Recent content by ClaraSuds

At it's most basic at least 1 oil/fat, water and lye all in the appropriate amounts. A soap calculator will help you with the amounts. That will make soap. To make one you want to use a good rule of thumb is about 20% or more of a cleansing oil like coconut or palm, and the remainder in a...

I think it would be an awesome. Both have dense lather, lard lathers more easily in the hand. I think you should make it. I never use castor, can't see the point, it made no noticable difference to my bars anyway.

Castille is one soap thats best with a brush, or puff. My 2 week old castille is hardly any different from my 14 month old castille. The only exception is bar hardness. Nothing magical happens in the 12 months inbetween. It's not a soap that lathers in the hand only. But use it with a brush/puff...

Sometimes glycerine rivers can appear as white patches rather than the typical translucent lines. Like the soap in this pic. One of my recent batches did this. It's fine as long as theres no zap. http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/troubleshooting-crackling-glycerin-rivers-in-soap/

I do without a stick blender all the time. You don't have to stand there and stir. I just stir for about 5 mins to get all the oil mixed with the lye, pop a lid on it and go do something else for a couple of hours. Return, stir again for a few mins and repeat until light trace. Sure it does take...

Possibly because rose geranium and rose absolute are commonly adulterated with geraniol in order to improve their scent and stretch the EOs. It may actually be the geraniol which is the accelerant.

20% coconut, 80% any other oil/fat, makes a pretty good all round soap. I use plenty of that for washing clothes, dishes etc at home. All my soaps are superfatted at 10% and it makes no difference at all when using it for cleaning. My glasses dry perfectly clear, no smears and my clothes come...

Because both have high levels of non-saponifiables, as does lanolin.

I would just replace the soybean with more sunflower and the lanolin with more cocoa or palm. To be honest I can't imagine that soap is going to be anything fantastic. It has so many different ingredients in small quantities that no one of those ingredients will really shine. My guess is you'll...

I think partly it comes down to satisfying some inner urge within the creator to well be creative. I guess it holds interest in just accomplishing something other than saponified oil. And yes the fear that just good soap may not be good enough to sell consistently. But that's a strange idea to...

Tallow/lard is your perfect choice then. Personally I find this to be nicer in soap than palm oil. Find a local butcher that deals in ethical meats. Plenty of them in Sydney. Call them up tell them you are looking for either lard or to buy some suet and they should be able to hook you up...

Two choices. You can find a butcher that renders their own, but it's expensive. Usually $3.50 per 200gms, there's an organic butcher in Bondi that makes it. Or you can buy the pork fatback and render it yourself. The fatback will be cheaper but it will cost you time. If you don't particularly...

Earthy colours for me, I don't like TD whitened bars, I like soaps done with a coloured clay, the natural cream of plain oil and the light tan milk and honey soaps. Flecks of coffee grounds or rice hulls if it's an exfoliating soap are nice too. I just scented my 2nd batch this week and it...

I used to make a laundry powder, then one day I had run out and all I had was a bar of soap, so I grated that up and washed with it. The result was better than with all the other stuff in it...eg borax, washing soda etc. I came to the conclusion that unless you have very hard water you just...

Thats the effect I go for with milk cartons, it's neat. you get a square soap with bowed edges. Nice look.