Jo Ann

thanx merideth. you can't help but have fun. i work with silver clay and dye fabrics. soap making and fabric dying is fun because if you goof, well the cost isn't that great, but when you goof with silver, well...you goofed...big time. sigh

i love to experiment so like dying fabric, soap making is right up my alley.

but with my jewelry making, now that more ppl are doing it...the good supplies have gotten expensive. pluse its a bit more difficult to see what i am doing now with out my magnifying headset on.

I

For beginners, I would recommend you do not use known accelerators for your scent (if you plan to add any). Make sure you are using fragrance that does not accelerate or heat up in the mold. For example, many florals, spices, and heavy perfumey types move fast and heat up in the mold. So avoid those and check to be sure that your fragrance is non-accelerating.

this may be a dumb question, but is bulgarian lavender EO hot or heat up or...well i havn't heard of heat accellerent so i am a bit confused.

this certainly has been one of my questions

here is the question everyone keeps asking: how do you calculate the size of your batch depending on the size of your mold (or shoe box).

i thought m&p was made the same way as other soap, just without the additives. i thought if i had time, i could make a base, put it away and if i needed to make a soap with additives, i could just melt the m&p add the stuff and then the soap wouldn't have to cure all over again. but i maybe wrong headed about this.

well i found several places that make it from scratch without any syndet. I guess i will have to research how to make it properly. peak candles m&p didn't have syndet.

http://www.peakcandle.com/category/Melt-and-Pour-Soap-Bases.aspx

great for the apricot seed and oatmeal, i use the stone ground oatmeal as an additive in my breads and was hoping they would work in soap too.

as for poppy seeds, the test are much better at picking drugs up, so no poppy seeks for me. LOL

oh...ok. for some reason i love the softer bar. not sure if its a subconscious ' because softer soap nicer skin' hypothesis

but i have so much to learn about soap.

thank you. I was thinking more of a gentler cleanser than coconut oil. acturally for myself, i don't need alot of bubbly. but i like the researching and experimenting part.

right now all i have on hand is olive, canola, coconut (76 degree) lard, and shortening. i read somewhere that chicken lard is better than pork lard. will have to check into that.

but as for soapwort, it can be toxic...which is a shame, cuz its all over my pasture, thought i had a good use for it. LOL

only if its let loose into the atmosphere, besides, i was just thinking out loud, assuming that may be what happens. cuz you can;t use hydrogenated fats for fuel. i just figured they used heat to add the atom and so maybe heat released it...i haven't studied up on it. would have in my younger days, but too much bother now:D

you are so right, i do have the bars curing. it didn't lather alot, but left me squeaky clean...LOL

unfortunately, the spelt flour i used for scrubbies didn't work, but made the soap look nice tho.

I can't wait to make my next batch but will research it alot first. especially colors from spice/herbs and stuff. I have mica, but i want natural colors, but then i may feel a bit free one day and the soap will be psychOdelic.LOL*super banana*

just used my soap and i liked it, but i think i have to cut back on coconut oil. wonder if using soapwort would work, that is if i can find soapwort.

It's been at least a year since I tried it, but I used it a few times and do think I remember it did inhibit the lather at the amount I used. I think it was +- 25% area. I think it did harden my GM bars though.

Paul....

what are the good qualities of soy wax, i mean, what is the reason to add to your soap

i am thinking of making a several batches of a base soap to use as m&p for when i don't have time or inclination to make soap that needs made.

does anyone do this?

I am thinking of a plain base recipe, a base recipe with goat milk, a castile (which would be good for my dog and horses) and not sure what a 4th would be since i am still researching recipes and stuff. is this a good idea?

nat you soap is beautiful....i can see why coloring can be nice.

will chili pepper (as in pepper spice) help color? hmmmm...maybe i will heat some aloe vera with that in it.

I did add some ground apricot seeds to a batch I made recently and they are not scratchy at all. They came as a free sample from Brambleberry I think and they are ground pretty fine.

great...will try what i have...i live small scrubbies in my soap!

it doesn't, but if it did, i'd be the one busted...LOL

goodgramma!

i just don't want to ingest the darn stuff....ig. of course my total cholesteral and trig. are in the high 300s so i try hard to read labels. ;-)

like that idea nat. i was thinking about using infused oils for soap making. but i think my next goal is to find a base recipe that I like and can make, so that i can do m&p when I don't have the time or inclination to mess around. i think kid soap in a nice idea, especially for xmas.

funny thing eugenia, the nurses gripped about the no poppy seed bagel policy until one monday evening there was a random drug test on one of the floors, needless to say everyone passed and no more complaints about poppyless mondays. LOL

no i am a nurse, and poppy seeds from muffins and bagels have been showing up in the tests and there is no real rules about drug levels from poppy seeds, so you can be fired and lose you liscense. at our place, they quit buying poppy seed bagels for monday mornings bagel day.

i kinda liked my raw homemade look of my soap. i mean the bottom and sides are smooth but the top is raw. kinda like it. i didn't have the right instrument to smooth is right before putting wax paper on it to cool.

out of 2#, i got 12 2.5x3.1.5 bars. sooo happy. can't wait to try the little ball i made from scrappings.

think i will work on designing a box for the bars.

wax paper would probably work as well.

great izzy!!!! mine didn't zap me either and its soooooooo creamy, much nicer than store bought. mine hasn't alot of lather either, but if you mixed with water i bet we could blow bubbles!!!!! i cut mine as well and letting them sit for awhile.

is it ok to let them sit near a register?

well, you can't use hydrog. oil in green cars, or for heating fuel or making fire logs....i am assumng heat releases that extra atom and becomes a green house gas itself. so if we use hydrog oil in soap, we are probably releasing green house gas in the process. but as for our skin, don't think it matters. plus you probably don't need to use hyrdrogenated in the ingredients after the soap is made.

so i think what it comes down to, if you want to be green don't use it. :rolleyes2

i was gonna use ground oatmeal, but it seemed large and I couldn't break it down any more. don't drink coffee so not coffee grounds.