beau's mama

http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=6554

These are a little less expensive. Seems I remember them having these bottle for about $27 for 48 not too long ago. You may want to call WSP and make sure that price isn't a typo.

The foamers can be a little pricey no matter where you look.

I've used the LOP molds in the past w/ no problems, but I don't know about the stamp things.

Hmm, comfortscents (I think) posted about something weird w/ her m&p. I've been having problems w/ my last 2 batches being way too soft...same recipe, same base, same molds Now you're having problems.

Maybe we need a brainstorming session!

I use Cottonseed oil but I get it from the feed store and it is not organic. It is sold for frying. No problems with it. I would imagine that organic would be super expensive since growing cotton is one of the most pesticide dependent crops I have ever witnessed being grown.

You know, it never occured to me to check the feed store. DUH!

I don't have to have organic. As stingy as my girlfriend was with hers LOL, it's probably way too expensive for my teeny tiny budget right now anyway.

I have never used it because i thought it had DOS issues......But its so much cheaper than other oils that I normally use. I might have to try it out.

Supposedly it has high levels of vit e, so maybe that would help w/ DOS issues :undecided

http://www.cottonseedoiltour.com/cso-factsheet

I'm still reading up on it, but I think I may get a # to play with.

Just wondering if any of you use/have used straight CSO in your soaps? It seems to be used more by chandlers than soapers.

My "I only use and eat organic products" nutty assed friend gave me an ounce...and I do mean exactly 1 ounce! "Organic products are very expensive!" is what she says. Whatever.

Anyway, I used it in a batch of lotion, and so far I'm liking the feeling. My skin feels really soft, smooth & moisturized. Almost like theres a fine layer of oil on it, but not shiny & not greasy.

I'm still doing some searching and reading...not much info on Organic CSO, just the regular, and I'm not quite sure about that yet.

Any input/info would be appreciated.

Well sista, did I do an okay job for you cutting it?

I followed your directions to the T this time I swear.

Yes you did! I'm proud of you!

I had no idea that the soap in the 2nd pic would look like that cut!

Unknown, magical skills!!

Sweetcakes, WSP, Brambleberry, MMS and I think Tony's...I will gladly pay the extra to have my oils shipped in glass. The dark hard plastic is nice too but nothing beats an amber glass bottle!

That's how I feel. I cringed everytime I went to OT's site cause I knew it was gonna cost me. But I was getting amber glass, so that made it alright. Now I go there and cry cause I know those oils are gonna come in plastic.

I do believe the hard PET (or is it PETE?)...the hard plastic like Glo says she uses would be just fine. I pulled out that old Aztec fo...Orange something or other, and it STILL smells like a freshly peeled, juicy orange!

I wonder if you would get better lather if you embedded some handmade soap in it. Maybe grate the end of a bar the lathers well… get the best of both worlds? Try just one bar, 4 oz. use about 2 oz each, base and bar soap?

Yep, that would work. The finer the grate, the better...otherwise you could end up w/ pieces of CP w/ no MP to hold it together!

Congrats on your first baby! I love those heart shapes!

Holy Cow You call that "practice"!!??

Gee, what's the soap gonna look like when you "learn" M&P:laugh2:

Absolutely stunning!

...Now you'll start looking at stuff around the house to use as molds... start wondering if this additive or that additive will work in MP... then you'll become a MP monster! lol

Ha! Ain't that the truth LOL

A clear base...absolutely no air bubbles AND poured perfectly straight!

Yep, I'd say you did a great job!

GG, thanks for posting the pic of my soap. It did come out rather beautiful didn't it?

Well, since you started it, I'll let you finish it. Folks wanna see my soap cut, so go ahead...

POST CUT PICS PLEASE!

Ha! Only in my dreams! Awesome job as usual Chica!

ooooooooooooooh! I saw "chocolate torte" and had to look

That is really, really nice and I bet it smells incredible.

That's it! I'm going to go eat some Bear Claw ice-cream...with a piece of cheesecake...smothered in caramel sauce...all in one big bowl!

Dee

If you do a search for "Bert's" by "title only"...and search in the fragrance forum... you'll come across what I remember to be a very LARGE thread about the oils. I don't remember if the posts were candle or BB specific, but I remember it going on forrrreeeeeeverrrrrr.

Oh, how my heart aches at the thought of another Bert's thread LMAO

HTH

For small quantities, off the top of my head is WSP, MMS, and my new fave GoW. GoW doesn't sell mp base (I don't think) but they do have quite a bit of additives in small quantities.

HTH

Save on Scents in NY always seems to have the most dupes, so I checked for ya. I almost missed it, cause they have it listed as Narcisse Chloe. Here's the link: http://www.saveonscents.com/product_info.php/products_id/2460

I haven't bought from them in a few yrs, so let us know how it compares. Susan.

ETA -- just saw that you already found it! DOH

Thanks!

Maybe that's the same reason I couldn't find it in a search :undecided

Now I'm all over the site to see what else I can get just so the shipping makes sense to me!

I've searched the net & checked fragrance oil finder and come up w/ nada. All I'm getting is roll-on perfume oil & the real perfume. OT does have a Narcissus, but the description isn't working for me. Next step it to contact Denise at FBD to see if she can help.

In the mean time, I thought I'd ask here b/c ya'll know almost everything!

My sis loved this fragrance so I thought I'd surprise her with a lil gift set that I'll make all by myself...if I can find the damn fo!

Can anyone help?

ETA: Ahhh, just found it! I forgot all about SOS!

TIA

Well than if it is too many hard oils, then this could happen with any bar that has a high % of hard oils. I wonder if those that make 100% CO bars have experienced this? I only have one batch under my belt and I don't recall that it was gritty. But that was just one batch and I could have got lucky.

I do question whether or not that is the culprit and wonder more if its the high amount of shea butter since shea can be gritty in butters so why not in soap? But this is just a guess on my part.

Meridith, I was thinking about that last night...about shea & coconut oil. I've made a couple of 100% coconut batches w/ no problems. Maybe the 20% superfat took care of possible graininess :undecided But what do I know LOL

I've also read that shea can become grainy/gritty. I've never had that happen (yet) but it did cross my mind that the shea could be the culprit.

Nothing else. lmao I haven't a clue then. Chalk it up to the soap fairies/gremlins/trolls.... whateva you wanna call them. lol

I also wanted to ask you... with all that castor, your bar isn't drying?

I'm one of the other ones that experiments with alot of castor

(the highest I went though was 18%). I found it to be somewhat drying at a high %. (Castor is a drawing oil) What's your take on it? Have you tried this bar yet? How's the conditioning level?

You know, that's were I was leaning...just one of those things that happens.

I haven't taken the bar in the shower...just been using a bit it on my hands. I figured I was safe b/c there's no zap :undecided . With the grittiness aside, it's actually feeling pretty nice already, and the lather is pretty darn good for this early in the game. Anytime I can wash my hands and not have them crack afterward is a good thing.

I use a LOT of castor...in everything...b/c I keep a lot of it on hand. It doesn't dry me out at all. I have (had) dry skin, and my skin seems to love castor. DH has "thick" skin, and castor is one of the few oils that actually do anything for him.

The 50/50 rule isn't the answer to anthing. That's pretty much the outside of the envelope for designing a soap with balanced qualities and good skin feel. If you're using soapcalc and see a "conditioning" number much above 50, that's generally out of whack.

You could say that castile-style bars are the exception, but those are overrated in my book.

OK Top, help me out here. I've made 12 batches of CP so far and all of them (except the 100% coconut) were over 50 in conditioning...the highest being 60 which is actually my fave.

As I experiment & learn, I'm starting to take the "qualities" in the soap calc w/ a grain of salt, and mainly rely on it for measurements (lye, water, oils).

Why do you say above 50 is out of whack?

What suppliers are still using amber glass for fo's instead of plastic?

The more I order, the more I realize that they are using plastic. That's fine to save a bit on shipping, and it makes sense to me for 4oz and smaller. I just think 8oz and up should be in glass.

People like me (hobbyist) who don't use up fo's quickly end up having to buy glass which just adds to the cost . So I'm thinking maybe I need to start looking at those who already use glass. I got some fo a while back from Aztec (I think) and the fo was in PET, and it was a hard, inflexible, glass-like PET. Hmm...maybe I could look for those.

I know WSP uses glass & I think MMS still does.

Who else?

...

Did you do these two batches on the same day? Did you use tap water or distilled water (or spring water)?

Yep, same day and I used distilled water.

My soap actually felt like it had a super fine pumice to it! lol It wasn't "scratchy"... just.... "gritty". A very fine grittiness.

It wasn't lye heavy, it was my regular old recipe. The soap looked fine (lovely actually), smelled fine, and lathered fine. It just felt.... weird.

That is the perfect description of this soap! The lather is so close to perfect it's scary. But the gritty feeling makes it freaky. I can't say much about that funky FO though. Imagine that...a floral fo from OT that I don't like.

Soooo, what else ya got? LOL

Wow, lotta castor there.

There's no special trick to using the no-stir palm oil. Did you notice the mixture getting cloudy as it cooled? I don't know about this particular recipe, but sometimes if you use a lot of hard oils and the soap gets real cool in the pot or in the mold, it can do weird things to the texture.

I know LOL. I wanted to see how it would work or not work. Strangely, the bars aren't as soft as I thought they would be w/ such a high % of castor.

It wasn't cloudy at all and the other batch has even more castor than this freaky batch...and it's pretty hard already & no gritty feeling :undecided

If you're a CP newbie, perhaps look at the 50-50 mix or go with someone else's recipe that's already tried? The 50-50 would be starting out with 50% hard oils and 50% soft oils till you understand what the oils are doing. In your recipe you have 70 percent hard, so the grittiness, IMO, is too many hard oils....Perhaps take a look at breaking up your soft oils to include more than one or two oils.

I saw that. It's in my brand new CP Soaping book. Why do you think too many hard oils can cause grittiness? School me girl!

Join the newbie crowd...I'm in it to..

Did you use Vanilla Stabilizer. I get that feel if I use VS..

Nope, no stabilizer. You are waaaay ahead of me on that one!

I made 2 batches of CP. One came out with a pretty decent swirl (finally). But my other batch...an experiment...the bars feels almost gritty-...like there's some clay in it.

I didn't get bitten when I sampled it, so I'm thinking it's not lye heavy. My oxide was mixed thoroughly. The only thing I used that I had never used before was some no-stir Palm Oil. Could that be it? Do I need some special powers to work w/ Palm Oil.

Here's the recipe if that'll help.

Don't ask ...it was an experiment...I'm still a CP newborn:D

25% coconut

20% palm oil

30% castor

25% shea

7% superfat

I've used almost all of the SFIC bases...the OO base is like a brick!

GM, shea, & CB are all good choices for the qualities you want. .

If watching the checkbook is an issue right now, as the others said, getting 1# of a few bases is the way to go.

If you're daring enough, I'd say just go w/ the white, pick up a butter or 2 & some oils and play!

There are some knowledgeable MPers here to help you along the way if you get stuck.

Happy soaping!

Does anyone know which one of these is a softer, more squeezable plastic bottle?

MDPE is softer, but I have some natural HDPE bottles that squeeze just fine & don't feel as flimsy.

HTH