Let's see it! I like it already.
What soapy thing have you done today?
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KiwiSoap
Well-Known Member
I've just washed up my soaping gear after hiding it away for a few days to saponify. This is progress -- the first couple of soaping times I hid it too well and forgot until the day before my next soaping adventure... yikes. Lots of soft bubbles from this one!
Nothing soapy lately -- busy with other things, including a new obsession I'm having fun with whilst enjoying all the wonderful soaps I've already managed to produce. I have 8 half or quarter bars in the shower and honestly love every one of them. 
Meanwhile, the soaps from Jan - March continue to cure further, and I have a batch that I haven't even tested yet -- first time that's happened, lol. So, plenty of soap to use, analyze, and then plot my next soapy move -- probably next month or maybe June, or maybe this month. This witch flies by the seat of her pants, and I'm incredibly moody, to boot.
Happy soaping, peeps! See you around.
Meanwhile, the soaps from Jan - March continue to cure further, and I have a batch that I haven't even tested yet -- first time that's happened, lol. So, plenty of soap to use, analyze, and then plot my next soapy move -- probably next month or maybe June, or maybe this month. This witch flies by the seat of her pants, and I'm incredibly moody, to boot.
Happy soaping, peeps! See you around.
So about this. Too much trouble for the outcome. It’s difficult to manage the volumes in each section, plus you end up with all those pieces to have to clean.
I've used T.P. rolls for those types of designs. You can actually re-use the rolls a couple more times as the soap hardens and dries within the rolls giving them a hard coating. But you don't have to clean them. Or you can just toss them and not bother with saving them. After all, they're basically free.
If you want to have concentric circles, you could use the larger PVC circles you have already cut, and the TP rolls inside, thus having fewer pieces to actually clean.
Do you have a photo of the outcome yet?
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Setting up and cleaning tubs that I left since last soaping. Maybe I will get to finish cutting soaps today
steffamarie
Well-Known Member
Diluting my first batch of LS!! It's going to come out cloudy I already know. I'm not sure if my SF was too high (I used 3%) or if my KOH isn't as pure as the SummerBee Meadow calculator assumed it was. I didn't care for their calc, and will probably stick to SMF or SoapCalc in the future. I'm storing half my LS as paste in the basement in a cool dark corner and diluting the other half today. Bought an opaque pump bottle so no one knows it's not clear XD
Today is one of those disaster days!
Yesterday I measured out everything except the lye. When I was ready to make soap, I began measuring the lye, and then my scale behaved stupid. It would not measure anything correctly, just add a few grams now and then, just by itself. So my 140 grams of Naoh became 147 grams after a minute. I had already heated my oils and everything. Luckily my sister had a scale I could borrow.
I had made my colorants ready, mixed with some glycerin and some oil. I had read that glycerin and oil can mix, but it doesn't. Well, I added the soap to the colors, and stirred and stirred and stirred. No, it would not mix, just float around in blobs. That was a disaster, because it ment that I had to use my stickblender, and I know exactly what happens when I use that. But there were no way around it. Of course it thickened like crazy and I had thick pudding, once again!
Before that, it was running smoothly only by hand stirring with a spatula. It came to trace in a minute or perhaps less. I knew I had to work fast and I knew the stickblender would ruin everything. If it wasn't for that, I might actually have managed to pour the soap. Pouring means a miracle around here. But no, no pouring today.
I added some blend of stearic acid and palmitic acid to the recipe, 3%. It behaved well. I don't know if that is the cause of the rapid thickening, but I don't think so. It usually thickens like kaboom anyway. I need something else than the premade blend of shea, coconut and rapeseed we have available. And I need something else than fully hydrolized coconut oil. Well, I have used the coconut before, without too much trouble. The thickening problem started when I added the premade blend, which is a vegetable lard. It makes wonderful soaps! But, but. I have to work so fast that everything looks like a mess and no colors are poured (sorry, scooped) in their order, just whatever is the closes to me.
The top, oh my God! Well, it turned out brown, and solidified before I really could manage to make a top. Luckily I am very used to emergency thinking, so I managed to spoon some waves and camouflage some of the brown by dripping mica mixed in oil here and there. When cut, I hope nobody will know it is a disaster.
I guess the inside will be colored blobs here and there. The plan was to make a bowl swirl by making a drop swirl in the bowl and pour that in the mold. But I should have swirled it with the spatula before it ended in the mold. Because it was not at all pourable. The white was, but not the black. It was thick pudding. It looked like a mess out of this world going in the mold. I wish I had made a hanger, then I could swirl it.
The good thing today is that the scent smells very good and refreshing. It is called Black Musk & Pear. I remember seeing a video from Wicked Lee Goods, and she could not smell the pear at all, not before cutting. I could only smell pear and no musk. She thought it was masculine, I find it more to the feminine fruity side. Noses seems to be very different.
To make any improvement in my soapmaking, something have to change. And it is the oils. But that is not easy to do, since I can't get oils to replace them with. I guess I just have to work with what I've got. Or find some palm oil somewhere. I did order palm oil, but I got everything but palm. They had changed the ingredients for the deep frying oil, but used an old picture on the website. So that must go back. Palm oil is non-existing in this country. I have found fractionated palm oil for deep frying. I can use vegetable ghee, but they have added that carrot color I can't remember the name of. I can get red palm oil, but I'm afraid of them containing illegal Sudan dyes. Those dyes are not at all gone from red palm oil, I found out. So no. I will come up with something, perhaps use lard, which I think I can find. But I would prefer only plant oils. I don't know why since I'm not vegetarian or something. I guess it is the thought of washing with dead animals. Well, we'll see, if I can't get anything else than lard, it will have to be lard.
Today I learned a few things, as always. It does work with my recipe to only do handblending. But I have to be quick, it does not take ages. I know for sure that I can't touch the stickblender, whatever disaster happens. And I have learned that mixing colors in glycerin is not a good idea. Next time I will shake them up in water. And I will try to soap really cold. Today my oils were 36 degrees celsius, and my lye 60-something. My plan was to keep both at around 50 to avoid stearic acid spots, but I didn't bother to heat the oils more and cool the lye more. I will try room temperature next time. I will also try to use a water reduction, as I did today (40% lye solution), but then add more water when it begins to thicken. Perhaps that will help to give me some more time. And I will not use sugar in the lye solution. I think that accellerated it even more.
Does anyone of you know of something that does slows down trace considerably? I can't work any quicker than I do.
My recipe today was as follows. Just remember that the palm oil is not palm oil at all. It is vegetable lard with which has a huge amount of shea butter, some coconut and a little rapeseed oil. The coconut oil I add extra is fully hydrogenated. I use ordinary refined olive oil. The palmitic and stearic acid is from a candle making stearin that contains approximately 50/50 stearic and palmitic, and is skin safe.
Palm Oil - 50%
Olive Oil - 32%
Coconut Oil - 8%
Castor Oil - 7%
Palmitic Acid - 1,5%
Stearic Acid - 1,5%
Total - 1000 grams
Additives to the oils: 1 tbls kaolin clay
Lye solution:
6% Koh/94% Naoh
40% strength of lye solution
Additives to the lye:
1/2 tbls sugar
140 grams of 5% vinegar (but I used 20 grams of 35% vinegar)
20 grams citric acid
4 colors - black, white, burlesque and pistachio green. Mixed in glycerin and a tiny bit of oil, not from the recipe.
Here are some pics of the disaster soap (I excuse for low image quality, the camera is an ancient Iphone 3):
Yesterday I measured out everything except the lye. When I was ready to make soap, I began measuring the lye, and then my scale behaved stupid. It would not measure anything correctly, just add a few grams now and then, just by itself. So my 140 grams of Naoh became 147 grams after a minute. I had already heated my oils and everything. Luckily my sister had a scale I could borrow.
I had made my colorants ready, mixed with some glycerin and some oil. I had read that glycerin and oil can mix, but it doesn't. Well, I added the soap to the colors, and stirred and stirred and stirred. No, it would not mix, just float around in blobs. That was a disaster, because it ment that I had to use my stickblender, and I know exactly what happens when I use that. But there were no way around it. Of course it thickened like crazy and I had thick pudding, once again!
Before that, it was running smoothly only by hand stirring with a spatula. It came to trace in a minute or perhaps less. I knew I had to work fast and I knew the stickblender would ruin everything. If it wasn't for that, I might actually have managed to pour the soap. Pouring means a miracle around here. But no, no pouring today.
I added some blend of stearic acid and palmitic acid to the recipe, 3%. It behaved well. I don't know if that is the cause of the rapid thickening, but I don't think so. It usually thickens like kaboom anyway. I need something else than the premade blend of shea, coconut and rapeseed we have available. And I need something else than fully hydrolized coconut oil. Well, I have used the coconut before, without too much trouble. The thickening problem started when I added the premade blend, which is a vegetable lard. It makes wonderful soaps! But, but. I have to work so fast that everything looks like a mess and no colors are poured (sorry, scooped) in their order, just whatever is the closes to me.
The top, oh my God! Well, it turned out brown, and solidified before I really could manage to make a top. Luckily I am very used to emergency thinking, so I managed to spoon some waves and camouflage some of the brown by dripping mica mixed in oil here and there. When cut, I hope nobody will know it is a disaster.
I guess the inside will be colored blobs here and there. The plan was to make a bowl swirl by making a drop swirl in the bowl and pour that in the mold. But I should have swirled it with the spatula before it ended in the mold. Because it was not at all pourable. The white was, but not the black. It was thick pudding. It looked like a mess out of this world going in the mold. I wish I had made a hanger, then I could swirl it.
The good thing today is that the scent smells very good and refreshing. It is called Black Musk & Pear. I remember seeing a video from Wicked Lee Goods, and she could not smell the pear at all, not before cutting. I could only smell pear and no musk. She thought it was masculine, I find it more to the feminine fruity side. Noses seems to be very different.
To make any improvement in my soapmaking, something have to change. And it is the oils. But that is not easy to do, since I can't get oils to replace them with. I guess I just have to work with what I've got. Or find some palm oil somewhere. I did order palm oil, but I got everything but palm. They had changed the ingredients for the deep frying oil, but used an old picture on the website. So that must go back. Palm oil is non-existing in this country. I have found fractionated palm oil for deep frying. I can use vegetable ghee, but they have added that carrot color I can't remember the name of. I can get red palm oil, but I'm afraid of them containing illegal Sudan dyes. Those dyes are not at all gone from red palm oil, I found out. So no. I will come up with something, perhaps use lard, which I think I can find. But I would prefer only plant oils. I don't know why since I'm not vegetarian or something. I guess it is the thought of washing with dead animals. Well, we'll see, if I can't get anything else than lard, it will have to be lard.
Today I learned a few things, as always. It does work with my recipe to only do handblending. But I have to be quick, it does not take ages. I know for sure that I can't touch the stickblender, whatever disaster happens. And I have learned that mixing colors in glycerin is not a good idea. Next time I will shake them up in water. And I will try to soap really cold. Today my oils were 36 degrees celsius, and my lye 60-something. My plan was to keep both at around 50 to avoid stearic acid spots, but I didn't bother to heat the oils more and cool the lye more. I will try room temperature next time. I will also try to use a water reduction, as I did today (40% lye solution), but then add more water when it begins to thicken. Perhaps that will help to give me some more time. And I will not use sugar in the lye solution. I think that accellerated it even more.
Does anyone of you know of something that does slows down trace considerably? I can't work any quicker than I do.
My recipe today was as follows. Just remember that the palm oil is not palm oil at all. It is vegetable lard with which has a huge amount of shea butter, some coconut and a little rapeseed oil. The coconut oil I add extra is fully hydrogenated. I use ordinary refined olive oil. The palmitic and stearic acid is from a candle making stearin that contains approximately 50/50 stearic and palmitic, and is skin safe.
Palm Oil - 50%
Olive Oil - 32%
Coconut Oil - 8%
Castor Oil - 7%
Palmitic Acid - 1,5%
Stearic Acid - 1,5%
Total - 1000 grams
Additives to the oils: 1 tbls kaolin clay
Lye solution:
6% Koh/94% Naoh
40% strength of lye solution
Additives to the lye:
1/2 tbls sugar
140 grams of 5% vinegar (but I used 20 grams of 35% vinegar)
20 grams citric acid
4 colors - black, white, burlesque and pistachio green. Mixed in glycerin and a tiny bit of oil, not from the recipe.
Here are some pics of the disaster soap (I excuse for low image quality, the camera is an ancient Iphone 3):
steffamarie
Well-Known Member
@Rune I wonder if the really large amount of shea in your veggie lard is affecting your trace time. I've used shea up to about 10 or 15% and it made it move a little more quickly. Either way, I'm impressed by the look you achieved! I don't think I would have noticed unless you said something that it was thickening like crazy.
Sounds like you need to calibrate your scale.
I have no idea how to slow down trace with your given recipe, other than maybe to up your KOH a little bit more. And I don't even know if that would work to slow trace. I kind of think it might not. I suppose you are soaping about as cool as reasonable for the ingredients? That's often suggested, but with such high melting point ingredients, you can't go too cool, or it just wouldn't work. Maybe less or no sugar?
Anyway, I love the tempestuous waves on the top of your soap.
I have no idea how to slow down trace with your given recipe, other than maybe to up your KOH a little bit more. And I don't even know if that would work to slow trace. I kind of think it might not. I suppose you are soaping about as cool as reasonable for the ingredients? That's often suggested, but with such high melting point ingredients, you can't go too cool, or it just wouldn't work. Maybe less or no sugar?
Anyway, I love the tempestuous waves on the top of your soap.
Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
did you try this? I was thinking about it but I wasn't worried about the clean up as much as I was about the cutting of the circles
I haven't made any soap in 10 days!!!!! it kinda makes me sad
but I have been making bath melts, solid bath truffles and just doing a lot of research.we also got the hives cleaned and ready for the new bees.
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Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
cant help but am curious. I have only had one soap rice on me and it happened instantly when I added the scent--I didn't know it could take a bit to happen yikes
Thank you, Steffamarie and Earlene Yes, too high shea, that is probably one thing that make it accellerate. I think I will order palm oil from the UK, even though it will be quite pricey, and try to replace half of the vegetable lard with palm. That will cut the shea amount down quite a bit. I will find another coconut oil that is not hydrogenated. And I will call the meat factory nearby and ask if they have lard to sell. I will not use any stearic and palmitic acid. And I will not use sugar in the lye solution. I used it today just because I had reduced the amount of coconut from my recipe, and hope the sugar can make some nice lather. I also upped the amount of castor oil and used 1% more KOH, also for more bubbles. I can try to use more KOH, but I'm afraid the soap will be too soft. I also reduced the vinegar a bit, since it became too hard to cut last time. I added the candle mix with stearic and palmitic acids to help with some extra hardening. I don't think that is really needed. So that will be removed next time.
Something strange happened, though. When my scale became strange, I had to pour my lye back in the container. And then I spilled a few grains here and there, and some ended up in the container for the white part of the soap. So I had to add just a tiny bit of water and stir, hoping that it would dissolve those few grains of lye. I thought that would be fairly okey, since I did not want to clean out everything and make a new TD mixture. I should have done that, but was already stressed out. But what happened was that when I poured the soap into the 4 containers (yes, it was perfectly pourable then) the TD part of the soap stayed quite manageable, even after stickblending. Not pourable, but not far from it either. Which was strange. Perhaps it was the tiny bit of extra water added? Or does TD in some way or another prevent thickening.
I used a fragrance that is said to rice. I saw it rice in a video from Wicked Lee Goods. I had read that it might not do so if you add the scent to the oils first, and not add it at trace. I did just that, because I always do anyway (scared of forgetting to add the scent), and the fragrance did not rice at all. Absolutely nothing. That trick did work really well. It perhaps accellerated some, but that is hard to know.
Yes, too high shea, that is probably one thing that make it accellerate. I think I will order palm oil from the UK, even though it will be quite pricey, and try to replace half of the vegetable lard with palm. That will cut the shea amount down quite a bit. I will find another coconut oil that is not hydrogenated. And I will call the meat factory nearby and ask if they have lard to sell. I will not use any stearic and palmitic acid. And I will not use sugar in the lye solution. I used it today just because I had reduced the amount of coconut from my recipe, and hope the sugar can make some nice lather. I also upped the amount of castor oil and used 1% more KOH, also for more bubbles. I can try to use more KOH, but I'm afraid the soap will be too soft. I also reduced the vinegar a bit, since it became too hard to cut last time. I added the candle mix with stearic and palmitic acids to help with some extra hardening. I don't think that is really needed. So that will be removed next time.Something strange happened, though. When my scale became strange, I had to pour my lye back in the container. And then I spilled a few grains here and there, and some ended up in the container for the white part of the soap. So I had to add just a tiny bit of water and stir, hoping that it would dissolve those few grains of lye. I thought that would be fairly okey, since I did not want to clean out everything and make a new TD mixture. I should have done that, but was already stressed out. But what happened was that when I poured the soap into the 4 containers (yes, it was perfectly pourable then) the TD part of the soap stayed quite manageable, even after stickblending. Not pourable, but not far from it either. Which was strange. Perhaps it was the tiny bit of extra water added? Or does TD in some way or another prevent thickening.
I used a fragrance that is said to rice. I saw it rice in a video from Wicked Lee Goods. I had read that it might not do so if you add the scent to the oils first, and not add it at trace. I did just that, because I always do anyway (scared of forgetting to add the scent), and the fragrance did not rice at all. Absolutely nothing. That trick did work really well. It perhaps accellerated some, but that is hard to know.
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Lin19687
Well-Known Member
Palm will make it trace fast too. No issue if you don't want to do many colors
Hmm, I see. It should not be easy. But if it does not trace as fast as what I use today, that will be a BIG improvement. So I just have to try and see what happens. I wish someone could invent a chemical you could add to soap to slow it down.
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