patka

Thank you so much! That is exactly what I was looking for.

I would like to follow up on this older thread. If I would like to infuse some herbs in oil, how much herb powder (any herb, not only neem, for example mint, etc) per one pound of oils in the soap to use. For example, if I have 2000 grams of oils for my soap (or say about 4 lb), how much of total herb powder is recommended? Thank you in advance.

Thanks for the link Katshe, I will research the website to see if I can find a supplier. :smiley2:

I am currently visiting Czech Republic and I am searching for supplies for soap making. I need a supplier for essential oils, if someone knows one in the Czech Republic, great, but I could buy from Germany, Austria, which are neighbours. I just need lemongrass and peppermint oils, maybe lavender, but I would like to buy by the kilos or half kilos, to get a better price. Does anyone in Europe know of a supplier with good prices? Thanks so much!

Thank you all for your kind advice. I found out there is some kind of shortening for chocolate making that has both palm and coconut oils. I am trying to find out the proportions of each in the mixture, but it seems this could be what I need to make a decent soap. I may try 50% of this shortening, 40% of OO and 10% of sunflower oil to help bring the price down a little. Now I need to find a bulk source of essential oils, because what they have here is in tiny bottles of something like 1/2 oz for about $8 (that was peppermint oil). I will post a separate thread to see if someone knows a supplier in central Europe. Thanks so much to all of you.:smiley2:

They have different kinds of veggie shortening, but I don't know how I would put that in the soap calculator, since it is a mix of oils, usually.

Carebear, I need a vegan soap. But I might try a bit of sunflower oil. Thanks for the info.

Katshe, Thank you for the the reply. There is a very limited supply of tropical oils in this country (Czech Republic). I don't think palm kernel oil is available. To make a 100% OO would be very costly. I need to figure out something else. I can do 50% OO, then 25% palm (if I can get it) and I just need to find some other oil to add. Sorry to hear sunflower would develop DOS. What about sesame? I think that one could be found here. Thank you for any suggestions.

I am visiting in Europe and I need help with a recipe for soap for a nonprofit organization. They need about 1000 vegan soaps as economical as possible. I normally use a recipe with 50% olive oil, 25% palm and 25% coconut with good results, or I add some nice butters if I want to make a luxury soap. The challenge here is that some of the above oils are not available here or are too expensive. Olive oil is available though not cheap, but coconut is not available for any reasonable price. They do have very cheap refined sunflower and rapeseed oils, I can also add olive oil and I may be able to get some palm fat. Does anyone have a suggestion for a recipe for a reasonably bubbly bar without using coconut oil, what can be substituted for it and can sunflower oil be used perhaps instead of olive oil? I would welcome any suggestions. Of course I would test a few small batches before I would attempt to make the quantity they need. Thanks so much!

When you talk about a castile soap, do you mean a soap which has a lot of (or 100% of) EVOO or the refined (golden color) olive oil? Would that make a difference in the scent?

Tootie, that may be a good idea with the warm setting. I thought the crocks were supposed to cook at low temperature, though, mine got really hot. Maybe the warm setting will do it, it is worth trying.

Carlena, I saw these, but it looked to me like the pot is made from aluminum, is that so? I think for making a soap from scratch using lye one should use only inert materials, like the crock or glass etc. I am not a fan of aluminum for food/body products anyway, but I read that lye and aluminum are definitely not a good combination. Maybe these are for melt and pour soap that does not have lye?

I have the Rival brand 5.5q crockpot, but it seems to be getting too hot even on low setting. I tried to rebatch in the crock pot and I am thinking to try hot process soap or OHP. I wanted to see what brand/model of crockpot people find works well. Thanks in advance.

Fire, I found the mold that is sometimes offered on Ebay here, with a better price: http://shop.serenityorganics.com/product.sc?categoryId=15&productId=17 I bought it for $39 and shipping was under $14.00. It is slightly smaller than the one from Colorado Organics, but it seems very similar, no lid though. I just ordered it and it will be my first mold. I have been using a wooden drawer, which is fine, but when I cut the soap they were not so good looking. This one should be fine for me to start with.

I hope it is ok to ask this. I was thinking about buying from Essential Oil University myself, since so many of you recommended them. I was wondering, though, it sounds like they ship their oils in aluminum bottles, is that so? Do the bottles have some kind of coating on the inside? I am not thrilled with my essential oils sitting in aluminum, I much prefer glass. The other thing is, do you need a business license to order from them? I don't have one, so I would need to ask some friend around here to order for me. Thanks! Patricia

Soycrazy, have you tried Seventh Generation brand of dishwashing detergent? It is much more natural than any of the regular brands, very gentle on hands and smells wonderful, they only add essential oils. That is what I use, or Bi-o-kleen, but that one is hard to find. Seventh Generation is available in regular stores around here, but it could be you need to go to some health food store or order online. Drugstore.com carries both brands I think. I have very sensitive hands and I only use the natural brands.

Fire, please let us know please when you find out. I had the same question, if the mold is tall enough if you like your bars a little bigger.

Katshe, I am a brand new soaper, but I would not toss any amount of oil either. Perhaps you could keep adding a little oil to the point when it feels like a really nice moisturizing /superfatted bar? Then you should feel comfortable that there is no more lye that has not reacted with the oil left, am I correct? Or perhaps there is some cheap home test that can be used to find out how alkaline / caustic a soap is and add oils if necessary.

It sure does smell a lot, but interestingly enough, neem powder in toothpaste is wonderful and actually freshens breath.

Thanks to all of you. I think I will try the oil first, since I am new to soaping and have only tried CP, I will continue with it. When I am ready to do HP, I will try with the powder, it sounds like it may keep its properties better in HP soap.

Thank you both for replying. MamaV -- how much of herb powder do you put per lb of oils, if I may ask? Soycrazy, does the neem oil, once it is saponified, retain the medicinal properties that it has as oil? I have some neem oil and I could use that instead or along with the leaf powder. I just was not sure if it would keep its properties when it turns into soap. Thanks!

I would like to make an all vegetable soap with some neem herb inside, for someone with problem skin. Not with neem oil, but with the crushed leaves, which have medicinal properties. I have a CP soap recipe with coconut, palm and olive oils. My question is, at which point should I incorporate the powdered herb in order to preserve the most of the medicinal properties? Would it be the best to infuse the herb in olive oil for a few days and then add it at trace? Or some other way? And how much of the herb can I add (say by weight in relation to the weight of the oils) at most? Has anyone made an herbal neem soap? I have found threads on soap with neem oil, but not with the herb. I am thinking to scent the soap with cedarwood EO, but will also welcome any other EO suggestions. Thank you in advance.

Thanks for the information. Is the soap not slimy? I used to buy Kiss My Face brand soaps, they were made from olive oil, it was the only pure veggie soap I could find some years ago and they were really slimy, that is why I am asking. :rolleyes2

May I ask what is a castile soap? I used to think this was any veggie soap, but from this thread is seems that it is some special kind of vegetable soap. Could someone explain it to me, and also the benefits of this soap over other vegetable soaps and what is the reason it needs to cure for a long time? Thank you so much!

Is it sticky on both sides? I thought the sticky side is to hold beads and similar things in place in order to attach them to clothing and then ironing over the other side to glue it to the cloths, if that makes sense, but I did not think the other side would be sticky is it?