kidsngarden

I don't know if it's because I use a log not a slab, but this did not work out for me. I usually have to cut my soap 12-24 hours after making or it's getting too hard, but I could not even get the loaf out on day two, putting it in the freezer, etc. I did mineral oil it too. I took the mold apart to get it out - no biggie, it will go back together easy enough.

I'm glad it works for you though!

I tried this - have a loaf in now and am SCARED to try to take it out! Wish me luck!

Great Laura!

For those who may be following this thread who may not know ... the "lye" at lowes is Sodium Hydroxide (for making cold process bar soap) and it should say "roebic crystal drain Cleaner" and be Granular. It is not Potassium hydroxide that is used for liquid soap making.

I buy both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide at a chemical supply place an hour away. I buy 50 pound bags though...

Well GM does increase your superfat, but it shouldn't be significantly softer than the others....Hmmmm.

My parents have lived there about 5 or 6 years?

Hey, You are close, Brown! My parents live on Lake Sutherland in PA!

I'm wondering why your GM soap was soft? Was it the same recipe as your other bars, just with GM as the liquid? Did you discount the others? All I do is fresh GM soaps...I'm SUPPOSED to do a tutorial here this month but my camera is MIA!

Scented - The ratios I gave were to help Darbla formulate a basic recipe by weight, not volume, not particular to using pumpkin. You are right, any recipe would work. In my experience pumpkin doesn't contribute all that much to a bar anyway (but I don't use all that much because I don't want it to go bad), but has WONDERFUL label appeal!

Darbla - I'm very glad this recipe has worked for you. however it is very hard to get the same results every time by volume, especially measuring solid oils. I know that millers is very reputable, but also know that seasoned soapers will tell you to use recipes by volume for accuracy. If you want to keep using this recipe and it is working for you, great. I was just trying to help you out. Once you get soaping more you will find that you will want a scale and to do your recipes by volume.

Most soaps in the store are detergent bars, some aren't. One that comes to mind is Ivory.

MP is often detergents and not "true" soap. But I believe there are some that do not have detergents in them.

I only do CP so I'm not entirely familiar with MP. At my market last year there was a gal who sold MP and she had a huge following even though her bars were syndet, but then there were just as many that didn't like it and wanted my soaps. To each his own.

I only to B&B and I am doing far better at the farmer's market then online. As a matter of fact my sales at the market are the same as they were last year so that is good. I think I do better at the market because there is a clientelle there that believes they NEED handcrafted soap. Online I have more lush-like groupies who it is a luxury product. But I am taking steps to scale back. I have cut out my lotions because they were my high price items and I HATE making lotion. I did have a few fanatics over my lotion, but they weren't worth the headache of making it. (cleaning crazy and being completely germophobic during the whole process was very stressful to me!)

So scaling back has been a blessing to me in that I don't have to make lotions anymore! I still sell shea and lotion bars well though. Bath bombs are only good sellers online and at craft shows.

I think I will try half bars. My 5 + oz bars are $5.00 or 4/$18 right now (really should be more) and I think I will sell halves for $3.00 or 2/$5 and see how that goes. Currently at the market my highest priced item is my large lotion bar at $8.50 and the lowest price is my clearance soaps at $3.00 or 2/$5.

I would strongly suggest not using a recipe done by volume. It is very inaccurate and I'm disappointed millersoap would publish such a thing. All soap ingredients should be measured by weight. The only thing we know of that is same volume as weight is water, but I still weigh that too!

This recipe will have poor bubbles and there are lots better out there. A good very basic starter recipe is 40-60% lard or tallow, 20% coconut, and 20-40%% liquid oil like sunflower or olive.

Also one pound of oils is REALLY small. Try at least two pounds of oils.

This recipe I'll be using calls for a little over one pound of oils:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Crisco

1 1/3 cups olive oil

1/4 cup lye

6 fluid ounces cool distilled water

So would using 1 oz of pumpkin be about right? Someone mentioned 3 oz pumpkin in 4.5 lbs of soap, so I'm aiming for close to that ratio.

P.S. That's the super easy recipe from Miller Soap here: http://www.millersoap.com/USAToday/SoapArtUSAToday.html

With the big bombs like mine I use cello bags, but haven't had any damage issues yet at shows - but I don't bring them to the farmer's market as they don't sell well there. Great at Christmas and year round on line though.

It's still soap - water is not what would make it lye heavy, having too much lye for the oils used would. I'm surprised you got the lye to dissolve in less than 50% water!!

I'd totally use it up...I can't see the picture real well, but if I had made the same mistake and it looked good I'd sell it too!

I just got some fresh lemon balm and would like to infuse an oil with it. I'm assuming I have to dry the lemon balm first so the moisture from the leaves doesn't get in the oil?

And how do I infuse oil with the vanilla beans I got through the coop?

Directions on how to do this would be great.

Thanks!

Mine oozed and I had kind of a half circle bomb.

I made one with pumpkin puree' and GM last year. DO NOT use the pumplin pie spice from AH/RE - plastic city! It smelled so very badly of plastic I just threw it out!

I use BB pumpkin spice with success though.

The oven doesn't work for me either.

I've used Labcolor or true tone colors from BB and many morph or disappear if gelled.

Same with a few micas, but I have better luck with them and UM's.

I believe I read that you should not discount HP. I don't do HP often, but every time I have the bars are pretty soft compared to my CP bars.

I don't know how open you are to using animal oils but lard is a nice slow tracing oil.

You could try a real basic recipe of 50% lard, 20% coconut, 5% castor, and 25% liquid oil like sunflower. Put it through soapcalc with a 2.5 pound batch to get the lye amounts.

I use straight unrefined fair trade shea on my face daily. LOVE IT! I have very sensitive skin and the unrefined shea is supposed to have SPF values (but I still don't trust that!)

Yes, it takes a lot of testing to be able to claim and SPF and it is highly regulated so it's not likely you will find and Indie that makes it.

Soap at ROOM TEMP, no water discount, then add the FO at light trace with a whisk just like meredith said.

It could also be your soap recipe as some trace quicker than others.

Very rarely is it cheaper to ship out anything regular priority for me. It has to be under 2 pounds for sure. And parcel sometimes isn't much better either. I'd rather pay a bit more and have it get there sooner!

I just have a little collection of boxes that I use for non flat rate shipping or if I send fedex or UPS, but like I said - probably 90% of my stuff goes out flat rate.

I second freezer paper, but I too never reuse mine - I tear it off!

You mean eo's that increase photosensitivity (make you burn quicker)?. No, they are not a concern in Soapmaking.

We can go round and round here about how much is absorbed through the skin, but still it would be very minimal, not enough to cause photosensitivity.

Also bars that have been touching any of my vanilla base bars (one's that darken) will also begin to go brown too if they sit next to them long enough.