GrinningGoblin

If you know anyone in the restaurant business that receives shipments from sysco or a similar provider you may be able to give them cash in return for ordering it. Rather than paying a big shipping charge it'll be like a $.75 case charge.

I think it means: "Preservative, Dye, and Scent FREE". Sounds like just basic goat milk soap.

Been doing candles on the hobby level for a while, just dipping my toe into soaps.

I had a batch come out with some ash yesterday, and looking for a solution I found this link in another forum. It worked so I thought I would pass it along. http://lather-be-soaping.blogspot.com/2012/04/dreaded-soda-ash.html

One of my hobbies is tropical fish, I have shipped and received them live via priority mail even during the summer months. If you are shipping something that has a very low melt point you may want to approach it like you're shipping something alive. http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/1121/Gel-Ice-Packs These are less than a buck apiece. Line your box with with a little extruded sheet styrofoam (very cheap at the hardware store) and add an ice pack. It'll keep the temp comfortable for 3-5 days depending on the packing job. The added cost of styrofoam and the ice pack will probably add $2-3 bucks to a package, but that is something that can be passed along as a handling charge. You might even win some loyalty if you explain to your customers the reason, and you'd only need it during part of the year.

Being a guy myself I have a lot of scents in my candles that appeal to me, some are sort of similar to the yankee man candles, though fresh cut grass has never been a big seller for me. One of the scents I blended that has been the most popular with men (and women buying for men) is one I call "gentleman's study" that is a blend of pipe tobacco, leather, and a touch of cedarwood. Overall I thought the yankee man themed candles were a little bland for what they could have launched with.

I have been making candles for a while, and I enjoy the business, but melting and pouring candles is a chore. Once you get the specifics down there's no variation. I definitely feel like a mad scientist with soap. I am just about out of what I bought to begin my experimenting and just ordered a bunch of oil and bought a big pail of lye to continue learning the craft. The plan right now is to continue to perfect my skills and start some stuff curing and maybe hit a couple of craft shows towards the end of this year and see how I do.

Thanks for the formula. That should help avoid mishaps in the future.

Check around at your local old-style hardware stores (if you have any within driving distance that lowe's/home depot hasn't swallowed up). I bought some from the lye guy myself, and his prices were pretty good with the buy 5 get 6 deal he has, but there is a hardware store I found after the fact that sells it in 50 pound pails for about a quarter of the cost.

Very artistic.

That's what I thought, but this particular mold most definitely does not hold 6 pounds of oils + water. The inside dimensions are 20" Long x 3.5" Wide x 2.75" High and was sold to me as a "6 pound mold". However, it actually holds a batch made with 4 pounds of oils just about perfectly. I ended up with way, way too much for that first batch.

While I am no expert, I have been managing a big restaurant for some years. To answer this question it all depends on whether the business and the person are separate legal entities. If you are a sole proprietor you and the business are the same entity, if your business is / was an LLC you are a bit more insulated in what assets a lawsuit can access assuming it is just punitive damages and no criminal negligence.

Thanks for the kind words. I've already got big plans for more batches. lol

I made too much of the first one and over filled the mold. The green was much darker than I expected (I thought more of the soap's white would come through, especially based on its color in the pot). I wanted more contrast than I got, but the swirl came out better than I thought it would after having to scoop stuff out and back into the pot. I colored it with spirulina and charcoal and scented it with green irish tweed type FO. The second came out pretty much exactly like I wanted it to. I didn't do anything special to this one. I colored it with red sandalwood (and a touch of titanium dioxide based on the experience of the first batch) and scented it with lotus and sea salt FO. Overall it was a blast, and I have to put both of these down as a success even if not perfect.

I have used wellington fragrance's "FENG SHUI FIRE" in candles and it pretty much smells like cinnamon candy to me. I don't know how it performs in soap but it is body safe.

Thanks, that's perfect. Google tends to just spit up forum results when googling soapmaking and that can be exhausting to dig through and bookmark.

I left the superfat at the default level of 5%. I thought about doing a smaller batch, but figured that the larger batch would be more forgiving of small screw ups in measurement.

Well I finally bit the bullet and made my first batch. I learned two things, I need a better scale and when a mold says it is for 6 pounds they mean total, not six pounds of oils. I ended up with about 2 and a half pounds of extra raw soap last night, with no place to put it. I poured some into a small pyrex pan, but the rest ended up going in the trash. Mixing and trace went off without a hitch, and I was feeling frisky enough to try a little in the pot swirl, though today it sorta looks like a mess as the colors changed quite a bit when it gelled. It's still too soft to unmold. I didn't discount water since I planned on trying a swirl if things didn't seize up on me. Once I started to pour I immediately realized something was wrong and ended up pouring too much into the mold and had to scoop some out. This muddied up what would have been pretty good swirls (I think) but we'll see. I gelled in the oven. Took it out this morning, but things are still a bit soft. I poked around at the small pyrex container a bit. It is set up pretty good, but I am a little worried that it may be too "superfat" but I have nothing to really compare it to. I used the suggested ranges on the soap calc but I may have screwed up somewhere. For my first go I decided to keep the base recipe super simple: 50% olive oil 30% lard 20% coconut It seems to have sweated a bit but that could be fragrance oils I guess. I sliced off a piece of the small pan, there was no tongue zap (that I could detect). It lathered up really creamy but was hard to rinse off which makes me think there may have been a touch of lye left in it, or there is too much oil. Anyway, I will unmold this afternoon if things progress and see how things look.

Does anyone have a good concise guide on what sort of properties that common oils add to soaps, like lather / creaminess / etc.? I have found some stuff on this but it tends to be spread out everywhere.

Thanks for the input. I had to push my first batch back a bit due to real life intruding a bit, but I had to take the time and say this board rocks.

Thanks for the link (I have missed that site so far) and thanks for the feedback.

I'm not above using animal fat, but I am not sure I am ready to start messing with rendering my own. That said, for my first batches I do plan on using lard. I can get it from him for less than a buck a pound.

Howdy again folks. Getting ready to do my first batch in the next couple of days (still waiting on a few bits and bobs for my toolkit from amazon) and this is what I am considering for a first recipe: Olive Oil 30% Coconut 15% Palm Kernal 15% Lard 40% I am looking for a simple recipe for my first go, but it seems like every source I have looked at has strong and very different opinions on what is the "best beginner mix". This is what I cooked up using my reading and playing around with the soap calculator while taking into consideration what I had easy access to. I am not looking at adding any special purpose oils or additives to begin with beyond a bit of fragrance, just something that will produce a good basic soap base that I can use to tinker with colors and techniques that still produces a good bar. Do the amounts of the various oils look right? Anything out of whack or specific issues I should look out for using a mix like this?

Oh, I'm not planning on buying 100 pounds of oil tomorrow or anything. I guess it's a holdover from my day job, but when I am looking into these sorts of things I just don't feel right unless I start plugging stuff into a spreadsheet. I am interested in CP soaps and looking at the viability of adding them to my candles long term. I just never like to jump into something without a plan That being said I appreciate the folks contributing to the thread, if I end up liking it and decide to make a go of it full time somewhere down the road I may have found an avenue to lower costs. A friend of mine's dad runs a butcher shop, and they get orders from sysco. If I pay up front he told me that he doesn't mind if I piggy back some things on his orders. That's a deal since I don't have to worry about shipping or minimum orders. I actually haven't had a lot of trouble finding cheap lye. I have read that in some places it is hard to come by these days. I was disappointed with texas natural. They are the closest supplier to me that I could find (though still outside of comfortable driving range, Texas is a big state ) but they were over triple the cost for some of the base oils than other suppliers.

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad I'm not just stupid. Still hitting a wall but that is mostly due to shipping. I need to find a vendor locally that will deal with me without prohibitive minimum orders.