ljhenry

OMG! It's a soap party! Absolutely beautiful! Wish I had a Smellaputer!

I agree with scented about the insulation as it is glass and if you have ever had insulation on you it makes you itch like crazy. I sure would not want to wash my body with a possibility of spreading it in sensitive places . Believe me you itch and itch.

I am however sorry to hear you lost your house and I'm sure more than just some soap & FO's. It is great you are OK though!

(It is cellulose not fiberglass insulation) Everyone is fine and I guess this just makes me do spring cleaning a little more throughly than I had anticipated. I do appreciate everyone's comments.

Thanks for your replies. I thought I would try to wash some of them and see what happens. It is cellulose and not glass fibers. Kinda like paper. Hate to lose all that, but if that is the way it has to be, so be it. It sure is a mess though. It might be great insulation, but it sure is messy.

Lorrie

Hi all. Well, if you've seen the news, I live in Mena, Arkansas and we had an F3 tornado through here. My house did not survive, be we did. My soaps are all fuzzy now from all the insulation that was blowing around. Since it was cellulose insulation, I think that I can just give them all a little rinse, maybe. Lost alot of my fragrances, but that just gives me an excuse to buy more. haha. What a ride! Had so many people helping us to move before the rains started that now I can't find anything. If anyone from here lives in Tennessee, I hope that you are alright as these storm also went through parts of Tennessee.

PS, There is no such thing as luck!

HMMMM! That sounds good. I am waiting on my order to get here beause I ordered some Cucumber Melon. Have to try that.

OK, I am done I used your recipe and instructions. It is in the oven for right now and I am fixing to go and wrap it up. I hope the color holds up. We'll see. I have a sheep's skin that I wrap my molds in. It works real good.

What type of coloring are you going to use?

I use some colors that I have had for a while that seem to work real well. I have blue, green (somewhere), Orange and yellow. I can usually mix up what ever color that I want. It is very concentrated and only a few drops will do. The only one that I have problems with is the blue. It seems to throw a bit of a smell that I have to compensate for.

I think I am going for the Wild Lilac. Gotta mix some light purple coloring for it, I think. DH has been busy making me some wonderful log and slab molds. He's the bomb!

I just looked at the picture of the Pumpkin. It looks like it has some kind of a complexion problem!

I'm just going to say my favorite is the green one.

Thank you, I can't wait to try that one myself. I always try all of them with the left over scraps. I don't waste any of them!

They look good.. You are doing fine.

what FO are you planning on soapin tonite?

Don't know, I just checked to see what I've got right now and my choices are Wisteria (small amount), Rasberry (which is light and fruity), Lavender and Sandalwood EO, Lilac, Almond Biscotti (not floral though), and Almond. Think I might save those two for a coffee bar. What do ya think?

Anywho, I finally have some pictures. Be gentle.:embarasse

1. Ginger Pear with whole Avocado Pulp

2. Pumpkin Spice (With Vanilla chunks!)

3. A bowl of melt and pour that I made to give as gifts for the bathroom.

4. Red Apple (My first attempt with using a slab mold and trying to swirl

They do smell pretty good and they soap up well. Off to try some floral scents. Wish me luck. Going to try the new recipe above.

Dropping the stearic would be a good idea... especially soaping florals.

Try this for a recipe:

35% Crisco

20% Olive

20% Coconut

15% Sunflower

10% Canola

Try not to take your Coconut over 25%. It seems to be drying to alot of people.

Try to keep your Canola at 10%. I have never had alot of luck with it, but others have.

Make sure you run it through a calc and use at least 5% superfat.

If you can find or have on hand some castor, add 5% of that and take 5% off of the Crisco.

HTH

I think that I will try that tonight and see what happens. Thank you. I kinda thought that the steric acid might be the culprit. Would you at the Castor in at trace?

If you make a floral soap, use full water.

Add FO BEFORE you add the lye water. Add any colorant you want before adding the lye water. The slowly add lye water and STIR to trace.

Florals can be frustrating to soap and that's being nice!

They can make you

Thank you. I would not have known that. I reall appreciate all the help that I've gotten here. This is the most active forum that I have been on.

Well, the pumpkin is still hardening as it is pretty soft. So many soft oils, I guess. Smell ok though. The red apple turned out alright. DH likes it. As for the scents, it's all I got right now. Waiting on my Brambleberry order to come in. DH dowsn't kow yet. I have some flowery scents that are supposed to be for candle and body, but I have been hesitant to use them. Guess I can make a couple of small batches and see how it goes. I'll post some pictures this evening. Got done with the computer I had to reformat and will have time.

Well, I made it and scented it with Ginger Pear and it smells really nice. Even the DH likes the smell. I wi;; post some pictures as soon as I get this other computer that I am working on fixed.

That's what I'll do. Making another one tonight. Not pumpkin though. This is Red Apple. Just waiting on everything to cool off now. Hopefully, it will smell like Red Apple and not rotten apple. haha!

I wonder if you can buy those sheets that you use to roll pastry out on and cut them up to size? Or, what about the cleat plastic contact paper that you can get in the store?

About 1:00 this morning, I decided to make another batch of soap. DH was in bed and I could have all the time to experiment that I wanted. Decided on a pumpkin recipe as I had gotten a sample order from Brambelberry and it smelled wonderful. Thought I would made up my own oil mix and run it through the lye calculator. I had seven oils consisting of canola, steric acid, coconut oil, crisco olive and sunflower. (Save the speech) Anyway, I used water and aloe vera for my liquid and added in a little silk, sugar and salt (recipe) to the lye mixture. The aloe half of the lye/water mixture was set aside to add in with oil when I added in the lye mixture. My mold is lined and ready, measured out my pumpkin, my fragrance and my spice. I am prepared to make the best soap ever concocted! I poured in the Aloe and everything was cooled down properly (I tested). Got my spoon ready and started pouring in my lye mixture. What is that on the bottom? Stir, stir, stir. What is that goopy stuff? Oh my God! This stuff is already setting up and I don't have anything in it! A stick blender was useless. Took out part really fast and threw in the pumpkin and fragrance, stir, stir, stir. Threw in spices to smaller batch, stir, stir, stir. Added in some warmed Shea Butter to help to loosen it up (I thought). WHAT ARE THOSE WHITE CHUNKS!!! Anyway, I put the spicy part back in and gave it a stir and threw it into the mold. It got really hot! I was working with 100 degree oil & lye. Today, I check on it and go ahead and cut it up. It is pretty soft. It smells really good and it is fairly a pretty color. Except, WHAT ARE THOSE DAMD WHITE HARD SPOTS?!?!?! I'll post some pictires of it later. I guess I am going to have to give away 4lbs of alot of oils! I am going back to my tried and true recipe and try again. What a mess. I am tired, my arms hurt and my jaws are aching from clenching them. I just wanted to make some pretty soap!

Wouldn't happen to have a decent recipe for this, would you? Don't even know how much to add or what kind of fragrance to Does it leave a smell of its own?

Didn't know if the smell would be overpowering or not. Wonder what kind of fragrance would work with the possible smell?

Just bought a can of Walnut Oil. Has anyone used this in soap yet? If so, what was it like? Did it smell or anything?

That is supposed to be "Walnut"

Thanks

Oh my gosh! I had put some silk in the lye water of this soap and used it the first time this morning. The silk is the bomb! I thought everyone was just making up how different it is, but I am now a believer!

Thanks, I think I will try it this next weekend. I just tried one of my soaps that I had put some raw silk in the lye. I will be putting silk in every bar I make now. It feels just wonderful.

Has anyone ever added real avacado to soap? I bought one and thought I'd try it and see what would happen. But, if anyone else has already done this with bad results, I'd like to know.

Thanks