Sara

Yup, curing helps, but I think it is the combo/percentages as well. I'm a lather person and gots to have my lather!! I have a bar I took out recently and loved the lather, looking back in my notes I saw I used CCM (coconut milk in it), that makes a nice lather.

CPOP is just simply cp soap put in the oven to "process" (the warm oven forces it to gel faster). I'm wondering if you mean OHP (which is Oven Hot Process) where you put it in the oven and stir it at intervals and all that stuff - kind of like the crockpot? But if you're not... w/ CPOP you make your CP soap like usual, trace doesn't matter. If you're swirling, you would do a lighter trace, layering, maybe thicker trace, etc. And then put it in your mold, cover and put in a warm oven. As far as your mashed potatoes thing, it sounds like your FO might have just made your batch seize up. Anyway, like Eugenia said - go ahead and post your recipe and maybe someone can help figure it out.

OMG you are so silly. Thank you. And, you are ever so welcome.

Ditto. I love the EOs.

Stop it, yer makin' me jealous. *Drool* Hee.

I discount and CPOP generally. Never had a soap too hard to cut. Recipe makes a difference, too, I suppose.

Hey Liz, welcome. Good to have you here

Yikes, I was going to say beyondcandles.com... taken. I know you don't want to change business names (reminder for those choosing a business name, check to see if it is available in a domain and snatch it up if it is) so maybe you could make your online name different? Thing is, if your name catches on, people are going to look for it exactly like it is w/the .com first. So they will go to this other site. You will be driving business to them girl. If you really want to establish a good online presence I would seriously give a new name some thought. Sucks, I know, but many BIG companies started out with different names than they have now, so it isn't necessarily going to kill business to change names. A unique domain name is really in your best interest.

I usually put mine in on "warm" for a couple hours, turn it off and leave it there overnight - about 12 hours after the time I put mine in the oven I cut it. Sometimes it needs to sit longer I've noticed, but most times that is it.

Oooh oooh ooh - fantastic. Love those pink ones. Yum.

Those are beautiful. Echo what others said - very unique. More, more!!

Reminds me of salt and pepper!! That would be a great idea for a Peppercorn bar.

I planned on a 2-color swirl with this one, but it started to get thick real fast. So it became more of a 2-color glop. Some of the "swirling" went to the bottom (must have been where a thick glop went) and some didn't. Ah well. I love the FO, though - Pink Grapefruit. Yummmmmy.

Ahh, could be the can and not the soap. They have that alum. liner that can react to the soap. Funny thing is some people line, some don't and not all have problems. Here's a pic of one of my Pringles creepers -

Absolutely fabulous!! Love your creative use of the container. One more reason to buy ice cream Where's le dancing babe?

Mostly soap batches for me. Stocking up. Made Patchouli yesterday and Grapefruit. *Possibly* stocking up on some votives as well, but think I will do jars first. Can you tell it is Monday and I have no plans?

Oh my, those scentes do scream "fall" now don't they? Nice marbling on both of them.

Right here: http://uplandsoapfactory.com/

Like Carmen, I use shea oil and shea butter. I melt mine so it is soft and then whip the heck out of it. I love this stuff. My whole family uses it!!

It is really hard to control the temperature of the wax when using a microwave and could be dangerous. Here's a post on the old board about melting wax in the microwave. OY. LOL.

Hot dang - lots of links there. I'm going to have to post the list I have and then maybe people can tell me what I'm missing.

If you add up the weights of the oils, you'll figure out what size batch you are working with. As far as oil substitutions, you could just up that almond oil, but then you *have* to run it through the lye calc again to see if that changes. You can reconfigure the batch size once you have everything all added in the calculator. Smallest batch I personally would do is 2lbs. HTH

I use mine with CPOP and love it. No problems. I'd like to get some log molds soon as well.

Ooh, good question. I've had some sitting around for a while that I've been wanting to play with. Teresa made some wonderful face scrub with it, and there was some shaving cream in the swap we did a while ago that I loved. Thanks for posting this.

Ugh. Robin. It is bad enough for me to just walk to the mailbox it has been so hot lately - more power to you, sitting at a fair. Best wishes!!