izzy2

Ok I might try another batch this weekend with a different F/O (maybe Peak's clean cotton). I had picked Purely Herbal from the Fragrance review board thinking it would be good to try. So I add the F/O to the melted butters/oils, add the lye mixture, stir to trace, take out some soap for colouring, pour into mold, add coloured soap (planning on trying swirling) and then it's done. should I put the lid on my shoe box mold and then wrap in towels? This particular recipe called for sugar and salt but I don't think it dissolved completely. Can I put this in with my butters and melt them this way? Would this work ok? Is lye flake form and lye crystals the same? I had picked up some name brand lye at the hardward store and it is labeled as lye crystals. (they didn't have Gillette's lye which I had used before). Thanks for all your help!

I did room temp but I added f/o after I mixed lye with oils. I used BCN Purely Herbal.

Well I finally went ahead and made the Shortening and Shea Sudsy soap that is posted in the recipes. I used goat's milk for the liquid. I added the lye to the goat's milk and then added the lye/milk mixture to the oils. Think it all went good until I added the f/o. It was at thin trace so I added the f/o and I stirred it all in and it was very thick to stir (almost like a thick brownie batter). Does it sound like my f/o accelerated the trace? I had got some soap out into a little dish to mix with my colour before I added the f/o to the soap. I poured the soap into my shoe box mold and by the time I went to swirl the coloured soap, it was also very thick and I kind of had to glob it on top. Any suggestions on whether I did this properly or something I may have done wrong? Your help is greatly appreciated!!

Is this a scrub for the shower?:embarasse

i just checked that out and it will be a lot less converting to use that. Never noticed that till you pointed it out. Thanks for all the help!

Thanks for your help!!

So for a 2 lb batch you would use 2 oz FO.

How much FO do you use to put in soap (as a general rule of thumb)? Thanks

Thanks everyone for your replies!! I was assuming it was safe (because of the lye issue already taken care of) but just wanted to double check. My kids will be so excited.

Thanks for your help and oops I wrote down the wrong oz to go with the gms (I meant to put down 5.12 oz = 145 gms)!

I wondered about doing M&P soap with my kids for something for them to do (they must be in crafting mode....last night they did paper mache projects). Is M&P safe enough to do with kids or should I scrap this idea? P.S. In case others have seen my other question about a soap I want to do "I am not doing that one with my kids around" (just wanted to clarify).

I am going to be making the Shortening and Shea Sudsy soap recipe from the recipe section. One person said to soap cool. Does this mean melt oils etc., lye and liquid, and then soap when they are cool? If so how cool should it be? do it one day then soap the next? Sorry for the dumb questions but wanting to get it right. TIA

I am going to making a soap recipe and the scale I have has both oz and gms but the oz only does fractions of oz (i.e. 3/4 etc). Should I use a conversion chart to convert the oz to gms to make it easier/more accurate? I went to an online conversion chart and 3.84 oz of coconut oil is 145.149558 gms so I would use 145 gms of coconut oil. Is this correct? So I would put my batch in a lye calculator and it comes up with the weight in oz I would use then I would convert to gms. Am I correct in my thinking? thanks for any help!

Try Canwax http://www.canwax.com/page/page/284336.htm or Village Craft and Candle http://www.villagecraftandcandle.com/categories.asp?cID=2 Both of these suppliers are in Ontario.

I am ordering some soaping supplies from Canwax and was wondering about the colours. Is this what you use to colour your CP soap? Here are some links: http://www.canwax.com/page/page/2923256.htm http://www.canwax.shoppingcartsplus.com/page/page/3335405.htm

Thanks so much for the article Scented. Much appreciated.

I made a cp soap a while ago (my first batch) and the non coloured soap part of it isn't real creamy or white looking. It almost has a dirty or greyish tinge to it. How do you get this to look better? Is it something I did in the process?

How long does it take for DOS to show up? Are they really noticable?

The last time I put the wax in a clean pillowcase and threw on the cement floor a few times. Worked like a charm. P.S. I marked the kind of wax on the inside tag of the pillowcase so I knew what wax was in there. That way I will use the same pillowcase next time and so I don't mix any other wax with it.

For containers a mottling wax is IGI 1286. I don't know much about the mottling wax for pillars but I do know that 1343 will mottle (depends on the additives I believe). HTH.

What colour is RBO? Is it a dark colour? This may be totally way off base here but I found a place nearby that sells RBO but it's for horses (to add sheen to their coat) and it was a dark brown colour. It states that it is all natural. I've phoned a health food store and they can't get it in. What would be a good substitute?

Robin thank you so much for your reply. I'm going to make a test sheet for my testers (my mom, sil, mil.....I plan on giving them a bar in their stocking, lol). And for the lye heavy question how do you know this? Is this the zap test or the ph strip testing? TIA

What do I need to do to test my CP soap? :undecided

When using GM this replaces the water in the recipe, correct? So would I add the lye to the gm and then when at correct temp add to the oils etc.? Sorry I should add that the recipe I'm wanting to use is Shortening & Shea Sudsy Recipe. Also would you recommend a newbie doing 4.5 % superfat as the poster did or go with normal?

Thanks deb12c!! That is awesome. My brother is a handyman with wood so maybe I'll ask him to make me one.