Chefmom

If you have a whole lot of wax on hand, and want to really really see what each wick is capable of in the wax I think this is an amazing idea. I also suspect when you read the wick charts about the size of melt pool each wick is capable of creating it may have been tested in this way. It would give you a good sense of what the wick can do on it's own with nothing else and probably a good starting point for testing wicks in containers. When I start with a new wick I like to pour containers about half full with the new wicks. That way I get a sense of what they will do in the lower half of my container before adding color and fragrance.

I recently made my first order to New Directions for essential oils (I'm finally to the point of buying larger amounts) and I didn't realize that I had to order a minimum of $100. So...I shopped around and found other things I did need and I had kokum butter on my list to try, so I picked up a container. I made my minimum and I'm pleased with the quality of everything in my order

I think it might just be the "butter" that people make that is mostly thick butters with some liquid oils, but whipped up to a light consistency. I know when I've seen photos it really does look like whipped buttercream. I've never had much interest, if I'm having a super dry skin moment I just schmear cocoa butter on the areas, nothing fancy. ....however...as of yesterday afternoon when my essential oils order arrived, and my first ever order of kokum butter...I'm rethinking body butter and considering making a small amount for myself. I just opened the container and put a tiny bit on the back of my hand and after a day of organizing, cleaning and lots of hand washing, and about 20 hours have passed and my hand is STILL SILKY!! Yea...my new found love...Kokum. Butter.

I have never had weeping in my brine soaps. However, in my "just a bit of salt" and my salt bars, I usually have some weeping (feels like saline to me) for a day or two after cutting the bars. But it has always disappeared quickly.

Somewhere, out there, in the deep bowels of the internet I have seen this mentioned. I can't remember where, but I vaguely remember a tutorial or something on making beeswax sheet candles where you take the beeswax sheet and basically roll it up around a wick and presto! candle! I think they soaked the wick, which was a raw, unprimed wick in fragrance or even essential oil, then wrapped up the beeswax sheet. All I can remember thinking was "I wonder how much soot that would throw" For as "easy" as candles are to make, they are also quite difficult and it takes an understanding of all parts to make them well and safe. Brings a few quotes to mind... "The whole is never better than the quality of the weakest part" "The simpler something is, the more the reason to do it right" (that one is Alton Brown...no idea as the other)

I had issues with my July Comfrey & Nettle tutorial as well!! It was my hurry back up idea when my first idea flopped. The soap didn't fail, it just didn't look like I had in my head. I did a quick turn around and came up with the herb infusion for contrast in the recipe. It photographed SO much better than the first recipe. I remember back when I was baking for a living...something that you did every day without thinking...well, now it's time to make it for family or a party or something and nothing would go right. Plays havoc with your head, making you doubt yourself and stuff. Looking forward to the tutorial!!

The black clay isn't as black as the black glaze...but it's pretty dark. The one on the left is the black clay, Standard #266. It's like a high maintenance girlfriend. It throws best at a very specific plasticity, if it isn't right it collapses and doesn't take water and then catches on your hands, no matter how much slop you have on them. It stains your fingers orange for days, it's no fun to clean up because you have to wash everything twice. It is fussy in glaze fire as well. Cone5, great...just a kiss higher in Cone6 and the clay body goes blistery and bloats. But...it takes glazes so lovely....so I have toughed it out. The Laguna version is called B3 and it throws better, but still stains your hands orange and is grumbly to clean up. The next glaze fire I will have my first B3 pieces out to make a final decision to stick with the clay body or not. The item on the right is the Laguna #70, and it takes glazes similar to the black clay, with the speckle coming through. It is a dream to work with and I have even dropped bowls on the wheel to be able to pick them back up and get a completed piece from this clay. I put the lid to my tea strainer in the center because it is black plastic to show contrast. I made these little pillar plates and glazed them to try to decide which clay I want to work with for my future dinnerware. I love the black clay, but for workability etc I'm leaning heavily on the dark speckle clay...I might change my mind after seeing the B3, but the #70 is very consistent.

My recipe moved fast, roughly from the moment it was fully stirred in to glopping the last bits out was 2 minutes. I know from making salt bars that the salt speeds up the timing, so the two together would be a definite race to the mold. That's one reason that I make sure my temperatures are just right, if it's too hot it might speed things up even faster, so with pine tar soaps I like to just take my time, the real action is in the last minutes. In that formula the avocado oil is swappable. I routinely swap it out for sunflower, safflower, or almond oil. Run it back through soap calc to cross check the lye and to formulate it for your size tho. I agree about Crisco tho, I have used generic shortening for years to make good soaps. I am just using the last of my stores of the shortening before they all changed over to the new formulations. From here on I'm trying to formulate my own recipes to move away from commercial shortening. I don't like that they just change the formulations...I haven't tried the new version yet to see if it makes any difference in the soaps or not.

I know I've read on facebook groups when people talk about the comedogenic value of oils, its easy to get confused because those charts are based on the oils as is...not saponified oils. As far as I know there is no chart that discussed the comedogenic value of saponified fats etc. I make a soap that is a regular soap recipe with just a bit of salt added, just enough to change the texture of the lather, but it doesn't have the super high 85-100% coconut oil. It's my daughters favorite face soap. I made a 120% coconut soap and I'm in the short line of people who really really don't like that soap. I only used it on my hands and they felt like I had put them in straight bleach they were so dry and tight, yet after rinsing the lather off (in my well water it was weak lather as well) my hands felt like they were coated in grease. I couldn't even open the door to the bathroom, I had to wrap a towel around it to get a good grip. I make other 20% superfatted soaps, so I know it wasn't the high superfat. Your other option is hot process, so you can control the superfat amount of the soap. Make a 80-85% coconut, 5% castor and then 10-15% favorite liquid oil soap. After cooking add the 20% superfat of the oil of choice, maybe something like shea butter and then 50% salt. This is the way that I make salt bars. You have to work quick quick and you have to hover to know when to cut the bars if using a loaf mold. Or you can hurry and scoop into individual molds, but with hot process you can have that bit of control over superfat choices.

I work with two speckled clay bodies, a light buff clay with speckle...I'm finishing my Standard #112 boxes and then will probably switch to the Laguna version (the studio owner switched from Standard to Laguna recently). This dark speckle clay is Laguna #70. It's a dream clay. Wonderful to throw and it takes the glazes like a very dark clay. I also work with a black clay, I'm testing the new version now, after it fires with my favorite glazes I'll decide to keep working with it or not. I don't work with white stoneware often, usually only when I want to do something in the cone10 gas kiln. Most of my work is Cone5 electric fired. Yes, the shrinkage is pretty substantial. It's hard to really plan because it shrinks differently in height and width. It's in the 15-+% range depending on the size and shape of the pieces. You so rarely have a visual of a wet clay body and a fired piece to get a real idea of the shrinkage. As usual I keep very detailed notes on clay weight and size so that I can recreate pieces, as well as lots of glaze tests etc. And...yes...they will be for sale. I'm gathering stock for my first really big street festival in a month, and then a month later is the County Potters Tour where all the pottery studios have a collective open house one weekend in October. They get a lot of traffic from as far as Pittsburgh and it's my first year participating as a Guest Potter in the studio I work in.

I bought my ECO .5 as a standard pack from CandleWic. http://www.candlewic.com/store/product.aspx?q=c108,p1155&title=Standard-Tea-Light-Wick-Assembly

This is my third round of carved candle globe luminaries. The first set came out of the kiln fire and I knew I would be making more! I brought them home this week from the studio so I could take my time carving and monitor the clay for the perfect consistency. I had the perfect day this week, thunderstorms and heavy rain kept me inside...carving clay!! It is sometimes hard to imagine the size difference from moist clay to finished item...since I have been taking very careful measurements from the beginning I put a new one side by side with a fired one to show the difference. The first round!! I used a dark speckled clay because I love how the glazes have depth and that earthy speckle when they are finished.

I went through the same frustration with CS discontinuing the TL wicks. I don't use C3, but 6006 and I have had the best luck with ECO .5 and HTP 52. I did a big retest after ordering TL wicks from candlewic and they didn't burn the same as the TL wicks from CS...shaking my head as to why... I used to pour leftover scented wax into tea lights, but it was too much hassle to test both tea light wicks and containers for wicks, so I just make unscented and colored tea lights now.

A good way to off set the curl of the wick is to set the wick slightly off center, so once it's burning...it's technically centered. I use HTP wicks exclusively in unscented multi wick candle bowls because the curl of the wick can be pointed into the corner of a square candle bowl and get little to no hang up. ...about the after glow you mentioned. Do you blow out the candle or do you dip the wick in the melt pool? If you take something like a skewer or a bent paperclip etc and push at the base of the wick, where the black soot just starts....push the wick over so the flame is extinguished in the melt pool. You get zero smoke and the tiny bit of wax coating helps relight the wick next time.

I have not personally used CDN wicks, but its my understanding that people using pure soy and palm waxes usually source them out. They aren't easy to find. I have used both CD and HTP in 6006 parasoy with good results. I usually start testing with comparisons between HTP, CD, LX and sometimes ECO to see which ones gives me what I'm looking for. HTP works brilliant in parasoy blends...when no scent is used...it sometimes goes wonky on me once I add the scent, so I test other wicks as well. Wicks will always be what makes us pull our hair out...guaranteed!!

I use that base and I can agree that it is wonderful. I can spray just toweled off after the shower, quick rub against my skin and it's just absorbed and leaves me silky and lovely. It takes the fragrances I've used quite nice and my husband tried my unscented and has decided he wants one for himself, but he is trying to decide on a scent. Two thumbs up!!

Wow!! That recipe is like a whole spa day wrapped up in one bar. Well done. I've played around in the last year with salt in my soaps. I too make a hot process salt bar, but pretty straight forward. My fave base combo is coconut, avocado and shea. I like the addition of stearic as well...going to try that soon. I also make a "touch of salt" soap that has quickly become a family favorite. My very very fussy daughter prefers my touch of salt soaps for her facial soap. She says it gets off her makeup, even heavy lipstick without stripping her skin and leaves her silky smooth and not oily. She and I have VERY different opinions on the superfat preference in soaps. Salt bars really have to be tried to be appreciated. They are very unique. Great tutorial!!

Yes, I did try the lip balm base. I can't remember off hand which one...but I didn't like it. Now that I've made my own base I think its the castor oil that I don't like the most. It's really really slick on the lips and to me it feels greasy. I ended up making one that I liked with no castor oil, but doesn't pass my husbands "pocket" test and it ends up melting in the summer. He went back to using burts bees because its much more waxy than I wanted to make, and I have yet to solve the fact that shea butter (which I really like) goes grainy within a month.

I love the process...but like you mentioned, I also don't like waste. What I would do is look at your system real close, switch to grams and do a full calculation of making a no waste small batch system. For example. Let's say that your one pound (454 grams) batch makes one large candle with a clamshell and three tealights left over. The downfall is that you will make the one candle for an order, yes the clamshells store well, but you might accumulate too many tealights for what you will sell or use. So....break everything down into grams and calculate how much of a batch you need to make with wax, color and fragrance to make two full candles or one big and one small sized candle.....naturally depending on what you are making, the size you are making etc. Once you work in grams you can very easily up and down formulations because that one ounce you are used to using breaks up into 28.4 grams. Investing in a second grams scale (that weighs in one gram or less) and you can break down a small batch into micro batches. Using a small gram scale you can measure tiny amounts of fragrance and even like mentioned above, with the color blocks, make a 35-50 gram size color block and then shave it with a cheese grater or veggie peeler and store in a jar or baggie (labeled of course!). Then...with a micro gram scale you can weigh the amount of color to use in your formulation. If you work in traditional round numbers of grams, 250 grams, 500 grams etc instead of pounds and ounces, your head can quickly wrap around even percentages instead of trying to work through the tedious 1.75 ounces, .55 ounces etc. A 500 gram batch that makes say one large and one small candle can be broken down like this... 2 grams of color block weighed out, then wax added up to the total of wax used to 470 grams. Heat those to the desired temp (or heat the wax and then add the 2 grams of color, depending on your system) and then at the proper temperature add 30 grams of fragrance (assuming you are using the traditional 6% fragrance load). Your total batch weighs 500 grams and everything is broken down into easy to use numbers. Then....say you want a 1000gram batch, all the numbers go up and down quickly and easily in round numbers...4 grams of color block, 936 grams of additional wax, 60 grams of fragrance. You can easily go the other way with a 250g batch and cut it in half. With a micro gram scale it will measure out .25grams even...so you can go quite tiny if you desire. YEARS ago, when I was in Culinary School I was introduced to grams in baking and I began to switch all of my baking recipes into gram weights, so once I started making soap, and then candles, I was already fluent in gram usage. I do wish the US would swap over and stop the ultimate confusion of fluid ounce and weight ounces...it's maddening when there is a clear system in grams and milliliters already in use. Personally, I think working in grams is very liberating, especially in small batches.

For all of my color testing I also like to keep it consistent. For several of my colors I have made custom blends..so using sometimes very small amounts. I solved my need for a 1/4 drop by making wax color blocks. I heat the wax I'm using and measure out 1 ounce of wax, add one drop or one chip of dye. I pour that into a silicone cupcake mold and allow to solidify. Then I store that and mark the type of wax and the amount of color used. If I need to only use 1/4 of a drop for my formulation then I cut that one ounce piece into fourths and the wax is added to my pot on my scale to be counted in with the amount of wax used for that pour session. Also...once I had decided on color formulations I also mixed up batches of wax/finished color in a concentrated amount. So that 1/4 of a disk of wax was actually the full amount of color for one pound of wax. If I'm making 2 or 4 pounds of that color, I just use the amount to get the color consistent. It can be a bit of extra work, but if you are particular about your color consistency and work in smaller batches, it is so much easier to have that already figured out for when it's time to pour the candles.

Wonderful to know Candybee! I'll definitely give the essential oils a try with my next batch...which will be soon.

I posted some photos showing my frustration with some wicks. HTP-52 burns very nice, just shorter than I would like in the 6006 wax. I loved the TL-15 because it would burn all evening and was a perfect little flame for my tealight oil warmer, and TL-18 was perfect for everything but deeper colors. I have discovered for burning tealights outside and much larger wick is needed, and the TL-25 work well for that. Candle Science was a one stop for me long ago, just not so much anymore.

When I first started in candles I used Candle Science a lot. Then it seemed like every time I had a list of things to order they had discontinued important things that I needed. I understand to keep good prices you need to keep a close eye on what inventory moves, but if you are relying on a certain wick that they seem to be the ONLY company carrying that wick it can be very frustrating when it just disappears. I've worked out the issues in my tealights now and have moved to a different wick entirely, but the few that I've made with some leftover CS TL wicks are still the absolute best burning tealights, and long too!! 6 hours with a solid flame....grumble.... Now that Peak is here in PA, I rarely order more than occasional fragrances from CandleScience.

I definitely want to hear if the tea tree and lavender come through in the scent. It does mellow with age. It is a favorite with the men in the house...my daughter can't stand the smell.

Nettle & Comfrey Hot Process Swirl Soap Hot Processed soap is a new/old technique of soap making. Our Great-Grandmothers most likely made soap in the old open kettle style of rendering hog fat and adding leached caustic soda to make a thick batter and through experience they knew to test the mixture on their lower lip to check for the distinctive “zap” of a hot soap or with no zap it was time to add handfuls of salt to allow the mixture to form hard bars that were cut and tucked away for one to five years before use. Well. Great Grandma didn’t have the luxury that we have today of the internet networking thousands of soap makers across the globe. Learning from each other’s’ mistakes and successes through Facebook groups, forums and videos as well as printed books and ebooks. The hot process soap we make today is a new technique, based on that old technique that Grandma used. Making use of an old crock pot allows soap to slowly gel and complete the saponification right before our eyes without the need to wrap wooden soap molds in towels and hope the gel process is complete…without overheating. Using commercially produced sodium hydroxide we are able to have reliable recipes, and with digital scales we can be pretty darn sure that our soaps are formulated and scaled correctly without having to burn our lips and tongues to test boiling hot soap. Yes, many people still “zap test” their soaps, but it is something that in my 16 years of soap making (most of that being hot processed soap), I have never felt the need to perform on my tongue. I began making soap in the usual way, cold process. A simple recipe that was handed down to me from my Aunt and the use of a shipping box and a beat up kitchen whisk was my first soap. I added some tea tree oil because hey…I could actually find it in the health food store and I had a block of soap. My first introduction to hot process soap was several years later when I happened upon a book called “Handcrafted Soap” by Delores Boone. I was instantly mesmerized by being able to make the soap and use it immediately in a crock pot!! Within a few days my simple way of making soap fell by the way of a new and improved way of hot process!! I quickly made the family favorite tea tree soap and after scraping the lumpy mashed potatoes out of my crock pot and then scraping the bits left over and running to the sink with a little squished ball of soap to watch the bubbles appear in front of me. From that point on…I was a Hot Process Soap Maker. However…. 13-ish years of making hot process soap has taught me some valuable lessons. Hot process soap might be SAFE to use immediately…but it isn’t quality. My first soaps were put to use within two days and I couldn’t figure out why they just seemed to melt away in the shower. I kept them on a well drained wire rack and they never lasted very long. Especially in comparison to my cold processed soaps. The fresh soap often had a strange tacky quality as if it was catching a sticky spot on your skin, but older soap didn’t do this. After a year or two of making exclusively hot processed soaps I learned something very valuable. My older soaps were better than my fresh soaps. The ones that had been put up in the cupboard to make way to new and exciting batches were pulled out to give as gifts or just to pass out to family to make room for more soap were wobbly, warped and odd shaped….but they were BETTER than the fresh soaps I was always using. Soap bars that didn’t have great lather (I used to assume it was my well water) had mountains of lather, soaps that melted fast actually lasted in the shower. Yes, many still warped or became odd shaped, but they were quality bars of soap. You will read online that hot process soaping is a way to “speed up cure”, a way to produce soap “faster”…in my opinion from years of making hot process soap this is not true. Yes, hot process is safe to use quickly, but like wine is drinkable grape juice when it goes into a cask or bottle, it isn’t quality wine until it’s had its time to sit and become all it can be. Soap is the same way. I’m not a scientist, I can’t tell you what happens in that block of saponified oils and fats, but as an observer and a user of many many soaps over the years…even hot process soap needs that time to become all it can be. 4 weeks is a minimum…I put up all of my soaps for 8 weeks, and my personal batches of soaps that I make for my own use are made a full 6 months in advance. Hot Process soap making is now a full fledged technique made by thousands of crafters across the globe. It has many different techniques to make the batter more fluid and some are hard to differentiate between hot and cold process. Today I’m going to give my version of hot process and a few tips I have along the way. There is a lot more out there, but this is a good beginning recipe and technique to get you started!! ----------- Not all recipes are great recipes for hot process. Some will make a lovely batter, and a looser batter can be made just with the addition of sodium lactate. Some recipes by their own nature will make a thicker batter resembling dry mashed potatoes…even using the tips to have a more moist batter after cooking. Adding the heat to soap that has been brought to trace simply forces the gel stage, so that once it is fully gelled, it is fully soap. One of the main reasons many soapers choose the hot process way is because you can actually control the superfat that is in your bar of soap. In cold process, you put all oils and fats together and it’s a roll of the dice. You have no idea what 5% or 10% of unsaponifiable oils are left after the saponification has taken place. With hot process, you add your additives after the soap has cooked, instead of before. In this recipe I have formulated it with 0% superfat. In reality it is going to have 9%-ish superfat because I’m going to add Shea Butter and full fat buttermilk after the cook. I will be positive that the superfat on my skin when I use this soap is a combo of shea butter and buttermilk fat because those items are held until after the soap has finished it’s saponification. Turning again to my tried and true Tallow based soap formula I am swapping out the avocado oil from my previous tutorial and using sunflower oil instead. I love having bases like this that are complete in their main components with a bit of wiggle room for different oils and butters, and also using the more expensive shea butter as the superfat to bring it front and center with this soap. You will need the usual soap making equipment for soap and safety. Adding to that is a crock pot that is a minimum of 4 quarts capacity for a recipe using 32 ounces of oil. You will also need plastic wrap to stretch over the top of the ceramic crock to aid in keeping the moisture inside during the cook time. Tallow Sunflower OMH with Nettle and Comfrey 318 grams Walmart tallow shortening 136 grams coconut oil 318 grams olive oil 91 grams sunflower oil (I am using the high oleic) 45 grams castor oil 272 grams distilled water 131 grams sodium hydroxide Additives to the whole batch of soap: 23 grams sodium lactate 85 grams (3 ounces) shea butter 57- 70 grams (2 to 2 ½ ounces) fragrance oil (Today I am using Peak’s Eucalyptus and Spearmint fragrance oil) 85 grams (3 ounces) full fat buttermilk 2 Tbsp honey Additives to divided parts of the batter: 2 Tbsp finely ground oatmeal 1 ½ tsp ground comfrey powder 1 ½ tsp ground nettle powder The only difference with a cold process version of this recipe is the use of a crock pot (I’m using Big Red, my 8 quart crock) and plastic wrap to seal the top. The powders can be purchased at many suppliers online, or you can grow your own herbs. Mine came from Nature’s Garden. I personally do not heat my hard fats in the crock pot, but I prefer to heat them on the stove in a saucepan. The liquid oils get scaled into the crock pot. For smaller batches I love the containers from my local Chinese Take Away. J Always remember that the lye beads get poured into the water in a well ventilated area. I always take mine outside, and I like to stir with a chop stick. It immediately turns yellow to show me the solution is working and is disposable and easy to use. I line up my additives as they are needed for each stage of the process. I allow the lye to set and cool, but in hot process soaping you do not have to hover around the temperatures of oils and lye. My oils are around 110-120degrees F (43-49C) after I add my melted hard fats to the liquid oils and my lye is noticeably warm to the touch, but not hot. My sodium lactate is measured out and added to the oils just before the lye water so I don’t forget it. Then...lye into the oils... After my lye is in my oils, I turn my crock pot to the Low setting. I never use the high setting because I think it overheats the mixture, I prefer a low and slow cook and have never had a volcano result during the cook period. If you only have two settings use the lowest setting first, you will then turn the crock pot off for the final coasting time until it has fully gelled. I bring my mixture to a light trace. It’s not necessary to make it too thick. Since I’m using a larger than needed crock pot I have to lightly tilt it so my stick blender is completely covered by batter. My crock pot lid doesn’t even come close to fitting tight. As a result a lot of moisture is lost during the cook time, making a thick dry batter. Sure, it’s still soap, but it has a very rustic and lumpy appearance. Several years ago I read online that people would stretch plastic wrap over the crock and it helped keep the mixture moist and made molding much easier and smoother. The basic size plastic wrap just barely fits my crock pot, but very often I have to use two pieces and seal the center. After the soap has traced, the crock is plugged in….and set to low and the plastic wrap is tight and sealed over the top. I set the timer for 35 minutes and walk away. After 35 minutes I return and the soap has turned firm and white in the center and the edges (where this crock gets hottest, fastest) is beginning to gel. Unlike cold process where the soap heats from the center outward, it heats from the outside in… I do nothing but turn the temp to the warm setting and reset my timer for another 30 minutes then prepare my after cook additions. If you only have two settings on your crock, cook on low for about 45 minutes and then turn it off to finish gelling. Practice with your individual recipes will let you know how long to time the various stages, it does vary with different formulations. I will add buttermilk, honey and fragrance to the whole batch of batter before separating it to add the shea butter mixtures. I’m adding a total of 3 ounces of shea butter, split in two. The 1 ounce of shea butter gets the comfrey and nettle powder and is melted together. The 2 ounces of shea butter gets the ground oatmeal and melted to combine. I also like to warm the buttermilk to about 100degrees (38C) I use stainless steel bowls because I can hold them over the burner on my stove to melt the butter. And they clean up very easily! Everything is ready to go…just waiting on the soap batter. After the additional 30 minutes (total time cooking is now 65 minutes) I still have a white spot in the center, so the soap is not fully gelled. At this point I turn off the crock pot and keep a close eye on it to finish. The residual heat took 15 more minutes to gel fully through. (80 minutes total) I have a hot spot on this crock and so the white streak is where the soap heated more that the whole batch and it is a dry streak. I will try to not scrape this area too hard when stirring the soap. Before stirring the soap or even removing the plastic wrap I reheated my shea butter mixtures because they had become solid while waiting. Now I get to work. Plastic wrap comes off and I stir the mixture. You can see it has the look of Vaseline, sort of translucent and is thick like mashed potatoes. To the whole batch I add my honey, my milk and my fragrance in no real particular order. If I used cold from the refrigerator milk, my mixture would get very cold in spots and chunky. To keep this from happening I warm my milk. After adding the milk, honey and fragrance I have a looser batter, but it is still moist and flows from the spatula. To add the shea butter, I first remove about 1/3 of the batter, 15 ounces (425 grams) from the crock pot into a bowl and add the 1 ounce of melted shea butter with the comfrey and nettle powder. I quickly stir because it will begin to cool and form hard spots. To the remaining 2/3 of the batter I add the 2 ounces of shea butter combined with the ground oatmeal and stir that together. Now for the molding. It is basically a plop motion as both portions have a consistency similar to thick brownie batter. I start by plopping some of the light batter and some of the green batter Keep layering the two colors opposite each other. Once the mold is overfilled I grab a long handled spoon for the swirling part The swirling is pushing the spoon down into the batter and just wiggling it back and forth, then up and back down again. Moving from corner to corner and the length of the mold. Using my baking experience, it’s a lot like when you make marble cake. You want to swirl the colors, not combine them. A spoon is best for this kind of swirling, it is thicker batter and something like a dowel or skewer is just too skinny to get the batter to swirl. When I’m done I still have a little batter left. I scrape the green into the light color and just stir it together. Then using my spatula and spoon I push it into small silicone molds that I always have on hand for overflow. After this I just set the molds on the counter and work on cleaning up. …..fast forward 10 hours…. My little sample sizes have very bumpy tops and I just run my knife along the top to even them out. ALL trim bits are saved and used in my confetti soaps. As the soap has cooled, the translucent look has changed to a solid opaque soap. I like even edges on my soap, so I take my knife and run it along the top of the mold for a smooth cut. Again…all bits are saved. This kind of mold does not need to be lined for hot process soap and it comes apart pretty easily. I like the fact that I remove the mold from the soap and not trying to remove the soap out of a mold. Obviously in my swirling I didn’t hit my edges too well…but you never know with swirled soaps until you cut… This photo brought to you by Mr. Bud Haffner and his beautifully crafted Soap Loaf Cutter. His shop can be found on etsy.com And the cut!! The white bits that stand out are simply from that hot spot in my crock. I try to not scrape them into the soap batter, but some do make their way in. I think it adds to the charm of the crafted soap and has never bothered me. One of my loves of hot process soap is the strata and life that is inside of the bar as it’s used, they are rarely solid in color or dimension. This soap has the visual appeal of a swirled soap, and is easy enough for a beginner to hot process soap making, but it is crafted to be a very quality soap for your skin. After the 8 week cure time it will hold up very well in your shower, the high stearic of tallow makes a dense lather and the additions of buttermilk (yes, just 3 ounces can make a distinct difference) and shea butter give it an lovely emollient and luxurious feel. Oatmeal and Honey lend their traditional use in gentle to your skin conditioning properties. Comfrey and nettle powder not only give it a natural color but are powerful herbs for healing. For very sensitive skin I would leave out the fragrance oil or maybe use a light amount of skin loving essential oils like a blend of rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus and tea tree.