MissMori

Do you have comfrey leaf or comfrey root? From "chunks" it sounds like root. By grinding the chunks, you will get more of the color out. I need to get a new camera. Mine won't focus for some reason.

I don't think it will keep it more vibrant. Alkanet is pH sensitive. It is a deep pink/red in infused oil, as soon as it hits the lye it turns violet/purple, depending on how much you use. Using citric acid to lower the pH is an attempt to keep the pink/red color. Other than that, it will "use up" some of the lye and the soap will have a higher superfat, but it will still be in the violet/purple range. You would have to add it after saponification and then I can see it lowering pH to retain the pink/red. But, I don't see it working in a cp process, you would have to hp. I haven't tried using citric in cp to lower pH, so an experiment may be in order. If you want to keep alkanet vibrant, for a while anyway, store in a cool, dark, dry place. The other thing I can think of, is perhaps trying an antioxidant or preservative like ROE or EDTA. I haven't found a UV inhibitor for CP yet. That would be the only other option I can think of.

It gives a lovely green color in soap. I've only done infused because I don't like the scratchy feel of flakes or even ground spices in soap. Here's what I do: 1 tbsp ground or powdered comfrey 4oz oil (doesn't really matter which oil you use, I use olive) You can double, triple, make as much as you want. Heat infusion: Place in mason jar and seal. Place jar either in pot of water on low heat (water even with height of oil) or place in a crock pot on low. If you are going to do it on the stove top, you HAVE to watch it and add water as it evaporates. I heat infuse for 6 to 8 hours, sometimes more, depending on the herb or spice I am infusing. After infusing, strain through a coffee filter into a clean jar. Cold Infusion: Place comfrey and oil in jar, shake up. Allow to sit 3 or 4 weeks, shaking jar often. More shaking is better than less. Strain through coffee filter into clean jar.. As far as usage, that really depends on the green you are going for. Darker, use more. I would start about about 15% of total oils. Too dark, use less, not dark enough, use more.

We are talking about soap here, not candles. How much experience do you actually have making soap? I see from your post above you've made 1 goat milk soap. After 12 years and thousands of batches of soap, I'm confident in telling someone that gelling soap will destroy/"burn off*" some of the more volatile components of essential oils and fragrance oils. And if you want to keep those components of the fragrance, try to do so by avoiding gel. *By the way "burn off" is used by soap makers to describe the volatile components of eos/fos vaporizing during the soap making process. Over the years I've seen post after post from soap makers wondering why their fragrances are weak, have lost "something," morphed, and don't last. They never bother to connect how they treat the fragrance in the soap making process with the final result.

When I get partial gel... I just live with it and make notes so that I force a full gel the next time I make the same soap. You will see a difference in color. The gelled part will be more vibrant and have a translucent quality, the non-gelled part will be creamier in color and more opaque. The difference can diminish with cure, but it won't go completely away. Not dumb questions.

Gel or no gel depends on what you are trying to achieve. Gel: Colors more vibrant, harder faster, translucent quality. Not to Gel: Milk soaps to prevent discoloration, eo/fo that can be burned off (those with a low flash point or highly volatile components), want a more creamy look/no translucence, want subdued/pastel colors. I think my gelled soaps feel smooth as glass when lathering, non-gelled soaps don't have the same glassy smoothness. Some additives (sugars/milks) will heat up the soap. Too much heat can cause problems as well (separation, lye bubbles or pockets, discoloration) so by putting those soaps in the refrigerator or freezer, the problems can be avoided.

How hard are you pulling on the mold to get the soap out? I just used my glossy rectangle mold for cp and the soaps came out fine. I just gently pull the mold away from the sides of the soap, turn the mold over and push out from the bottom.

Good karma or bad karma? I'm seeing a mood ring... black.. bad... blue... good.

Yep, that's cool video. I want to see what you did.

What soapbuddy said right above. I posted above that for white soaps I was making earlier in the week I ditched the pomace I normally use for a "light" olive oil, it was labeled as "light tasting" olive made by Bertolli. I did use TD to get it whiter, at about 3/4 tsp per pound oils. More bubbles... up your coconut to about 20%, reduce olive and palm equally. Substitute castor for the sweet almond oil. Check the ingredients in your vegetable shortening. The new Crisco is a mix of palm and soybean oils. Not my favorite to use. It may be better to use coconut, palm, olive, castor and shea butter. You know exactly what is in each and can control the qualities of the resulting soap more easily. If you have a scale that gives you the option of weighing in grams, you should switch over. By switching to grams, you will reduce your margin of error significantly.

Looking at your formula, I'm going to guess it's a combination of the olive, palm and grape seed. You have over 59% oils that are not white or colorless. Coconut isn't really white either, but much lighter in color than olive or grape seed, a bit lighter than palm. Are you using EVOO, pomace or a "light" olive oil? I was making ghosts this week and switched out my pomace for a light olive oil, because of the color... I too wanted a white soap. You can up your TD to 1 tsp per pound oils. I wouldn't do much more than that. Too much and your soap will be chalky. Does this soap get hard and lather? I ran it through SoapCalc, because I'm not going to do math either. It comes back at 36 for hardness and 10 for bubbly.

How off white is your cured soap base without any fragrances or TD? None of the oils you listed will give you a stark white soap. How much TD are you using? How much olive and palm are in your formula? Are you gelling? Is your TD stark white? Is it water or oil soluble? Are you 100% certain it is TD? I ask, because I recently had a supplier send me something that was mislabeled. If nothing works, it just won't work. You may have to reformulate your base using fats/oils that give a whiter soap and then give it the last push to bright white with TD.

Are they really going out of business, or is that a rumor? Which brings to mind the song... How do rumors get started... Shop around. You will find many suppliers carry essential oil blends. My favorite went out of business, so I feel your pain.

I haven't tried any fragrances from Moonworks. Seems like as good a time as any to give them a try. Loan Star has a peppermint bark that looks really appealing... could just be a craving for some chocolate though. Has anyone tried it in soap?

Babassu and coconut may be ok. Shea, depends on how refined. Olive and castor, probably not so much. But it comes down to how old the oils are and how they were stored. Was any type of preservative or antioxidant added? I have coconut that is over 6 years old and it is fine. It is supposed to have a 1 to 2 year shelf life, but it looks, smells and tastes fine. The soap I've made from it is fine as well. I recently got rid of some olive that was a bit over 1 year old, because it was rancid. The refining process has a lot to do with the shelf life of particular oils. Refined, deodorized and/or bleached oils/fats tend to have longer shelf lives. The unrefined/virgin oils (think hemp, walnut) have shorter shelf lives. When in doubt stick it in the refrigerator or freezer. If you make soap with oils that are rancid, they soap can have a rancid scent to it AND it can be more prone to getting dos.

Thanks for all the great suggestions... I knew y'all were the ones to ask. Peppermint & Vanilla sounds so good. I don't have the tree molds yet and I'm thinking of switching to snow flakes so that I can do peppermint & vanilla. It's going to be cherry for the Valentine's hearts.

How far past the normal life? It could lead to dos or other rancidity issues in the soap. That being said, it really depends on which oil you are thinking of using and how refined it is. Hemp... I wouldn't. Coconut, pko... I would go ahead and use them.

I just finished my Halloween soaps for the children in my 4 year old's preschool class. Next up is Christmas and then Valentine's Day. I'm going to use silicone tree molds for the Christmas soaps. Any ideas for fragrance? I don't want to go with anything pine, cedar, juniper. These soaps are for 4 year olds, so something more fun, Christmasy, but for young children. Also thinking ahead to Valentine's Day. Same thing, fragrance for young children. I'll be using heart shaped silicone molds. Was thinking a candy fragrance, but which?

As far as eos or fos fading faster, I think it depends on which particular ones you are using. Some stick, some don't. I wouldn't go higher than 1 tbsp ppo for clay. That's an extreme for me. I prefer 1 to 1 1/2 tsp ppo for general use. Remember to let the eo/fo absorb into the clay before adding it to your fixed oils/soap at trace. Place the eo/fo & clay in a glass or stainless steal container and COVER while absorbing.

Just my opinion, but no soap maker should be without The Soap Maker's Companion (Cavitch) and Scientific Soap Making (can't remember the author's name right now.) Really, you don't need any other books. Most of the other books may have pretty pictures and perhaps can give artistic ideas on the aesthetics/creative aspects, but they are pretty worthless when it comes to the nuts and bolts of soap making, beyond giving a few recipes and a rendition of the process. The Soap Maker's Companion has wonderful recipes, if sometimes a bit on the expensive side. She gives a lot of information on everything you can add to soap for color and fragrance and other additives. She gives descriptions of oils and what qualities they give soap. Not completely exhaustive on every topic in soap making, but pretty darn close. Scientific Soap Making is actually a text book. It can be used to teach a course on soap making or chemistry. It is accessible to the novice chemist or soap maker a like. Written in plain language, but not dumbed down. It is the book I wish I had when I began making soap. It answers some of the more scientific questions that arise... what causes dos, how to prevent dos, how to accurately measure and keep a journal of soap making, testing various oils and additives in a scientific manner. I've read the entire book, but haven't done any of the "homework" or experiments, however I'm really considering working my way through.

The chemicals that give EO's their distinctive fragrance are volatile. To help make the scent stick, try kaolin clay. Measure out your clay and then add your fragrance. Allow to sit a bit so that the clay absorbs the fragrance. Then add to your soap either before adding lye or at trace, whichever you prefer. Some soap makers use orris root powder or benzoin powder as fixatives. I've never used either, but do know that some people are sensitive to benzoin. Other than that, soap cool and store your soap in a cool, dark and dry place. After fully cured, you can also try storing in an enclosed container. Some soap makers add a cotton ball that has a few drops of their eo blend or fo.

Hmm... ash is usually worse when you don't get a full trace or have separation after pouring. It probably wasn't one thing, but a combination of things... soap cooled too much, trace wasn't stable and then separated slightly. I made soap today and allowed my oils and lye solution to cool too much. I usually soap at about body temp (minus the fever.) When I mixed the lye with the oils, it thickened up, but it wasn't trace. It was the oils solidifying. I put it in the microwave for 30 sec. and it loosened up.

Yes, the golden or non-deodorized can have a chocolatey scent to it. It can come through in the final soap. I ran out of deodorized and used some golden in an aloe-juniper scented soap... ick! The different scents clashed and it never cured out. The deodorized can also be lighter in color, depending on how refined it is.

I'm thinking it could have been a few things... oils got too cold and didn't gel, that is if you normally gel, OR trace wasn't stable, OR very slight separation. I often hand stir and have had this problem when my trace wasn't as thick as it should have been. When I stir to a thicker trace, I haven't had this problem.

Dry spots? Hmm... I'll have to think about that one. It will be warm and soft for a few hours or even until tomorrow. Depends on several things... how warm it got, ambient temperature, oils used, how complete saponification was/is ... It shouldn't burn, as in chemical burn, and shouldn't have been hot enough to give you a burn otherwise.