JacquiO

I use both FOs and EOs although I lean more towards EOs. They behave better for me and I find I prefer them in my soaps. I only use a max of .5oz EO per pound of soaping oils. Many EOs can be irritating to the skin and need to be utilized sparingly. EOs like clove, cinniman, or ginger I only use a max of 1ml ppo. Perfumery and fragrance blending is a big part of my craft and I often combine the two. For spearmint and eucalyptus I would blend them in a 1:1 ratio. No more than .25oz spearmint ppo. Mints can me irritating especially in the face and genital area when used in too high an amount.

Here's an article I found: http://www.permaculture.com/node/535 People get turned off by the word diesel but really all biodiesel is rendered and filtered cooking oils. It would be great for making bar and liquid soap that I would use for a mechanics soap or incorporate into homemade household cleaners such as dish soap, dish detergent, laundry soap and laundry detergent. I wouldn't super fat it when calculating lye and water

I agree with Steve...as a newbie go with local store bought oil. You needn't invest a lot when starting out in soap making. That's one of the things I love about this particular hobby. Wal-mart even carries coconut oil and castor oil. Look in their pharmacy for the castor. Get your olive oil when its on sale and don't bother with extra virgin. I've been soaping for over 5 years now and I still only buy my olive oil and coconut oil locally. For everything else - Soapers Choice. Also you can check out Essential Depot for lye, tallow, palm etc.

Lovely!

Wow! You've been busy. Beautiful!

Kewl!

Pretty. Bet they smell great

Very Nice!

I resemble that remark!

Welcome back!

What struck me funny when I read this is that this is the same exact recipe I use in my basic soap making class. I wanted percentages for really easy class room measurement. I use 50%OO, 25% PKO and 25% Palm. Knowing how certain oils behave I was able to surmise that CO and Lard would make good subs. I also mention crisco in place of palm if students want to stick to an all veggie recipe. This way they can play with local store bought ingredients before going internet crazy (like me). But this simple recipe produces a great bar of soap. Tight small bubbles and a creamy thick lather. And I can see how adding 5% caster could enhance that lather. I don't know if someone posted this link already but I found this posting really helpful when it comes to creating my own recipes: http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm

Hosted a Soap Felting Party which got me motivated to finish organizing my soap making area. Only two ladies from my soap making classes and a couple neighborhood kids came to make felted soaps this past Saturday but we managed to felt 45 soaps

Very nice

I have about 10 samples from CS's 99cent sale. I still haven't gotten around to testing anything. The Brandied Pear behaves well in CP, The Himalayan Bamboo accelerated a little bit on me, but smelled great.

Sorry I just realized I was looking at this kit: http://www.brambleberry.com/Beginners-Cold-Process-Soap-Kit-P5202.aspx I just read up and saw you linked to this $80 kit. So yeah to answer your question as a "CP expert" (I only teach it) I'd say no the "kit" is not the best way to go IMHO.