Recent content by clouser

Looking back, my problem was probably adding all the lye to the beer at once. I should have added the lye little by little while stirring.

One thing I'll add that I didn't see anyone else mention: After you've simmered the alcohol off, freeze the beer before you add the lye to it. The first time I tried making beer soap, I just let the beer cool before adding the lye. It got REALLY hot, bubbled up big time, and stunk like burnt...

How long has it been curing?

Thanks everyone. I've had a few batches go through partial gel, so that's why this one perplexed me. It didn't LOOK like partial gel, but I'm still new to all of this, so I wasn't sure. I've noticed that the whiter middle part of the bars have turned just slightly darker in just the three hours...

I just cut my latest batch into bars. This is my 7th batch of soap, and I haven't run into this yet. It's like the outer part went through gel phase, but the inner part didn't. Any idea what's going on here? Here's the recipe I used: 45% Lard 25% CO 20% OO pomace 5% Castor Oil 5% Sweet Almond...

I've never used it, but Bramble Berry sells an almond FO that looks to behave well in CP soaps. It has good reviews, too.

If you have a pumpkin carving kit, there might be a round, pointed punch in there for punching holes in pumpkins. I bet that would work.

I only have six batches of soap under my belt so far, but with all this talk about salt soap, I decided to give it a shot. My daughter has occasional acne breakouts, so I'm going to see if the salt bars help her out. They turned out looking great, so now we wait for six months. Hopefully, they...

Thanks DeeAnna. That's what I figured, but I wanted to make sure. If I used the combined weight of oils and salt, that's a lot of EO!

Hey everyone! I'm a newbie that has six batches of soap under my belt so far. I still have a lot to learn. My recipes are still basic, but all have turned out great so far. With the latest talk about the benefits of salt soap, I'm looking to make a batch for my wife and daughter since both of...

I'm a biologist.

Howdy everyone. I'm yet another newbie from Texas. I've made four batches of CP so far, and I'm learning a ton just by browsing through this forum. A little background on why I decided to start making my own soap: About a year ago, the sides of my torso started to itch. I never developed a...