Hello, soapers! I'm poking my head above ground for a bit between client work deadlines and prepping for my next soaping marathon in a week or so. A couple of questions have been nagging at me lately, and googling isn't turning up anything conclusive, so I thought I'd reach out to the wisdom hive here.
Thank you all!
- When suspending micas, and hydrating clays, do you use oils and water reserved from the recipe? Or add additional? Is that something you factor into your superfatting?
- When making those lovely oil drizzle or puffed dry mica lines in a loaf, does anyone find that the resulting bar of soap — after curing, of course — breaks at that line after a few weeks of use? I find that when I get a bar around 30% used up, it tends to break in half right where the line is. But maybe it's me.
- Mr. E likes a honkin' brick of soap, so I make a few that are an inch or thicker. Recently I took a brick that was 7 weeks cured, and cut it in half to make two smaller bars. The middle was very tacky, so it probably needed weeks more cure time than I'd planned. What do makers of big thick bars, or large odd shapes, do to ensure the bars are cured before gifting? When I used to buy large quantities of hay for my horses, I would moisture meter bales, because they can still be very wet inside. Does anyone use a moisture meter?
Thank you all!