kidsngarden

I wonder if the wine would dissolve the sugar a bit? Let us know your results! Bethany

I only heat with wood and have no problems. My soaps cure in the "same" area (it's a great room) but about 30 feet away. Bethany

I get folks all the time stopping by my booth thinking I'm selling fudge! Once my son had a friend over and I asked him if he'd like more dinner. He said, "no thanks, I'll have some of that though please." pointing to the bars of brown sugar and spice I had curing! Imagine his surprise if I actually let him take a bite! Oh and I was tempted - I'm a bad, bad girl! Bethany

huh, I've never had someone say that about my bars - doesn't mean they won't, but not so far. I've smelled a pig up close and personal having them on the farm and I haven't had that scent or the lard scent in my bars. I wonder if it was home rendered lard improperly done? Interesting. Bethany

Even on my low profiles I do the jar. I make the labels on full sheet labels and cut with a paper cutter. I hate dealing with circle label templates! Bethany

Darn - so are you all saying 16 oz is too big? I have about 40 16 oz jars leftover from my bath salt venture (those don't sell well here!) and was thinking I could use them for sugar scrubs in my holiday show. So how much are you all charging for your scrub anyway? I finally made one I like so now I need ot figure on pricing! BTW I sell my body velvet (emulsified body butter) best in 2 oz jars (a lot of them!!!) even though the 8 oz jar is a better buy. ($7 for a 2 oz and $16 for an 8 oz - similar to Body Shop pricing and sizing) Bethany

Well said Top! Bethany

I like cornflower blue mica for a light blue. I have been conducting a few experiements with labcolors. All my soaps are GM and quite a few really like to heat up. I don't mind having them gel except for when I am using labcolors. anything with any red in it will totally disappear in a really hot gel, but if I put them in the fridge to stop the gel I can get the pinks and oranges to show. Some greens come out blue when they gel. I've actually gone into Brambleberry's store (Otion) and shown them the differences. they agree that it can happen. I do wish they would put it on their site though so other people can be aware of it! Bethany

HATE PALM hate it hate it hate it. I don't like soaping it and don't like using it. My biggest seller is a bar that is just lard, coconut, and sunflower. I use really high percentage of hard oils - 50-60 % but when I make my all veggie bar I only add the palm at 30% because I don't like it. If you want dirt on Palm they are tearing down a gazillion acres of rainforest to produce it so I guess you have to choose the lesser of two evils by your own opinion - a leftover byproduct of meat production or something that is taking away the natural habitat of rainforest plants and wildlife. I am fine with people who choose not to eat meat, but I don't think that vegetarianism will take over the world any time soon so I think that using leftovers from meat production is a far better choice. As for the animal thing I have a farm. I make soap from goat milk from my own goats. I eat goats, I eat my own home grown pork, I eat my own rabbits and I use LARD in my soaps. I have people who ask me (quite a few while eating some form of meat) how I can possibly eat those cute goats and bunnies? Here's the deal - they all start out cute. That burger you ate at McDonald's was a very cute calf once. Baby chicks are just adorable. The difference is that I have the guts to raise it under blissful organic conditions myself, kill it quickly and humanely, and respect the animal that gave it's life for my food. My kids have friends who don't correlate that hamburger come from cows. They think it magically appears in the grocery store or something. I wouldn't eat my dog, I wouldn't eat my momma goats - they are PETS, but I have animals that aren't pets but product for meat, or soap, or whatever. They are treated very well, I enjoy having them, I am an animal lover, but I don't get attached. I'm sure that joke was tongue in cheek and personally I thought it was funny and a true irony. The human one wasn't funny at all. Animals and humans are not the same - not in my book anyway. rant over, Bethany

I've begun tempering my shea and mango by themselves at 170-185 in a doulbe boiler for 20 minutes per snowdrift farms directions - so far so good with the graininess in my lip balms. Bethany

Oh I like both of these - thanks so much for getting my brain cells going! Bethany

I have been asked by my SIL to make favors for her two baby showers. One is with family and with the games and all cutesy. One is with her co-workers and will be during their lunch hour no games, professional, etc. So I'm thinking I will either wrap soap in pretty paper or put bath bombs in nice box with ribbons. But what do I put ON the labels (my info will be on there somewhere). It's not a like a wedding where you put "theresa and Levi" (levi will be her baby's name) and the date. What about "thanks so much for celebrating with me - Theresa" I can think of nice classy and or cutesy ways to wrap the stuff, but the words are escaping me. Thanks, Bethany

Well I am buying massive stuff at BB now because after doing a bunch of research it just pays to go there and get it. My shipping for a slightly larger order ($250 worth of oils at BB and cash and carry) from soapers choice was $140!!!! No way! I'll pay for the gas to drive to BB, thanks! Bethany

Thanks, but after evaluating shipping of large amounts of oils it is much better off for me to pick up at BB even though thier PPP is higher. Problem solved! Bethany

I have been buying all my oils at MMS- now because of volume I wanted to switch to Soaper's choice. the only thing I didn't buy at MMS any more was refined Shea as thiers is so HARD. I've been buying Brambleberry's and I really love it. They are an hour away from me, but thier prices aren't that great, even if you buy a lot. On a different thread someone said that soaper's choice refined shea was really grainy which bums be out because I would love to get my oils from all one place. So the question is who sells refined shea in bulk that is really nice shea like BB and a good price like Soaper's choice? Or are any of you buying from soaper's choice and liking the refined shea? I would hate to buy a ton of shea from them and HATE it! Bethany Love to hear your opinions!

I sell brown soap all the time - vanilla, dragons blood, monkey farts, Cedar Saffron, Autumn Apple, they all discolor. about four of those are top sellars for me. Some I do keep out part before adding the FO and either leave it natural or add color for the swirl, but some are just solid and people still love them - while people do love a pretty bar (and some brown bars a VERY lovely!) it's really the scent that seals the deal. You never know... Bethany

I'd bet sugar cane has a heavy dose of vanilla - you can almost always tell if there's "sugar" in the title! Bethany

The harder shea thing makes sense. MMS shea is really hard and very white - I've almost thought they had made a mistake and gave me deo cocoa butter sometimes - but the texture isn't THAT hard. But Brambleberries shea is very soft so I bet it will work a lot better. My first batch was MMS - today will be brambleberry - we shall see. Does anyone know if soaper's choice refined shea is soft or hard? Bethany

You know I have read about that and have it all in my head to say it to the next person that says anything about my lard soaps! Fact is though, there are so few who even care around here (we are a farming community) that really it's not that big of deal anyway, just every now and again someone will come along... Who are the folks who sell homogenized palm anyway? I'm thinking the sage does as I haven't had a problem with thiers yet. Bethany

Then what's the trick to keeping it whipped up? It hasn't been hot here - 60's or so.... Bethany

I just tried to do some whipped shea... is it supposed to stay "whipped" or does it kinda compact a bit after it's ben in the jar and get hard? I've never actually used a whipped shea before so I don't know what to expect. I use Kimberly's whipped shea recipe form the board btw. Thanks, Bethany

I have been soaping quite awhile and only just began using palm oil about 5 months ago - to appease those opposed to using animal fats - I only make about 4 varieties that have about 30% palm. Anywho, this totally explains why I had a batch the other day accelerate like no other that has behaved so nicely before with the same EO's - it must've been unhomogenized Palm, unstirred in a bar that already has 5% cocoa butter and 1% stearic - OUCH! Didn't know there was such a thing as homogenized or unhomogenized! Another reason for me to hate palm - Lard rules I say.... So if I mix the stuff up now after using about a pound and a half of a 5 lb bag will it be ok? (bought this at BB by the way) Bethany

I have only soaped with Fresh GM from my goats, but it's all I do - GM soaps either 100% or 50% and never has it volcanoed in the mold and I don't stick it in the fridge and the only time I get a smell is if it's the lye mixing with the water... I can't state enough to soap with everything RT if you don't want strange stuff to happen to your GM soaps. If I'm doing a 50% GM (especially if I have and FO that really moves) I let the lye water and oils sit overnight so they are REALLY Room temp. If it's 100% GM I just add the lye slowly to GM frozen in cubes, stirring all the while (yes -it's hard to stir in cubes till it starts to melt!) Oils are always rt or just warm to the touch on the pot. My soaps are creamy off white as long as I didn't color them or add and FO that discolors. (and my GM still is cream colored when frozen too - so I'm not sure why it does that with canned???) Good luck on your next batch! Bethany Bethany

If I wanted to soap with coffee. If I dissolve the lye in water - about half the required liquid, the add the rest as coffee with the oils will it give off a coffee fragrance? I'm assuming that using ALL coffee as the liquid would make the coffee burn - or I guess I could freeze it and then add the lye, just like I do with milk. Or making it half frozen coffee and half frozem GM. I was thinking of adding a chocolate FO just slight enough to make it smell mocha-ish if the coffee fragrance will come through. Whatcha think? Bethany

I hear ya Lindsay! I used to bevel and with my textured tops it just didn't look right AND I just don't have the patience for it! Bethany