I adore EVOO for cooking, for salad dressings, and even homemade mayo (gives it much more robust flavor than a bland oil). Still, I use the less expensive and tasteless light OO for soaping because, well, I'm not eating the soap.
I know, and you can call me crazy but a few years back I read a detailed article about adulterated foods in the good old USA and, according to the article, more than half of all OO on the shelves is adulterated (i think it was close to 80% of OOs on the groceryshelves). Meaning, they take EVOO and basically dilute it with plain old vegetable oil because that is cheaper than buying OO that has been processed multiple times to get the lighter flavor. I really didn't think much of it since I wasn't really using it at that time but my husband says he can taste the difference. He says he can't even taste the olives in the "light olive oils" and truth be told, I hate olives and the light oils don't even smell like olives to me, they smell like my vegetable oil. So, we stick with EVOO.I adore EVOO for cooking, for salad dressings, and even homemade mayo (gives it much more robust flavor than a bland oil). Still, I use the less expensive and tasteless light OO for soaping because, well, I'm not eating the soap.
Seriously, even though I don't use that much OO in soap, I still find it worthwhile to buy the light stuff to keep my soaping costs down and get a lighter soap batter, too. To each her own!
Yes, except that:
1) Right, but less so and it makes the man happyYes, except that:
1. Almost all of the EVOOs were just as adulterated as the light OOs. So merely buying EVOO doesn't guarantee that it is unadulterated.
2. The Costco olive oils - both EVOO and light - were the exception in that study; they were not adulterated.
3. I still don't understand why the taste of the OO would matter when it comes to making soap. That's why I buy the expensive EVOO for what I will eat, and the light-colored and inexpensive OO for what goes into soap. Both from Costco because I trust the source. I also get some EVOO directly from certain California growers - ah-mazing flavor and so fresh!
Yes! Let's add that reason too!Makes sense! And I guess there is the advantage that if the soaping oils are part of the grocery budget, perhaps they won't be as ... noticeable?
Awesome! I was just wondering the other day where you've been and POOF! Here you are! And with beautiful soaps! I love them all!Hello~ long time no see. It's been busy here and I haven't stopped by often, but I've still been making soap.
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FO - Beneath the Stars by WSP / Berried Treasure by WSP
Left -> My entrant for one of the monthly challenges. I think it was one of the color ones, where you had to use all cool or warm colors.
Right -> I learned how to pipe soap : D I made the cherry blossoms first, then a few days later made the soap.
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FOs - Persephone's Kiss / Lavender & Sage / Blackberry Ambrosia by NS
Left -> Remake of an old MP soap with the same colors. I'll adjust the ratio so there's less black next time :]
Middle -> Inspired by banded Amethyst
Right -> Wine soap! I used red wine. The discoloration was a bit harsh on my two purples (yes, those weren't always brown) but my neon stood strong! So now I know to anchor my colors with neons
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FOs - Daisies in Bloom / Anarchy / The Grim Reaper by NS
Left -> Golden monochrome : ) This fragrance is so soft and pretty
Middle -> Originally wanted to do pointy layers but decided to go for simple textured layers instead. I like these a lot.
Right -> Inspired by this soap by Lisa. Black layers are ciaglia.
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A bunch of Ciaglia soaps I made. I used up over 2 lbs of scraps and used some FOs I had laying around (as one does...). I wasn't too bothered with making fancy designs for these and some of the FOs were fast movers, so it was a sort of whatever happens, happens kinda ordeal
Some other CP soap adventures included making another batch of all my triangle soaps.
This time I made a CP soap embed for the pickled plum soap. It cut a lot easier than the MP embed, though the CP soap embed itself had to be 'glued' back together because it was so crumbly... I recently made an embed using the same mold and it went a lot better :] But that will have to be a soapy story for another time.
I also tried using the 40% lye solution on two of the triangle soaps to see if I could fight off the soda ash and while that was a success, the soap batters themselves were thicker. So I've decided to stick with 33%. I'll just steam them if the ash is unbearable, but a little ash is really no big deal.
I um... also had my first rebatch adventure. I made a strawberry cake inspired soap with pink confetti and frosting but the FO didn't get properly blended in one of the layers and it was... kinda nasty. So into the crockpot it went! Consensus: gross. Really gross. My rebatch soaps turned out a shade of bright pink, so at least they were a cute color.
I also made two more batches of salt soaps, but didn't get a good picture of them. They're nice and colorful, so I'm happy with that. : )
Finally, some MP soaps~
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FOs - Strawberry Thyme Lemonade by WSP / Abalone & Sea by WSP
Both of these are remakes of past soaps. The one on the right is one of my favorites to make. I love the FO and I add glow in the dark powder to the moon and the water.
Love that moon one!!!Hello~ long time no see. It's been busy here and I haven't stopped by often, but I've still been making soap.
View attachment 75183View attachment 75184
FO - Beneath the Stars by WSP / Berried Treasure by WSP
Left -> My entrant for one of the monthly challenges. I think it was one of the color ones, where you had to use all cool or warm colors.
Right -> I learned how to pipe soap : D I made the cherry blossoms first, then a few days later made the soap.
View attachment 75185
FOs - Persephone's Kiss / Lavender & Sage / Blackberry Ambrosia by NS
Left -> Remake of an old MP soap with the same colors. I'll adjust the ratio so there's less black next time :]
Middle -> Inspired by banded Amethyst
Right -> Wine soap! I used red wine. The discoloration was a bit harsh on my two purples (yes, those weren't always brown) but my neon stood strong! So now I know to anchor my colors with neons
View attachment 75186
FOs - Daisies in Bloom / Anarchy / The Grim Reaper by NS
Left -> Golden monochrome : ) This fragrance is so soft and pretty
Middle -> Originally wanted to do pointy layers but decided to go for simple textured layers instead. I like these a lot.
Right -> Inspired by this soap by Lisa. Black layers are ciaglia.
View attachment 75189View attachment 75191
A bunch of Ciaglia soaps I made. I used up over 2 lbs of scraps and used some FOs I had laying around (as one does...). I wasn't too bothered with making fancy designs for these and some of the FOs were fast movers, so it was a sort of whatever happens, happens kinda ordeal
Some other CP soap adventures included making another batch of all my triangle soaps.
This time I made a CP soap embed for the pickled plum soap. It cut a lot easier than the MP embed, though the CP soap embed itself had to be 'glued' back together because it was so crumbly... I recently made an embed using the same mold and it went a lot better :] But that will have to be a soapy story for another time.
I also tried using the 40% lye solution on two of the triangle soaps to see if I could fight off the soda ash and while that was a success, the soap batters themselves were thicker. So I've decided to stick with 33%. I'll just steam them if the ash is unbearable, but a little ash is really no big deal.
I um... also had my first rebatch adventure. I made a strawberry cake inspired soap with pink confetti and frosting but the FO didn't get properly blended in one of the layers and it was... kinda nasty. So into the crockpot it went! Consensus: gross. Really gross. My rebatch soaps turned out a shade of bright pink, so at least they were a cute color.
I also made two more batches of salt soaps, but didn't get a good picture of them. They're nice and colorful, so I'm happy with that. : )
Finally, some MP soaps~
View attachment 75192
FOs - Strawberry Thyme Lemonade by WSP / Abalone & Sea by WSP
Both of these are remakes of past soaps. The one on the right is one of my favorites to make. I love the FO and I add glow in the dark powder to the moon and the water.
in the mold but luckily it was more of a lava burp than a Vesuvius :'D Most of the bars look totally fine, with a few having thick gashes that look like big glycerin rivers. No big deal~
SwoonLast soaps of the year~
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FOs - Sambucus by NS / All Soul's Day by NS / Sour Watermelon Candy by NG
Some triangle soaps : ) These were a fun adventure.
Left -> I poured this one with the mold vertical, so I had to carefully pour a little bit of each color at a time.
Middle -> Putting my circle embed to good use! Yes, this soap is egg-inspired haha. This batch spooked me a bit because it volcanoed
Right -> It was only a matter of time until I made one of these with this mold. The seeds are made with homemade soap dough. This one and my egg soap got pretty bad glycerin rivers in the white, but I've decided that I don't care. Glycerin river smycerin river...
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FOs - Hot Pink Lime / Capri Olivo by NG
I was in a landscape mood this month.
Left -> A remake of a soap I made for a friend earlier this year. This time I did a OPW sky instead of a tiger swirl sky. No it wasn't because I was lazy... ... ...
Right -> OPW ocean with some green cliffs : ) The sea turned out much greener than I intended and am feeling slightly betrayed by my blue micas for turning so green, but it's also not an issue at all.
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FOs - Forest Mist by WSP / Peach Mango Sangria by NG
Left -> This was an impulse soap. I was going to use this FO to make a MP soap (I've used it before in MP and loved it) but woke up one day wanting to make CP soap. This FO reported severe acceleration on WSP's website but I'm no quitter, so I decided to make a ZNSC soap and made a few different sky design game plans based on how the FO performed in the green/black layer. It was thick but not soap-on-a-stick thick so I opted to do a layered spoon swirl sky. This FO smells delightful. Would definitely recommend despite the acceleration.
Right -> Neons! Sky is a OPW. I used a squeeze bottle for the yellow reflection. The blue had some confusing acceleration issues (that weren't present elsewhere. Ah, soap. You sometimes-finnicky beast) so I didn't quite get the reflection the way I wanted it to but I do really like it.
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FOs - Unscented / Fresh Lemonade by WSP
Some Christmas gifts.
Left -> Charcoal ZNSC made with coconut milk powder and sweet rice flour for my mother.
Right -> Pumice soap for my brother, featuring some soda ash I didn't bother to steam off because life's too short to steam ash off a soap when the recipient doesn't care
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Lastly, some MP soaps! I just love the straight clean lines you can get in MP soap.
Happy New Year everyone~
