My very first batch is sitting on a shelf.

[bodhi]

Congrats on your first batch.. and, you have quite the way with words.

 

[Deb6205]

I too could visualize the neighbors ready to slap you on the back or on the face depending on the outcome.

Looking forward to hearing more about your adventure as well as your neighbors.

 

[Deb6205]

Looks like you have been successful making your first soap. Yea!!
BTW, I used a box for my soap when I first started making soap and sometimes I still do. No sense causing your soap to cost more to make than necessary. I also try to be careful when I remove my soap so I can reuse the box and the freezer wrap that I lined said box with. I have been able to make several batches of soap without needing to reline.
Enjoy making your own soap...I haven't purchased soap since March 2000 when my first soap was cured.
Debra

 

[Brandica2013]

Heck with making soap you should have your own funny blog =d your good @ soap 2!! Great job..

 

[Brandica2013]

BTW I love this site more & more everyday because of the great group of people on here!!

 

[Nobellius]

I purchased some small plastic storage bins from Goodwill to use as molds - in part to support the local community, in part for their 'reusability.' For my first batch I used an empty cereal box lined with wax paper, but the condensation from the heat of the reaction made it impossible to use again, plus it seemed like a colossal waste of resources; the wax paper was garbage.
That said, use whatever ya want!
Congrats on your first batch, as well! I'm also new here and I'm sure you will soon find that the folks here are just wonderful. Insightful and delightful. And they're very generous with their compliments

 

[Deb6205]

So, have you thought about what you want to do for the second batch of soap? I have been planning my next batch but cannot decide what I want to do. One of my favorite soaps I used Motts Apple Juice for my liquid. I weighted out the AJ when froze it until it was almost solid...added to my plastic bucket in the kitchen sink, then I surrounded the bucket with ice to keep the temp way down so not to burn the AJ. The Essential oils I used was a combo of cinnamon, clove, sweet orange. Oils used was Olive, Coconut 76 degree, Palm, Castor, Palm Kernel Flakes (makes a nice hard bar). When I get ready to make this I will try to take photos as I go. My camera is not doing so good I need my son to take a look at it to see what momma did wrong.

Debra

 

[thinkativeone]

Pssttt....Mark...over here....don't draw attention...
Shocking, isn't it? I know! They like to use "molds" around here. :roll:
Go figure. Line a free box vs line a $$$ mold = soap that has to be cut regardless.
They laugh at me and my medium flat rate USPS boxes behind my back.
I hear them...errr...maybe those are the voices in my head...but I hear them!

Don't you let them get to you, Mark. You keep using those boxes!

I would love to just use boxes or something I can buy used that is reusable to line. Problem is, I want to give my soap away and possibly someday sell it when I'm more experienced. And I just look at the batch of soap I made with makeshift molds and they look so sad and homely. They are just as effective, but I absolutely see the scenario unfold mentally...

*strolls up to family member jauntily*

"I made some soap! I brought some to share with you."

"You did?! Well, how very thoughtful. So nifty that someone in the family can make nice bars of - eeeeeeeeee! What is THAT?"

"It's the soap! See! It'll make you squeaky clean!" *holds up creased and horribly deformed bar of soap*

"Oh! Uhhh. Thank...you. Heh. I'll just put this...in the cupboard for, um, for later! Yeah, for later."

*family member leaves thinking I must be mentally challenged to create these amorphous looking blocks and call them soap*

Ah, soap vanity. What we will do for perfect bars.

 

[cursivearts]

Thinkative one, I feel you. I had to rebatch some soap I made recently and I didn't want to waste a mold, so I globbed it into a lined 8x8 pan. Add in that I had swirled it with a pretty green, that was now blended in to look, well, sort of grey-green and turtlish. My husband thinks they are great looking soaps. I told him that was great, because he would be using every last bar.

 

[newlycrunchy]

Congrats. I can't explain the elation I felt when my first batch of soap actually lathered. It's castile and is still curing to be used as bar soap- but I have used a bar or two to make liquid castille soap that I made into a shampoo I'm trying. I'm so hooked it's not even funny.

 

[Mark the Box Guy]

The second batch is currently drying under the watchful eye of my perpetually filthy neighbour Berlin Phil. Details to follow in another thread.