Recent content by AZJen

Also great input, jcandleattic! I was not planning on lining wooden molds with lanolin (unless perhaps very cheap small ones as a test), but I am thinking to blend lanolin with something else for coating linen or some other natural cloth as a liner. We shall see if that works, and I plan to...

Thank you for sharing your experiences, earlene! I have some lanolin already so am excited to someday be able to give it a whirl. And I have Vaseline (used in my garden once) in case I ever need a backup plan.

I see! Thank you for the explanation. I have seen tutorials on using freezer paper as a way to lift the soap out of the mold. I was just trying to avoid the plasticizers in the plastic lining of freezer paper. I plan to someday try some of the other options (lanolin, freezing, longer cure time...

I was thinking to wait enough time (until the soap is shrinking away from the sides) and to use simple forms like pans. Others have put soap in the freezer for short periods of time to help it release from their molds. Has anyone tried this with bare stainless or with some kind of...

Jojoba oil is about 48% unsaponifiable and, therefore, could also work for coating stainless or similar molds of choice.

Wikepedia is saying this about saponification values: "Percentage of unsaponifiables[edit] The percentage of unsaponifiable material varies with the substance: low percentage (<1%) : refined oils, refined shea butter, olive oil high percentage (6–17%): unrefined shea butter very high...

I will take a look at the oil cloths, earlene! And making my own cloth liners with lanolin seems a great possibility especially after reading that lanolin is almost completely unsaponifiable as well as used in some soaps. Whatever is saponifiable might be removed by the first batch...

Wikepedia is saying this about oil cloth: "Oilcloth, also known as enameled cloth or American cloth, is close-woven cotton duck or linen cloth with a coating of boiled linseed oil to make it waterproof. Historically, pre-Mackintosh, oilcloth was one of very few flexible, waterproof materials...

Amazing, earlene! I'd found that video a few days ago but didn't watch it from start to finish until just now. The floor is covered in large sheets of wax paper before they pour. Maybe that paper has a thicker coating of wax than paper found here, and maybe the paper is thicker. I've read from...

Yesterday, I found another study on siloxanes migrating into food. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d63b/8dae052a78719743c5007cd610572255e3a8.pdf Long baking times, high fat foods, untempered molds (not sure how to find tempered molds since most product listings don't give that info.), and fat...

Based on the following statement, I'm guessing that silicone molds used for baking and soaping are made of the high molecular weight silicone polymers. "Polymers of moderate molecular weight are fluids, while high molecular weight, slightly cross-linked polymers are elastomeric. "...

It also mentioned inhalation (they volatilize, it appears). Thank you! I had assumed that products such as molds might contain none of the lower weight particles. I wonder who could answer such questions about what spatulas and molds (ice, soap, baking) are made of and, if they contain lower...

I appreciate that you shared your thought process, Steffamarie, and thank you for clarifying that you were not accusing me of attempting to change the practices of the forum at large. I also very much appreciate the suggestion that silicone might be a safer choice for molds and such. I had...

Those things are not in my budget unless perhaps used. So, I will wait until I can invest in that type of equipment before starting. The effects are well known enough (through several studies, not just one) for many manufacturers to have switched to BPA-free plastic. What they don't tell the...

It's the risk to whoever is using the soap, myself or customers, that concerns me largely because the researchers were very concerned about the laboratory effects of what was extracted from most of the products on the market. (They know of safe alternative chemicals at very little cost increase...