Starr

If you guys are doing single bar testers are you using a mold or making soap balls?

Wooden skewers work well, chopsticks too, especially since I LOVE Chinese Food. I've used wooden paddle types of spoons too. All sorts of things work just fine. I believe in recycling/upcycling lots of stuff for soaping.

Hm. I don't have Dry-Flo but I've got tons of cornstarch floating around the house. Maybe I'll give it a try just for me. Thanks for the recipe.

Millcreek does a lot of bases too. I've never played around with liquid soap bases but I have bought their linen/body spray base, they give easy instructions and I found their price fair.

I think I have some white polymer clay hanging around... Project!

*waves some more* Hi!!!!

*grumble grumble grumble* Doctor says Pneumonia. Seems like I'll be dreaming a tad longer.

I'm trying... I want my Black and Red Dragon's Blood Soap in the WORST way.

I used to make a Hand & Foot Salve (think of that Burt's stuff in the metal tin only without the beeswax) that had EO's in it and I won't lie, now and then I used it on my lips and so far, I'm not dead. But this was one of those 'just for me' kinds of items so I didn't worry too much about EO properties, even less because its primary use was hands, feet, elbows, ya know, those parts that get REALLY dry. Anyway, this probably isn't the most helpful post but I know it can be done. The only problem I ran into when doing it was well frankly, the taste wasn't spectacular. It smelled great, it tasted vaguely medicine-like.

Thank you very very much!

It's been a long time... too freaking long really. I had to walk away from all my crafty goodness for a while for well, a lot of personal crap but now... I'm COMING BACK! WOOT! But you know, in typical Murphy's Law fashion, the day I plan my first pot of soap in 3 or 4 years, I get sick. If anyone can find Murphy and make him a nice big bar of Itching Powder Soap for me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I think it's a Victoria's Secret scent. Does anyone know if there's a dupe?

This just seems so far fetched to me. If folks are that creeped out about 'fluids' from other people, never eat another birthday cake that has candles someone blew out. In blowing out the candles, small amounts of saliva are excreted through the mouth, infinitely moreso if it's a child blowing out the candles as they're usually much more excited and blow harder. As a matter of fact, you likely shouldn't eat any food that someone else has prepared. For those of us who cook a fair amount, if you ever grabbed a fork or spoon to taste something over the pot, pan, casserole, etc... and blew on it prior to tasting it, you just basically spit all over the food you're preparing.

I've been asked to make soap like this before. I declined but not for gross-out reasons. Being of the can't have kids variety, I just didn't know enough about breastmilk to know how long it'd be usable for or anything like that. I don't really claim to understand why so many people are put-off by this idea though, seems fine to me.

This is probably too big but if you did oversize cupcakes, it might work: http://www.chocomolds.com/CMI027.html

I agree on the Mainstays ones, I was really excited when I first saw them but I took one out of the box and then put it right back in. Nope, not using them. What I typically find in this area are Ball jars and that's what I used in that particular instance.

It sucked. Bigtime!

Nothing, not a single jar, tin, glass, whatever is full-proof. I've used baby-food jars to test scents for myself before and even to give out little portions of lotions to friends to help me find a recipe I liked, actually, I have pigments for coloring B&B stuff in baby food jars now. I never sold them but that's me. As for Mason Jars, yeah, they're made to withstand multiple uses but even that isn't full-proof. Last summer I made a batch of chocolate syrup and jarred it via boiling. I boiled the jars to sterilize, put hot product in hot jars (as is recommended) then boiled them again to create a vacuum seal. All the jars were fine, except one. I had one jar break as soon as it submerged into the water bath a second time. When I pulled it out, I found that about 2/3 of the way down the jar, the entire bottom just broke clear off. Chocolate syrup in the entirety of my 21qt canning pot was NOT fun to clean out. I pulled the rest of the jars out and they were fine, I wiped them down and stored them in the fridge just to be on the safe side. It was a brand new Mason Jar straight out of the shrink wrap. If you're someone who wants to use baby food jars, go for it, be careful, know the risks, I still am not too keen on selling them but that's my personal standpoint. There's plenty of stuff I'll make for myself that I'd never share with anyone else because I'm too much of a worry-wort about it.

Okay, I've been reading this for a day or two and whereas I make much less in the way of candles than I used to, I think I can still impart a little potential wisdom here. It IS possible that you simply cannot use that FO with the rest of your setup. There are plenty of people here who will tell you that there are certain FO's they either don't use at all or have to use w/different wicks, wax, etc... because it burns differently. If this is the ONLY scent that is causing the problem, then you may need to look into alternative methods of using it or eliminating it from your supply altogether. You most certainly can (and likely should) contact the company you purchased the wax from and/or the manufacturer and ask them if there were any problems, issues, and so on with the batch. If you don't have the batch info, you can make it a general inquiry and see what they say. Not sure how much help that will be, especially if you've used the same batch of wax on other candles without problems. I think there's TONS of merit in trying a mass produced wood wick and just see what happens. I'm not saying you need to change what you're making necessarily but sometimes the best way to find a problem is to try and isolate each piece of the puzzle until you figure out where the problem occurred. Now, what I would do personally is this.... Get some mass produced wood wicks. Make 2 candles, each one of them with JUST the wax and the container in question here. Burn each one under conditions as similar as possible. Make notes of what happens. If there are no differences and the flare up doesn't happen, add in another variable. This time, make 2 candles, each one with the wax, the container, and the dye you used. Burn each one under similar conditions and make notes. If you still don't have any differences add another variable. Next, try another 2 candles this time they'll have the same wax, same container, same dye, and the FO. Burn each one under similar conditions and make notes. By process of elimination, SOMETHING *should* happen differently somewhere. I've never tried wood wicks, I don't have any experience with them either making them myself or from commercial vendors. Personally, I probably wouldn't try to market them but I might like one for home use. I'm not going to tell you that it's definitely your wicks. It's possible sure. It's possible just the same that there was another factor causing the problem. I can definitely relate to having put in the time, effort, testing, money, patience, and so on with a particular project. I think it's really neat that you can make those wicks yourself but just because it's your baby doesn't mean that there's no way it could be causing the problem. You'll really need to approach this with an unbiased POV and that can be incredibly difficult. I wish you the best of luck and should you ever get a website or full product line up and running, I'll gladly take a peek and give a wood wick a try but I think this is a serious problem that you need to address first.

Lye isn't so terrible. I used to soap in my kitchen, I have 4 cats now, 3 at the time. I kept a squirt bottle near me at all times just in case a nosey little feline got too curious about what mom was doing since I couldn't lock them out of the room in our old place. Keep a bottle of vinegar nearby just in case you do happen to splash lye on yourself too. I think once my hand slipped and I sloshed a little on my arm. It stung a bit, I hit it with some vinegar and it wasn't too bad. Use safety and common sense, it's not half as dangerous as you're thinking. In all reality, a frying pan full of oil is as dangerous if not more so.

I know some of you make Mineral Makeup and as I'm an avid fan of it but pretty ignorant on the differences between the types of powders I have a question. A while back I bought a HUGE matte white eye shadow. I'm curious what the difference is between eye shadow and foundation insofar as composition is concerned. The reason I'm asking is for a theater production I need to make my face WHITE and I'm curious if I can use my matte white eyeshadow as a foundation to use all over my face. Is this feasible?

If you're talking about that evil BAY site, the reason people did that was because the site charged a percentage fee based on sale price, shipping however wasn't factored in to the total sale price since in theory shipping money goes to ship the item not to pad the seller's wallet. As for supplier shipping, it does depend a lot on the frugal'ness of the supplier. If they're willing to shop shipping rates with different parcel services. I try to stick to suppliers that do and if I *HAVE* to use one that charges an arm and a leg for shipping, I try to do it sparingly and make sure it's a good sized order. I get extremely offended if I'm trying to ship a small or inexpensive product and it costs me as much to ship it as it did to purchase it. With wax especially though, as long as you're not looking for a pre-blended custom blend, shop it. If you pay $5 more to purchase it but save $10 on shipping, still a win. Since it's such an undertaking with the numerous suppliers that are available, each time you need a new case, check the prices with a set number of suppliers. Say 6 each time. Pick the cheapest and leave a note on your computer as to what you paid and who you've checked. Next time, pick a half dozen new ones and compare their price to the cheapest you've paid to date. That's what I'd do.

The Craft Room/Crafty Room sometimes called The Workroom, occasionally called "Get the heck away from me and give me some space Room"

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