mountainmadness

I used to use that recipe. I now add palm oil and take out some of the soybean oil. It seems to make the bar harder. HTH.

I make a kitchen soap with coffee grounds. I use used grounds but let them dry out for a couple of days. I have done it with fresh ground coffee and dried out used coffee.... I like it better with used because it doesn't turn your soap into such a dark brown color. I use just a couple of teaspoons in a 6# batch.

My suggestions... Greek Goddess Neptune's Bounty

About 4 years ago when I started doing B&B I ordered about 15 various scents from them... I think that the quality of their FO is very poor. The scent did not last in the soap. HTH.

OMH FO is great. It adds a sweeter scent to the oat smell....

I have made it both ways. I like scent and my customers do too. I do use an OMH FO. It is by far a top seller year round. Did you use FO?

I use muslin bags. You can buy them very inexpensive (around .25). I add my herbs, etc. and tie the bag and place in olive oil. It is a lot easier than straining!

Olive oil for me.... it is the Italian in me. I just think that the quality of the soaps and the consistancy of the bubbles is what I love with olive oil.

I also only blend Patchouli. The scent by itself makes me gag.

I would be interested to know about this one too. I make bath bombs for fun for myself and kids. The kids like to hold them in their hands when the water is running on it. My daughter complained of a stinging in her hands with it. I tried the same thing and it feels almost like a burning sensation in my hand that lasted a couple of minutes. I am sure that it is the citric acid. My recipe calls for about 20% of the total recipe. Other than stinging with direct contact, that is the only caution that I am aware of.

There are a million different recipes for this one..... Some ideas for you to add for a good scrub are: poppy seeds, fresh ground mint, cornmeal, pumice, loofah, jojoba beads, fruit seeds, etc. I like a fresh smelling gardeners soap so I normally mix mint EO with my blend of other EO's. Basically for a gardener's soap... the sky is the limit! HTH.

Always, always wear safety glasses. Lye can be static charged. I live in a dry climate and experienced a lye burn on the inside of my eyelid. I was weighing out the lye and a piece flew into my eye. Never, ever rush. Mark your pitchers of lye water with a permanent marker so hubby or children do not think it can be used for anything else. I keep my mixed lye in a high cabinet in my soap room. I have talked to my kids about it and that it will hurt them really bad if they get into it. HTH.

If you can look through the archives you should start there... there has been a lot of discussion about it. LLC- means limited liability. Basically, if you are sued any money compensation comes only out of your business not your personal assets. Everyone has their comfort level regarding their business and what they choose to have. I have been operating a home business focusing on soaps and have not purchased insurance nor am I an LLC. I have spoken to my attorney and said that he felt like the risk for me was not there..... I think that it is personal comfort levels. Some people get carried away with insurance but you need to know what could happen (worse case) if you didn't have it. It is pretty hard to successfully file suit against a soap company unless you lied about ingredients or did something really stupid. When I have a store front one day I will carry insurance and everything required by law. HTH.

I am glad that you asked that question. I did not have enough back stock to store this summer but I know that I will after the holidays. I wanted some sort of storage ideas to make sure they stay dry and keep their scent. I need to know also... I was thinking about those boxes that are large and short that slide under the bed. I could fit a lot in there standing up......

It is so fun when the kids show interest in what you are doing. Someone asked my 6 yr. old daughter what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said, "A soap-maker like my Mom." It was so sweet. Good luck to your daughter. You should let her setup a little table if you do craft or Christmas shows.

I have found that lemon is great for grease and the smell of gas or diesel. I have a customer who's husband is a mechanic and she said that she can tell when he doesn't use the lemon soap... she said that he will still have the fuel smell on his hands if he doesn't. The lemon seems to get rid of that. I also use grated lemon peel in mine and that gives it a bit of a scrub. Coffee grounds are also a good additive for grease and scent removal. HTH.

I think that it is the quality of your loofah. I have made loofah soaps for a couple of years now and everyone loves them, inlcuding me. I have felt the cheaper ones before and they are not as soft. HTH.

You need to provide a picture or more details.... it may be lye pockets if you over used your hand mixer.... if so, garbage. If it is FO pockets, than you can rebatch. I would post a picture and or recipe and describe the pockets....

Step by step: Add lye to oils..... when mixed add FO or EO. Quickly pour a cup or so of uncolored, raw soap in a pyrex with your colorant. Mix well. Dump the colored soap from the pyrex in the middle of your pot with the uncolored soap. Then pour into molds. The color and uncolored soap will swirl together when you pour in the mold. I have attached a picture for you to see what it looks like when you use this method.

I sell my bars for $6.00ea. or 3 for $15.00. 90% buy 3.

Does it make your bars slimy?

I swirl in the pot. Just take about 1 cup of uncolored CP out of your pot. Add colorant and then pour back into the middle of the pot. When you pour out it will mix with the uncolored and look really nice. You cannot control the swirl but it has worked well for me every time this way. I have tried swirling in the molds before in the beginning of my venture... it does not work. HTH.

I sell a lot of soap decks. I call them soap savers. I sell them for $3.00 ea. I do package some with the soap for holidays and they sell well. I have sold 200+ this summer and I normally sell even more during the holidays. HTH.

I have found that over heating the oils and some FO do not allow easy removal of the soaps. I did try "greasing" the mold when I first started making soap in molds but it proved worthless. The oil that you use to grease it saponifies anyway when making CP soap.

I do not want to discourage you but being quite frank, glycerin is worthless to homemade soap makers. Glycerin is a natural by-product that is produced during the soap making process. We do not add it to the soap it just occurs with the chemical reaction. To my knowledge, there are no homemade melt and pour glycerin soap recipes. The reasoning why? It is made commerically with very expensive equipment and supplies. It is also VERY dangerous and flammable. Alcohol is actually burned during one step of the process. Might I suggest that you start making lotion?