Christina

Does anyone here not use stick on labels? I've been thinking of switching to tags (tied on with raffia or something). Has anyone done this for jars (for body butter, etc)? How did it look/work?

So, I was all ready to make some soap tonight, and I brought out my color stabilizer and I read the bottle for usage and it said it only gave instructions for MP!!!! Does that mean it will only work in MP? Has anyone used it in CP? Christina

Still big, but here's the top. My lighting is really bad too. I'm no photographer. And yes, this is the 12/24 Tog mold. yay! Christina

When I worked at dairy queen, the floor cleaner we had to use smelled like peppermint, simply to work up peoples appetites....sneaky.....just thougth I'd throw that out there.

I got a tog mold for Christmas and havent been able to make soap til NOW!!!!!! Anyway, I made a castille soap (90% olive, 10% castor, 33% water discount), and scented it pink lemonade. It's not clean up yet and the picture is HUGE, but oh well. Christina

Yes, this market is indoors. I will definitly try adding height to my display. I wanted to but couldn't find anything last minute. These farmers markets are every 3 weeks in the winter, every week in the spring and summer. Christina

I found the copper top jars at www.soapandmore.com . They're 10 oz and frosted actually. They come as a set, not seperate. Thanks for the compliments Christina

The copper tops on the left are Whipped shea, and the coper tops on the right are a mango scrub I put together. I actually really like the way they turned out. I hated the way a plain sugar scrub kept seperating, so I got creative and the scrub I came up with looks like frosting and stays that way with nice soft peaks. Christina

Well, I only made about $230.00, which in my mind isn't very profitable. But, that may be because I've only done home parties before, and this was obviously different. Christina

The ones on the left are foaming milk bath. The ones on the right are just bath salts.

This is a picture of my first farmers market. Forgive the photography. My husband isn't very particular about angle, and clarity...or quantity... ANYWAY, Thanks for looking! Christina

Is this possible? This might be a stupid question, but can I make a castile soap doing it the hot process way? Or will it be too soft? I ran out of coconut oil! Christina

Ok, I just went to make some more and now I realize why my soap cooked so much faster. My stove has both temps written on it and the bolded temp is celcius...so, I actually had my soap cooking at close to 350 degrees last night...but it still turned out really good...is it really so bad to cook it that high? Christina

A while ago I came on here and asked if anyone knew how to make barbie furniture. Anyway, I finally got around to trying it. It took a LONG time....but here's what I managed. Not much to look at but my daughter likes it and that was the whole point. Thanks for looking! Christina

And I really liked it. I used rosemary and peppermint eo's and some dried rosemary and mint leaves. I did the oven hot process because I actually use my crockpot for food quite often and wasn't willing to hand it over to soap quite yet. But I really like the oven process! It was so easy! I read several tutorials before I did it and I got kind of confused on a couple of points. First off, it says you don't have to cool the oils or lye down before you mix them....well, I didn't and the second I added the lye it all started boiling up and over my pot onto my stove...that was scary...so I dumped vinegar all over it and that stove is VERY clean, hehehe. But it all went good after that. After the initial 30 minute cook, I took it out and the tutorials said it would be the consistency of cookie dough and hard to stir....but it wasn't. It was translucent. It looked like they said it should look after the second 15 minute cook. I still cooked it for another 15 minutes after stirring, and it looked the same, perhaps a bit harder. Maybe it's just because I was doing a 3.5 lb batch so it cooked quicker....I don't know. Anyway, it smelled like a roast turkey when I took it out (from the rosemary), and I was worried it would continue to smell like that. I stuck in the eo's after letting it cool for 2 minutes and it just smelled AWFUL! Like rosemary gone bad. Anyway, by morning it smelled like it should and I'm happy. It seems to bubble a lot more than my cold process soap....I don't know why. I used the exact same recipe. There's a picture in the gallery. Not the prettiest, but I really enjoyed making it. And it's a very weird feeling to know that I can actually USE this soap now.... Christina

Here's some rosemary mint (eo) HP soap with dried rosemary and mint leaves. I haven't cleaned them up, just bevelled them. Christina

Thanks, everyone. Yes, I think my favorite is the apple cider as well. That was my first pour so it was at thin trace. It had nice crisp swirls....but I noticed that the thicker it got (like with my peppermint one) the swirls went through the soap better. I just need to figure out how to get the swirls to get through the soap at thin trace. I did a swirl in the pot with all of them before doing the swirls on the top, you just can't tell with the thinner ones... Christina

Thanks everybody. I think the swirls turned out fairly well on top. It's just the sides that bother me I guess. I should be using 3 lbs per mold (to make 8 bars) imo. The bars to me are too thing and every piece is an outside piece, so it has that lip...I guess we're our own worst critics! I'm excited about these because I have body butter and foaming milk bath to match and I want to make baskets out of them. I can't wait for the day when I'm established enough to make one 7 lb batch all the same fragrance and in a nice big divider mold! That'll be the day! Christina

I made some Soaps for Christmas. I don't normally share pictures because I don't have a proper mold (just using shoes boxes and things like that) so they end up not looking to hot. And i can't get a good swirl through the middle...oh, and I make a 7 lb batch and make 4-7 different fragrances out of it, so by the last couple of frarances, my soap is at a very thick trace...and just kind of glops into the mold....but hey! It saves time! From left to right: Apple cider, Candy Cane, Frankincense and Myrhh, and Gingerbread. Thanks for looking. Christina

With my fathers help (with the carpentry), I'll be making a very large barbie house for my 5 year old daughter this christmas. I'd love to make the furniture as well. The plastic stuff they've got these days just isnt' doing it for me. Here's something I found on e-bay to kind of show you want I'm thinking. I've never done anything like this, so if anyone has any advice to point me in the right direction (as there is only 2 months till christmas, AHH) That would be REALLY great! Hhttp://cgi.ebay.com/Handmade-BARBIE-Fashion-Royalty-FURNITURE-Sofa-Set_W0QQitemZ270179040918QQihZ017QQcategoryZ15959QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Christina

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to thank crafty for giving us those basic lotion percentages! There are a lot of great recipes out there but when you're starting out and don't have many ingredients (or don't want to use the expensive ones on something that might have to be tossed), it's great to have a nice solid starting point. And it allows newbies to create their own recipe or oil blend instead of using someone elses. I just love it when I find a "recipe" with just the percentages of water and oils, etc. Thank you so much! christina

So, I've got my eye on some really cute little sprayers (OT), and I really want to get them, but now I have to think of something to put in them. I'm out of cylomethicone and I'm not sure where to get it for a good price now that I've moved out west (canada). I would LOVE to make a toner or facial mist but I'm having trouble finding recipes. I thought, just some witch hazel with some eo's maybe, but I have dry skin to begin with, and wont that dry it out? Then there are distillates but those go bad and I was wanting to give some as christmas present perhaps...does anyone have an idea? Christina

Hey Melissa, I made some the other day (I also used cocoa butter and jojoba oil...which was new for me and whoa!!!!!!! what a difference!!!) and I used some liquid stevia. I've never been able to figure out how much I was supposed to use so...and this is gonna sound soooo unprofessional....I just added it drop by drop, dipped my spoon in and blew on it so it would harden and tried it on, licking my lips, hahahahaha. Anyway, eventually it got sweet enough for me. Next time I'm going to use less flavor oil though, I always overdo it. HTH. Christina

I'm about to make a fairly large order (for me) from Oregon Trails (early christmas present whoo hoo), and I need to know if I'm making any mistakes in my choice of FO's. I've never smelled any of them and I don't want to waste any money. So, if anyone can give me some guidance i'd greatly appreciate it. Here's my list... Moroccan Spice Moonlit Stroll Gift of the Magi Egyptian Musk Coconut Breeze Tiare Blossom Ol' South Pumpkin Pie Ginger Spice Frankincense and Myrrh Brown Sugar Black Raspberry Vanilla Angelique Sweet innocense Litsea Cubeba (supposed to anchor citrus eo's) I've searched through the fragrance board and even tried all the other boards but I'm not getting many results. Mostly people selling them. Christina

Actually cindy...I just went and looked and apparently it's YOUR recipe! I love it, by the way, which is why I was hoping to use it as a starting point for a thicker version. So, I tried upping the steric....that's about it. I don't think it did much but I guess I wont know till tomorrow when it's thickened up more. So, if I cut the water in half...will I have too much preservative? I need to read up more on preservatives. I don't make much that requires a preservative so I don't feel very knowledgable about them. Thank you for your suggestions by the way, I really appreciate them! Christina