Angel91805

Wooo....no lasers necessary. I do all of mine at room temperature. Sometimes my lye water is even on the chilled side. Trying all sorts of methods, and asking all sorts of questions, is the best way to learn, in my opinion! Donna

Yes...do be very careful with it! My pinkie is just now healing enough where I can type! ROFL. It's a sharp sucker....I almost needed stitches. :embarasse BTW...I wipe mine down w/ a warm cloth and then let it dry thoroughly. Donna

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3164 Here is the link to the tutorial.

crazycacti - yes, Crisco is different than lard. When formulating a recipe, either in soapcalc or soapmaker....look for Crisco or shortening. 8-GRAN....IMHO...*I* would not use butter flavored Crisco. You can make perfectly great soap by what you can buy at the grocery store. Olive oil, soy oil (vegetable oil), canola oil, sunflower, safflower, coconut, lard, crisco....etc. There is a tutorial that shows you how to formulate recipes. A good place to start is 50 percent hard oils (not liquid at room temp) and 50% liquid oils. Run what you want to use through a lye calculator and see if it has the properties you want. Donna

I use both....though like Kymber, I'm loving the Celetial Colors more than the Select Shades....though I do LURVE SS Lime Blossom and True Blue and the base Aquamarine..... Here we go...from top row across.... 1st row: uncolored, CC, CC, CC, SS 2nd row: cocoa powder, CC, SS, CC, CC 3rd row: CC, CC, CC, SS, cocoa powder Of course....you could just get them both!

I have never ordered from them either, but I'm about to.....I have Vanilla Bean Noel and Winter Candy Apple on my list of "must haves" from Wendy.

Woah....I'm not seeing any vaginas...(thank you, God!)... Let's see....in the top bar, I see the head and neck of a goose peeking in from the right side... And on the front bar on the bottom I see the same alien Connie sees....though I was thinking more of one of the evil genies from Aladdin. Complete with turban. HA.

I did a 100% lard soap once. Just because I could. Hard as a rock....fairly mild and creamy lather too. Donna

Woot! Those look awesome!! Makes my little chai tea soaps look pathetic. I can't wait to get my hands on those! Aprillee.....I could be wrong...but don't they look like the paper cup cone shape?

It shouldn't. I wouldn't think so. You are, after all, using a base that is already made. If you were doing CP...then maybe the weather would affect the chemical process...but with M&P, there isn't a chemical process. hmmmm....maybe you are adding too much FO??

Oooohhhhh....see....I'm more impatient than you are! I've got my 3oz goat's milk bar all figured out......I zap it full power for 30 seconds and stir stir stir (gently though, so no bubbles!)...add FO, color and POUR. Average is about 1 minute total! ROFL. Now I feel like the Tasmanian Devil of M&P. ROFL!!!

Hmmm......I've never used anything BUT a microwave for my melt & pour!!!! No lather problems here with the SFIC bases! How odd, huh?

I don't have any problems putting it in wax melts (IGI4794). They stay nice and pink. I'm confused here.....why wouldn't you put it in M&P? I do. Stays pink and my customers buy the heck out of it. I also use it in perfume spray and solid perfume and in lotions. All stays pink. The ONLY place it has turned dark on me is in CP soap.

I use thier liquid glycerin base for shower gel and my foaming hand soaps. LOADS of bubbles and non-drying to my skin.

I'll chime in here, since I have a lovely bar of this......it's a mixture of equal parts Peak's Stargazer Lily and Strawberry. Surpisingly, they go together really well....though it seems the concensus from the gals in that swap was you either love it or hate it. *I* happened to love it.

Sounds like a good FOH start! Though, I don't get any honeysuckle with my Crystal Sunshine....I get a whole lotta citrus though!

There is no difference other than the amount of FO added, I would presume. I use 25% FO for my perfume sticks but much less (notes are not in front of me) for my lotion bars.

Oh...I hear you! My acne started at 34 and now at 36 I'm STILL fighting it! And my NECK! OMG....MY NECK! I've just about tried everything on the market, it seems....and no going. I just started the Oil Cleansing Method to see if that will help.....and I am less RED....but then again, I'm still breaking out, so not sure if that's helping or not. Very frustrating. I'm using a toner too that is ACV, tea tree oil, green tea, chamomile (SP!) and jojoba....not sure if that is working or not either! Donna

Originally, I bought the 3 Graces (Amazing, Baby & Pure) from Scent Works, because I had heard they were the best. Then I bought all three from Fragrances by Design.......Um....I won't be buying from Scent Works anymore! Just as good if not BETTER. Donna

Between what two? Between the ingredients that Christine listed and the non-greasy lotion bar recipe? Yup. I think so. For starters, one is a list of ingredients, and the other is a recipe. *I* like the lotion bar recipe because it isn't greasy and melts right in to my skin.

Yup....what Scented said. Don't use the candle colorants! They aren't body safe. Not to mention more than one drop smells like fuel! LOL. <digging out notes> The food coloring went ok. I only used a drop or two...just to give it a tint of color. You could use other things you might have around the house too....like cocoa powder or paprika....oy, I'm not too into the "natural" colorants, so I'm clueless there really. Or you could leave it "au natural"! LOL. Check some of the Peak's FO's you already have....most of what they carry is body safe. Shoot, I'd say, ditch the kit and just add some M&P to your next Peak order....much easier that way! BTW....the Goat's Milk M&P ROCKS! Huge seller for me! Donna

I use the recipe from the Non Greasy Lotion Bars thread....it's just a few threads down....

Are you looking to make melt & pour or hot/cold process soap?

In my opinion, don't waste your time. Just add the shea butter in with your other oils. Once it's all together, the lye will not discriminate. You can't tell the lye which oils to make into soap and which to not make into soap. Donna

Is it a soap or a lotion bar? Could you get her to read the list of ingredients to you? I know there are several here that make soaps with the butters up in the 40% range......