Recent content by Zen Pretzel

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. Zen Pretzel

    First Time Salt Bar

    I made two batches of salt bars today at 17% sf. They had 100% and 75% salt as a percentage of CO. It took a long time to trace. I know salt bars need a minimum of six months cure time to reach their potential, but how long should I wait to test one to see if what I'm doing is working? I want...
  2. Zen Pretzel

    What soapy thing have you done today?

    I'm experimenting with salt bars. Today I made two batches. One had 100% salt and the other 75% in terms of percentage to coconut oil. My next covid inspired day off work, I'll make two more batches at 50% and 25%.
  3. Zen Pretzel

    What soapy thing have you done today?

    I made a double batch of charcoal soap with a fragrance called old time barbershop. I've made 8 batches in the past 4 days. This is how I plan to get through quarantine.
  4. Zen Pretzel

    First Time Salt Bar

    Very cool. Getting some good ideas here. I'll give it a go at 17%. I'm also going to experiment with salt at 50% 75% and 100% to see what I prefer. I am planning on letting the rest of the batch cure for at least six months. I just wanted to test one to see if I like it and want to make more...
  5. Zen Pretzel

    First Time Salt Bar

    UPDATE: After letting my bars cure, I've been using one of them for the past couple of weeks. Tbh, I'm not thrilled about how they turned out. They're too hard and I can't feel the salt when I use it. I did some research and it turns out that I should be doing something closer to 20% superfat...
  6. Zen Pretzel

    How quickly did you start

    It started with taking a soapmaking class. That gave me a base soap recipe to use. I wasn't planning on making all this soap, but I bought a bunch of materials over the couple of months that followed until I had a decent stockpile of materials. I'm now about 25 batches in. I'm making different...
  7. Zen Pretzel

    I Messed Up - Learn From Me

    A couple days ago, I made an error while soapmaking. I've been experimenting with mica powders and swirling techniques my last few batches. Using my usual soap recipe, I split my batch and added the coloring. I was more than halfway through pouring the soap into my mold when I realized that I...
  8. Zen Pretzel

    Beer Soap?

    That probably is what happened. I brought the beer to a full boil, but didn't give it enough time to cool off. The other times I gave it a few minutes and had no problems. I'll pay closer attention to this in the future. Thanks. For my next batch, I'm going to make a soap out of a beer lye...
  9. Zen Pretzel

    Beer Soap?

    I now have four kinds of beer soaps I've been making this past week. From left to right: Corona, Labatt Blue, Rickards Red and Guinness. I wanted to experiment with different types of beer from light to dark. Labatt Blue was my middle of the road beer soap. Strange thing with Labatt Blue: I...
  10. Zen Pretzel

    Beer Soap?

    We could definitely make some Corona beer soap with lime fragrance oils. Given the state of today's society, I'd call it "Coronavirus with a slice of Lyme disease". I'm sure it will be a bestseller.
  11. Zen Pretzel

    Beer Soap?

    Cool. So far I've made beer soap using Guinness and another batch using a red beer. Today I'm going to make a beer soap using Corona. I wasn't planning on adding any fragrances, but adding a lime scent to a Corona bar of soap sounds like a great idea.
  12. Zen Pretzel

    Beer Soap?

    From what I've been able to research, the beer doesn't add a whole lot to the soap. There are some minor qualities that get affected when beer is used, along with a slight odor, but I'm making this more for the novelty factor. Beer soaps are big sellers for a lot of soapmakers, so it's something...
  13. Zen Pretzel

    Beer Soap?

    I've also started playing with the beer soaps. A tall boy can is the perfect amount. After boiling off the alcohol, I just needed to add a tiny bit of water. I made soap with Guinness today. In the future, I plan on making beer using Corona, to test a light beer, Rickards Red to use a red beer...
  14. Zen Pretzel

    First Time Salt Bar

    I used silicone molds for the overflow, which I had a lot of with this recipe. I popped them out 24 hours later with no breakage or problems of any kind. So far they've held up better in the molds than the normal soap that I make.
  15. Zen Pretzel

    First Time Salt Bar

    So not as bad as I thought. Thanks for helping me understand. In the future, I'll use molds and stick to the cheap salt. I'm going to keep experimenting with salt bars. Future variations will include a similar recipe with a lower salt volume and a different one that uses coconut milk.
Back
Top