Jump to content

cwayneu

Registered Users Plus
  • Posts

    177
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by cwayneu

  1. Billie and I had a batch of Cream Brulee that turned so dark, we figured it was unusable. We had run all the bars through a salad shredder and stuck the shreds in a ziplock bag. We decided to try another cold process batch in some form molds, and dump the shavings into the batter. Here is what we got (a usable soap :rolleyes2).

    We also made some cool Sweet Little Thing (pink with black swirls and sparkles), some SoCal (white with green and black swirls), and finally some Bamboo Sugar Cane (white and green) in our 3" PVC tube.

    Is this stuff fun or what? Billie says I am now her soap bitch.:bliss:

    post-8565-139458454517_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-13945845452_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454524_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454527_thumb.jpg

  2. We (mostly Billie) made a Black Irish, and an Amber Musk batch. I think the Amber Musk could pass as a unisex FO. It is similar to Cote's Musk cologne.

    We may now have enough soap to last us until 2015, but no signs of letting up. We are truly addicted and loving it. :laugh2:

    post-8565-139458454502_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454505_thumb.jpg

  3. One last point. We were able to make dividers out of some 1/8" thick Lexan. This works well, just like the sides. For some weird reason, just the Lexan on the base wants to stick to the soap. As long as we use a foam liner on the bottom, the bars come out smooth, crisp, and easy.

    The dividers have an added benefit beyond not having to cut the bars. We pour in our base color, swirl in some colors on top, then push the divider in. This pushes the some of swirled colors down at each soap edge, giving more colors to the bar sides. :cheesy2:

    post-8565-139458454456_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454459_thumb.jpg

  4. I maybe should have posted a picture (sorry). :sad2:

    The first one is the mold showing the two L shaped sides with the wing nuts off. The Lexan is hard to see because it is clear like plexiglass. We also use a couple of dow pins through the sides into the base. We don't want the base to accidentally fall out after we have just poured a fresh batch. Not that that has ever happened... :rolleyes2

    The second picture is with the new foam base. Like I said, we at least don't have to mess with the sides anymore. :yay:

    post-8565-139458454447_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-13945845445_thumb.jpg

  5. Well after making several batches in our Lexan linen molds, we're not as thrilled as we first were.

    We made two slab molds and lined the sides and bottom with 1/32" Lexan. The sides are two L shaped pieces that bolt together with hanger bolts and wing nuts, so they just drop off the base when loosened. The first couple of batches were great. The soap just slide right off the base, and the soap was as smooth as glass.

    After a couple more batches, it did not work so well. We are putting the batch in the freezer for a couple of hours. When the wing nuts are taken off, the sides still just drop off nicely. However, the soap and base seem to stick together like a giant magnet. It is very difficult to get them separated. It will slide, but takes a great deal of patients and force. We have tried mineral oil and baby oil, but it does not seem to help.

    Overall it is an improvement, but we will need to go back to a foam liner or freezer paper just for the bottom. Every little bit helps. :smiley2:

  6. I make all my labels using Excel (or OpenOffice) spreadsheets. I use simple 80 and 30 label sheets, but you can fit any pattern with a little bit of tinkering.

    As for a PDF template, PDF files are made in general not to be modified. The PDF viewer is free from Adobe, but you must buy their PDF authoring tool to create/edit. Even then, the file could be password protected.

    Good luck.

  7. We have a couple of old three shelf (plus three door shelves) VCR tape storage cabinets. We had to do something with them anyway. :cheesy2: We separate candle, B&B, and flavored lip balm FO's. Within those groups we sort of arrange by womens, mens, fruity, flowery, and other.

    We also use spreadsheets. One is a check list of all scents sorted alphabetically, with a file number next to each, as to which label spreadsheet (file) they belong too.

    To do this over, we should have just used one full label page (shreadsheet) for each FO, instead of bunching up four FO's per page. This is just too complicated to save a few label sheets.

    We also started a master list with a description and indicator columns as to usage (candles, soap/lotion/spray, flavor). By making the column title row (row 1) all data filters we can select specific FO's like all sprays for example. You do this by selecting row 1, then select data, then filter, then automatic from the menus. Each column becomes a pull down list to filter rows in or out of view. I also suggested adding a notes column for things like "traces quickly", but Billie preferred to just write notes on the report for now. You could add supplier and some inventory columns like bottle-size and grams-remaining, but then you have to keep all this junk up to date all the time.

    This would all have been better in a "real" database like Filemaker Pro or Microsoft Access, but they are just too pricey. I created these with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It works fine with the free OpenOffice suite from OpenOffice.Org as well.

    The images are

    1. The label list spreadsheet
    2. Report from label list spreadsheet
    3. A sample label sheet
    4. The FO master spreadsheet
    5. A sample master report

    post-8565-1394584544_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454405_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454409_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454413_thumb.jpg

    post-8565-139458454417_thumb.jpg

×
×
  • Create New...