Recent content by Garden Gives Me Joy

I am experimenting with making my own syndet hair shampoo bars and came across advice to use a 'preservative booster or co-preservative' along with PhenoxyEthanol (PhE) because PhE is weak at combatting mold and yeast. I feel particularly motivated to look into this because of my extremely high...

Thanks for your many thoughtful responses. I was unwell and unable to respond sooner. How it all ended. In the end, the consignee paid for all bars that could not be accounted for. When she turned down my offer to count the soaps with her because I said that she might be mistaken about the full...

Here are the recipe and process. PKO, 19.5% Palm, 70% Stearic acid, 0.5% OO, 5% Sunflower, 5% NaOH discount, 5% HP (no added superfat) water, 38% citric acid, 1% oats, 10% Fragrance oil (Chamomile), 1.5% Wrapped after their water loss reached 4% (which is about 1 month after pour). My...

Agreed re not necessary to use both PKO and CO. Why did you choose to do that. In my personal case, I switched to PKO only because it is several 4 times cheaper than CO in my current location. I have come to really appreciate how it hardens and conditions bars more than CO. I am so used to it...

Binging on soap making YouTube videos to pass time while in bed in pain. Something soothing about people pouring and cutting soaps. I can't be the only one with that guilty pleasure.

Here are images of a 12-month old thick oat milk soap. I am assuming that the oozing is from 'Manzanilla' (aka chamomile) fragrance oil (by 'Mane', a Mexican company). What likely caused this? Outside of this odd look, the soaps are fine. How much of a turnoff can this oozing be potentially...

Can't go wrong with coconut oil either because it also has a long shelf life ... and it tastes so great as a conventional butter alternative. Wow!

I actually used to soap with almost only oils that I know I would cook with so that, if I no longer wanted to use that oil, it won't go to waste. Coconut, avocado and olive oils are classic examples for me. That way, I was happy to buy in larger volumes to save.

I have learnt so much through this group. There are so many very talented people here ready to engage with very knowledgeable discussion, it is mind blowing! Believe you will enjoy it. Welcome!

I started my first consignment arrangement with a lady at the farmer's market on 1st March this year. Her stall specializes in candles (that she makes). I am trying to figure how to improve arrangements like this for the future, especially since there are some inherent risks with this model...

I had this issue with my hydroscopic (brine) soap ... that I made in a highly humid tropical rain forest climate. As you can see, I got some weight gains of about 3% when the rains were just beginning by day 17 after pour. For that brine soap, I do what I call "WARM PROCESS" (neither cold nor...

Yes, I highly recommend it for extra conditioning, especially if you have dry skin. If you pinch the 5% to 8% from the percentages of coconut and or palm oils, I imagine you will more likely see the difference and appreciate that difference even more if your skin is dry and or you have dry weather.

Welcome. You are going to enjoy this forum. It has helped me a lot.

I have been noticing that pH strips could start out one color and then after several hours ie after the strips have dried, change in color to the extent that I might have interpreted the results differently if I observed the results at only one of the 2 times. My process is that I put several...

My guess is that you weighed the lye incorrectly somehow. I recall one class in which my group poured out lye using the weight of another ingredient. Thank goodness that was before we felt confident enough to pour the lye directly into the water. Otherwise, perhaps you tried to combine the oils...