Recent content by GraceDarlingSoaps

Made my second batch of transparent soap yesterday but right at the end after I had skimmed off the foam on the surface,I poured without straining, thinking that the tiny bit of foam inside would not matter! Here are the photos, some bars clear, some spotty and some that I can’t pretend are not...

Hi, It’s Janella from GraceDarlingSoaps. I finally feel ready to start with transparent soaps and have bought Catherine Failor’s book. However I want to start with a small quantity eg 1 pound of oils, and I understand that one can’t just scale down the recipes in the book. Is anyone willing to...

Thank you both, I will do some testing on a paper towel as suggested, I appreciate your advice

Dear Fellow Soapers, It's GraceDarling Soaps from Cape Town, South Africa back after a long break. I ordered Pine EO, thinking it would smell like a pine forest but it smells like antiseptic toilet cleaner. Does anyone have any suggestions what other EO I could combine with it to improve the...

I wonder if the high ph of the lye would kill any nasty bacteria?

I finally did my rebatch, finely grated, soaked overnight in little coconut milk, pressed firmly into a silicon mould and oven heated at 120 degrees C for 3 hours, standing in a little water. Half the mould was stirred and half left alone, the pics are attached. Unfortunately I don't think it...

Hi CrispySoap Great to have you on the forum, your Tumeric soap is beautiful, I suggest you cure it in a darkish place to prevent any fade. My daughter uses Tumeric directly on her skin as a paste if she has a pimple, apparently it is good for skin problems. I have made Tumeric soap once and it...

Has anyone tried the microwave EO distiller that was developed at Oregon State University. The web page is http://oilextech.com/ I hate throwing away piles of garden cuttings eg lavender, bay leaf and rosemary that I could use to make EO's but I don't want to set up a proper still. This...

Hi Brewer George, I agree that it is the EO's that add significantly to the cost but I think that Lavender is stunning in CP soap especially after a nice long cure. It is not one of the most expensive EO's and I think it really adds quality to the soap. I do think that even after saponification...

Dear fellow soapers, As a newbie I have had to rebatch a few times and find that as I scoop the soap into the mold it starts drying out on the surface and ends up with an ugly looking surface. I wondered if anyone has rebatched in the oven directly in a silicon mold i.e. There would be no need...

Hi Rowan I did not force gel eg CPOP, but I tucked the soap up for the night in a modern day " hay box" . This is a bag containing small polystyrene balls that is used to insulate a pot of food for slow cooking. The soap gets gently warm but I don't look till the next morning when it is cold...

I use Shea Butter between 5 and 10% in every batch, it is lovely on the skin and is used a lot in Africa for skin and hair products. It does not melt as easily as Palm oil and CO but I microwave all my hard oils slowly together, the Shea is the last to dissolve, then I add this to my liquid...

Thank you for your help, fellow soapers, I am just about to make a batch with fresh ginger juice, ginger FO and rooibosch tea, am going to add the ginger juice and FO to the oils as I am not sure how they will affect trace. Happy Soaping to all, GraceDarlingSoaps

Just to let you know that my one soap that I previously posted has faded very badly when I left the batch in a fairly light room on a table, here is the picture. Both of these were colored with paprika, the one that did not fade had rooibosch tea instead of water and also the powder was not...

Thank you Shunt2011, it seems to me more relaxing to add whatever one is using to the oils, get it all nice and smooth and then start the lye process, without having to worry about adding possible trace accelerants later on. I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this?