JanetsCandles

By the way, this set is made with coconut milk instead of water.

Didn't come out quite like I expected, but still looks decent. I'm posting mostly as a warning for everyone who still uses WSP. If you try their green color locking mica shimmer colorant, don't expect the lime green they tell you it morphs to. No no no, it certainly does not. That lighter brown is what it turns into. And that's of the time to put it to bed. Hoping it doesn't get worse in a morph. Ah, well, still a pretty combination. Can't complain.

Yep, when they go bad, it's very obvious. They reek. But yeah, I've had some for right about 5 years now and no problems.

There are some blind people who have learned how to read embossed lettering, you know, the kind that is slightly raised from the main surface. You could ask if she is able to do that, herself, and see about using embossed labels for her if nothing else. Also there are braille templates available online that you could easily use with a grid pattern for her. All you would need is cardstock and a decent ink pen to make the dots. Remember that they will read the raised side, though, so you will be doing the patterns backwards. I also believe microsoft has a braille template for Word or some such. A quick google search will bring all of those up for you.

The more "hard oils" (the ones that are solid at room temp, in your case, palm, coconut, and cocoa butter) you have in your recipe, the faster the trace as a general rule. At least that's from my experience. A whisk instead of a stick blender is a good idea. And see about lowering the temperature of your oils and water as well. Have you tried a small unscented batch to see if you still have problems hitting trace too fast?

I haven't used it, but if it is silicone, it shouldn't "stick" exactly, but silicone molds take longer before you can unmold the soap. It just doesn't evaporate and dry as quick for some reason.

First question, what are your percentages and which oils? (I know you listed the name of the recipe, but I don't know where you got it, sorry.) What temperatures are you working at for both lye water and oils?

Gorgeous set!

It's actually not difficult. I used a cupcake nail head for these and piped them directly onto the soap. Just take your time. There are quite a few good videos on the technique.

On the cupcake set, I am piping the roses. On each of the others, the petals are made individually. I doubt I could make a mold of these with them looking as good as they do.

Awesome! I got the effect I was going for, then! Yay!

Some of these are M&P, some are CP, but here the florals are as of now. I wanted to do something different. I think I succeeded. The cupcakes are cp, the other two are m&p. Working on getting them set into bars, but have had too much going on lately.

Thank you! We designed and made it ourselves.

Yep, overheated. I've had that happen. Wasn't pretty.

Never ever try to extinguish your candle with your fingers. Never burn any pillar/votive candle on a surface that isn't wax proof (and on some that are.) And for the love of god, don't lean over the candle to reach over, "blow" it out, or otherwise be anywhere above or near the flame. This goes double for women who like to wear their long hair down. Great way to have an oops.

Thanks, guys! I'm working on some roses and some stargazer lily (or perhaps tiger lily) soaps as well this weekend, in between candle orders cooling. So I'll wait and post finished photos of the sets when I get them done. Oh busy busy! On the up side, these should do well for the show I've got just before Mother's Day this year.

Word is horrible for making labels. If you have Microsoft Office (or the Open Office versions) you likely have a program called Publisher as well. It works beautifully for many of the labels. It does a lot of Avery's and a lot of OnlineLabel's templates, too.

I loved Peak's Rose Bouquet. I'm actually using about .35 oz per pound of oils and it's gorgeous. Any higher and it overpowers me.

This has been a work in progress over the past few days. Wanted to show them off because I am very well pleased with them. Entirely soap. I've got some other designs planned for them as well, but this is the first. This one is scented with Gardenia. I plan some other colors for the base soap in other floral fragrances, but they aren't going to be done tonight.

I use my cp soap on my face without too much trouble. Most other kinds get me to break out. But my skin is a bit weird in the first place.

The mini molds are usually around 1 oz per cavity, so you should have your wax amount reflect that, with however many you actually want to make. And yes, it's fine to pour at the same temp as votives. You can pour pretty warm in those molds, but the FO usually can't handle the really high temps itself. You may want to warm up the silicone mold a bit before you pour, otherwise you could get a layer of bubbles just under the surface of the wax where it touches the silicone. It doesn't matter a lot, but if you want the color to come through and not be lighter, you may need to do that.

Excellent thoughts! I have been having trouble finding people who sell their milk as well locally. But we have a few farmer's markets opening soon that I'm going to be looking at as well. Thanks!

Thought I had, too, but wanted to make sure before I went and actually purchased any. Thanks PMM

I couldn't find what I was directly looking for in the search, so asking to be sure. I've used the canned goats' milk for cp soap in the past, but would there be any problems with using "raw" goat milk? Basically unpasteurized GM. I know there wouldn't be the same issues as drinking it, but would it lead to anything going wonky in the soaping process or in the cure?

That was actually one of my concerns. A big one as a matter of fact. She has acted jealous in the past about some of my soaps and said that she needs to get back into doing them. She hasn't directly said that she plans to sell them, but it's just one of those hunches I got from the way she was talking.