Rebecca_IA

My advice would me #1 whenever you are using a new FO in soap, try it out on a smaller batch of oils/butters so if it bombs, your rebatch isn't that big or if it's a complete loss, your loss isn't that big. #2 with the trickier FO's, soap cooler, but not so cool that you will get a false trace (esp when new because you'll have difficulty knowing it was false trace). AND do not discount the water on tricker FO's. they will need more cure time, but the extra water makes them more workable. #3 either use tried and true soap colorants or do small test batches with those too.

I think it traced so fast from a combinations of the hard butters you used and the FO. If you have a soap recipe that traces fast, it's better to not use fast tracing FO's IMO. The good thing about these experiences are you learn so much more by it actually happening than you do just reading about it, so there is a positive side to this also.

I would find out where at ebay to forward his emails to and forward all of those copies to him. No seller has the right to harrass a buyer like this. I would complain everywhere on ebay that you are allowed to. I think I'd also contact his local police department and forward these harrassing emails to them. Perhaps he'd back off them.

I ordered from him on 3/5 via paypal via a cc. If I don't hear back from him by the end of Monday, I will cancel the order and dispute it through my cc company. Screw doing the dispute through paypal, my cc gives the credit right away without investigation and there is no doubt from them that I will get it.

Their auction states 48 hours. Sometimes longer due to excessive orders. To me, 4 days is still adequate time to put it in a box and slap a label on it and have UPS pick up.

There are many variables that determine when I cut my soap. Oils used - some of them will eventually contribute towards a very hard bar, but within the first few days contribute to a tacky soap. Water discount - if you use a 50% discount versus full water, the soap will be very soft initially. Gel or no gel - if my batch doesn't gel, I let it sit longer too.

Experience will teach you when to cut.

The only thing you want to watch out for with lower temps, esp room temp, is you can get false trace with lower temps and if you aren't experienced with process and with issues that can arise, you may confuse false trace with soap on a stick or tracing lightening fast.

MP has chemicals in it that CP doesn't.

You can do CP with lye, water and oils. But MP has more than just those ingredients in it. Because of this, I would say, CP is more natural than MP. Although CP is NOT 100% natural, I said more natural.

They both have their advantages/disadvantages.

My preference is CP because of chemical sensitivities I have, but I can use MP, just have to be careful of how often I use it (and there are some bases I do not have issues with). Neutagena bars, which are MP IMO were the ones I reacted to the worst. There are many others out there that have chemical sensitivities/allergies that CP is perfect for them.

Plus I think it depends on what you have in mind. MP is easier to be more creative than CP is.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/paul_norman_3/soapmake.htm

You'll probably find this link interesting (enough to read, not do it for real).

I have another link about making lye, using lime and something else, but I can't find it and don't have time to google it.

Ok so I made a batch of cp cucumber melon from candles and supplies last night. Never used it in soap before but it's supposed to be fine to use. My kitchen stinks to high heaven right now like fish! I don't know what to do? Anyone else every experience this and if so does the true scent come back after it cures?

thanks

Just because it is okay to use in soap and/or bath and body applications doesn't mean the FO will work out okay in CP.

I'd set the soap to cure somewhere in your house where you can smell it (or smell it very well) and then revisit it with your nose once a week and see how the scent changes. It might, it might not. I've had FO's smell horrendous just after cp'ing, but within weeks it's back on tract. I've had FO's completely dissappear after cp'ing, only to come alive within a few weeks. And then I have had FO's that smelled awesome when I cut the bars, but a few months later smelled like something died.

Testing out the FO and/or going off of a trusted source for FO reviews is the best you can do.

I always have on hand at least one but usually 2 or 3 of those aluminum oven trays.

Whenever I am making something that has even the slightest chance of making a mess in my oven, I put one down. If it happens, all you have to do is pull this out, let it cool down, throw it away and the problem is solved and there is no yucky residue left in your oven to stink up your house for days on end. If it's smoking (as the spills often do) you can set it outside to cool so more of the smoke doesn't get into your house.

They cost about 60 cents for each one and the ones I buy are sold in packages of 2.

I store mine in the refrid. The shelf life for most of the EO's don't mean that's when you can no longer use them or they will no longer smell. That's more or less the theraputic shelf life, if you were using them for aromatherapy or healing properties, they are usually no longer good for this after this length of time.

If I am remembering history correctly, what was used first was fish oil, and it was used in a lamp type device with a wick or these used pine wood "knots" as a light source. Tallow was used later after they had started to raise animals, but that didn't happen at first. They also used whale oil.

And I also remember that most of these were quickly replaced when something else came along due to the odor.

But I could be very wrong, history class was more than 20 years ago now.

I agree with SYR about time.

I also believe that there is nothing better for your skin (soap wise) than a high percentage to 100% OO soap when you have skin issues. I'd take that slime and put it on the bad spots and let it sit there and swear that is one of the reasons my skin cleared up (excema) of course it could have been the oatmeal in the bar too, but regardless, it definitely did not make it worse like everything else did.

Most of what is in the commercial hot cocoa mixes is sugar in one form or another. You might just want to stick with the cocoa powder alone, more control over exactly what is going into your batch. I have used the cocoa powder with no issues at all.

I understood you to mean the distilled water and lye numbers were from MMS lye calculator, is that correct? Not that you were buying them from MMS.

50% Olive

25% shea

25% mango

IMO, and keep in mind, this is just my opinion, that's an awful lot of expensive butters in this recipe.

As spellkast stated, you can get coconut oil at Walmart if you have one of those super walmarts near you. They also sell small bottles of safflower oil. At my Walmart, these can be found towards the end of the baking aisle. The safflower is on the top shelf at ours and the coconut oil is on a shelf about waist high, green & white packaging.

You can buy lard at any grocery store and it does make a good bar of soap. Very cheap too. I think the last time I bought it, it was 68 cents a lb.

At our Target, they sell sunflower oil there, in addition to safflower oil. I know the sunflower oil is sold under the wesson brand.

We don't have a costco local, so I don't know what they sell.

If you are looking for some castor oil to purchase locally, I would suggest looking at your local health food store, not a drug store or walmart. I can buy a lb at the health food store for $7.95 plus tax, which is more expensive online, but in a pinch it works out better than about 4.00 for 4 oz of it at our Walmart.

Do you have any experience under your belt with soap making?

Do you have a stick blender? If you do, the olive/castor oil soap will not take forever to trace. I did it with a steep discount and it was about 5 minutes (I do NOT recommend doing this unless you have experience first).

I would get the sweet almond OIL, avocado OIL and shea butter.

Skin problems led me to making soap. Best soap for my skin problems was one high in olive oil and with finely ground oats. I'd let it sit in water for 10 minutes and then wipe off the slime and put it right on my bad skin spots, cleared up in a VERY short time.

Due to the high amount of people that have allergies to peanuts I would never want to risk using that in a soap recipe or any recipe for that matter. Keep in mind that anything else you make in the same area, even if it doesn't have peanut oil in it has to have that listed on the label.

The soap calc has the properties of this oil in it, so you could look there to see what qualities it adds to the finish bar.

I would not use more than 10% of the hemp seed oil in your recipe due to it's susceptibility of going rancid (short shelf life) and if you haven't already, I'd add some ROE to the hemp seed you are adding to your recipe and keep the remaining stuff in the refrig or freezer (unthaw in refrid the next time you want to use it).

Do not take to high of a discount either, I wouldn't go any higher than 5%.

I don't superfat anymore because I honestly don't notice a difference when doing so, so IMO, I find it an unnecessary step.

Comfrey infused gives a green color I think, not sure about that, I'd have to look, anyway if you are after a natural bar with natural colors, you might want to obtain that a different way other than the hemp, because you want a bar that lasts a long time too, not getting dos in 4-6 months.

If all you want in your recipe is hemp, olive and castor, I'd do it like this.

Hemp 10%

Castor 10%

Olive 80%

Infuse the olive with an herb and stay away from FO's and use EO's instead.

Then again, problem skin, I like oatmeal in the batch. You could make oat milk and use that as part of your liquid and then grind up oats too, or just sprinkle on top.

This will make a soft bar of soap. Adding 20% coconut oil will help, but it's still gonna be on the softer side. With a good cure it should be fine though.

I have never heard one way or the other if sea salt is drying on the skin. It doesn't dry my skin/hair out when I swim in the ocean and using the salt bars and salts in my baths I find very softening to my skin, don't know about the hair because I've never tried the salt bar on my hair.

I also find that when I have the salt bar at my kitchen sink, little nicks and such you get on your hands heal very quickly compared to using regular soap.

I'd at least try it to see if it worked or not if I were interested in it.

I know that colloidal oatmeal is suggested for use to help with skin irritations such as poison ivy rather than the oatmeal prepared to eat. Other than products such as Aveeno where do you get colloidal oatmeal?

If you don't have any of the collodial oatmeal, and no way to grind whole oats, you can use regular. I've never used anything but the regular oats in bath water before (put handful inside of wash cloth and let it free float in tub, you can squeeze it to get the liquid out too. Close with shoestring or rubberband tightly).

It means all of your soap, whatever you put in it.

Add together the oils, water (or whatever liquid), FO and any additives to come up with your 2.7 lbs.

I would still use it. I would gently melt it all and filter it through a coffee filter and pour back into a clean jar/container to store it in.

I too use the AK unrefined shea and only use EO's when I make a whipped butter and I really don't add that much. The last batch I made, I think I used 2 drops of lavender EO and 1 drop of geranium EO per ounce and you can smell it over the shea.

This is how I do it.

I find my colorant here, or a similar one, http://www.thesage.com/catalog/Colors.html?mmsID=e780b16e5cc66ccc07cf94b9dbceed21

If they recommend to mix with glycerin, I take a small amount of that and put it on a PLASTIC disposible plate, the size for cake. I then put my colorant on the plate and with a disposible spoon, I mush the colorant into the medium (like glyercin).

If you use paper plates, the colorant and medium, once mixed, will soak into it and it is also harder to remove from the plate. You can almost remove all of the mixed colorant to add to your soap.

If you are using more than one color, like a double swirl, it's much easier to mix your colorants up before you even mix your lye and oils together.

Not sure if it's on this board or the old candle tech, but if you do a search on this subject, there are some really good older threads. I think Cetatea (might not be spelled right) was one of the posters to the thread, if not the originator.

I use to store my soaps in those plastic shoe boxes and I will not do this anymore. I suppose they wouldn't be that bad if you left them open, but they you couldn't stack them. All of my soaps were effected by keeping them in those shoe boxes.

I'm looking for boxes the size of shoe boxes that will allow air circulation.

As for amount of FO, I use anywhere from .5-1.0 of FO pp of oils. If it isn't strong enough at 1.0 oz, I won't buy anymore of it, because FO is too expensive to add anymore than that (IMO). Most of the times I'd say it's .7 oz.

yep, it sure it.