Goatmilk, oatmeal & honey...

LJA · Sep 11, 2009

Nothin' fancy....

Just tried to use natural outdoor lighting, but I really need to light it better. Still experimenting (where is Artisan when I need her! lol)

Guest · Sep 11, 2009

Is that the natural colour that comes from using goat milk instead of water?
Lovely soap!
Can I ask something? Do you get scratches in your soap when you cut them? (from any additives like oatmeal) Do you rub them off or just leave them?

LJA · Sep 11, 2009

juicybath said:
Is that the natural colour that comes from using goat milk instead of water?
Lovely soap!
Can I ask something? Do you get scratches in your soap when you cut them? (from any additives like oatmeal) Do you rub them off or just leave them?

Yeah JB, and the honey gooses this color along too. You can get anywhere from a light creamy color to a darker tan. Not gelling them sometimes can help keep it lighter, if that's your thing.

As far as the drag marks....yeah that happens. I use colloidal oatmeal and that eliminates that problem. The oats in the pic are just for photo purposes. lol. You also have no scratchiness with it, but if you DO want some "scrubbiness", you can swizzle regular old oats in a grinder a few seconds to smoosh 'em up a little to make just a little scratchiness but not enough to tear your epidermis off...lol

Guest · Sep 11, 2009

Hey JB is good- I'll take it

The reason I ask is that I got some good scratch marks on my beer soap with cutting. I added oat bran and it's scrubby all right! In a nice way I think. I like how it feels when I wash my hands. Haven't tried it on any tender parts yet though!

You reminded me of another (newbie) question I had. How does one prevent the soap from gelling? I've been doing CPHP which forces the gel sooner I guess, but I did one straight CP and I understood that insulating the mold would allow it to gel on it's own over a longer period.
Why would you want to prevent the gel stage? What does that do to the soap?

Thanks for helping a newbie along

LJA · Sep 11, 2009

juicybath said:
Hey JB is good- I'll take it
The reason I ask is that I got some good scratch marks on my beer soap with cutting. I added oat bran and it's scrubby all right! In a nice way I think. I like how it feels when I wash my hands. Haven't tried it on any tender parts yet though!

You reminded me of another (newbie) question I had. How does one prevent the soap from gelling? I've been doing CPHP which forces the gel sooner I guess, but I did one straight CP and I understood that insulating the mold would allow it to gel on it's own over a longer period.
Why would you want to prevent the gel stage? What does that do to the soap?

Thanks for helping a newbie along

I'm practically new....only about 8 months in.

Some people prefer to prevent gel because colors can stay truer and brighter. For instance - GM soaps tend to be more cream colored than tan this way. It's all preference really. This can be achieved by covering your soap (I like to crack my lid to ward off condensation on top of your soap which happens (to me, anyway) sometimes, and then sticking your mold in the refrigerator overnight. Some people put it in the freezer too, but I haven't tried that one so someone else will have to chime in there.

There can be a downside to it - non-gelling sometimes gives me softer corners/soap that take longer to harden up. Though, I've had batches that didn't too. Such is the strange animal soaping is. In the immortal words of Mr. Gump: "Ya nevah know whatcha gonna get"