Recent content by secondspring

I made 100% lard soap once and it was sooooo slow to trace!! I hand-wisk, and my arms were sore afterwards! (good workout, though! :D )

I never thought about growing loofah! I've already ordered some seeds! I'm stuck in an apartment, but my Mom is going to help me out with growing loofah, mint, and calendula. I am so excited!

I just made these sugar scrubs following that 1-2-3 recipe... Genius! They turned out perfect!! And it was a great way to get rid of some old soap+FOs that faded in regular CP. Thanks for sharing!!

I've used lemon juice before. I just subbed 1/5 of my water for lemon juice and made my recipe for a 5% superfat. No scent came through, but I got a light yellow tint to the soap.

I got brown lather from using sweet tea as a sub for water!

I actually just did a 100% lard soap a few weeks ago. I SF at 7%, but didnt add any castor or anything like that... It did take a loooooong time to trace, but it is gorgeous! Just be warned, I left mine in the mold over a 3 day weekend, thinking that it would act like 100% OO soap and need extra...

I think that one of the reasons that I was successful at it was that I hand-whisk my soap batter, so it traces a lot slower, giving me more time to juggle. That, and the batch I recently made was 50% OO, so that slowed it down even more!

I do things a little differently... I actually just did this the other night! (I use smaller molds, like cupcake molds and silicone loaf pans, so that might come into consideration, too) What I do is I first figure out what I want to do. The other night, I planned on 2 loafs (one lavender...

I've used both. With the lemon juice, I substituted the juice for approx. a 5th of the water. With tea, I subbed the whole thing for water. I love both of them... both made very nice soaps.

My Mom wants me to make her some soap that is 100% lard!! Apparently, that is what she used as a kid and she loved it and wants more... yikes!! Has anyone had any experience with making soap that's 100% lard? I am a 7% superfat kind of gal, but i'm wondering if I should adjust... I have never...

I've been looking into making small silicone molds for embellishments. I found silicone putty in the polymer clay section of my local craft store (label says it is food safe, so I'm assuming that it's soap safe!), but I havent had the chance to try it out yet.

I've used soybean before, but only in small percentages. I made one batch where soy was the heaviest, and it started to DOS within about 10 weeks. I havent had a problem with small percentages in batches.

Castor oil is great for increased lather. I use it at about 5% in my normal soaps, but I have read that for shaving soap a good percentage is 20%.

Oh my lord, I LOVE thrift stores!! Last time I went, I found two silicone loaf pans, a teddy bear mold that makes a 6 ounce bar of soap, and some smaller ice cube tray molds for embellishments!! All of that cost me around $6!

Oh, thank you for the links!! I've been asking around local pharmacies as I shop around town, but so far, no dice.