Recent content by Susie

That's a lot of Coconut Oil.

It does not have to be a bucket, it can be any sort of container that is air tight.

All of the above. Also, welcome to the wonderful world of pucker factor for days. This, too, shall pass. You will get this. No one was born knowing this stuff.

I'm sorry, y'all. The person that said Zany is permanently suspended is not an admin or mod. If they were, they would not be able to discuss this. If they got the info from Zany herself, it needs to be posted as the information source. And if it was from her, then you need to remember that...

Hi, and welcome!

My dilution solution is to start with half of the paste weight of water. Then, once that is absorbed by the paste, add half of the previous water amount. After that is absorbed, use 1/2 of the water amount you just used. Once that is absorbed, continue using half of the previous water amount at...

I used to have soft water and routinely used tap water to make soap. It all worked perfectly. Now, though, I have very hard water. And I can barely bathe in it, much less soap with it. So, I soap with distilled water and 0.5% tetrasodium EDTA.

Phenolpthalein is not better than strips. I can tell you now that it will turn pink. It is supposed to. It is alkaline. There is no need to neutralize soap. Just use a proper soap calculator on the front end set to 2% superfat and your soap will not need any of that. Also, learn to zap test, and...

Jackie Thompson uses the Jackie Thompson uses the old lye excess then neutralize method some of our members are fond of. Thank you again for bringing sanity to this situation.

Yep, I use glycerin and cold process for my liquid soap. Saves me a ton of time.

I'll second DeeAnna's dry bucket method! I am from Louisiana, where it is warm and humid 10 months of the year. I still store all my NaOH and KOH in them before I masterbatch.

I soap hot, and keep my soap on a heating pad to force gel. I can usually unmold and cut at about 12 hours. I usually wait a few hours, but I could do it then, if I had to. I typically zap test when I cut.

I made a couple of batches of soap with my daughter's help today. I would have made more, but I realized I bought disodium EDTA rather than tetrasodium EDTA. So I masterbatched everything else and ordered the correct stuff.

I put my micas in the bottoms of the containers I am going to mix in. Once I get a stable emulsion, I pour off into those cups, stir and then pour my soap. No muss, no fuss.

I'll give you the safer method: wet your finger, rub on the soap until you get lather, touch that soapy finger to your tongue. If you get a sharp zap like you put a 9 volt battery to your tongue, it is still too "raw" to safely use. My method is to stick my tongue on the sample bar to see if it...