kidsngarden

There was a bit of a heated thread on this just a bit ago. I personally have come to the conclusion that there very well MAY be a way to blend certain "natural" elements to make them have a preservative quality, but those secrets (if they exist) are a massive secret and can only be done by larger companies. Us indies don't have the skills or equipment (well most of us) to try and test all that. I've read stories about people getting yeast, bacterial, and other fungal infections that have taken as long as a year of antibiotics and other meds to get rid of from unpreserved lotions. I would rather use a preservative than have to take meds to get rid of some nasty I got from lotion (And heaven forbid someone else getting it!) Just cause it's "natural" doesn't mean it's good for you or safe.

I've never made body butter with beeswax, but have made lovely lotion bars with it! No preservatives or ewax there! Yes to what everyone said about e-wax and preservative too!

I use a rack just like what you have and I just put freezer paper on it first. I know it prevents circulation to the part on the paper, but I have never had a problem. They are up on one narrow side and stay that way. I don't rotate them or anything.

I used to make a body spray with cylclomethicone and FO. It worked well as a detangler and a defrizzer. But after awhile it did seem to build up.

I would think that candles is a lot harder to stay in than B&B. Granted we sell "luxury" B&B but at least it comes close to being a "need". Some people can't use storebought soap, etc so it is a need for them, where as candles are pure luxury. For me even if I wanted to scale back to a hobby (I do only B& I would still have to sell a little to have it pay for itself or to at least cover the expenses. January was ok for me because I had a big clearance. February was just a waste, and now things are beginning to pick up again with local sales. My net sales are still lagging behind, but hopefully they will kick in soon. This is my job and it keeps me home with my kids so I'm sticking with it.

I'm not sure - I don't use butters. I wouldn't go more than 15-20 % but that is a total guess.

I read it somewhere...25% coconut, 10-15 % castor. That the ratio I use of those. You could input it in soapcalc for qualities, then to be sure it has the right lye do summerbeemeadow. I've compared and the KOH amounts are slightly different.

I use the calc at www.summerbeemeadow.com I read somewhere that they are one of the few who have a true 0% superfat. (which you need to do for LS) So you can go there and input KOH And play around.

For those not familiar with a coat hanger swirl - it is for those of us who use log molds and cannot see the swirl like those of you who have a slab mold. (like soapfreaks gorgeous slab swirls!) The possibilities are endless with what to use if you have a slab and can swirl the tops, but with a log it can be tricky. Like someone else has said the coathanger only works if your trace is just right. I personally have been using a chopstick and sticking it in there at an angle and swirling it around.

Glad it was easy for you... I just found his tutorial very wordy or something, it's been awhile since I looked at it - I just remember thinking, "oh forget this!" Really the best thing to do is just do it and actually see how the process works and if you fail then oh well. you try again. Nothing can compensate for hands on learning.

I am not sure completely what the difference is between your average mule team borax and what they have listed as cosmetic. I've never quite understood and often wonder if it isn't just someway to make you pay more cashola. These are the ingredients listed for 20 mule team borax taken off the dial website: 20 Mule Team® Borax is made of 100% Borax, a naturally occurring mineral composed of sodium, boron, oxygen and water. 20 Mule Team® Borax is not harmful to washing machines, plumbing or septic tanks and does not contain phosphates or chlorine. I do use borax in my LS. For every ounce of dilution water I add .04 oz. of borax - that's not a lot in my view. My understanding is that it acts both as an emulsifier and a thickener. And if you add too much, yes, you are going to get drying LS. I made that mistake the first time I made LS. My two cents!

It is true and if you have a convention full of a bunch of women they spend like crazy. even at the farmer's market and other shows a woman there with another friend who they ooo and aaa and feed off eachother's excitement buys way more than one by herself. I don't think that is the case in with this health day though. I don't know, $1000 is still a lot ...

I couldn't do the about.com thing cause I was impatient with the gazillion pages of information and I thought it too was hard to understand. I'm a learning by doing person so I just had to jump in and go for it!

I have thought about that. I think it probably is possible that if you combine a number of ingredients that by themselves have no preservative qualities that it could be possible to form something that does - I mean it is how they end up with the preservatives we use today right? But here we have to be careful what we say because we do not have labs and massive amount of cash to test all these theories. We need to stick to what we know - so when raising the question of whether or not we can make lotion without a preservative the answer here for us indies is always going to have to be no. AND the advice will be given to have your recipes challenge tested at least once to be sure your preservative is working AND to be as clean as clean can be when making lotion. That's a good thing because hopefully people will listen and we will have less customers breaking out in gross fungus and bacterial infections. Even if I didn't make the lotion - that person is less likely to buy from me because they had a bad experience with another indie. they are going to stick to the jergens which will be bad for all of us.

If you know what you are doing then why ask??? To argue??? This topic has been brought up a gazillion times by noobs on this board so what exactly did you expect would happen? There would be a bunch of folks coming on and saying, oh, you are right, no preservatives needed? Hmmm, and that Hauschka is one darn lucky guy that no one has had any nasties in his lotion. OR maybe the pesticide in his lotion kills other stuff too in which case would make it some sort of preservative anyway... But that's pure speculation, I'm glad you will be using a preservative.

OH MY!!!! How many nurses are going to be there???

ditto to what the queen and Chris R have said. there is a huge misconception about what is a preservative and what is an antioxidant (antioxidants are used for the most part to prevent oils rancidity, but to not prevent growth of nasties like bacteria and fungus)

I was approached by a hospital that is doing a women's health expo. They wanted be to have a booth there and I thought it would be a good thing. Ummm, no. she sends me the information and it is one day (a friday) from 10-2, expected attendees is 300 and they want $150. there's space for 30 booths. I think maybe she is just barking up the wrong tree with me here. Maybe a doctor or clinic, or something would think it was worth it, but for me no way! I would pay even more than that for a good show with 1000's of visitors if it was even just one day, but 4 hours, 300 people? Not even worth my time to drive there and set up. Sheez, I get 150-200 people in 4 hours at my small town midweek farmer's market!!! (and for that I pay $12 a day!) Just ranting....

If you are going to raise the price, do so for everyone with advanced warning. From the start I told family that they can always get a 20% discount. I have a friend who sends me check every month, a layaway of sorts. So she has an account with me and when she is ready to buy stuff I just deduct it off her account. Because she consistently spends about $1000 a year I give her 10% off the total of every order (which essentially makes her purchase tax free) and I always give her the heads up with clearance soap (she nearly always buys them up!). I also design custom gift sets for her free of charge every Christmas and other occasions should she need them. The girl never has to shop! She just calls me up, "I have this baby shower, can you put something together for me for $50?" and I don't complain!!! This has never been negotiated cause I didn't want something set in stone. But she's happy, I'm happy. It works. Friends and family are also getting other perks like testing new stuff and they always LOVE free cast offs - LS that has seperated and is not sellable - but still great stuff, soaps and lotions that totally bombed and I can't move. Free is good! So if you want to give buddies a break, give a discount - but with friends it's hard to determine who to give a discount to. Sometimes people think they are your "friend" cause they see you at the store now and then. That's why I only give a break to frequent customers and family.

I dry mine on a tray lined with a sheet of paper to absorb excess oil.

In my experience it's best just to leave it as fizzy powder. You could use them right away, but from a hardness standpoint I wait 12-24 hours. I would make a half batch if you can next time. I use meatballers and ornaments so I only need one mold of each to make a bunch of bombs!

I know that the method I used in the crockpot was posted on the whisk if you are a member there. it's a sticky in the soap forum. Books - I did read some before I CP soaped the first time, but I found them confusing especially because sometimes the methods were outdated. I gleaned more from the net and asking on forums. same with LS - but I never read a book. And really the best thing to do is just try it. Because seeing the different stages first hand clears up a lot of the mystery. Snow drift farms also has a good formulary on making LS.

You will find that certain FO's and certain recipes behave better with more water. I generally like a 33% lye solution, but if I have a high honey recipe or if I have a recipe that is a fast mover or a fast moving FO I will increase the water. If I'm trying to stop a gel (which can be hard with a GM soap) I use full water. So 33% isn't always good straight across the board.

I have never read failors book so I'm not sure what you are referring too. I learned to make LS by searching forums and asking questions of other GM liquid soapers. I make only GM liquid soap and to avoid having to use alcohol in my soaps I cook it for 3 days on very low heat to make sure the superfat from my GM won't seperate out. It's a lot of work!!! I did make one batch without GM for my first batch, cooking it in a crockpot for about 3 hours and then putting the hot crock wrapped in towels in cooler overnight. then I diluted it like below. It was a pretty harsh soap though. I dilute the paste with water that has a bit of borax in it. then I let it sit for a couple of weeks. I heat it a bit in the microwave before adding fragrance. I use the calc on www.summerbeemeadow.com as I have read that it is the only one that truly gives a 0% superfat. I have compared the #'s with those on soapcalc and they are slightly different.

Because all my soaps are made with fresh gm it put's a whole new spin on my recipes and the #'s soap calc gives me. a 5% superfat doesn't take into account the fat in the GM. AND different goats give a different butterfat in thier milk so it's not like going and buying a can of milk that is always the same fat content. Currently I have a few does that are different breeds. If you leave the milk to sit a few days (It comes out already homogenized, not like cows milk where the cream rises to the top fairly quickly) you can actually see the difference between the three as to who has the highest butter fat. They all eat the same thing and yet there are still differences. And if I weigh the milk you can also tell (which is why milk production is measured by weight not volume as a goat with a higher butterfat is superior to a lesser one) This is why it is a good thing to always weigh as a cup of one does GM and cup of another could have ounces difference in weight. Most of the time my Goatsmilk is all mixed from all the does, but I have tried to use just one does milk that was a higher butterfat and I didn't see much of a difference. I have however noticed a difference in making my GM LS. When I was down to just one doe milking who is the doe with the highest butterfat I suddenly began having problems with oil floating to the top. It needed a longer cook to get all the oil saponified. I have to cook for 3 days now at a very low temp to get consistent results!!! But I agree with Top, I don't go by the numbers too much. I just keep experimenting. And I have found that more expensive doesn't always make a better bar either. I actually prefer lard bars to shea bars...