Recent content by oldragbagger

It is always confounding when you make a batch of soap the same way, using the same recipe as you have in the past and get a completely different result. I made a batch of my lavender soap last weekend, because I had 4 people who had used it in the past and wanted to buy some. So I made it...

April, those soap cake pictures were so gorgeous, my jaw was on the floor the whole time I was looking at them. They are pure art, and I could never in my wildest dreams make something like that. My hat is off to you and all the rest of you talented women who produce soap that is art!!!

I assume, Carebear, you are referring to the environmental issues when you talk about it's negative image. So, then, are you saying it is acceptable as a majority base oil?

I would image that also has a lot to do with the mildness??

I am fascinated by Savon de Marseille and would love to learn the secret recipe, which seems pretty much impossible. One thing about the process that baffles me though.... They cook it for 10 days, stirring constantly. How come it doesn't reach trace way before then???

I have been making mostly olive oil recipes from the beginning. I was in Trader Joe's recently and whenever I see natural soaps in stores I have to check out the ingredients. I noticed their soaps are made from pretty much 2 or 3 ingredients, palm oil, palm kernal oil and coconut oil (some...

I have used shea in nearly every batch of soap I have made and have never experienced this problem nor have I received any reports of it from anyone I have given soap to. What else was in the soap?

I make a wonderful gardener's soap that my friends absolutely cannot get enough of. Except for my lavender, it is my most requested soap, and it is the soap my husband uses every single day. The exfoliant/scrub factor is corn meal (finely ground), essential oils are lemongrass, cedarwood...

My soap is always just a little oily when I first unmold it. I do gel, always, by wrapping my mold in a piece of old sleeping bag. I have never gotten alligator skin or cracking or any of the rest. Anyway, I usually wait at least 24 hours to unmold (this was virtually impossible when I...

Who am I kidding. I have enough extra skin hanging around to cover a small person. That would take one hell of a lotion. Thanks for the feedback.

Anybody try the firming milk lotion. I definitely need some firming....if it works.

I give away soap all the time. Don't sell it, don't want to sell it, don't have insurance for soap, just normal homeowners insurance. Usually my giving away soap comes about because I am talking about soap with someone and they say something like "... wow, I'd really like to try that". At...

Re: ? about a book That is a good book. So is The Soapmakers Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch. I don't use any of her recipes as is, and I wouldn't use ANYBODY's recipes without running them through Soapcalc first. But all of the other information in the book is excellent as far as...

Very nice, Ian. Thanks!!!

Page 73 of the Soapmakers Companion says this..... "...the transparent formula incorporated alcohol, a drying ingredient, and they were produced at very high soapmaking temperatures, probably destroying some of the nutritive value of the vegetable oils. They were dangerous to produce, and...