Recent content by CarolinePJCoram

Thanks so much Susie. It has been a bit of a trial! Glad to have it sorted now. Yes, would be interesting to know which filter you use. Wonder if there is something like it here.

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A very well respected soap maker here in the UK said either distilled or Spring. Just following her recipe. I do not have access to the chemical breakdown of this branded Highland Spring water so was not to know that it would create a chemical reaction in the soap. Neither am I a chemist. Oh...

Hi Everyone. Well, I did the recipe again today using the soap calc you recommended and was really disappointed to see yet again the same clouding on dilution even with 5% more KOH flakes. How could this be happening?! I got a 5 litre container of deionized water yesterday to dissolve powders...

I totally hear what you're saying DeeAnna and Susie. Before speaking to you I spoke to a Soap chemical supplier who said that my Safety Assessor probably would not accept the 'correction' for 5-10% impurities and I have since emailed the assessor to try and clarify this issue. This is the...

Susie, thank you for your kind advise. I clearly am a complete novice and did not understand that the nuances of trace, heat, stirring etc do not matter ... and it seems that it is the ingredients that do. I will try making with more lye as stipulated on SoapCalc as that seems the only option...

Got one, thanks Susie.

No it doesn't Susie

Hi Susie, and everyone. Firstly, be reassured that I have not been making the same recipe with the same method over and over again in exactly the same way - and as you say expecting the same result. The things i have varied are: length of trace time, heating or not during trace, stirring...

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I think there are some factors I have discovered in my test batch today that are causing the problems: - overheating the pot when bringing the mix to trace. I followed Melinda Coss's example of not heating it during trace (only before - both oils and of...

Well, I thought I had it but still the soap I am cooking (last night for 7 hours!) is still refusing to morph in to a clear gel. In fact, last night I decided, as a last ditch attempt to put the pan in the oven... As i went along I decided also to test the core temp of the paste... I was only...

Just wanted to offer my thanks and an update. I dropped the Carbonate and used my own selection of oils with hand calculated KOH and guess what?! The Soap is nearly completely clear at 3hrs 20mins! I am one happy person! So thank you again so much for all your incredible advise.

Hi All. Thanks so much for your advise. I am trying to get something back from Scott at the moment but he is always so busy I know it will be a wait. Have put a call in to Aromantics to see if they can shed any light. Oh, and does anyone use a pH meter rather than the test strips. Is...

Hmmm, Dr Bonnard uses Vitamin E for this purpose. I'm totally stumped! I'm going to try it and see how that goes. Most of my EO mixes have good levels of antimicrobials in them... crossing fingers!

OK. Do you know anyone who has produced to sell liquid soap with success on the preservative front? I'm currently looking at a combination of Vitamin E and Benzyl Alcohol... wondering if that is the most natural I'm going to get....