What soapy thing have you done today?

Viore said:

Today I cut my Sugarplum Smiles soap, getting ready for the holiday season early

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Sugarplum smiles sounds like it smells amazing!!

carlyjones said:

I tried my hand at Clyde sliding. I cut this guy this morning. I also spend a fair amount of time last night picking my dream fragrance collection.

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Very nice, carlyjones.

My soapy stuff today (yesterday actually, but I haven't gone to sleep yet, so my mind feels no date change):

I cut the soap I made yesterday and as expected the Clyde Slide did not survive my need to add the pumice in after the pour (forgotten until the very end). And the 40% lard soap smelled so strongly that it made my granddaughter and DIL feel sickish. I don't like it much myself, but at least I was able to tolerate it and get it cut without difficulty. The bars sat under a fan in my room all day and by evening, granddaughter was able to stay in the same room with them without the odor bothering her, so it seems as though the lard odor will diminish with time. I did not add fragrance because I want to monitor how lard affects the soap's odor over time.

Tonight I trimmed them and I think they will work nicely for my brother. I also trimmed the other 4 bars made from other soap trimmings (with pumice AND Borax as additives). I probably have enough for another bar of soap now. :???: Perhaps I'll melt it down and pour it into the car mold just to get rid of soap scraps.

Friday I made two small test loaves in my freshly made 1lb molds. First was a mustache swirl using cannabis fo. Second was an experimental facial bar idea I have been playing with, modeled after my favorite face mask.

Saturday I taught my 3rd soap class. I only had 2 students and it was so fun! I cut my soap and the mustache swirl did not come through but it is still a nice swirl pattern so I am happy. My facial bar did not color as well as hoped (I used 2 different clays hoping to get 2 different colors but they morphed and bled together). Still a good chance to get a nice face soap even if its not pretty.

Today the plan is to make the boys salt bar as I STILL have not done it....

galaxyMLP said:

Is it really bad? Sometimes it falls back down after gel phase and you don't even see it!

Today I cleaned up 15 bars that had horrible ash on them. I hand washed each one. It's one of my best selling soaps so I needed to make sure it looked nice! It doesn't typically have ash on it but, this batch didn't want to gel (I poured it at too thin a trace) and it stayed soft for a week after unmolding and cutting. I stuck it back in the mold and reheated it at 200 F for 3 hours. It ended up a-ok except for the ash. They look good now and are drying.

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It looked really bad at first but I think it came out pretty nice considering

I made lavender soap and instead of using an eo I tried a fo. Hoping it works and stays as well as the eo

Labeled and shrink wrapped bunches of lip balm, stamped a ton of soap, and cut a couple of the batches I made yesterday. Should have waited another day, but it's SO hard to wait! The batches I made yesterday were sandalwood rose with a mantra swirl, sweet rhubarb with a zebra swirl, and 2 eucalyptus mint. Anxious to cut the sweet rhubarb tomorrow! Now I'm gonna felt some soap while relaxing in front of the TV.

tried out my new mold and my new cutter with the clide slide!

Made two new batches in the test molds. One is to see how much BlackBerry mint spritzer fo discolors and the other is to test the micas.

Someday... I'll get the picture thing figured out...

We depart San Antonio in the morning, Tuesday, so both Sunday and Monday were prep days with a little soapyness fit in between. More bath bombs made, and packaged. I did a couple more an hour or so ago & left them to dry overnight. I was up very late last night working on our reservations for this leg of the trip, making sure we would have a tub (to use the bath bombs) in most of the hotels where we will be staying.

Finally got around to the boys' salt bars. First time using glycerin to disperse mica. I'm so excited to cut these. They looked just lovely pouring into the mold. (And now that they're done I remember why I swore off salt bars...) Used Ed Hardy FO on left and Barber Shop FO on right.

I converted and addicted three men in my writing class into trying soap making. I am wearing the crown of Evil Conversion Goddess at the moment, and feeling pretty proud of myself.

Yep... Got all set up last night so I could go out and make 4 batches of soap today. All that was left to do is pick colors and FOs. Annd.....I've got so much to choose from that I can't...lol...doesn't it figure?

CTAnton said:

I boiled some jewel weed in distilled water for a poison ivy soap.

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Where do you get your jewel weed? I've got a neighbor that wants some jewel weed soap and I have no idea where to get it. I read on line that fresh jewel weed makes better poison ivy relief but I'm not savaging in the woods for weeds for anyone. Even if I do like them.

TwystedPryncess said:

I converted and addicted three men in my writing class into trying soap making. I am wearing the crown of Evil Conversion Goddess at the moment, and feeling pretty proud of myself.

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You go girl!! Wear that crown with pride!!

Today I have spent a coupple of hours working on re-vamping a coupple of my labels. I have always labeled my soaps in one way or another so the recipients of my giftings could know exactly what they got from me, but now I have made them look more "professional".

Even though I am not selling anything yet I really want to start thinking ahead, because I am sloooowly working towards my goal of getting my soaping officially approved by the government here in Norway (I think it is the equivalent of your food & drug admin. ?) so I can start to sell at markets etc.

It is a slooow process, but I wanna do it! My initial goal is that a year from now I will at least have gotten some progress in this matter!
Well, it is my goal at least, it will take time and money. Ask me how I am doing in a year, *grin* : D

I worked on a lye calculator for a few hours. The spreadsheet is coming together ( for me). Even calcs the estimated properties. Matches real close to the recipes I've been using with another on line calculator.

Now if I can find a vict er.. volunteer to test the interface.

TeresaT said:

Where do you get your jewel weed? I've got a neighbor that wants some jewel weed soap and I have no idea where to get it. I read on line that fresh jewel weed makes better poison ivy relief but I'm not savaging in the woods for weeds for anyone. Even if I do like them.

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Dunno about Tenn, but in PA jewel weed grows along creek banks and in ditches along the roads!

Not making soap yet; but a helper and I did move an antique oak commode into the living room this week, and today moved a drawer full of dinner napkins out of the kitchen flat back cupboard and into the drawer of the commode, and put some of my soap bags and ties into the empty drawer and re-organized the right side of that cupboard that has a lot of my tools, melt and pour and some none oils bottles of things like sodium lactate, etc. Now it's not so crowded and I can actually see what I have in there.

I also wrapped up four bars of soap that I'm doing a trade with a friend who asked me to trade. She's started making creams and lotions but not soaps, so I will ship those out next time I go to town.

I'm starting to get my energy back after the car accident and surgery and my leg is letting me stand longer without my foot swelling any more, so I'm hoping that I'll be ready to stand long enough to make soap very soon. I'm still doing most of my gardening sitting down. A couple of ago I really noticed a big shift in my energy. U even went on a mini cooking binge and have about four dinner meal in the freezer. This healing is taking a long time, but it is progressing, so I can't complain. I'm just glad that at 76 and still healing, I'm still alive and looking forward to make soap soon!

Does it count as a soapy thing if I was walking my dog at the park and saw a lady run past with a crazy shirt and immediately thought, "She has a Clyde Slide shirt on!" ??

amd said:

Finally got around to the boys' salt bars. First time using glycerin to disperse mica. I'm so excited to cut these. They looked just lovely pouring into the mold. (And now that they're done I remember why I swore off salt bars...) Used Ed Hardy FO on left and Barber Shop FO on right.

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I have a batch of barber shop scented soap that I have to rebatch. Boy did that FO not cooperate for me.