Hello from France!

[jax1962]

hello everyone, i'm TOTALLY new to soapmaking, in fact i just made my first batches yesterday and now i realise just how little i know......

looking forward to learning how NOT to create a caustic soda volcano and how to stop my whizzed up hot process soap from 'growing' out all over the jug

any advice or tips is very welcome indeed and i'm looking forward to a learning curve - hopefully very steep and upwards!

 

[Hazel]

Hello,

Welcome to the forum!

There certainly is a learning curve with CP and HP. You'll find a lot of answers reading through the CP section. Here's some links to other sites which you'll find helpful.

http://www.millersoap.com/
http://smftutorials.com/drupal/

I especially like the troubleshooting page on the Miller Soap site. It's been extremely helpful for me.

http://www.millersoap.com/trouble.html

 

[IrishLass]

Hello and welcome!

IrishLass

 

[jax1962]

thanks for the welcome!

i've been 'lurking' and reading some of the great posts on here and now i'm getting depressed as i realise just how little i actually know... gorgeous photos people, really inspirational. i love how friendly and helpful the site is.

i've made 3 small batches of soap so far; the first two were castille soap as i fancied trying olive oil but i discovered that 'soda crystals' are not sodium hydroxide in france so that was batch number one out the window! batch two was a repeat of the castille but using the proper chemical and i'm still waiting for it to harden enough to take it out of the mould. my other attempt was heating up the oils and adding the lye - this was the one i tried the stick blender on and boy did THAT work well! it fluffed up immediately in the jug but by the time i turned around to fetch the mould it had grown up and over the sides and stiffened to a thick goo. i wrangled it into the mould and it has set well, will let you know if i can get it out!

all in all it's great fun and i'm becoming addicted. i think the major problem i have will be finding the right materials over here - i had to order the sodium hydroxide over the internet.

 

[Araseth]

Re: thanks for the welcome!

i discovered that 'soda crystals' are not sodium hydroxide in france so that was batch number one out the window!

That is the cutest thing I've heard all day Lol welcome to the forum, you'll get the hang of it easy, bet your soaps come out beautiful!

 

[eleraine]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm in France too - Jura area!

Lye is soude caustique here in France and you should be able to find it in places like Bricomarche, Mr Bricolage or even stores like Casino, Cora, etc. I found my lye at Casino. It's way cheaper than ordering online (which I have tried as well).

 

[jax1962]

thanks people.

hi eleraine, we spent the week of toussaints in the jura a couple of years ago, in metabief - lovely area, reminded me of my home town in ireland, especially when they walked the cows through the village for milking!

since writing the other post i have searched more and have managed to find the right product in auchan (but not where i expected it to be!!). i read in lots of french forums where they all use the ready diluted lye at 30%, have you any experience with that?

 

[eleraine]

Yes, I do - my first few loafs were made using that but I don't quite like it because I can't use other liquids like milk, juice, beer, etc. Can't up to a higher lye concentration either. So I branched out to making my own lye solution.

 

[jax1962]

that's good to know, thanks!

just for information purposes:
i had been dithering about trying the 30% solution but i finally tried a batch with it - it's much easier to get hold of and a lot easier to handle - i find the crystals are a bit staticially charged in the containers and i end up getting them all over the counter :cry: so a bottle of liquid is better for me. not sure how the soap will turn out though as i thought i detected a slight smell of peroxide when washing the utensils after the lye!! the bars look nice, cut fine and don't seem any different to other batches i've made using crystals. time will tell!

regarding liquids:
when i looked at thesage.com lye calculator, it allowed me to put in the percentage of lye solution used and it then gave me a minimum and maximum amount of liquid for the batch, the 30% lye solution fell short of the maximum liquid figure so i suppose i could add the rest in beer, milk or whatever? it might not be enough of the other liquid to get the desired soap though as there isn't much difference in it - probably only about 50mls max of extra liquid.

the other advantage is that the bottled lye is already cold, so no waiting for it to cool down. it didn't seem to scorch either, even when i added milk powder.

a good experiment - if you don't see me back on here in about 6 weeks time you'll know it didn't work.......

 

[brandnew]

Jax in France

hello jax! I'm in Romagne France!! I'd love to keep in contact about acquiring supplies in France!! I'm brand new at this!! Hope it's not a bother! I got my crystals at Auchan. My first batch turned out great but the olive oil batch is taking Awhile to harden up! How are you doing?

 

[jax1962]

hi brandnew - you're in a lovely area of the country. we've got friends in hennebont and have to pass quite near to you when we visit them.

i'm totally new to this also, just started end of february but have about 30 batches under my belt as it's soooooo addictive! i'm now hoping to ask some friends to test the batches that are almost ready.

i also found the crystals at auchan - only last week - i couldn't ever find them before so bought some online at www.mon-droguiste.com - they also do castor oil REALLY cheap and only charge 5 euros delivery. i've also been using the 30.5% liquid solution with no problems at all but don't buy the auchan one as it's violet coloured (?!?).

what do you use for moulds and cutters? i use silicone cake moulds and a cheese wire cutter at the moment but am hoping that "someone" will make me a wooden hinged mould for my birthday i also found some nice wooden boxes in ikea, (in their bathroom section, with hairbrushes in), they were really cheap in their sale.

nice to 'meet' you!