Recent content by CpnDouchette

Yeah, I think I should be ok, but a bit like you, it makes me nervous. I hadn't thought about washing up and certainly didn't take any special care washing up so I think you're probably right - it's not the solution I'd hoped. I'm just annoyed with myself really, rookie mistake, but good shout...

Grade appropriate plastic jugs. I melt the solid oils, fats and butter and add them to my liquid at room temp oils.

My microwave exploded and I am not replacing it because I like the additional counter space. Bain Marie's are a faff so I bought a nice little electric plate. However, can't use my plastic jugs for melting my oils on that so got an aluminium candle melting jug not thinking about lye and...

This. Muggins here learnt this the hard way.... 🤦‍♀️

I buy all my fragrances online and everytime I will always get one scent that smells stinky. Sometimes I find the scent mellows post cure. Sometimes my husband will like it so he uses it. Sometimes I give them away. Sometimes I just leave them out in the open so the scent gradually fades. Or I...

I mixed up my lye and after doing so, realised I'd used enough water and sodium hydroxide for a full loaf, not the half batch I wanted. Not to worry, I made up the right quantities and carried on. But now I have this lye left and whats a girl to do but make some more soap?! However, I use...

Lisa from I Dream in Soap has a wonderful guide to making the right amount of soap for your mould.

I use about 50% lard. I spend a good amount of time stirring with a few short bursts on the blender. If I stop at emulsion I have a good 20 mins to faff around with measuring out, colouring etc before it starts to reach trace, sometimes longer depending on what temperature I'm soaping at and the...

I've checked my notes and I used it at 25%, 20% and then 10%. DOS was an issue at 25% and 20% but not at 10%. If you're asking whether I know it was the rapeseed vs the other oils that also contributed to oleic profile then I don't for sure. This was a good couple of years ago and my recipes...

Yup, I used it a fair bit as a replacement for olive oil which I don't like. DOS was an issue but I was using it at around 20%. I didn't notice much slime except when I did a predominantly liquid oil batch (was around 75% liquid oils). I haven't noticed any particular qualities it brings to the...

Me too! I think I once made a loaf in honor of Mayhem Miller's black barbie look on Drag Race But to answer OP, I read here somewhere that it does take a couple of uses before the bar gets really good - see @Bubble Agent's comment here: How Do You "test" Your Soap?

I have done a quick search but struggling to pin down an answer so apologies if it's been asked before. I've made some soap dough embeds for the top of my soap, I'd like to colour these gold. What's the best carrier / medium? A light weight oil or alcohol? I'm veering towards alcohol because...

Me!! I do!! I use it at a lower percentage, 13% as one of my substitutions for OO which I don't like. My DOS issue comes from hard water but even so, I don't like to go above 15%. I haven't noticed any specific properties from it at such low % but I'm fairly happy with it. Not sure that helps much

I've tried a couple of different methods of creating mica lines (dusting using a tea strainer, dissolving in isopropyl alcohol and spraying) but I find that it can lead to my bars splitting between the layers where the lines are. Cutting thicker bars would probably help but I like thin bars that...

Beautiful soap and a lovely colour. I quite like glycerin rivers. I tend to soap at 38% lye concentration and will occasionally add additional water just to get rivers in certain portions of my soap. These bars are really quite stunning, imo.