venus78

I added honey which was diluted with water to the mixture before trace. I have a feeling it's got something to do with the honey but I'm not exactly sure what I should have done, a few hours after I unomlded, it was sweating something that looked like honey But it absorbed after a while. Should I added the honey at trace, did I add it to early?

Hi everyone, I just noticed some tiny yellow spots has appeared on my honey carrot chamomile soap which I made two weeks ago. I don't think it is DOS because I made a few more batches with the same recipe a week before making honey chamomile batch and they don't have these spots. I used carrot juice, raw honey (1 tbs per batch) and chamomile eo, sp %5 my soap is tan yellow in color and the spots are a little darker. Any idea of what this could be? Thanks in advance, Venus

Hi everyone, I made two batches of soaps, one unscented and one olive oil a few days ago (with no eo) and turned out nice as before. yesterday I made mint chocolate and when I unmolded, it had drops of sweats on top and some on sides. It's not humid where I live, it seems like it's eo. It happened again today with my tea tree soap. is it something I should be concerned about or will it disappear after curing time? I poked a few times while it was in the mold going through gel phase, I'd wrapped the mold with a couple blankets. I know I shouldn't do it, I'm just so excited every time and can't wait to unmold my soaps!! Thanks,

Thanks bayougirl for the tip. will do it.

Hi, I'm going to make a two layered chocolate mint batch of soap. Here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to measure the oils, mix them and make the mixture in half. I'm going to use cocoa powder in lye water for the chocolate part and make the chocolate part first and then, just pour it into the mold and put the lid on. Then, I'm going to start making the mint part with lye and mint infusion and the remaining oil which I made in half before. I'll then fill the other half of the mold with mint part, cover it for 12 hours. What do you think? Is this how layered soaps are made? It takes longer this way but I guess I have no choice because I'm having to different lye water. by the way, how much cocoa powder should I use (either in lye water or at trace) to have a chocolate brown color at the end? Thanks, Venus

Thanks. I just made my 5lb batch, so far so good . You're right, I could hardly move olive oil container!!

Hi everybody, I've made about 15 batches of 1-2 lb soap so far, I'm going to make 5lb batch for the first time and I'm a little nervous!! Is there anything different in making small batches with making larger batches I should know? I usually soap around 120F (except for goat milk which I soap @ 80F) Thanks Venus

I'm not sure if the sunflower is high oleic, I bought it from the grocery store. How about the coconut, isn't 25% too much? how about sunflower or canola? which one is better to use? I added them to take out some of the olive oil because of the cost.

Thanks Meridith. Do you think taking 5% of cocoa butter and adding it to OO will do it, or it's not enough?

Hi everyone, I have a recipe and I'd be happy if you could give me some comments on it: Coconut 25% Olive 30% Cocoa butter 20% Sweet almond 5% Castor 5% Canola or sunflower? 15% SP 5% Do you think I'm using too much different oils? and do you think I should use canola or sunflower oil? I'm going to use this recipe as my base recipe with different EOs. I can't use palm because it's hard for me to find it here(I'm in Iran), and I don't want to use animal fat. Thanks and happy soaping!

Thanks, I'll wait a few more weeks and see what happens

I just though of something about my soaps that make my skin flaky, When I purchased lye, they had two kinds of lye: 1- industrial lye from 96% to 99% purity $2 per kg. 2- lab lye (that's what they called it) 99% purity $25 per kg. I purchased lab lye. Since I live in Iran and we don't have any soapmaking suppliers, I'm not sure which one is used for soap making. Could it be the kind of lye I use? I am always very careful in measuring exactly. I soap at 100F and I reach medium trace. I have no idea and it really worries me. When I use my soap it doesn't really dry out my skin and it's even soft, but I can see a dandruff like white layer on my skin. I used to use 26% coconut but now I'm using 20% and still the same problem with my last batch which is 2 weeks. I use: olive 40% - Coconut 20% - Palm 30% - Castor 5% - Sweet almond 5% sf 5%

I just though of something about my soaps that make my skin flakey, When I purchased lye, they had two kinds of lye: 1- industrial lye 96-99% purity $2 per kg. 2- lab lye (that's what they called it) 99% purity $25 per kg. I purchased lab lye. Since I live in Iran and we don't have any soapmaking suppliers, I'm not sure which one is used for soap making. Could it be the kind of lye I use? Thanks everyone for your help

I used spearmint eo. If it didn't gel completely how can I prevent it from happening again? I always leave my soap in the mold for 12-14 hours, I've left my soaps for 24 hours but usually ended up with something like "alien brain". I don't know why but I think it might be the dry weather. I usually cover the mold with a blanket.

I umolded my new batch a few hours ago and there's no sign of white streaks in it :smiley2: so relieved .. I was so nervous:lipsrseal The only thing was that the batch was lighter on the outside, when I cut it into bars I noticed it was a little darker in the inside and each bar has a lighter layer around it about 1mm. any idea why?

Thanks Meridith, you're always a great help

I have one last question about streaky soaps which is caused because of stearic in the palm. I don't have a no stir palm and I was wondering is it a good idea to melt the palm (my palm isn't solid in room temperature and the stearic settles at the bottom of the container), stir it and put it in the fridge to become soid, or jut melt it and stir it before measuring each time?

ok. Thanks a lot Meridith

Hi everyone, Sorry for having so many questions:embarasse I'm going to try a no palm recipe. I found one in Alicia Grosso's book with Olive 64% Coconut 31% Castor 5% Doesn't 31% coco dry skin? I don't have a lot of choice of solid oils. Do you have any ideas about this recipe? should I change it and lower the coco to eg.20%?

No fragrance, just brewed coffee and coffee ground.

I get it now. my palm is liquid on the top and thick at the bottom. I didn't know that because the container isn't see through. when making my last 4 batches I found it out because the palm was almost finished in the container and I saw that it was thick at the bottom. I'll make sure to stir it well before using it. Thank you so much Meridith for your great help

Hi Meridith, Thanks for your message. I soaped at 120F. I was trying to solve white streaks in my soaps therefore my batch was 0.5ld, I'd read somewhere if your batch is small you should mix the lye and the oils a little bit warmer. I unmolded today, the ash on the top is gone, but it has white streaks in it again! I have no idea what to do. I made sure the palm is completely melted. This one has white streaks exactly like the picture you posted. What did you do to solve this problem? Thanks a lot

Thanks Carrie, I'll do that

Hi everyone, I just made a batch of kitchen coffee and when I poured the lye into the oils it started thickening in less than 30 seconds! I'm always very careful with the measuring and I don't think it was lye heavy. I poured the lye into the oils very slow (I have no idea why!) and after I started stirring with the blender it thickened so fast! I used: almond 5% castor 5% coconut 20% palm 30% olive 40% sf 5% the only difference in this batch from my previous batches was that I used unrefined olive oil which was a little thick and green. any idea of what could have gone wrong? Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot for all your very helpful messages. :smiley2: