Wick'n'Wax

omg, I inspired someone, thats brill. I feel all daft lol. sorry saw my name in a soap thread, its like being in the newspaper I'm assuming its different because I use m&p, I poured mine into a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, waited about 10mins and rolled the edge, when it had enough of a roll going, I pulled the paper off and rolled all the way. If I was trying two colours, I'd just sit them one on top of the other and roll. I put mine in a clean washing up liquid bottle and used that as the mold queen of cheap me lol

Theres quite a few about 10mins drive away, I'll nip tomorrow, thanks sally. If I can't get any I'll substitute

what I could do with is a husband that delivers to about 20 garages per day ooh wait a minute, he does I don't actually know any gardeners at the moment to test on, so maybe the mechanics

ooh ooh, an italian restaurant, excellent idea. I did ask in tesco today, if they had pollenta instead of the cornmeal, and whilst it was on 'the system', it wasn't in store. Poor woman from customer services, spent a good 20 mins trawling round the shop with me lol. I have poppy seeds,, blimey, I have the things needed! very rare thing lol. will give it a try but out of goatmilk base for couple days till order arrives. I have cucumber and avocado, might try that, its soothing thanks for all your help xx ps I'm wondering how close to a mechanics soap this is, seems the same sort of ingredients

I found a recipe on a thread on here, and I'm having trouble finding one of the ingredients, corn meal. I asked and was pointed in the direction of a thicker corn flour. I'm in the UK, so I think somethings maybe lost in translation. I've been to a couple of supermarkets and whilst they've heard of cornmeal, no one sells it. Is there anything I can use instead of white cornmeal? The recipe is as follows: Gardeners Soap 1 lb M&P goatsmilk base 1 - 2 Tablespoons white cornmeal 1 1/2 Tablespoons fine pumice 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon bentonite clay 1 Tablespoon of shea or mango butter (for moisturizing) 2 - 3 teaspoons of a citrus essential oil (orange, lemon, etc.) or one of each. Orange cuts the grime. Melt base, Stir to allow it to cool a bit, Add scent, Stir in cornmeal, pumice and clay continually until it gets to the point where it will stay suspended in the soap. Pour into molds. thanks xx

hiya, thanks for your reply. yep it was all scented and coloured. However, I'm doing M&P soap, only been making soaps about 3-4weeks now. I'm wondering if that 'sets up' quicker than cp or hp

ok, I'm gonna have to stop looking at your soaps, its killing me. Today I decided I'll put some blobs on top of my slab soap, and try doing that!! What a laugh, NOT I had to go out and buy 2 squeezy bottles. They were only small, but I got down nearly one line and they had gunked up, had to undo it, clean nozzle and do next row, but by then this colour had set in the bottle too! It took me ages to do 2 lines, which I then noticed were solid! so I couldn't drag a toothpick through it. I was gutted, only reason it didn't go out of the window, was I'd used my new eo's and only had a bit left, and it was the last of my soap base till next week. In the end, I thought, sod this for a game of soldiers and just poured one colour on top of the white and waited, then poured the next colour on top of that one. Came out ok though. I take my hat off to you. Not just the design of them, but the technicalities of doing it. You're amazing xx

If I can find cornmeal in our supermarkets, then some gardeners soap. Got some new EO's to try. Will be making some orange eo with calendula, lemongrass and ginger, ylang ylang and bergamot and some peppermint. Totally out of gm base though, so probably shea butter base or clear, or maybe cucumber and avocado. Made some lavender and tea tree today, so got that to cut. I'm loving this soaping

omg! I'm new to soapmaking, how on earth are either of those even possible!! The first is gorgeous, the 2nd is totally awesome. How can you possibly get a pattern on soap like that! totally gobsmacked

Thanks Vio thats great. Will nip to tesco tomorrow

thanks I'm in the UK, but just found and ordered some bentonite clay (along with a face mask recipe with it ), I'm wondering if in the UK we have a different name for cornmeal, I know cornstarch is cornflour to us, could be that.

ooh thanks so much for your advice folks xx lisa, thats brill, I'll try that recipe. Just need to figure where to get bentonite clay and white cornmeal from

I want to make some soaps for gardeners, kitchen, and mechanics soap. I've thought of a few things i.e. pumpice in the mechanics soap. The kitchen obviously needs something to cut nasty niffs and the gardeners needs to be moisturising. I make mp soaps, and wondered if anyone had any tips advice. Is there a particular fo that cuts kitchen whiffs? or is good for old knarled heavy duty gardeners hands lol. The mechanics needs to cut through grime too, obviously the pumice will help. I usually use goatsmilk mp. thanks xx

They love it helping me measure, putting the soap in the jug, choosing the colours, and the 'smell' and naming them, budding little entrepeneurs

yep we did They are from the KAmy collection KAmy Chunks lol Katie 'n' AMY stuff for stinky boys will be called the RyDAN collection, RYan 'n' DANiel lol sad I know, but if they are helping I mean evening the boys are bathing

thanks for the compliments I was worried about the overpour (sorry candle terminology coming in lol), covering up the pink and violet chunks, so only very lightly coloured it yellow but with gold glitter in. It looks loads better in person, my picture skills aren't the best hehe

These are this weekends efforts First is a swirl/roll loaf, fragranced with Lotus Blossom. The girls loved the pink and violet colours so much we made this one today. Pink and Violet chunks with yellow and gold glitter overpour, fragranced in Thai Coconut.

hehe, I remember the wax addiction well, this is just as bad. Can't get in kitchen at minute to unmold as hubby is making dinner will post piccies later tonight

thanks for the links. A couple of swirly ones there, but looks mostly like marbles. I think I'll try the squirty method next, but have a very distinct darker colour against a white, thanks x

well I'm only a couple of weeks into soap making (M&P), so I'm making soaps for fun rather than orders at the moment. Today I'm going to be working with clear soaps, seeing how I can colour them, glitters, micas etc. Made a roll in a loaf last night in violet and pinks, of course the girls loved it, so this morning, THEY have decided more pinks and violets. So we are all making some pink and violet chunks with a yellow overpour. Not sure of the fo, as I don't have too many yet. Maybe something in goatsmilk later, but I'm rapidly running out of gm base so it'll just be 1 or 2 bars rather than a loaf. Am I really sad that I got up at 2am to unmold last nights loaf?

Are swirls actually possible in M&P soap, or is a marble the best I can expect. I've tried the pouring from opposite ends, I've tried the pouring in layers method, neither worked. I'm going to try pouring one layer, squirting coloured on, then layer, squirt, then swirl. IF I can get the soap in the squirty bottle to stay liquid enough. anyone any experience of this working in M&P?

thanks, I'm really grateful for the compliments. Actually someone asked me last night if she could buy more bars of my soaps, but I can't sell yet, only been doing soap and b&b a few weeks and got ages to go before I can get certified and sell, but at least I have a die-hard tester now I think timing of when to do that roll is paramount, i left it a little too long and couldn't roll it enough, but gonna try some different patterns just need to go buy a job lot of 13 pence bottles of washing up liquid lol.

lol, yeah they do

update on this recipe: I didn't have everything on the list, but just had to try it (halved all the ingredients) I used 7oz shea butter (no hempseed butter) 1oz mango butter 2 1/2oz sweet almond oil 2 tsp cornstarch (didn't want it to be greasy so used 2 to be on safe side) 1/2oz Sugar Frosting fo, (go on, ask me why on earth I used a bakery fo in a body product, dunno lol) I've left this a while, and just tried it. It soaks in well after about 10mins, no residue on skin, and skin does feel soft, even if I smell like a bakery However, when you apply it, boy is it greasy! I need to re-jig this somehow to make it less greasy, and nicer smelling So far, so good. Arms haven't fallen off and skin still intact

I just cut them with a normal carving knife. Do you mean the ribbed effect on the square soaps? Thats a pattern in the slab mold I got. thanks for the compliments folks. The hardest part of making soaps, is deciding on which of the fo's to use that I've got and the colour