Recent content by NaturalSoapGirl

lots! Fresh Herbal Mint (my own blend) Satsuma Black Raspberry Vanilla Jasmine Vanilla (my own blend) Cool Water Bay Rum Vanilla Musk Deciding on a few more this week - but those are my new ones and I made 3 of my other favorites. I had a craft fair so I made 10 batches in 3...

Good choices - their Ruby Red Grapefruit is terrific. Sweet and citrusy - I love it. Smells terrific in lotion.

I personally don't like shaving bars too bubbly - it should be lathery and smooth, but not too bubbly. The 30% you have looks good to me. I use 8 oz each of olive, coconut, palm and canola, add 2 tbsp. of bentonite and then superfat with a couple oz of shea butter so it doesn't dry the skin -...

I use a fine bentonite clay powder. It does not turn the soap any unsusual color - the clay itself is gray, but you can still color the soap whatever you want. It does draw out impurities and provide great slip for shaving soap, but I have seen people use it in any kind of soap. It can dry the...

I don't spray or line mine. I just let them set for a day and then freeze them for 2-3 hours and then run hot water over them. Then I let them sit for a few minutes and let the condensation build and then push something inside until they come out. Then I let them sit another 12 hours before...

I am glad Paul mentioned the stearic acid thing... not all stearic acid is bad. Just like citric acid isn't bad. We just need to know the source of our ingredients. I personally love to make thicker creams without water and body butters without water... but my favorite is a thinner lotion that I...

I haven't used the rounded ones yet, but I do use PVC downspout which is made of the same thing, just shaped like a downspout (duh - bet you didn't guess that LOL). Anyway, I don't grease it. And there is no cap for that shape so I would think that you could just cover the round one the same way...

I read somewhere that if you can find the large containers of frying oil - like you would use in a deep fryer - that some of them are 100% palm oil also - might the vegetable oil that someone else was talking about. Maybe at a Costco or Sam's Club?

The nice thing about the zap test is that you rarely get zapped! If you do, it means your measurements were probaby way off. In that case you'd need to wait a week or two and try again. Using pH strips helps too. You'd rather know than not know and sell lye-heavy bars. MOST of the time though...

OKAY - MARR- I HAVE NO ADVICE FOR YOU, I JUST HAVE TO SAY THAT YOUR AVATAR CRACKS ME UP!!! AWESOME CHOICE. (uh... and good luck with the no-gel thing too). Sarah

Are you guys talking about using it in your base oils? or for superfatting?

Brian - I get the majority of my soap recipes online. Once I find a few I like I just modify them and stick with them. I have a few under my belt that I really like. Why fix what's not broken, right? Sarah

Paul - that's interesting that you brought up Lush. I have never used their products, but honestly, I wasn't really impressed with their presentation on their site. I had a customer contact me and ask if I had ever seen Lush products and I hadn't so I checked it out. Honestly, it reminded me a...

My thoughts on natural - no parabens, no SLS, no formaldahydes, no propylene glycol (this the kicker for M&P people since most M&P bases contain this and/or butylene glycol or worse yet - Sodium Laurel/Laureth Sulfate - SLS). Since most FO's contain EO's, but we will never know exactly at...

Here's what I do when I make coffee soap: 1) Grind your coffee grounds fine - finer than they would come normally - you will brew your coffee with these and then lay them out to dry up a bit while the coffee is cooling. It's okay that you are using the already used grounds from your coffee...