Lorraine

Thanks!!! I'll have to try a couple of those and see what my nose thinks!

Never tried Lonestar. I'll have to check them out now! Any "must haves?"

Any suggestions for a fragrance that would be a good mixer for peppermint? I just can't seem to wrap my mind around this one

This is just what I needed to help me get this soft soap base figured out! THANK YOU!!! I really love the base and want to make it work! I'm totally excited now! A MILLION THANKS, CANDYBEE!!!!!

Melted down that first bar I made and added 1/4 tsp stearic and a small amount of some left over pieces of SFIC base and the soap hardened up nicely to where I can use it! Thank you Candybee! I took fresh 4 oz chunk of the soap and added my fo and 1/4 tsp of stearic, left it in the mold almost 24 hrs., took it out of the mold and let it sit on a rack for a few days and the bar hardened up nicely. Still not as hard as I would like and was wondering...instead of adding more stearic next time, is there something else I could add "in addition to" the 1/4 tsp of stearic? Maybe some cocoa butter?? What else would help harden the bar besides the stearic? TIA!

Your soaps are gorgeous SherriLynn!!! Love your idea of coloring all of the bases and not leaving any clear! Thanks for sharing!

Candybee, thanks so much for giving me a starting point for the stearic. I will probably start testing later today or tomorrow. Noodle, thanks so much for your reply. Leaving the bars out unwrapped for a couple of days is a very good idea. I have had to do that with other bases I've tried and it did help them harden up. I will try adding the stearic alone and see how the lather is and then if I have to I will add a few drops of liquid bronners as you have suggested. I really panicked with this base because I bought 20 lbs of it and couldn't believe that with only adding some fo and vanilla stabilizer it is so soft that I could take my square bar of soap and literally bend it up so that the two opposite corners touch! It has been like washing my hands with a giant marshmallow! LOL! Made me so sad because I LOVE the way this soap moisturizes my hands! It makes them feel like I put lotion on them! I'm going to try my best to remedy this issue. Thank you both again for your help. Much appreciated... Lorraine

I melted 4 oz of the Tres Leches soap base and added my fo (sandlewood vanilla) and a little vanilla stabilizer and I just unmolded the bar to find it extremely soft and rubbery. I can actually hold the bar in one hand and squeeze it, or hold it in two hands and twist it! This soap came out crazy soft! What would be my best bet to get this soap to harden up enough without compromising the lather? I've never had any soap turn out this soft even when I've added way too many ingredients to it Please help me figure this out Thank you...

SO...I went ahead and ordered the Tres Leches Soap Base from EBC and it arrived in the mail today. I just finished cutting up that huge block of soap base and I'm a little bit concerned with how soft the base is. It was SUPER EASY to cut up and bag! When I press it between my fingers it does indent it slightly! I've never used a base that is this soft before! I really don't mind that it is soft to the touch but I'm hoping that it doesn't melt away quickly in the shower! I'm thinking about adding some stearic to it right off the bat to try and harden it up some... but maybe I should melt a small amount and add just a little fo and see how it does on its own for the first time out... The good news is that I found EBC to be a wonderful supplier! Great customer service, very kind and very helpful... Makes me want to order from them again! More good news is that after cutting up all of that soap base and washing my hands again and again (because of handling the soap), my hands actually feel soft and moisturized!!! This has never been the case! My hands usually feel extremely dry after handling all of that soap and I have to keep applying lotion! Just thought I'd share!

That is a little difficult to say... depends on what you may be adding and what exactly you expect to get out of adding that particular ingredient. For instance- if I want my soap to be more moisturizing I would add some shea butter and maybe some sweet almond oil totaling about 1/2 oz pp of soap base. So we are looking at 1/2 oz fragrance oil plus 1/2 oz oil (and, or) butter per pound of soap base. You really have to play around with it and then test your bars to see if you like the results. Be sure to check out the long thread on melt and pour soaps where you will find many great tried and true recipes that board members have so graciously posted for us! You can start with one of them and then just tweek it to your own liking. The SFIC soap bases are very forgiving, if you added too much you can always melt it down again and add more soap base and re-mold. Oh, and since you were originally inquiring about the "clear" soap base , keep in mind that anything you add to that clear base will probably cause it to become cloudy. If you want to keep your clear base clear so that you can see embeds of colored chunks of soaps, etc... you should probably use the soap base without any additives. I hope this is making sense to you! I'm not always good at explaining things! Maybe someone more experienced will come along and give you some really great tips!:smiley2:

I just wanted to say that I usually get my SFIC soap bases from Peaks. They sell the clear glycerin base for $26.50 for 10 lbs. Maybe you should check them out and their shipping prices as well. Another good place to check out is Soapies Soap Supplies. They sometimes offer pre-buys or cut-ups at a discounted price. Good luck and hope this helped a bit!

I looked at the ingredients and it looks like SFIC to me! That is one of the best bases out there in my opinion. It is easy to work with and makes a great bar of soap. I personally find it drying to my skin so I HAVE to add things like shea butter, olive oil, etc... to make it more moisturizing. But the wonderful thing about SFIC is that it takes additives really well. You can't go wrong with the SFIC bases!

YES!!! I just read through the entire thread again and I'm going to try making your Cranberry Orange Spice Soap!!! It sounds wonderful! Also read a post where someone mentions using some of the Tres Leches and found it to be very moisturizing with great lather! Thanks so much Candybee!

THANK YOU CANDYBEE! I thought I remembered reading about the Tres Leches a while back but I couldn't find the post! Thank you for the link! Thank you for your replies as they are very helpful and much appreciated! I'll have to go back to the EBC website and take another look at all of their bases... I always seem to go back to the SFIC... If I could just find the right combination of additives to get a good moisturizing bar with lots of lather always back to the drawing board... won't give up!

I have looked at this base time and time again and would like to try it while their sale event is on.....does anyone use this base? Will you kindly tell me something about it? Is it soft like WSP's? I currently use SFIC (only for myself and family) because I like a hard bar of soap, however, I find the SFIC very drying and helped that by following Praire Annie's and Candybee's soap recipes (many thanks for sharing!) I was wondering if this soap base is moisturizing so that I could just add some fragrance and be done with it! Don't get me wrong, I love to play with soap and additives, etc... but there are times when I would just like a single bar of soap in a certain fragrance without all the fuss! I would really appreciate any reviews! Thanks for any help here!

Well, I checked it out and at nearly 40 bucks a pound I think they should have included the gold!!! LOL! Mama Mia!!!

Thanks Scented, I'll check it out!

Can anyone share where I can find a really good frankincense and myrrh? CS's is pretty good but was wondering if there is a better one out there........ Oh... for M&P soap and soy tarts.... Thanks!

WOW! First M&P soaps! They are beautiful! Can't wait to see what your soaps look like in 6 months! You will be pouring masterpieces! :smiley2:

Thank you so much Candybee!

Thank you both so much for your replies... I didn't word this question very well :embarasse I guess what I was wanting to know was which of these butters do you find to be most beneficial in your MP soap... I have been using the SFIC bases and I find them extremely drying to my skin. A little less so with the goat's milk and the shaving, so I stick to these two, but they are still drying if I don't add anything to them. I always add some canned goat's milk, some sweet almond oil, and a little olive oil and it does help quite a bit. Was wondering which butter would be most beneficial for moisturizing... Should I (could I) use all three? Would that drastically decrease the lather?

If you could only choose one, which one would that be? And why? Shea butter Mango butter Cocoa butter What about "natural" or "refined" Shea? What about "natural", "white", or "deodorized" cocoa? What are the differences? Would love to hear what has worked best for you in MP soap... Much appreciated!

They look fabulous! Bet they smell awesome too!

Because of this thread, I just had to check these out at my walmart store! lol! They did actually have them at my store in 4 different scents and they didn't smell too awful bad! Couldn't bring myself to buy any to try though since I have a ton of tarts I made that will take me a lifetime to burn them all! :rolleyes2

Thanks so much ladies! I cut it and got 7 big bars! Now to improve my cutting technique...:tiptoe: