TallTayl Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Got my head in the game last week and made a few new ones and restocked a few others. Left to right: 2 rows of Winter Birch (a twist on crackling birch) Badde Guys (leather, oud, soft musk, clove, etc) Goode Guys (ocean, brine, Irish hillside grass, etc) Egyptian Musk sparkling Grapefruit Plague Doctor ( similar to thieves blend-my own twist) Sassanach (English rose and Scottish heather) 3 rows of Lavender Patchouli and 2 rows of Bergamot Violet at the end. now to make the next 150! Onward! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Awesome!! I wish I could be that motivated. Maybe soon. Maybe. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandlekrazy Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 OMG that's a whole lotta soap going on. Beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 You've been busy girl! That's a whole lotta soapies! So pretty all lined up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 I love that I finally standardized everything so it's cohesive yet as variations within each scent. That saves so much time. One day I'll be brave enough to completely masterbatch and then watch out ladies! (And gents) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 5 minutes ago, TallTayl said: One day I'll be brave enough to completely masterbatch and then watch out ladies! (And gents) I thought you did masterbatch? What are you waiting for? It's such a time saver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shar Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Wow, that' s a bunch of great looking soaps! I am so behind, but got 8 batches made earlier this week. 4 batches of OMH and some other restocks. I have come down with a cold, so my soaping marathon will have to wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 54 minutes ago, Jcandleattic said: I thought you did masterbatch? What are you waiting for? It's such a time saver. I'm fearful that the oils will not be totally homogenous and will throw off the soap. In the past master batching lye has been a fail. I'm always afraid it will be over or under, so I do each one individually 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 Oooo, very nice and so inspiring! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted August 17, 2017 Share Posted August 17, 2017 (edited) (BAR KEEP! Hiya... Gimme a double of what the lady on the ceiling is having. Oh and send her another round on me.) Geeeze TT get your soap on? Ok, so how long did it take you to make that much soap? I SO wanna be like @TallTayl when I grow up... ETA: You poor thing... Edited August 17, 2017 by Sponiebr Just realized Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted August 17, 2017 Author Share Posted August 17, 2017 8 minutes ago, Sponiebr said: Geeeze TT get your soap on? Ok, so how long did it take you to make that much soap? I SO wanna be like @TallTayl when I grow up... On average 20 to 30 minutes per batch start to finish (including dishes). That is typically a batch of four logs that I can split four ways if needed. Just about the Same amount of time for a 50 bar block or 100 bar block. Those in the pic above were 5 batches. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 2 hours ago, TallTayl said: I'm fearful that the oils will not be totally homogenous and will throw off the soap. In the past master batching lye has been a fail. I'm always afraid it will be over or under, so I do each one individually My main recipe is 60% hard oils, and when I masterbatch I make sure and stir every 15 minutes to half hour until it starts getting thick then every 5 minutes. It never really gets solid unless it gets super cold in the basement. When it gets a little more solid than slushy I just take my paint mixer attachment (attached to a drill) and give it a good stir. Lately I've been going one step extra, and after I make my huge 100-200lb masterbatch, I then weigh that out in my batch sizes.It works for me because I'm lucky and have the containers, and the room to do this. My lye masterbatch I make a 50/50 solution, weigh it, then let it cool overnight, then reweigh, add water to get to original weight (if it needs it) then bottle it up in an airtight cleaned out detergent bottle. When I go to use it, I make sure my safety gear is on, make sure the lid is on securely, then give it a good shake (probably doesn't need that but I do it anyway) then just soap away. I've been doing this for about 3-5 years now (I honestly can't remember when I started doing it) and have not had one failed batch due to masterbatching, to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 6 minutes ago, Jcandleattic said: My main recipe is 60% hard oils, and when I masterbatch I make sure and stir every 15 minutes to half hour until it starts getting thick then every 5 minutes. It never really gets solid unless it gets super cold in the basement. When it gets a little more solid than slushy I just take my paint mixer attachment (attached to a drill) and give it a good stir. Lately I've been going one step extra, and after I make my huge 100-200lb masterbatch, I then weigh that out in my batch sizes.It works for me because I'm lucky and have the containers, and the room to do this. My lye masterbatch I make a 50/50 solution, weigh it, then let it cool overnight, then reweigh, add water to get to original weight (if it needs it) then bottle it up in an airtight cleaned out detergent bottle. When I go to use it, I make sure my safety gear is on, make sure the lid is on securely, then give it a good shake (probably doesn't need that but I do it anyway) then just soap away. I've been doing this for about 3-5 years now (I honestly can't remember when I started doing it) and have not had one failed batch due to masterbatching, to date. Ok, let me ask something here, because the only reason I've not been masterbatching is because of the palm separating out in my batches. I do premix and batch out my fats but they are individually portioned and weighed per each tub, and the palm (I'm assuming it's the palm) always settles to the bottom. The reason I don't masterbatch my lye is becuase I use 100% aloe vera juice, but I supposed I could still masterbatch that and store it at room temp? I dunno... I mean if I have to weigh out something anyway how does prebatching my lye help with anything? liquid lye seems more dangerous than the dry pearls at least in terms of storage and spill/leak cleanup. Also does AV juice actually do ANYTHING in all y'all's experience or am I just wasting money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 4 minutes ago, Sponiebr said: Ok, let me ask something here, because the only reason I've not been masterbatching is because of the palm separating out in my batches. I do premix and batch out my fats but they are individually portioned and weighed per each tub, and the palm (I'm assuming it's the palm) always settles to the bottom. The reason I don't masterbatch my lye is becuase I use 100% aloe vera juice, but I supposed I could still masterbatch that and store it at room temp? I dunno... I mean if I have to weigh out something anyway how does prebatching my lye help with anything? liquid lye seems more dangerous than the dry pearls at least in terms of storage and spill/leak cleanup. Also does AV juice actually do ANYTHING in all y'all's experience or am I just wasting money? Well, I don't use Palm, so I'm not sure about that, but I would assume you would just have to give it a stir each time. Like I said for mine, it never really gets harder than the slushy stage, and my paint stir attachment fits down into my 5 gallon tubs so it's easy to give it a quick stir to make sure it's mixed well. As for the time saving aspect and weighing out, instead of weighing out each individual oil at time of soaping, I only need to weigh out my masterbatch oil - 1 weight vs 6 - or 0 if I weigh out individually at time of masterbatching. Also, no time in waiting for the oils to cool if I was to need to melt them before soaping. My oils are usually fluid at time of soaping, and if not, literally 15-20 seconds in the microwave does the trick, and still no wait time for cooling. As for the lye masterbatch, instead of weighing out the lye beads, then the water (or whatever liquid), then adding the lye to the liquid, then waiting for the solution to cool down, all I so is weigh out is my extra liquid and add it to my already liquid lye solution. I soap RT, so that right there saves at least 20-30 minutes or more in wait time alone, not to mention the time it takes to weigh out the beads and the water. As for storage, I have the whole basement dedicated to my soaping stuff, and I mix my lye then store it in an airtight cleaned out detergent bottle, As long as the lid is on tight, and I'm careful, it's no more dangerous than the storage of the lye beads. Also can't help you with the Aloe. I've only used it a handful of times, and although there was a very slight difference in the feel of the soap, I'm not sure that feel was worth the cost of the Aloe so I didn't continue to use it. Honestly though, this is probably a personal preference thing. I know a lot of people that swear the soap feels better when using Aloe as the liquid. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 1 hour ago, Jcandleattic said: Ok thanks! It sounds like I'm actually masterbatching as it is. I do up 6-10 portions of fats pre-weighed and mixed, and my lye for each is pre-weighed and in little containers ready to be added to my liquid. The only things I have to weigh out are the SF, and the liquid. All the rest of the ingredients are tblsp or tsps and my FO is done with a 60 ml syringe so I can get x ml of FO fast. And I have to chop up and add the silk to the liquid,but that doesn't take very long. What I don't like about my current method is that I am stuck with a fixed size batch. That kinda sucks because my mold can be set at anything between 0 and 164 cubic inches (even once while I was pouring I expanded it to accept a miscalculation in volume), but I only have 1 mold. I should probably make another one huh? Hmmmmm.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jcandleattic Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 9 hours ago, Sponiebr said: What I don't like about my current method is that I am stuck with a fixed size batch. This is why I masterbatch in 100-200lb batches and only separated out about 50lbs of that into separate batch sizes, but have the rest if I want to make a bigger or smaller batch. Easy peasy. Since the lye is mixed up in a 50/50 solution if I want to change up my lye or water discount on any particular soap I can. If I want to make a modified milk soap I can by just adding milk as my additional liquid, (or whatever additional liquid I choose and only 50% of the total liquid will be water) The only time I switch it up is when I want to make a 100% milk soap. - which is rare, and the only time I do that really is if I'm making a batch for my cousin for giving me the fresh milk in the first place. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuzyK Posted August 19, 2017 Share Posted August 19, 2017 Absolutely amazing! After all these years in bath and body, I still have not braved soap from scratch! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 9 hours ago, SuzyK said: Absolutely amazing! After all these years in bath and body, I still have not braved soap from scratch! OMG! IT'S SUZYK!!!! Good to see ya! Sponiebr: The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuzyK Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 14 hours ago, Sponiebr said: OMG! IT'S SUZYK!!!! Good to see ya! Sponiebr: The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services... awww It's good to be remembered!! It's good to see familiar "faces" I'm trying to be better at checking in 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candyb Posted October 9, 2017 Share Posted October 9, 2017 That was some incredible work. The Sassanach (English rose and Scottish heather) sounds intriguing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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