GrandmaArial

When it comes to testing soap all I hope is that everyone does test every batch before sending it out. How you test it is up to you. Not long after I joined this forum there was a post from someone who was short of product and bought some wholesale from another supplier to fill an order. It seems no one tested it before it was sent to the customers and was lye heavy. I do not remember any reports of serious injury from this incident… but the potential is there.

That's what I wonder. I have looked at a few tutorials and it looks time consuming. I guess as a special gift it might be worth it, but I can’t imagine anyone willing to pay me for the time it would take to make it. I mean… it’s not like you can reload the wool part with a fresh bar of soap when it’s gone. It looks to me like a novelty item, something one would set out to brag about when company is coming over, but not actually allow anyone to use. Or maybe I only know poor people. You know… though, the idea of a wool bag that could be used and reloaded with a new bar of soap…

From testing my own soap, hand made soap sent to me from others, and commercial soaps most soap tests right at between 9 and 10 PH. 10 feels harsh to my skin so I won’t hand out anything above 9.5, which is what most commercial soaps test at. The higher the PH the better “cleaning” (read grease cutting) a soap is, the lower (with in reason, but your soap will never be acidic so don’t worry about it) the milder it is to the skin, which has a PH value of 5.5 so expect and look for this as you work out your recipes. The type of PH strips you’re looking at , deb, tend to test low because of the surfactants in soap. This is caused by the soap “coating” the indicator compound. Get some samples of commercial soaps and practice testing them with various ratios of water to soap to get a feel for it. Too much or too little water and it will test low. You can also use phenolphthalein to “calibrate” your ph paper. Simply test the same samples with the phenol. Phenolphthalein will start turning pink at 8.5. The darker it is the higher the PH. Not accurate at all, but will help give you an idea of what you’re looking at with the litmus paper. I get my ph test supplies from a local supplier recommended by science teacher at our local high school. I think I’ve seen phenol sold on many soap supply sites. On commercial soap… off the top of my head… dove is a ph of 7, Zest and Palmolive test at 10, and almost everything else tests at 9.5 (there is one popular commercial soap that tests at 9, but I can’t remember which one, sorry). There are expensive test strips you can get that will give an accurate reading with soap, but it’s very expensive. Like $20 for a box of 100. I’m sitting here trying to remember what brand I used (I had about half a box when I started making CP) but can’t for the life of me… all I can remember is they had 4 pieces of different types of litmus paper on them. They were very accurate, but now I use plain old litmus paper. You don’t need that accurate a reading, you just need to make sure it isn’t lye heavy and with practice that’s easy with the litmus paper. As I’ve said before PH testing is something I do to satisfy me. Many here produce lovely soap and only use the zap test. It is an individual choice. If it makes you feel more secure then do it. If you think it’s a waste of time then don’t. There is no law saying anyone has to. Neither is there any law forbidding it. Good luck with your endeavors.

I use herbs in my soaps because I like what they add to the soap quality, color isn’t as important to me. I have noticed most eventually turn brown or black. Be careful with “hot” spices, they can be an irritant to sensitive skin. I have infused oil with cinnamon and used the dregs to color soap. It works well, leaving the hot oils in the infused oil (which I add just a touch of to the soap or use for cooking). Carrots make a nice yellow soap, tomatoes I am trying now, seem to make a nice orange. Do searches for “natural colors soap” with google or any other search engine. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of good pages to read and learn from. Do remember, though, what ever you add to your soap will affect the quality of the soap. Some will make it better, some will make it not as good. I will also recommend that if you use spices to color your soap you use it a couple weeks in the tub before you hand it out to anyone else. If it’s going to cause a rash this way it’s you and not your mother in law. Testing on your hands isn’t enough. Our hands are exposed to too many substances through the day, and the skin of our hands is usually tougher than our more protected areas of our bodies.

I remember seeing a couple threads in the past on making whipped soap with a mixer. Do a search… I don’t remember much about it except someone was using a kitchen aid stand mixer, and it was done cold. I would worry about splash from a mixer. And a stand mixer… the bowl is so small, would be a very small batch of soap… euginia has said she no longer uses her stick blender at all, just soaps at room temperatures using a whisk. It gives her more time to mess with things. I seem to remember she posted a great tutorial on it awhile back. If you decide to use a hand mixer for soaping I would suggest (besides being very very careful of splashing) only using it til the oils and lye water are incorporated then switch to a whisk so you don’t wind up with fluffy soap (unless you want fluffy soap, in which case try it and let us know how it works). Do be careful of splashes though. I know I always get a lot of tiny droplets spattered around my kitchen when I use my mixer. Cake batter just wipes up but raw soap can be nasty stuff… remember lye is one of the main ingredients in paint strippers.

Here in the US animal products are very loosely regulated. I would be careful using supplies purchased for animals for that reason. There are few, if any, guide lines on purity and allowable contaminants in products produced for animals in most jurisdictions though usually a reliable company will adhere to high standards simply to stay in business (killing people’s animals is bad for business). However that doesn’t mean the RBO you purchase at the feed store is pure RBO, check state and local regulations as it could be quite legal for them to cut it with cheaper oils, even hydrocarbon based oils. My biggest concern (besides not producing an organic based product) would be the SAP value if it is indeed a blend or has a substantial amount of unsaponifiable material in it (even if nontoxic). The RBO I bought some time ago was rather dark, though still translucent. It was food grade, and purchased in a restaurant supply store in NY.

Pretty pretty! Don't forget to share pictures of it cut!

Ok... here's the deal... You WILL tell me how you did that or I will come and Kitty nap your kitty... and if that doesn't get ya... I'll leave my Neelix in her place...

Pretty soaps! The salt bar looks like pink granite, I love the look.

Some months ago we had a discussion on rebatching (I believe in this forum) where someone said they always rebatch and it always comes out nice and smooth. I have also read about others who make a master batch and scent as orders come in. It has to depend on your basic recipe; I have found a softer bar soap rebatches easier than a hard soap. You would have to experiment and find what works for you. For myself I can’t make even a softer soap look decent when i rebatch and find it’s just too much work to mess with for the results. The addition of large amounts of glycerin will make it softer, and I have no doubt it would be possible to make a soap you can melt and pour at home. It would take experimentation, time and supplies to find the right balance of oils to do it, something I’m not willing to do as I like the results of the CP recipes I use now. Jo Ann… try it. You may find you like rebatching, you may find you don’t… but you won’t know til you try. Blazerina… here in the US we do not have to list ingredients in soap as long as we make no claims it does anything other than clean and as long as it does not contain any detergent or other products that fall under the FDA. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-215.html "'True' soaps are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, not FDA, and do not require ingredient labeling."

Fantastic colors!

Curiosity killed the cat… but satisfaction brought him back. Your question intrigued me so I had to find out. I called a friend who emailed me the following information. Nutrient Units 1 bottle (356g) Water g 326.588 Energy Kcal 145.960 Energy Kj 612.320 Protein g 1.068 Lipids, fat g 0.000 Carbohydrate (by difference) g 13.172 Fibers g 0.712 Alcohol g 12.816 Ash g 0.356 Minerals Calcium (Ca) mg 17.800 Iron (Fe) mg 0.107 Magnesium (Mg) mg 21.360 Phosphorus (P) mg 42.720 Potassium (K) mg 89.000 Sodium (Na) mg 17.800 Zinc (Zn) mg 0.071 Copper (Cu) mg 0.032 Manganese (Mn) mg 0.043 Selenium (Se) mcg 4.272 Vitamins Vitamin C (total ascorbic acid) mg 0.000 Thiamin (B1) mg 0.021 Riboflavin (B2) mg 0.093 Niacin mg 1.613 Pantothenic acid mg 0.206 Vitamin B6 mg 0.178 Folate mcg 21.360 Vitamin B12 mcg 0.071 Vitamin A (IU) IU 0.000 Vitamin A (RE) mcg RE 0.000 Vitamin E mg ATE 0.000 Lipids - 0.000 Aminoacids (*) Tryptophan g 0.011 Threonine g 0.018 Isoleucine g 0.018 Leucine g 0.021 Lysine g 0.025 Methionine g 0.004 Cystine g 0.011 Phenylalanine g 0.021 Tyrosine g 0.053 Valine g 0.032 Arginine g 0.032 Histidine g 0.018 Alanine g 0.039 Aspartic acid g 0.043 Glutamic acid g 0.110 Glycine g 0.032 Proline g 0.107 Serine g 0.018 USDA Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 (julho 2001) I don’t believe any of the B vitamins carry over the skin barrier, anyone know? Looking at the minerals… there’s more than trace levels so it will probably create more scum and less lather than using water. So if I were doing it I would probably increase lathering oils to compensate. My biggest concern would be the iron, which my research indicates DOS uses iron molecules as a nucleolus to form. I think probably the best stuff beer would bring to the party is the amino acids, which although not absorbed across through the skin, would be freely available to damaged surface tissue but in such low levels probabaly isn't significant.

Well, I’m hoping it’s a lot warmer there than here if you’re going to run naked… you’ld get a nasty case of frost bite here! LOL. I can’t smell the tomato at all now. When I added the paste to the first batch for a couple moments there was a strong smell like scorched tomato but it quickly dissipated. Now nothing but the herbs and oil. I like it. It is very earthy… rich with a sweet top. Although it smells very green, which is usually a summery scent this smells like the holiday season to me… it smells like I feel when the kids are coming to visit. The sweet anticipation and warm satisfaction. I like it. I will have to work on more combos like this one. I don’t know what the soy wax one is going to do yet. It was slightly tacky when I cut it. If I hadn’t made it yesterday I would have waited to cut it as soft as it is but with hard oils I have in it I was afraid it would get hard fast and not be able to slice it neatly (I wasn’t sure I would be able to get down to check it regularly today). I did test a tiny slice and it lathers nice, but I put 10% castor so it darn well better lather! LOL. Not as much bubbles as I expected but I’m not ready to complain. Of course it’s new and soft and new, soft soap will lather faster than well cured hard soap… so we will see what happens. You actually inspired the scent in this one, Donna. Always going on about Earl and Lady Gray teas. Earl Gray has rose petals and bergamot in it. I didn’t have any bergamot so I decided to go with spices and made it a chai. And yes, I know traditionally chai should be made with milk… but I didn’t want to feel like I was making cream of tomato soap! LOL. hmmmm… seeing it in print… now… maybe that’s an idea… tomato milk soap… named cream of tomato soap. Just might be really nice soap. Ok… now I have to figure out what herbs… I was going to take tomorrow off but now… oh well, you know you have chosen the right career when work feels like play.

I am experimenting with tomato this week. Only two batches, the first with one oz ppo of tomato paste (I used commercial canned paste for this) started out looking like cream of tomato soup but has lightened the last few days to a deep reddish orange. The batch I made last night was one tbs per PPO and is a significantly lighter shade, though still strong) yellowish orange. The first is the one oz tomato paste ppo. It was made with my favorite hard bar recipe and seems to be curing well. Very well behaved baby soap at this point, doesn’t seem to have lost any lather even with the high percentage of fiber from the tomato. The herbs used are basil, rosemary, lemon and orange peal with 1 ml ppo honeysuckle FO. I think it smells very nice now though when I first cut it (at 24 hrs after pouring) it smelled like orange cleaner. This could turn out to be one of my favorite scent combinations and the herbs all add good stuff to the quality of the soap. The herbs are not as finely ground as I like… my old grinder gave up the ghost, I’m hoping Santa will fill my stocking with one. This batch moved fast, could have been the honeysuckle (WSP’s honeysuckle hallow) though I wouldn’t expect it at such a low dose. I also have my soaping area next to the furnace now so ambient room temperature could have done something to do with it (it’s the coolest place in the house in summer and the warmest in winter). The second is the batch with one tbs ppo. This was made with chai tea and rose petals. I added 1 ml ppo of rose FO to supplement the rose scent. The soap recipe is an experiment with soy wax. 30% each soy wax and soybean oil, 15% ea coconut and PKO with 10% castor oil. It’s (at this point) much softer than I thought it would be. But has nice lather and already feels nice on the hands. If anyone decides to duplicate this recipe I’ll warn you… it moved like a runaway train. I’m surprised the swirls came out at all as it was less than ten minutes between pouring the lye and I was glopping everything into the mold. I have used the same portion of rose in other recipes with no problem before anyone says that’s it plus it started before I added the infused oils (which I mix together before I pour the lye. Anyway, back to subject, color. In person the second looks much lighter than the first, with more of a yellow tone. I expect they will both lighten… I’ll just have to wait to see how much. I do suggest if you are going to use vegetables that you use a hard recipe to help dehydrate the produce so reduce the possibility of it developing mold. Also cure in a very dry space. High humidity could cause problems I think. I have read of people adding preservatives with produce too, but I didn’t. I did notice that the first batch isn’t quite as hard as usual and I think it may be the acids in the tomato neutralized some of the lye. Thanks for looking.

A while back the evil oil was cholesterol. It seemed everyone climbed on that bandwagon… and indeed a high LDL (low density lipids) level is a sign of trouble. What have we learned in the last 30 years? That HDLs (at that time lumped in with LDLs as cholesterol) lowers LDL levels, and low LDL levels are just as dangerous as high levels. With out what is being termed these days “bad” cholesterol your veins and artery walls can become so weak an aneurism is almost guaranteed we also now know that very little dietary cholesterol affects cholesterol blood levels but rather most people with high cholesterol have a genetic predisposition and/or a lack of HDLs and/or soluble fiber in their diets. Back then triglycerides were the wonder oil. Oh how things have changed. My philosophy is taken from my mother whose favorite saying was “all good things in moderation”. An occasional piece of candy is not going to hurt most people, even with diabetes if it is calculated in to the diet responsibly. Of course occasional doesn’t mean a lb of chocolates a day. In the same way many things we know are good for us, like vitamin A can be fatal if over done. Yes, good old beta carotene and retinol. While it is difficult to OD on beta carotene as a healthy body will automatically filter out excess amounts here in the US there are still several deaths a year, mostly infants and elderly, but still people will gobble down huge mega doses because it has a reputation of being good for you and if a little is good lots must be better. Retinol is not so easily eliminated from the body resulting in a far higher rate of over dose yet people not only gobble it down in supplements but think nothing about slathering it on their skin (and retinol is one of the substances that crossed the skin barrier) to look younger with out a second thought. But then people will have themselves injected with botox… which was originally developed for chemical warfare and is botulism toxins. Not the botulism organism it’s self, but the toxins it produces that produce the symptoms of botulism food poisoning. All in the quest for ever lasting beauty… but they worry about hydrogenated fats in soap. This doesn’t make sense to me. As I see it there is nothing wrong with hydrogenated fats in moderation. Hydrogenated fat is more resistant to rancidity, keeps fried foods fresher longer and you can fry at higher temperatures (which lessens the amount of oils absorbed thereby keeping the total caloric count lower). I like Crisco for frying which I mix 50/50 with soybean oil. Of course we only have fried food an average of once a month or less. Olive oil, which is the new “wonder” oil (and which I love) has a low smoke point so if you fry with it you have to cook at a much lower temperature. Yes, olive oil is a HDL oil and is good for you but it also a fat chock full of calories like any oil and will cause excessive weight gain if not consumed in moderation. We do not have to live in an all or nothing world. We can choose to use oils in moderation like we can choose all behaviors in our lives. Do not blame the substance but your own indulgences in it if you have a problem. And please, do not decide that something needs to be outlawed because you have a problem with it. You can choose to modify your diet; you can choose to not use hydrogenated oils in your soap. That is your choice. Don’t try to make that choice for me and I in return will not try to force my lifestyle on you.

I don’t do HP, it’s to much like work for me, and my results are less than I desire. Nice soap but never pretty. Rebatching is less work (though more than CP since you first have to make the CP then rebatch it) but same problem with appearances. I know others have made beautiful soaps with HP and rebatching, maybe you’ll be one of them. Oh, and if the soap you want to rebatch is only a day or two old you don’t need to add water but if it’s well cured I have found adding just enough water to damp (I wet my hands and toss the soap with them, rewetting my hands if necessary, works for me) then tightly cover and let set over night works well for me. I found this on miller site some time ago, how to make glycerin soap. http://www.millersoap.com/glycerinsoap.html . It may or may not be what you’re looking for. I haven’t tried it. If you do please let us knw how it works.

Sweet swirles! Especially for a first try!

The first stage of the saponification process releases the glycerin molecule breaking the triglyceride down to monoglycerides which bond with the Na ions to make soap. It isn’t oil anymore. No problem. If you super fat at 5% an average 4 oz bar would have about 1.5 gm oil, so if you used all hydrogenated oil that would be 1.5 gm hydrogenated oil per bar. Divide that by the average umber of uses you get from a bar of the soap, that will be the average “dose” of oil you would be exposed to per use. If you use only a protein hydrogenated oils then that will be the percentage that may still exist (I personally doubt much can survive the heat from the process, look at what Crisco is like after a single use to fry). If someone is that worried about exposing themselves to evil hydrogenated oil then (and I will point out that I’m a witch with a capital “B”) point out to them all the toxins they are exposing themselves to by using the commercially produced hydrocarbon based “soaps” and cleaners they are currently using, and point out these cleaners are made from the same petroleum gasoline is made out of.

I am very insecure and test every batch of soap I make… usually a few times to make sure I didn’t screw up the test, with different types of test strips incase something happened to them and I got a false reading. You don’t have to do that… it gets expensive, LOL. If you decide you want to use test strips make sure they are high range… about 7.5 to 11 should cover it. I use wide range and don’t off hand know the range of the pool test strips. Make a slurry (shave a tiny bit of soap onto a saucer and add about 3x water and dissolve to test or the soap will prevent the ions from penetrating the paper and you will always get a perfect neutral reading. It’s probably not necessary to use test strips… I’m just a bit compulsive. I’m on about my 60th batch of soap and haven’t come up with a lye heavy batch yet… but I doubt I’ll ever stop the compulsive testing.

Totaly AWSOME! If you figure out how you got themm share! I want swirls like that!

Great looking swirls!

The yellowish spot your finger is covering in the last picture looks like an African mask to me. I see a dolphin… a happy ghost, and on the left side the side of a blond woman’s head wearing a red earring. Sorry, but all I see is pretty cloud like swirls where you’re pointing. Still… mighty pretty soap.

I diluted mine with herbal tea so it started off dark. Does the FO you used contain vanilla? I imagine that vanilla will discolor in LS just like it does in everything else. I am surprised at how much “cream” I have with the first batch of HPLS. About half. Funny thing is I like it better than the pretty clear stuff underneath… its much softer on the skin. I know it will probably go rancid… oh well. Next time I try I will go -5% on fats. Maybe more… maybe -9%. That will give me a little buffer on the lye so I shouldn’t have to neutralize to much. I dilute the CPLS a week from today… if I can wait that long… that will no doubt also have a great deal of cream as it was done @ 0% supperfat too.

Tomato soap is nothing new. “Burt’s Bees” makes some that is apparently very popular. It is also recommended on many soaping sites as a “natural” colorant, though you won’t get the deep red but more a soft peach color from the pictures I’ve seen. I am drawn to it, though, for the lycopene. I don’t know how much of it will survive saponification… but figure it’s worth a try. What’s the worst that can happen? I toss $20 worth of oils out… not been the first time that’s happened. I would love to be able to say all of my experiments have been successful, but that would be lying. However in this case at the very least I will have the benefits of the herbs.

I already have the oil infusing. Rosemary, basil, lemon and orange peal, and I will add a few drops of honeysuckle. The pepper might be a good addition… but for this batch I don’t want to put to many components is until I see how these work together. And I love mint, peppermint, spearmint, wild mint…but I don’t think it would give me what I’m looking for this time. Peppermint is a cool scent. I want this to be warm. Thank you all for your input. I am always surprised at the apparent popularity of food scented soap. I did make a cherry cordial soap that everyone seems to like, but never ask for twice. I haven’t used it, well, not for a bath. I have tested it on my hands. As a novelty it’s interesting. My in-laws will be getting some candy soap for Christmas… The idea of bathing with candy (or marinara sauce) just doesn’t do it for me. It does bring some interesting thoughts though… what about pizza soap? My husband just might like it. Oh- talking about husband. He found some coast soap he bought about a year ago (before I started making CP) and decided to not waste it. He told me today that he’s noticed that his skin is a lot dryer and the little scratches and scrapes he’s always getting aren’t healing as fast and feel more irritated than when he uses the soap I make for him. Wasn’t that nice?