RobinInOR

OK, I'll fess up, you found my secret You sound like you're doing everything "right" - frustrating isn't it. In your description you've covered most of what I'd check - temperatures, wax, candle nose, curing, amount of FO, other peoples opinion ... Just wanted to commiserate with you - personally when I tried J223 I couldn't get a throw and went on to another wax, but lots of people use J223 with great success. Did you try putting your tongue in your left cheek and stand on your right leg?

Those are lookin' pretty darn good, ma'am - congratulations! I like the oatmeal, turned out nice and light.

I dn't think it's a true "essential oil" like others, it's probably an absolute. And those are mostly water soluable, since an absolute contains a bit of alcohol (flower/seed extracted w/ hexane to form a "concrete", which is extracted with alcohol to form an "absolute"). I do know the expensive candle manufacturers use concretes in their fragrances. As a total guess, don't know if it would throw at all, would be to infuse some soybean oil with lots of vanilla. Though you probably wouldn't be able to add enough soybean oil to your wax to get a scent. Would be an interesting experiment though

Say, that looks pretty smooth for a HP soap - nice job!

I bought mine at MMS http://www.thesage.com/catalog/FixedOil.html , but I've never checked anywhere else for prices. Light color, but it is slightly "sheepy" as would be expected. I bought it for lip balms to test if it would help incorporate water soluable absolutes, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. It's not a liquid, it's a soft solid.

Welcome Liz! Thanks for coming out of lurkdom - Now you can talk about your new addiction - first step on the path

My best sellers every year are Lavender Lavender Mint any kind of lavender in one form or another Rose Lemongrass Ginger My favorites this week are Grapefruit (Yuzu) Black Raspberry Verbena Honeysuckle

Soapmakers Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch.

I want to post a simple starting recipe (multiple recipes) in the tips section. What recipe did you find the easiest to start with? I'd like a couple with ingredients that don't have to be ordered - that you can find in the kitchen. What was your first recipe? I can guess at a bunch and put up some usual castile ones, but I'd like to know the ones that *you* thought were pretty simple and gave a pretty good outcome.

Good job! You can always trim and bevel the edges to make it look more even. On to the next

I always wear gloves and put my hair up. All utensils/containers/spoons/thermometers are washed in the dishwasher. I also soak utensils in a sterilizing solution that DH uses for his microbrew equipment - the name escapes me now. Wipe down all the counters where I'm working with a light bleach solution. I don't wash my containers - I keep them stored in the bags they come in, so they are free from dust and dirt. I don't want to introduce any problems by getting them wet. They come clean from the supplier. Sometimes if I'm worried, I'll rinse them with alcohol. That's what I've been doing as I've been testing lotions. The next step I never got too, but it's important if you are serious about cleanliness. When formula finished (a one time deal), send out for challenge test. If can't afford that, send out for multiple APC areobic plate count tests... Each live batch, send sample out for APC test. I too am glad I don't live in Florida - my work area wouldn't pass inspection since it's the kitchen

You've got the idea. If I wanted to add 5% shea to this recipe, I'd probably remove 5% of another hard oil, if I already have "enough" hard oils. You could do it a couple of different ways. You've got about 34% hard oils (25% coconut, 9% cocoa butter). You might want more hard oils, so then I'd probably reduce canola by 5% and add the shea instead. That will give you a harder bar. OR Some people don't like coconut that high. But many do. So another option is to reduce the coconut by 5% and add the 5% shea in. Kinda have to experiment to see which turns out the best. and yes, you're right, oils need to add up to 100% Same with the water. MMS shows 18-26 oz of water - a nice large range. Your numbers are nice and middle of the road, so anything within the 21-23 range will work fine. Use more if you're working with a FO that has spice, or is a white floral, use less if you've worked with the FO before and you know it "behaves"

They'll lose a little bit of weight as they cure. Lots of people like chunky big bars, just be careful to start your pricing off right if you want to sell larger bars. I've got 2 cuts - one is 4 oz, another is 5 after cool. I have a hard time holding on to anything larger, but I like their looks.

Lye discount/superfatting is separate from water discounting. When you take a "lye discount", like 5%, that means that you are leaving 5% of your oils as oils, they aren't turning into soap. If you add oils that aren't part of your lye calculation, you're doing the same thing basically. There won't be enough lye to saponify the excess oils. But, in CP, since saponification finishes up over a number of days, adding an oil at the end doesn't guarantee *that* oil stays oil and not soap. Plus sometimes you can overdo and kill your lather. It's just easier to add the shea into your recipe and maybe up the discount to 6-7%. However, there are lots of people who add oils at trace like that. Not a bad thing. Just another way of doing it. HP on the other hand, you *can* add an oil at the end of the cook and hope that it sticks around as oil. Water is separate - the less water, the quicker the cure. Calculate your lye first, then worry about how much water you want to use.

Yup Yup Dang character limit

If the clear works that opens up a lot of different possibilities - using transparancy paper maybe to print on, if you don't want the white background. I wonder how that would hold up, or if it would be too thick. If you like fussing with computers, you might try to download the Gimp and play around with that. You have to install 2 things on Windows http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ , and it sometimes works a bit wonky, but it has most of the features of Photoshop except the price I like the contrast of the white paper with the orchid and the black character.

I just tried 100% olive oil in soapcalc, and it looks like the standard water would be plenty to make it pretty soft. You don't want *too* much water - then your lye solution might be too dilute... If that's too hard, try adding another 5-10% water... Look through the iodine values on soapcalc - the larger the number, the "softer" the oil is. There's a book out about liquid soap making - what kind of oils to use, the use of potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide, how to neutralize the batch... lots of steps. I saw your lanolin posts, very creative ideas

Looks like someone's creative way of selling melt and pour soap. And people who make soap from scratch advertise "Not made in a lab! Simpler ingredients that you can pronounce!" I feel for you Canadians, your labeling laws are getting a lot stricter.

Well, happy honeymoon! Sounds like a pretty good day all the way around, even with the rain. Bottle of wine sounds like a good idea

I think liquid soap is way harder to make than bar soap, but that's cuz you're usually fussing with how clear it is and there are a few more steps. For a soft soap, use lots of liquid oils, and just use more water than usual. Then it will take more time to cure out and it will stay softer longer. Olive oil would be the best, it dissolves the best in water (that's why castile is so gooey when wet). It gets really hard after months and months, but if you keep the amount of water high, it might be workable the way you want. You sure do interesting projects Sounds fun.

Yup, I bet I could have sold a ton of those lol... Since the Labor Day Fair might be hot too, maybe I should make up a few of these. Thanks for the link!

Ivory is my favorite too, and surprising hard to get it just right. Those look great! Love candle gardens...

New incarnation, going to make you plan your week lol.... Starting to stock up for a labor day fair, so probably a bunch of 2" pillars - lavender most likely. And want to play with some "fire sticks", in lavender as well. DH found some 1" PVC that I'm going to play with, see if I can make something that looks neat for the holidays. And 4 more batches of soap to stock up - lavender mint, grapefruit, verbena, and patchouli... What's up with you? Hope weather starts cooling off for everyone - take care of your animals!

Very clever to use an ice cream container - you'll never look at anything for food again without wondering "will this work for soap?" Looks pretty good! Congrats on your first batch

I would go to http://soapdishforumarchives.com and look up some threads http://www.soapdisharchives.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38525&hl=mabel+_white http://www.soapdisharchives.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59011&hl=mabel+_white http://www.soapdisharchives.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38533&hl=mabel+_white That might clue you in on some of her history so you can make a decision if you want to do business with her. I'm pretty sure you can read those threads w/o joining... Oh, they're the same person. Debra Dolen...