elegantnaturals

That's great! Don't you love it when your formulations work out!

Me, too. Even with the remelt, you may get the graininess that shea is notorious for. If you don't mind telling, what method did you use for the remelt? Heat and hold and then a quick freeze? Or did you barely melt and then whip? HTH

I've stopped using stearic acid in my formulations. I can't get over the waxy/draggy feeling. I use primarily ewax/btms or a combo with cetearyl or behenyl. Anyway, I do use Hydrovance and I use it up to 2% in my formulations. From what I understand, use caution when using glycerin because it will make the formula tacky after 10% (I think that's it anyway). HTH

I read somewhere (and please please correct me if I'm wrong) that it's up to 2 tbsp of oils/butter per pound and up to a 1/4 cup of additives, as a general rule. And for the life of me, I can't remember where I read it either. *sigh*

Personally, I'm not seeing the big difference between Hydrovance and Glycerin. Would IPM help at all?

I'm guessing you could use white kaolin clay instead of the bentonite clay. Are you making it just out of those three ingredients or is there more to the recipe?

Have you tried www.labelsbythesheet.com? She does printing as well as selling blank labels. I think her minimum is 25 labels for standard shape/sizes and $150 for specialty orders. Fast shipping, too. Also, I've only ordered the blanks. I'll be using her services eventually, though. HTH

Looks like that blue is your background and you need to center your main page (like a blog). HTH

Makes me wonder what she/he used for a mold?!

I use the 60 mm ornament mold that Michael's craft store carries. It makes a good sized bomb. I may have to get the meatballer, though, for bubble bombs or foot bombs. HTH

Thanks all, for your kind responses! It also lathers nicely and I haven't noticed any big chunks of mica falling out of the soap. Yea me! lol

So that's what OOH Lotion is supposed to look like! Mine failed miserably (separated out almost instantly). Did you use the ACV or the citric acid? I think that using Snowdrift's lab kit is a good idea. Are you still going to have your lotions, etc. tested at an established facility? This is the way I'm going to do it myself. The lab kit and ph strips are on my "immediate needs" list. BTW, lotion looks fantastic!

Thanks, MochaMama! I appreciate your reply.

I made my first MP log mold the other day, pouring into a bread pan. It worked really well! I'd suggest at least three pounds though since two pounds didn't make it as "tall" as I wanted it. As for the chunks themselves, pour the colored chunk soap into ice trays and let set up. Pop those ones out and use in your bread pan. HTH

Are you using CP or MP? I find with MP that the molds must be oiled lightly before pouring otherwise the whipped soap sticks. I haven't done any other type of soaping, though, so not sure if you are doing it the other way. HTH

Someone within the past few months posted a website that sold B&B. Okay, that sounds like just about everyone here. The thing that caught my eye, though, about this particular site was the wax tarts. They looked liked swirled candy and I wanted to take another look at them. So now that I want to go look at the site, I can't find it.:embarasse And trust me, after putting the search term "website" into the search box, my eyes hurt from all the hits. Please, if you know which site I'm talking about, please take pity on me and post it again! TIA

Do you know what Mannan is? I haven't been able to figure it out. I do have their baby creme and it's okay (it feels a bit waxy). The one I make for my boys is better.

I added some to an emulsified scrub and it worked...kinda. It's still really stiff but if I reduce the amount of MP in the scrub, it won't be as "soapy". I know there is a way to do it, I just haven't figured it out (and I'm quickly running out of MP to play with). Thanks for your input! I appreciate it!

Those are fantastic, Pepperi! Don't you just love Energy from BB? I use it in my scrubs. Is that shrinkwrap or saranwrap? Either way you did a great job wrapping them.

Your soaps are so cute! How the heck did you do that? Did you just color small batches of soap and then pour when one formed a skin? I bow to your creativity!

I finally got too jealous of all the beautiful swirls that you fantastic soapers were doing, so I decided to do some myself. I did this with two types of MP, Shea MP and Honey MP. I used Cappuccino mica from Brambleberry for the color swirl. The scent is OMH (so everyone in the family can use it...otherwise it would've been Sandalwood Vanilla). I thought I put too much color in when I stopped swirling and only after the soap was cut did I realize it hadn't gone all the way down. Next time, I'll put all of the colored soap in. Also, I think the main soap was too cool when I poured the swirl. Anyhoo, here's a pic of my new soap:

Jadryga, Do you do a 1:1 mix with the mac nut oil and avocado oil? I use a mix of FCO, Olive Oil, Grapeseed, RBO and Vit E. Not sure if I like it. I still get quite a few zits (more than I used to it seems) since I started using it. I also heard that hazelnut is particularly good for those who have oily skin. We'll see. I told myself I'd give it at least a month before I gave up on it.

Ok, it's probably one of the silliest things I've done yet. I'm attempting a swirled MP soap but I added the mica to my swirly part too soon. Has anyone ever tried to microwave M&P with mica? I thought I'd ask first and benefit from your wisdom rather than blow up my kitchen! TIA

I've done a couple of searches for info on MP in scrubs and although I found recipes, I didn't see any posts about results from those experiments. If you have tried putting MP in your scrub, would you please post your results? Inquiring minds would like to know! TIA