Jo Ann

actually the stickiness left one side the second day and when i flipped the soap over, it was gone the 3rd day. I use aloe vera and it never made my soap sticky before, thats why i thought i might be shea and mowrah. my soap is still sorta soft. but workes well. except for the softness, i like how it turned out. but i think if i give it a few more days it wll harden a bit more.

thanx meridith, I usually use aloe and it never caused stickiness before, so its probably one of the other you mentions. I was thinking about going 5 percent of castor myself. i also forgot to add that i put in titanium dioxide too, for the first time, and may have added a bit too much. but it not sure how much i should use for 2 pound soap batch. I do hope it hardens a bit more, cuz someone at work wants to buy most of it (but i told her she would have to use it within 6 mths [me being on the safe side]) many not want to buy too much. also i want to make a batch that will be my basic soap batch. so that once i come up with that and am consistent with making it, i'll feel free to start experimenting with coloring. I do leave it in its rough state since its "homemade" and no one has a problem with that thank goodness.

well the stickyness is gone but its pretty soft, but i washed my hands and face with a piece and it felt pretty nice. nice creamy lather and all. here the ingredients castor 10% coconut 30% Lard 25% Olive 25% mowrah butter 5% shea butter 5% 1/2 cup aloe vera gel 100% added at the end of cooking.

its not the best idea to use both shea and mowrah butter in one recipe. i did 5% of each and made the superfat 4%. should have made it 3% its kinda soft and a bit sticky after sitting cut and out to air for 24 hours.

when my husband dl the xls file there was nothing in it...i put it in a shared folder to see if he can open it from his puter without downloading it. if he can i will zip it and upload it again. it didn't open for him. so i am making it a zipped file. this is the xls file http://ogn.jomay.com/oilproperties.zip this file is microsoft works. http://ogn.jomay.com/oilproperties-MSwks.zip

which one did you download and which spreadsheet do you have, one is for excel and the other is microsoft works i just sent one link to my husband to see if it works for him, cuz it opens for me.

glad it worked. i just wish i could come up with the range of numbers for each oil that makes a good bar of soap. sigh.

Judy, can you try copying and pasting the url to the address box. for some reason i can't make it a complete url.

i put some commonly used oils on this spread sheet with all their properties. i think all the numbers right there to see may be helpul. I am also going to try to come up with a formula to find what the best values are for the acids from lauric to stearic. you may have to copy and paste url in to the address block. for exel http://ogn.jomay.com/oilproperties.xls for microsoft works http://ogn.jomay.com/oilproperties.xlr I hope to eventually add some more pertinent info to the spreadsheet.

mine it hp but i just let it sit out for a week before really using it. and my house is small, and so the livingroom is the best place

well with curing it should diminish some plus if its curing where you can smell it all the time, (mine cure in the livingroom) you will also get used to it. when i was investigating frankencense, its supposed to help hold a scent. i have used it, but haven't noticed any difference. so maybe it works, i don't know. If you sell you soap in one place take about a quarter of it and drill a hole through it so you can hang it near the wrapped bars are.

i went back and looked at it and its good, not separated

i could not find numerical or percent values for those acids. like one person mentioned she likes to keep linoleic acid 10 or under which i found helpful. but what about the other ones, where should they be for a good bar of soap

oooohhhhh...i keep it on top of my frig at the back so its scoopable, but i didn't stir it....so i will start doing that.

i did last night, but wasn't totally attentive cuz of family matters, will read again.

mine isn't really lumpy, but a bit rustic looking. like homemade soap. LOL but do you have to do full water can't you just change the percentage a bit? now what is the sage calc?

i go by soap calc...never seem to have trouble. yesterday it just took longer than normal to start and get hard. even tho i can use it right away, i like to let it set about 5 day just for good luck (but decided last night to use my son as a guinea pig) and he said his skin still feels good this morning.

thanx steph, but i meant the values in numbers. the range i should be in.

wow months...thats a bummer the soap had done well over night.

my son used the soap tonight and really liked it. i used bergamot (which i spilled and gave me a headache [i have allergies]so i won't be using the soap) patchouli and frankencense. and on his skin it smelled nice. he loved the lather and how well it rinsed. guess it was a success.:rolleyes2 but it is still soft and hopefully it will harden some more.

lauric myristic palmitic stearic ricinoleic oleic linoleic linolenic or at least where I can find desirable values.

its always good to know you aren't alone!!!!! oh well.

yeah...will do. funny, i always put in skelt flour and i didn't this time. also forgot my aloe vera....so will be better prepared.

don't think this batch turned out. sigh it doesn't appear as if it will get very hard. I cooked it for two hours. then cooled it a bit put in the eo and then put it in the mold. but a bit i kept out is just mush after cooling. this is the first time i used palm oil. may just go back to lard.

thanx carrie I am gonna try this. i think my lard is outdated anyway and i do have palm oil now.