiff and thick. I need more coffee...i hope that made sense
  11. IF you have not already I would suggest calling him. His fo's change often and what makes "monkey farts" (one of his I really like lol) this week might not be exactly the same next month. It makes purchasing the fo's kind of a roller coaster but what a great price! He does know his customers and is very upfront about the scents, which ones he has heard back work in what products etc. They did have a sampler thing a while back, 15 small bottles for cheap and I made 10 (5 didnt make my nose hairs dance) into little paper cups with 1/2c soap to test them. Of those I bought a couple pounds of the ones that worked well. I like monkey farts, juniper breeze, musk (cranky in cp soap) and a jasmine mint blend. They do change at his end however so if you find some you know you want or work well buy up a few pounds of it.
  12. kraze, have you made them and not washed them under water before putting them on the rack? Did the non washed ones weep at all? I tried wrapping the few I made for a show but even with the cello wrap the salt still wanted to be friends with the moisture and left a gooey layer around the sides of the soap.
  13. The gallery makes me green too. I did a nice swirl once, long time ago in a "martha mold" and sold most of the bars. Of course I saved the very best one to oodle at and it has sat in the soap room for a year. I ran out of my berry sage soap at the show a couple weekends ago and my husband came down to help me restock bringing the swirl soap. He said to me "I thought you said there wasn't any more of the berry sage" I had this panic squeaky voice trying to explain this was THE SWIRL SOAP and "I cant sell that swirl, I made that, look at the colors, havent been able to swirl since, keep trying but nooo, maybe it is the molds" etc.. The man simply looked at me and said-you seriously need some help-and left to go home taking the token swirl soap with him. I may just be trying to figure it out too much but it seems like the chefs turned soapers among us really seem to get the swirls and new styles of soaps down quickly so I am taking that cake batter thing to heart and trying it.
  14. Ditto on posting the recipe(s) you have used. I make a twisted castile type bar of just rice bran, olive and avocado oils and I replace half my water with aloe vera juice. It takes a long time to cure but the creamy lather doesnt leave me squeaky clean or feeling dry. My mom cannot use soap with coconut oil-says it gives her dragon scales but she can use this one: palm kernal 15% (a replacement for the coconut) olive 15% rice bran oil15% safflower or soybean 5% Palm (or lard) 35% *some people say palm bugs them too? Shea butter 15% 6-7% excess fat (per MMS lye calculator) lye range. I use goats milk and lard instead of palm and water for my moms soap. If you are up for more experimenting you could make very small batches of single oils (olive, rice bran, avocado, etc) and see if some of those work individually for your skin then use the ones that do work and tweak a recipe out of them. Bunny had posted a recipe years ago , decadent something and I loved it but I live with all males who want manly squeaky clean soap so I use lots of coconut. I remember a thread on a board long gone where someone was putting 1 TB of store bought lotion per pound of oils in his batches. He swore it left a residual layer on his skin after showering....I can only recall that in the end some people tried it and did feel like some things that didnt saponify were making a difference in the end result. Another experiment, I guess. Sorry for the rambling, I hope you find the recipe that works for your skin, I would go bonkers if I had to put on lotion after the shower all the time.
  15. woo hoo!! I found it at walmart, right above the lard and crisco. 31.9 (ok call it 32) ounces for 3 bucks! The sad thing is that my local supplier raised her prices so buying 30lbs at wally world will only be five dollars more than her 30lb pail. With gas, time and scooby snacks for the 60 mile round trip I think it works out to the same price. Thank you so much for the heads up on that, I have been to that walmart several times for olive and the lard and NEVER saw that coconut right at eye level. go figure
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