Starr

You CAN use food color for your soaps but like any other type of dye, be careful how much you use. Food coloring WILL color the skin. Not sure why gel colorants would be better/worse/easier/harder/etc... then a standard FD&C dye.

This is the first one I found that didn't have a picture of a cow or fish or something along those lines on it. The write on would be good for putting a pretty label or something like that on. http://price-tags.hubert.com/write-on-wipe-off-meat-case-pin-tag.html Not sure how good the price is but I just did a basic Google search for "Deli tags" and it was the first result.

I'm thinking rest. supply too.

Okay, probably not the case but the only thing I can come up with is this... Is it possible that maybe you mismeasured your FO in that particular batch? It seems so strange to me that water didn't just put the flame out, there had to be an abundance of oil (or so my brain tells me anyway). Have you had problems with any of the other tea lights in that batch?

I never had very good luck cutting M&P with either a straight or a wavy slicer. I will say that the biggest problem I often had was with uneven slices but for me it was often better with the wavy cutter versus the straight.

When I started doing HP (and CP for that matter) soap, I read and read and read and then read some more but I also found that if you go to YouTube and search "How to make HP (or CP) soap", you will find several videos. I can't say that I've watched them all but I have watched several of them and each of them does a decent job at not only describing trace but showing it to you IN the pot while it's happening. I think that helped me avoid having any problem achieving trace, I had other problems, but that's another thread.

Waste not, want not? At least you were able to salvage your oops.

I fortunately enough have never lost a whole pot of wax by forgetting about my spigot. I have lost a good 4-5oz trying to figure out what that NOISE was (especially when we were making candles on the 3rd floor and both the bathroom and kitchen were on the second). As for the salt bars, I wonder if the heat + salt + oils didn't just make for a badness.

You might be able to make something similar as a salve. It'd be closer to a lotion but you wouldn't have to introduce water into the mix. I make one without any waxes or water but haven't had the guts to try to do it without a chemical preservative. I worry too much about all the oils getting ick'd.

I had a problem with Fresh Strawberry from CS too. The scent almost completely faded.

There's lots of different recipe's that you could try but I'm going to suggest this one because the materials aren't overly expensive or hard to find. One trip to a large grocery store or a Super Wal-Mart and you'll be set for oils. http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25595 You might also take a peek at some of the videos on YouTube on how to do CP soaping. They are pretty helpful at showing what trace is. Words just don't do it justice, showing it is a much better way to understand.

Looks AWESOME but I can't agree with everyone here on the scent. It's actually my father's fav scent, so any naughtiness that I might've ever associated with it is totally gone.

Excellent! That's what I really wanted it for. Thanks!

A few weeks ago I found that the pharmacy at my local WalMart carries big jugs of Aloe Juice. I think it was about 1 gal for about $7 or $8. The jug says it's 99.8% pure as I recall but it's not clear like I usually get from suppliers. It's a tannish/amber color. The value on it is wonderful but if it's not good for B&B stuff then it's really of no use to me. The color has me somewhat questioning... has anyone used this before? Here's the link: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10314798

Yikes!!! Another important lesson: Sometimes more is not really less!

We've all had them... something that just went... WRONG! HORRIBLY WRONG! What was it? What did you do with it? Me? I wanted a REALLY rich, creamy, liquid bath milk. So... I sat down and started cooking something up (bad, bad idea, RUN!). I took some multibase, a ton of water, some oils (SAO, Sunflower, maybe a splash of olive... etc...), and lastly.... dry milk. I got something that resembled Elmer's Glue. Still, I wasn't deterred. I thought maybe, if I put a small amount in a bathtub that it would dilute and be wonderful. I filled my bathtub and poured about 2 tablespoons in. It just sat there. It didn't move. It didn't disperse. There was just a blob of this white STUFF in my bathtub. I tried whooshing it around with my hands... now there's little pieces of this stuff all over the tub. Drain the tub... Throw away the STUFF... Walk away... It took at least half an hour to get the tub clean after that.

You're recipe looks sound to me. As for superfat, I've never done anything but the standard 5% that SoapCalc already preloads so I can't give you much info there. As for wisk vs. stick blender... I've yet to get a stick blender and have used a wisk for every batch of soap I've made. It works, it's probably slower and you'll curse your arm, the wisk, the soap, and possibly inanimate objects too while you stir and stir waiting for trace but it does work.

I don't really measure the pop colors by tsp's or oz's or anything like that. I know what colors go with what scents and I do it (somewhat) by sight. I bought these tiny scoops that fit in the baby food jars that I put my POP colors in and if I'm going for a medium color it's usually about 2 tiny scoops. I bought 1oz samplers of all the POP colors and they will last you a LONG time. I've done severals pounds of soap now that have required Green and I could probably make at least another 5lbs of soap if not more with what I have left.

What kind of tabs are you using on your wicks? Most tabs have a 'collar' of sorts on it, when the wick hits the collar it snuffs itself out, there's usually at least a small amount of wax left at that point. If the wick burned all the way down to the bottom of the candle, you would have a flame sitting directly on your votive burner/pillar plate/tin/etc... and the chances of badness happening are much increased.

I'm kind of in the same boat. The closest one for me is several hours away and in places that I never travel to.

It sounds like you made a very sweet and thoughtful gift choice for your wife. I think with some reading and maybe a little more buying, you'll be on your way to getting something that you'll both be proud of.

It sounds like something was off if your oils were floating but let's see the recipe.

I'm not a big fan of vanilla but figure it's a staple in any sniffies collection. I've gone with Vanilla Pods from C&S. VERY pure and natural smelling which I think is how they describe it.

The hardness of the bar will affect how long it lasts. I had an "OPPS" batch of MP a while ago that for some reason came out really soft (I think maybe I mis-measured my glycerin). Otherwise it was fine, got sudsy, left you feeling soft, etc... it was just SOFT. My mom is a total glutton for just about any soap I make and snagged a couple of bars of it for herself, she loved that it was such a soft bar but was upset at how fast she used it up.

OMG. How absolutely wretched!