micayla75

I taught my high school students (seniors in a cosmetology science class) how to make soap. They are definitely not science oriented, but we watched the soap queen videos and did a trial run before we started. By the end of the year, each student made their own unique recipe and scent. They learned so much and most agreed that the wsp pumpkin crunch cake made a great scent in soap. :-)

There is no 'sweet' scent to sweet almond oil, just a typical oil smell. HTH

I'm not sure why you want to make one from scratch? I have never seen a recipe for MP. If you actually look at the ingredients of many MP bases, you will find that they are made with many of the same ingredients as CP soap, at least the ones I use anyway- with a few exceptions - Sorbitol (moisturizer/humectant), Sorbitan oleate (surfactant/emulsifier), and Soy bean protein (skin conditioning). These ingredients are in the MP soap that I use, but are not found in CP/HP. All are safe to use and should not be a cause of concern. There are many different types of MP soap bases and some are much better than others. I would definitely not compare MP soap that you purchase from Michaels with MP soap that you can find elsewhere.

Thanks for the help! The soap does smell fantastic and my swirls on this one weren't too bad either. I will keep trying different methods and scents. Boy this is addicting!

I have the same problem with the Crafter's Choice blue mica. It looks fantastic when first poured (I don't add it until it is completely melted) but after a while, it fades. I stopped using that mica. ETA: I also used the SFIC base.

I think your soap looks great! :-) I may have been the one that mentioned the bubbles. I made a batch of regular CP soap the other day and had some extra that wouldn't fit in the mold, so I poured it into a silicone mold and put it in the oven. (My oven is always warm because it is a gas oven. ) I let it sit in there for a few hours and it didn't get any bubbles. I am thinking that maybe it was too hot before. Could this be the case with yours? Is it still oily? I know that mine was oily right after I took it out as well, but it seemed to dry out over time.

I have some low profile jars for certain products and I use two address labels. One on the front of the jar with my brand name/product name and one on the back with the scent/ingredients. I definitely suggest the weatherproof labels for anything that could get wet or oily! I also print my labels from my ink jet printer. Hope that helps!

I'm sorry that happened! I know how frustrating it is to get something right only to have it not be right in the end. lol I think they will still dissolve, just maybe not fizz. The scent would still come through and the salt and oils will still be great for the skin!

Thanks for the reply! I actually just tried my first batch of straight CP today. It is wrapped in a blanket. Hopefully, it works. As for the other 2 batches of CPOP, they have both turn out fantastic other than the bubbles. Maybe someday I'll get to the bottom of it!

I have made 4 batches of soap now, but I still feel like I have so many questions. I try to read as much as I can, but sometimes the search doesn't give the best results. So, a question about scents. I made my 4th batch today and used 3 different fragrances from 3 different companies. 1.5 oz The Green Tea - Daystar 1 oz Guava - Sweetcakes 1.5 oz Satsuma - Just Scent I mixed all 3 of them together and then added them to the soap. Am I supposed to mix them or am I supposed to add one at a time? Also, it smelled great in the pot, but that can change right? I have had so much fun making soap and this is my first attempt at CP. I have done 2 CPOP and 1 HP. I love the idea of the oven, but I keep getting small bubbles on the top of the soap. I have a gas oven, so the lowest setting is 200 - I try to turn it lower, but eventually it just turns off. Does anyone else use the CPOP method with a gas oven? I would love to hear your tips if you have any! Thanks in advance everyone!

How big are your bath bombs? I can't seem to get the price down below $4 for a 4-5oz bomb. I must be doing something wrong with my calculations.

I use the WSP and the ECB Whipped Body Frosting...they feel very different from each other. The WSP leaves a silky feel after and the Whipped Body Frosting leaves a moisturizing feel. It is not overly greasy though. I do add some other oils to the Whipped Body Frosting as well. I think they are both great bases!

Does anyone know if these bubbles happened because it got too hot or not hot enough? I'd like to make another batch of this soap because it smells amazing, but I'd rather not get the bubbles again. I'm not sure if I should do something different when I place it in the oven.

Thanks Kitn! I have already made my second batch. This time I used the tutorial for OHP. I think it turned out great, but my husband said it looks like puke - uh oh! I used a different recipe this time because I wanted to see the difference. I will take some pictures of everything once it is cut tomorrow. This really is addicting. I love making all of the different bath & body products!

Trying to add the pictures again! Let's see if I can get it to work! The first is a picture of some of the top from a distance and the second is a close-up of the bubbles. It still smells great - but the bubbles make it look a little odd. Any ideas on what causes them?

I opened the stove and took a quick picture of the bubbles. This picture is taken only a couple of inches from the soap, so they aren't as big as they seem, but definitely noticeable. I just realized that this was the extra soap I had left over and it wasn't covered like my other mold. I wonder if that is the reason as I don't see it on the soap in the loaf mold. ETA: I had a picture, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'll have to figure out how to get the picture on here.

I was so excited to finally make my first batch of CP soap! Of course, things weren't exactly perfect. Here was my original recipe: 12.25oz avocado oil 3.08oz castor oil 18.52oz coconut oil 4.9oz olive oil 9.25oz shea butter I had everything lined up and ready to go with my mold lined and set. I measured the lye and water, mixed and set aside to cool. Then I measured the coconut oil and shea butter and started melting them. I moved on to the oils and measured all but the avocado and realized I was short on the avocado. Everything had already been measured and put together, so I couldn't just stop. So I went to the soap calc and did a quick change to my recipe to see if Sweet Almond Oil would work. It didn't change the amount of lye, so I went ahead and used all of the avocado that I had and the rest in sao. This is the altered part of the recipe: 5oz sao 7.25 oz avocado I used my stick blender and mixed until I had what I thought was a light trace. I then took out a little bit of the soap (I was going to try to swirl - probably too many things for my first time!) and mixed in some mica. I then added Cinnamon Caramel Latte FO at 1oz per pound to the large container of soap batter. It seemed to really thicken up, so I knew I had to get it in my mold. I poured the large batter (it turned a dark orange) and then basically had to glop the smaller amount on top. I did try to swirl it a bit, but I'm not sure how well that worked. I had already preheated my oven to 170 so I popped the mold in there and left it for about an hour and a half, then turned it off. I left the soap in there and it will stay there overnight. It smells great and the orange is now dark brown (which is great for this scent!), but there seem to be tiny bubbles on the top of the soap. I'm not sure what those could be. Any ideas? Also, do you think the recipe will be ok with the change? This is the info from soapcalc Hardness29 - 5445Cleansing12 - 2226Conditioning44 - 6949Bubbly14 - 4632Creamy16 - 4825Iodine41 - 7053INS136 - 165164Lauric19Myristic7Palmitic10Stearic9Ricinoleic6Oleic36Linoleic7Linolenic0 I'm sorry for the long post, but I figured that if I did something wrong giving the whole story now could maybe help someone figure it out.

They were in my finished soap. I haven't tried again with clear, but I will try again soon and see if it happens again. Thanks for the replies!

I am new to M&P and was trying to make some soap using BB LCP clear M&P soap. I only added color and fragrance, but all of my soaps have tiny little bubbles in them. Otherwise, they look and smell fantastic! I sprayed the mold with alcohol for one set and it still happened. Any ideas on how to get rid of them? Thanks so much!

Thanks for the list! I'll try some of those the next time! I have the Pink Sugar and the Vanilla Buttercreme Crunch. I haven't tried the Pink Sugar, but the Vanilla Buttercreme Crunch was good. I really liked the Brown Sugar and Fig in a body spray, but it didn't work well in the WSP basic lotion. Maybe it is the lotion? I haven't tried that lotion before, so that could be it. I also tried the Japanese Cherry Blossom, but the scent doesn't seem to be close to the BBW one. I purchased about 20 of them, so I will keep testing them!

Thanks for your input! I think I am going to try a different supplier next time. I did try the search feature using Just Scent and I only found threads with the words just and scent in them, but not Just Scent together. I didn't get anything with JS. I'll have to try to figure out a different search phrase. lol

Has anyone tried their fragrance oils? I tested a few of them out today and I'm not necessarily impressed. Most of them don't seem to be very strong and/or do not smell like the "type". Am I not using enough? I was just testing, so I used 2oz of my lotion and either 1ml or 2ml of the fragrance oil. I was using a conversion chart and that is what it said for 2-4%. The max for my lotion is 4%.

I am new to the bath and body area and I see a lot of people mentioning different suppliers using acronyms. Is there a thread or someplace I can go to see what they all mean? Thanks! Michelle

Thanks for the product info! Is that from a specific company? I'm sorry if I am being a pain...as you can tell I am even newer than a newbie.

I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question (I just started looking into making my own B&B supplies yesterday and am perusing the threads for info), but could you tell me what JS Body Butter is? Thanks in advance.