Mnhorsemom

Looks pretty cool. I only live about 45 minutes from FCS and have talked with them via email. They invited me down for a tour, and one of these days I will have to take them up on the offer. Can you possibly post a pic of your ghetto beveler I have a mitre box and would love to see what you made up.

I want to make a goatsmik and oatmeal cp soap. I got some the the Equate brand of collodial (sp) oatmeal that comes in packages like Aveno. Is this what I would want to use and if so how much pp do I add? I was also thinking of adding some honey for OMH. What does the honey do for the soap and how much and when do you add it. Thanks

I got some from BCN a bit ago and a friend who wears it said it smelled right oob. I tried cp'ing it and I sure didn't think it smelled the same as a bar of "real" Tommy soap I had smelled...but what do I know :rolleyes2

I'm the dumb &^$ that bought 50# of palm oil from Columbus and didn't know the difference in the regular and no stir and I got the regular. From the questions I asked when I first got it I need to stir it before I use it. Well...it was pretty liquid when I got it but isn't anymore. I tried sitting it out on my deck today but only a few inchs on the top melted. Anyone have any good suggestions on how I can get this stuff stirred up so I can try to empty some of it into a smaller size container that will be manageable? And if I do that will I have to stir what is in the smaller container everytime I want to use it. I am really going to peeved with myself if I end up chucking this stuff and ordering the no stir. TIA (BTW I just went and looked at the Columbus site and the only palm oil I saw wat the one I got in the 50# pail am I looking in the wrong place?)

I got 3 dupes from BCN they were Tommy, Opium and Drakkar. I love the Drakkar did cp and am testing in soy. I also cp'd the Tommy, jury is still out on that one and the Opium (to me) does not smell anything like the real perfume.

How bout Country Girl Creations or Creations from the Country.

Well, I cut it tonight and I didn't get s swirl but I did get soap so I guess I can live with that! I guess I will have to not make soap at 9:00 at night since I seem to have fallen asleep at the pot

I did some soy containers with Peaks Leather fo. I thought I would give them as gifts to my "horsey" friends. Well, once I started testing them I decided that leather just was NOT a smell that I liked in a candle.JMHO though, so you might really like it. The Peaks does really smell like leather!

I was making soap tonight and I started stick blending it and something didn't seem quite right. Well, I had forgotten my coconut oil so I quick melted some and added it in. Everything seemed OK so I'm merrily blending and get to a light trace, take out some to color, put in the FO in the rest of the batch get it mixed in pour it into the mold and went to add the color to do the swirl and seems like my trace had disappeared. What did I do wrong? ANyway, it's in the mold and covered with a couple towels so I guess I'll see how it looks in the morning. What will happen if you pour it into the mold before trace? Waaa, I will be a very sad person if I end up with a pile of mush or something.

A friend gave me two cans of coconut milk today and wants me to make her some soap. Would I use that in place of my water? Would I need to freeze it first like goatsmilk? Would it give the soap a coconut smell?...I think that's all my questions :rolleyes2 TIA

I have cp'd a recipe for a shea/mango soap from the Ponte Vedre website. I have had very good luck with the recipe, and it makes a nice hard bar that lathers well and feels good when you use it.

One thing I was told when I first started soaping is if you are making small batches (like 1 pound) you should have a good scale and make sure your lye measurement is very accurate. Small batches are pretty unforgiving as far as measurements are concerned, you don't want your soap to ZAP ya

I live in west central Minnesota, and no there are not any places to by supplies locally. The closest place is the place that I buy my soy wax from and it's almost 2 hours away. I can't get jars or any of my soaping oil locally. I ordered 50# each of palm and pko the other day from Columbus foods and it cost me $37 for the shipping and the was the least expensive priced oils I could find. I usually get my jars from candles and supplies and they are half a country away so shipping from them is high too. Oh well, what can person do :rolleyes2

What do you consider a reasonable markup from a retailer? I sold some candles to a gift shop in town (my first wholesale account). I sold my 8oz square masons with the nice heavy zinc lids (soy) for $6 and my 10oz apoths with the metal lids with handles for $9 (I know that sounds hi for wholesale but because of where I live shipping of supplies to me it OUTRAGEOUS so it makes my cost a bit hi) Anyway, I stopped in the shop today and they have my 8oz marked at $14.95 and the 10oz at $20 Does that sound normal or not. I'm afraid that at those prices my candles won't sell.

I was wondering how many of you guys have used cavity molds for cp soap. I was just looking at a site that had some neat ones on sale and was wondering how big of a pain they would be to use. All I have ever used is my slab mold, which I love. Also, how do those molds work? ...Just pour in the soap and cover with a towel? TIA

I just read a post on the Dish that said BCN is soon to be selling lye. I think they said it will be in 2# packages.

The first stuff I got really is a solid, almost a shea consistancy. The bucket I got today is very liquid, and trust me it's not that hot where I live today. I used some of the original palm this morning and it was not at all liquid til I put it on the stove. I am worried that my soap won't come out the same. The recipe has coconut, palm, pko, canola and soy. Will I still get a relatively hard bar. TIA

I just got my order of palm oil from Columbus foods, it's a 50# bucket of liquid oil. The last (and first) time I ordered palm oil it was from wholesalesupplies.com and it came in a bucket but was a solid. Did I get the same thing and will it act the same in my soap? I sure hope I don't have 50# of the wrong stuff Thanks

I have the Misty Creek mold and love it. With the template it takes less than 5 minutes to line the mold, and I like the cutting guides since I am not too good at straight lines. I had my BIL (cabinet and furniture maker by trade) make me two more molds just like my Misty Creek.

are you looking for the country/prim look?

Yep, my business name is Farm House Formulas ( cause I live in a 110 year old farm house in the toolies) so I want to stay with a country/prim type look

I just ordered some from them this weekend. I got a #50 block of just the regular palm not the no stir. I was also ordering some stuff from MMS and the price for MMS's #25 palm is close to what I paid for 50 at Columbus.

I would think just a dab of glue from a glue gun would work too. It sets up fast so you wouldn't have to sit and hold the soap waiting for glue to dry.

For those that do your own websites where did you get your clipart and graphics? I have been doing a lot of searching today and have found numerous sites with cute country type clip art and graphics that can be downloaded free. The free part is only if you are using them for a personal web page, not for any kind of business use. There is one site in particular that I REALLY liked the graphics and you can buy them all on CD for only $109. Well, since I just bought oils and jars yesterday I'm a little short in the cash flow dept and not sure that I would really want something that spendy. So any suggestions would be very helpful. TIA

Where do you buy your supplies? I went "shopping" yesterday, I needed several things like some 2 oz jars and some oils etc. Do you guys buy wholesale, or do you order from places like MMS and KangarooBlue? I ordered palm and pko from Columbus in 50# cubes. I don't need that much but their 50 pounders were about the same price as MMS's 25 pounders. I bought 100 jars, didn't need that many but they were cheaper in the larger quanity. Anyway, I was just wondering if the sellers here buy from wholesale sites or just buy in quanity from the regular sites. TIA

I fill mine up into the neck, I agree if you don't it looks skimpy. I use 100% soy and very seldom have a sink hole problem.