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gardengoat

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Everything posted by gardengoat

  1. Those turned out really nice. Love the tile/coaster idea!
  2. I have found that doing the gentle yoga stretches will reverse those problems & keep them at bay. At least it did/does for me.
  3. I love my Soap Hutch mold-Have one made with the HDPE, it is a slab with two dividers. Very well made. http://www.soaphutch.com/index.html
  4. By golly Jeana I would have never thought of using an oven bag to rebatch...I hate rebatching. Will definately give it whirl when I break down & re-do a couple of things:)
  5. This is what I would send as an email back to her.... Our company takes pride of the commitment with providing quality products and service to our customers. There are times when circumstances happen beyond our control, and we regret that your order has been caught in a shipping error. As you know Fedex is showing your packaged as delivered, and is currently conducting an investigation since you have not received your packaged.. Our policy was to return your money for the inconvenience. I want to thank you for resending the monies till the investigation is concluded. Sincerely, ….
  6. Without the hemp you are running a tad under 0% superfat.
  7. Took a peek at the LS tutorial, good pics and looks like a lot of questions popped up, so should have you covered pretty well:) I weight the paste after it is all said & done...but since the water is subjective I just measure that out & call it close enough. (Gallon of water weights about 8.35lbs ...or the old math saying-a pint is a pound the world over) But if you'd rather weigh out both-won't hurt a thing. Have fun,--once you do it, you'll wonder what took you so long to try it:cheesy2:
  8. Well, like most things in this craft, dilution is going to be tweaked by your personal preference. Generally a 2 part water to 1 part paste is the rule of thumb. Mine is usually kept at a 1.5 part water to 1 part paste & generally don't add much more. If I still had kids in the house I would make their own bottle of stuff & dilute it much more than the 2 to 1, since they tend to think more is better:) Some of the foaming bottles work better with a much higher dilution than the 2 to 1. I pretty much stick to the flip top dispensing caps & keep my shampoo & bath gel a bit more concentrate where I just squeeze out about a nickels size of product at a time. I'd say start with a lighter dilution 'cause you can always add more water. Once it's added, it is there to deal with.
  9. Liquid soapmaking is a hot process method - meaning you will apply heat (cook) to make saponifation happen; instead of mixing your oils & NAOH, pouring into a mold & wait for the chemical reaction to create soap. Catherine Failor book sets you up cooking with a double boiler on the stovetop. It will take a few hours for the paste to cook before it is done, so I like the convience of the crockpot where I can walk away. Hadn't tried-or known about that calculator, sounds pretty cool if it calculates that for you. Since I do LS at -10....that is like doing NAOH at 0%, so needs to be neutalized no matter how long it sets. But if you were supperfatting, calculating at -5 or 6, let's say,you should be able to let 'er hop. Almond, Castor, Olive, HO Sunflower are the ones I mainly use to mix with Coconut oil to get a clear soap, and to gentle down the coconut. You could do a 50-50 with the coconut & olive & should be just fine. Gotta start with some sort of benchmark recipe -if you'll like me I'll tweak the next time around just because--lol Base my formulas around a 40-50oz of weight for the oils, and that is pushing the capacity of my crockpot with room to stir. Would consider 20oz of oil small-lol. Guess it is what you are going to be comfortable working with & what your scale will let you do. HTH
  10. Formulation planning can be a little different-a lot of folks go for a clear finished product, so this limits your oil choices since oils high in unsaponfiables, palm, or steric acid will leave a cloudy finish. When figuring your KOH you must use more than what you would figure with the NAOH. This is because most to the NAOH we use in soapmaking is running 99% pure. Whereas the KOH is about 90%, it holds almost 10% water in it's crystals. So......I generally will use a -10% KOH sometimes up to -12 depending on what I am trying to achieve. This is why one must neutralize afterwards. Do believe Catherine Failor's book is still considered THE book on liquid soap and will be very helpful to get you started. Recently was shown the crockpot method for LS & find it much more doable for me. Can wander off & do other things -can turn it off & on as needed & won't mess up the batch. I have a tendency to use much less fragrance in the LS- have never added any preservative and have not had any LS mold or go rancid ......and I have some statshed from my first batch in 2002. Generally keep my dilution somewhere between 1.5 to 2 parts water to 1 part paste
  11. Judette, the state milk board regs concern themselves with regulating milk facilities-producing & processing milk for drinking & making cheese, yogurt, etc. They regulate how you sell, who you can sell it to and what is involved with importing/exporting with other states....as something that is going to be eaten. Once you have made soap with the milk-it is really no longer milk (you have saponified most of the fat-cured out most of the water-dispersed all the goodies thru out the soap) & it is not going to be sold as food - so your soap will not fall under any of the milk board regs. You are a soap and/or cosmetic manufacturer....whole different set of regs to follow. And will be under your city/state, retail/wholesale regs if you go to selling. As far as safety-the soaping process is going to take care of any bactieria....by the pH change, that CareBear mentions-and by any heating process it goes thru-a hot long gel stage will do it as would a hot process. Pastuerize milk is just milk that has been heated up hot enough & long enough to kill a certain amount of bacteria to deem it safe. Heat the milk to 145° F degress for 30 minutes or 165°F for 15 sec is long enough to home pastuerize if you are more comfortable soaping with it that way. Won't hurt it at all. There are plenty of bad goat/cow farmers out there-both with care of their animals & how they handle their milk. Even if you know nothing about goats-you should try to see the place that is producing the milk you are using. You will be able to tell by the general appearance of the animal how they are cared for. Ask about their milk handling procedure, how they milk & what they do to get it in their refrigerator--and if you can come at a time & watch them milk. Most goat folk love an opportunity to talk, brag, & show their goats. Most love to teach someone who are interested in buying goats how to take care of them & what to look for in the type of goat you are after. Can ask about how they handle withdrawal times when they have to use an antibiotic on a sick goat....or what & how often they get dewormed--again what sort of withdrawal times. What do they do with the milk if one puts a hoof in the pail. Anything that you wonder about ask--they should not get offended. If they don't allow any sort of farm visits--would consider that a red flag.
  12. Forgot to add that the state regs are for the milk producers(farmers) & retail outlets selling milk for drinking purposes. You are producing soap with it & won't fall under any of those guidelines. However, the www.realmilk.com will give you an idea how hard it is going to be find fresh milk to purchase from an individual farmer.
  13. In the state of Missouri it is legal for me to sell raw goat's milk to individuals for human consumption. I can not pasteurize it unless I have a state approved processing plant. Nor can I sell to health food stores for resell. I can however, tell folks who buy from how to heat treat or pasteurize & what they do with it once they get home as far as deciding to drink raw or pasteurize is still legal thus far. Once your milk has gone thru the lye stage it is no longer a viable product to drink. You will not be selling it to be consumed orally-which is where the whole controversy is whether to consume as a food product --raw or pasteurized. There are some states that do not allow the sale of milk whatsoever, some that have regs for animal use only. www.realmilk.com is usually pretty up-to-date on what the regs are for each state. hth
  14. That's all I use is unpasterized from my goats. Generally soap at 6% superfat, most go thru gel; but have some that don't-not a problem. I have several bars tucked away that are several years old -no odor problem at all with them. Now when you start wanting to make GM lotions, you definately will need to pasteurize the milk.
  15. It turned out lovely-ya got a swirling knack for sure:)
  16. Imagine those patterns would be a killer on time. Am sitting here with a couple of bundles of Corriedale roving that I thought I would sping into yarn. Maybe in my next life:cheesy2: Shrinking along with the soap is a neat aspect, so may have to see if I can get one done for myself. Thanks.
  17. Love that color combo and swirls.
  18. Very cool! I have only seen solid colors before, the designs are really cute. Have never used one though, does the felting shrink with the soap as it is used?
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