SoapDiva

Thanks! the 45% butters, would that be a brittle (like cocoa) or hard at room temp butter (shea). Thanks so much for sharing that! When my company all leaves and I have more than three seconds of time not devoted to making soap like a mad woman, I will have to play again. We moved across the country, and it is much hotter here, so it is playing havoc with my balms. If I can create a nice one that stays firm in this heat, I'll be a happy camper! I cannot remember where I got this (I think from here?) I just had it copied onto a notebook and thought I would post it here as well for future reference, I got it recently. I *think* it might be from MMS if I am remembering correctly. Another poster posted it here. 20% Beeswax 25% solid at room temperature oil (Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Shea Butter, Lanolin, etc.) 15% brittle at room temperature oil (Regular Cocoa Butter, Palm Kernel Oil, etc.) 40% liquid oil at room temperature (Sweet Almond Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, etc.)

Carebear, would you care to share your percentages of wax/hard and soft oils? I need to make more soon, and you're right, I wanna have my cake and eat it too. Be a sharebear?

I think it looks fabulous!

See, this is a tricky one. For me, I call my lip balms, lip butters. I don't want a lot of wax in my products. I warn customers that because it is not a commercial product, it is a softer one, and not to store it in their pockets, leave it sitting out in the sun etc. We've been having long hot days here and my product is very soft while the temps are like this. In fact, I will not take them to markets if the temps are going to be over 30 (+90 for you guys) unless I know I can keep them in the shade. You need to remember as well that even commercial products, on hot days get soft and mushy. They have tons of additives and fillers to make it a hard product - and even THEY will melt if left out. People somehow expect that our products will behave like the commercial ones, but be better quality. Just like the whole preservative argument you can't have your cake and eat it too! People don't seem to mind that mine are softer than the norm (in the summer), and I get a lot of repeat business. Mine contain: Beeswax Jojoba oil Hazelnut oil Shea butter (and yes, the shea migrates to party with it's buddies, it's a visual thing - I tell customers this and they're ok with it)

I'm on my 6th batch of testing wine in CP. A local fruit wine brewery wants to start their own line of wine soaps to go with their wines, so I'm testing all their flavors (then get tipsy on the rest of the bottle - I have such a tough job). I would suggest icing/freezing the wine first, and I tend to put my pitcher of wine in the utility sink, then add the lye. If I don't ice the wine it's like a scene out of MacBeth complete with the witches and cauldron. I don't tend to notice a difference either way. I do however notice a lack of punch if I boil/concentrate the wine down.

It's actually a big seller for me, people LOVE black licorice. Anise actually masks human scent, so it's apparently great for hunters too.

CBE, try a blend of Sweet Orange and Plumeria, huge seller for me. I hate it, as I hate all florals, but people cannot get enough.

One thing to remember with all shows, even if you do poorly as far as money goes, the exposure and experience is priceless. I have regularly gotten sales after the show, or inquiries from wholesalers. Just getting your name recognized is a huge bonus.

wouldn't the shrink wraps also shrink over time?

OOO! Actually I don't want a soap based one, some of the recipes I've come across and have tried use them, and they are the ones that I'm sure I'm NOT looking for as I really like them scrubby! What I want to end up with is essentially a piece of fudge that you can rub on your body. I guess this is the kick in the pants I need to go over there and become a member. Thanks!

Does anyone have a recipie or a guideline for one? I've seen them around a bit and they look really cool. I've been playing with M&P base, and adding oils and brown sugar to it, I've gone through about 2 lbs so far...LOL! I've had separation issues, and not enough brown sugar issues, and over powering smell of M&P issues.

What are your fav/must have valentines scents? I'm working on my Valentines line and I'm thinking Chocolate and Cherries, but that seems way overdone. Ideas?

That bramble berry one is divine. I've CPd it, and it cures out to smell JUST like a rich blueberry muffin.

I tried to go to your site, and there are no products listed. A fellow soaper just re-did my site for me, she did an awesome job - I have Zen Cart, and she added a link to my working blog, which is wordpress. She did the work very quickly and for a very reasonable price.

The most important thing to know, is that EOs are active, FOs just smell nice. Lavender is also another nice one for muscle relaxation.

It's endangered? Woah. That's no good. The organization that I am donating the soap too does their charity work in Sri Lanka, and the founder can get me crushed sandalwood dirt cheap, she told me that they add it to scrubs in their treatments so I figured that it would be fine in soap as an exfoliant. Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it! I will also look into that other EO you mentioned. Back to the drawing board!

Hey there, I'm planning on donating some of my time and effort to make some soap for a local charity. They want to use Sandalwood as the primary scent. I want to go all natural (as do they), and I have access to some native crushed sandalwood, but not the EO unless I want to mortgage my house. My question, to get the biggest bang for my proverbial buck out of the sandalwood, can I infuse this into one of my main oils, soap it and even add the soaked sandalwood into the mix? Or, should I just add the crushed sandalwood to the pot and go with that as a primary scent? Has anyone tried something like this? Thanks for any guidance you can give.

That is some scary shit. I get all high and mighty when I see soap sellers/B&B makers at farmers markets and craft shows with no labels on their products. If they DO have labels, trying to convince their customers that their Goats milk cream is ONLY goat's milk and glycerin and essential oil of PEACH. LOL! I USED to get really pissed off, because here I am, adhering to my governments rules and regulations to the letter and these blowhards are giving us all a bad name. Now, I just snicker. They're fly by night. They will NOT have repeat business. I am SOOO glad that the woman came back and made a stink. Someone asked me at a craft show once how I test the batches I make. I told him that I lick every loaf. He thought I was a nut.

What percentage of FO are you putting in? Are you using a base or is it a home made butter? I don't personally use any color stabilizers because its one more "additive or chemical" that is not necessary. It's just cosmetic. I've also found that when I mix in FO while the lotion is warm, it does tend to separate, so I wait until it cools completely and then I blend it in. You can also let it sit for a bit, then try blending again. It sounds like you've got too much something in there.

I came across a vendor at a craft sale (it was a vendor selling wood items and various crafty things) and she was selling painted bars of soap. I've never EVER seen colors like this. In fact, I personally beleive that these were commercial paints and NOT soap paints. They even had a crackling effect on them. There was a note on them saying to use them from the bottom up (they were commercially made bars with a deco painting on the other side) and not to get the top wet! WTF? They LOOKED fantastic, but didn't seem safe to me at all! Is anyone aware of a legit technique like this? It was NOT printed paper embedded into the soap either. You could see the brush strokes like it was an oil painting.

That is a fabulous idea. What do you do with your lye? Do you also make a master batch of that, or just make it up as needed then measure out your oils. I am starting to get swamped here, we moved over the summer and between one home party and one Christmas Craft show, I've been cleaned out. So, I've been making soap like a mad woman. That roaster would make my life much easier. Want my address? LOL! I will be looking at yard sales for one!

I have no idea where you get yours normally. I get mine from Home Hardware, about 3ks for 20 bucks. You can also hit up other hardware stores for "Gillets Lye". If that fails, go to a farming co-op, they can usually get it for you.

Hydrogenation stabilizes the oils from what little I understand of the process. The husband explained it from a molecular POV, going on to talk about atoms and binding and extracting, at which point I napped. I agree that it's silly to worry about it on one hand, being that we apply it to the skin. But on the other, we used to think that trans fats etc were OK too. I've eliminated a lot of these from our diet at home, so it makes sense to do so with my soap too. I'm slowly switching to un-refined products. Those ladies just threw me for a loop with their claims and I thought perhaps I was missing something, so I came here for your wisdom.

psychadelic dude!

Thanks everyone, I'm useless when it comes to chemistry, I had the husband look it up to explain it to me, and all I heard was *blah blah blah blah* - he has the degree in it - mine is in psychology so I'm no good with that stuff. *snicker* love this answer. I think I will be dropping the hydrogenated stuff from my line, some of the stuff that the DH read to me wasn't the greatest. I wonder what, if anything it might be doing to our skin besides cleaning it. Better to be safe than to find out down the line that it can harm.