Hello all,
Introductions always feel a little awkward, but I have blogged in the past and every blog post felt like an initial introduction of myself. But, as you can see by the length of my initial introductory post here, I'm no stranger to writing, and I do enjoy it.
While my profession has been thus far in Information Technology, specifically in deploying Windows environments to large-scale corporate networks, I switched to Web Design last year, as well as re-discovering Gardening. The reason for the switch was mostly due to a health condition or two I contrived that hindered me from performing the duties I had done for years, except taking care of home-user computer issues. Gardening became a creative outlet for me, and helped me get some motivation back while undergoing medical procedures. It was actually Gardening research I was doing that led me to soap making and trying it out. I was hooked from the word go! I am in the process of designing both my website and new blog, the blog to be about my 'adventures' in Gardening and Soap Making.
I have come across this forum many, many, many times in my research. Today, I finally decided to join.
While I don't have any current burning questions, let me list out what I have done thus far.
While I was hooked on the idea of making soap, and getting all the supplies to do so, I did want to be careful not to just throw myself to the public-wolves. So August-September is when I had everything together and started making recipes for family and friends for Christmas.
My first 2 batches were a Warm Vanilla Sugar batch made with Coconut oil, Olive, Palm, and Sunflower Oil. I used the Bramble Berry calculator as well as the Summer Bee Meadow calc then. Well, that soap NEVER set up, and still to this day I can squish my fingers through it (yes, I saved it to rebatch later). I made that back in late September...like right around Labor Day, I think.
I made batch #2 a Pumpkin Spice with CO, OO, PO, and Castor Oil. That should have been fine, but the calculators I was using called for too much lye and I didn't know any better. Actually, since I wasn't too familiar with zap-testing or what that felt like (I didn't lick a whole lot of 9+V batteries growing up, I guess I was sheltered, lol), I just took a small end-piece into the shower with me and did my morning thing. Holy Crap! I burned in places not to be mentioned here! :-O Not badly, but enough to walk and move funny for about an hour. So, that's how I found out I had too much lye in that soap and I needed now to redo both recipes.
It was then I had joined a couple forums on Facebook, and the members were extremely ueber helpful in explaining first to me that I need to use SoapCalc! I can use Summer Bee Meadow to resize to any mold I want, but use SoapCalc first! I immediately converted! They also enlightened me to my possible problems with those 2 batches, further confirming I could rebatch them later (which at the time, I had no clue what rebatching was).
My next recipes were complete success! I re-did the Warm Vanilla Sugar one and the Pumpkin Spice, and proceeded to make a Castille with Patchouli and Orange EO's (not FO's), then a White Tea & Ginger made from CO, OO, Crisco, Sunflower, Castor, and Palm which turned out this beautiful white! I'm sorry I didn't take pictures before I sent them all out (more on that later). I also made a Shaving soap from CO, OO, Sunflower, Castor, Crisco, Palm, and Shea Butter. and another Castille Soap unscented.
Shortly after I ran out of all supplies is when I tried my hand at rebatching, like the people in the forum suggested I do with my 2 failed recipes. But being that the 2 failed recipes seemed quite large to me to use as my "test bed", I gathered all kinds of soap scraps I had saved for a couple months around the house, plus soap scraps from "cleaning" (with a potato peeler) my newer soaps that were curing. The method I initially tried rebatching with was the plastic baggie method from Bramble Berry, being that these batches were quite small. I used used silicone cupcake molds I had bought at Goodwill as my molds for them. They turned out quite good, while a little too rustic looking for my own and my boyfriend's taste (though he was polite about it). It was then I invested in another crockpot specifically for rebatching (I don't like mixing soap ingredients in containers I cook food in....maybe that's just me).
Thank Goodness I took pictures and posted on Facebook when I initially made soaps, because otherwise I wouldn't have had a date as to when the CP soaps were actually ready for use! I went back and labelled everything, and all the "ready" dates were 12/19-12/20/2014. I didn't want to literally "hurt" my family and friends with my enthusiastic creations! Well, it was 12/18 and I was literally JUST getting over a horrendous case of pneumonia I'd contrived (thank you, Mr. Boyfriend, for bringing that home from work....I hadn't been THAT sick since 2004!), and I needed to get all these Christmas presents in the mail ASAP! I live in MO and everyone else is so spread out now between FL and CA, that driving presents somewhere was not an option. I had to come up with packaging on the fly...which is when I realized just how important the visual presentation of soap packaging is! For all the round soaps, I used 2" round Avery Labels that I designed up (took up 1/2 day at least), and I cut out colored tissue paper the size of coffee filters (which I almost used, but didn't like the presentation) that I folded around the soap in a fan-like fashion and then stuck the label on. For the Warm Vanilla Sugar soaps I tried to create a bakery-style wrapping around them to show off the Copper Sparkle Mica covering the top of these wonderful smelling dark brown bars (which initially, I had no clue that Vanilla FO would cause CP soap to turn brown...what a surprise, but the peeps over on FB assured me this is normal...and it looked pretty with the Mica). I used brown packaging paper, cut out a rectangle size, cut out a window in the middle to show off the Mica part of the soap, wrapped it Christmas/Birthday package style, and taped it together with one of the 2" round Avery Labels I made. Most of them came out cute! Some of them shifted too much while wrapping, making the window I created look crooked.
I had asked Mr. Boyfriend for help packaging, but he bailed. Had I had his help, I would have gotten the packages out sooner. I literally got all my packages out last minute, 15 of them for approximately 30-35 people, on the morning of Dec 21. Half the people got their packages on Dec 23, and the other half on Dec 26. Not too bad. But 3 days of packaging and gift-wrapping did me in. I think I didn't budge from my WoW game for 2 days other than to cook Christmas dinner and do our presents here at home!
I didn't realize the amount of soap I really sent out until I had packaged all these up and sent them out. I was literally left with 3 bars of shaving soap that were "runts"...that's it. None for me.
But the feedback I got was just absolutely out of this world insanely positive!!! I now have family, friends, and neighbors texting me and messaging me online asking when I am making more! I have 9 more recipes planned that I just bought supplies for.
After trying to post what I wanted, the forum told me my post was TL;DR. So instead of obeying and editing, I will make a continued post next.
Introductions always feel a little awkward, but I have blogged in the past and every blog post felt like an initial introduction of myself. But, as you can see by the length of my initial introductory post here, I'm no stranger to writing, and I do enjoy it.
While my profession has been thus far in Information Technology, specifically in deploying Windows environments to large-scale corporate networks, I switched to Web Design last year, as well as re-discovering Gardening. The reason for the switch was mostly due to a health condition or two I contrived that hindered me from performing the duties I had done for years, except taking care of home-user computer issues. Gardening became a creative outlet for me, and helped me get some motivation back while undergoing medical procedures. It was actually Gardening research I was doing that led me to soap making and trying it out. I was hooked from the word go! I am in the process of designing both my website and new blog, the blog to be about my 'adventures' in Gardening and Soap Making.
I have come across this forum many, many, many times in my research. Today, I finally decided to join.
While I don't have any current burning questions, let me list out what I have done thus far.
While I was hooked on the idea of making soap, and getting all the supplies to do so, I did want to be careful not to just throw myself to the public-wolves. So August-September is when I had everything together and started making recipes for family and friends for Christmas.
My first 2 batches were a Warm Vanilla Sugar batch made with Coconut oil, Olive, Palm, and Sunflower Oil. I used the Bramble Berry calculator as well as the Summer Bee Meadow calc then. Well, that soap NEVER set up, and still to this day I can squish my fingers through it (yes, I saved it to rebatch later). I made that back in late September...like right around Labor Day, I think.
I made batch #2 a Pumpkin Spice with CO, OO, PO, and Castor Oil. That should have been fine, but the calculators I was using called for too much lye and I didn't know any better. Actually, since I wasn't too familiar with zap-testing or what that felt like (I didn't lick a whole lot of 9+V batteries growing up, I guess I was sheltered, lol), I just took a small end-piece into the shower with me and did my morning thing. Holy Crap! I burned in places not to be mentioned here! :-O Not badly, but enough to walk and move funny for about an hour. So, that's how I found out I had too much lye in that soap and I needed now to redo both recipes.
It was then I had joined a couple forums on Facebook, and the members were extremely ueber helpful in explaining first to me that I need to use SoapCalc! I can use Summer Bee Meadow to resize to any mold I want, but use SoapCalc first! I immediately converted! They also enlightened me to my possible problems with those 2 batches, further confirming I could rebatch them later (which at the time, I had no clue what rebatching was).
My next recipes were complete success! I re-did the Warm Vanilla Sugar one and the Pumpkin Spice, and proceeded to make a Castille with Patchouli and Orange EO's (not FO's), then a White Tea & Ginger made from CO, OO, Crisco, Sunflower, Castor, and Palm which turned out this beautiful white! I'm sorry I didn't take pictures before I sent them all out (more on that later). I also made a Shaving soap from CO, OO, Sunflower, Castor, Crisco, Palm, and Shea Butter. and another Castille Soap unscented.
Shortly after I ran out of all supplies is when I tried my hand at rebatching, like the people in the forum suggested I do with my 2 failed recipes. But being that the 2 failed recipes seemed quite large to me to use as my "test bed", I gathered all kinds of soap scraps I had saved for a couple months around the house, plus soap scraps from "cleaning" (with a potato peeler) my newer soaps that were curing. The method I initially tried rebatching with was the plastic baggie method from Bramble Berry, being that these batches were quite small. I used used silicone cupcake molds I had bought at Goodwill as my molds for them. They turned out quite good, while a little too rustic looking for my own and my boyfriend's taste (though he was polite about it). It was then I invested in another crockpot specifically for rebatching (I don't like mixing soap ingredients in containers I cook food in....maybe that's just me).
Thank Goodness I took pictures and posted on Facebook when I initially made soaps, because otherwise I wouldn't have had a date as to when the CP soaps were actually ready for use! I went back and labelled everything, and all the "ready" dates were 12/19-12/20/2014. I didn't want to literally "hurt" my family and friends with my enthusiastic creations! Well, it was 12/18 and I was literally JUST getting over a horrendous case of pneumonia I'd contrived (thank you, Mr. Boyfriend, for bringing that home from work....I hadn't been THAT sick since 2004!), and I needed to get all these Christmas presents in the mail ASAP! I live in MO and everyone else is so spread out now between FL and CA, that driving presents somewhere was not an option. I had to come up with packaging on the fly...which is when I realized just how important the visual presentation of soap packaging is! For all the round soaps, I used 2" round Avery Labels that I designed up (took up 1/2 day at least), and I cut out colored tissue paper the size of coffee filters (which I almost used, but didn't like the presentation) that I folded around the soap in a fan-like fashion and then stuck the label on. For the Warm Vanilla Sugar soaps I tried to create a bakery-style wrapping around them to show off the Copper Sparkle Mica covering the top of these wonderful smelling dark brown bars (which initially, I had no clue that Vanilla FO would cause CP soap to turn brown...what a surprise, but the peeps over on FB assured me this is normal...and it looked pretty with the Mica). I used brown packaging paper, cut out a rectangle size, cut out a window in the middle to show off the Mica part of the soap, wrapped it Christmas/Birthday package style, and taped it together with one of the 2" round Avery Labels I made. Most of them came out cute! Some of them shifted too much while wrapping, making the window I created look crooked.
I had asked Mr. Boyfriend for help packaging, but he bailed. Had I had his help, I would have gotten the packages out sooner. I literally got all my packages out last minute, 15 of them for approximately 30-35 people, on the morning of Dec 21. Half the people got their packages on Dec 23, and the other half on Dec 26. Not too bad. But 3 days of packaging and gift-wrapping did me in. I think I didn't budge from my WoW game for 2 days other than to cook Christmas dinner and do our presents here at home!
I didn't realize the amount of soap I really sent out until I had packaged all these up and sent them out. I was literally left with 3 bars of shaving soap that were "runts"...that's it. None for me.
But the feedback I got was just absolutely out of this world insanely positive!!! I now have family, friends, and neighbors texting me and messaging me online asking when I am making more! I have 9 more recipes planned that I just bought supplies for.
After trying to post what I wanted, the forum told me my post was TL;DR. So instead of obeying and editing, I will make a continued post next.