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Unlike some people, I like glycerin rivers. I made a layered soap and my intention was to have glycerin rivers in the middle section. So I made a lye concentration of 28% for the middle layer (as opposed to 35% for the other two), I mixed ultramarine blue and water-soluble TD with glycerin and...

Yesterday, I blanched some purple sprouting broccoli and the water was a beautiful shade of green. Can it be used in soap or will it turn brown? (I have the feeling that it will go brown...) Has anybody tried it?

I read that cetyl alcohol will increase and stabilise the lather in CP soaps so of course I had to try it. I used it at 2% of the oil weight and melted it beforehand. When I poured it into the batter (which was nearly at trace) it turned into blobs. Stirring was not enough to dissolve them so...

In this forum, there is a very long thread called de-funk de pits which was started in 2016. In it, DeeAnna (post no. 361) posted her recipe which I have tried and liked and used since 2017. It is a wonderful deodorant (thank you DeeAnna!) but I have found that, now, it irritates my underarms...

I poured a fancy melt and pour layer at the bottom of my mould, sprayed it with rubbing alcohol and then poured cold process soap batter on top. When I unmoulded it the following day, the melt and pour layer separated. What is the secret for "sticking" melt and pour and cp?

Has anybody purchased the book by LisaLise entitled "Make your own naturally balanced shampoo bars" (https://www.lisalise.com/shop/make-your-own-shampoo-bars)? It costs $36.50 which I find a bit excessive for only 70 pages. I am wondering whether it is worth the price.

I have a lot of soaps on the go in my bathroom and, as a result, they don't get used very often. I have noticed that two of the soaps have developped DOS whereas the other soaps from the same batch which are in my soaping room have no DOS. Also, the two soaps with DOS happen to contain shea...

Last night, while we were having dinner, we heard the sound of something falling and then broken glass. I went to look in the kitchen and found nothing except a strong smell (rather pleasant) of orange. Eventually, I went to my soaping room (which is next to the kitchen) and found that a...

I recently bought a tub of dishwashing paste and, as it's quite good, I thought I would try and replicate it. Here is the list of ingredients: Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate Sodium Cocoate Baking Soda Distilled Vinegar Distilled Water Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Peel Oil I am confused by the...

I have made many lotions and creams in the past warming up both water and oil phases and then combining them when they reach the right temperature. The other day, I decided to try and make some lotion in one pot - adding all the ingredients together (except for the cool phase ingredients). It...

Last month, I finally made Lindy's cream soap following her tutorial (A Cream Soap Tutorial). It worked very well and it now looks lovely - thank you Lindy if you are still around. And now for a daft question: what can I do with it apart from using it as a replacement for bar soap? Are there...

Having read about the benefits of using vinegar in soap, I made a small batch yesterday (500g). I used 70g vinegar (5% acetic acid) and an extra 2.5g NaOH. I also used 10g citric acid and an extra 6.24g NaOH. So, in all I used 8.74g extra NaOH. It all went well but today I was expecting the...

I live in the UK and therefore buy micas in the UK. I don't buy them from the US because of the high shipping costs and import duties. My daughter is going to New York in a few months' time and I thought of ordering some and getting them sent to her hotel. My question is: what supplier would...

I found this on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BSB3RGT/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 Do you think that it would be suitable to line sections of plastic pipe that I want to use as soap moulds?

I have always used 5% castor oil in my soaps until I came across this thread: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/tallow-soap.71968 In post no. 2 Irish Lass gave a recipe in which she used 23% castor oil. Incidentally, I tried this recipe and the resulting soap is wonderful. Thank you...

I think I read somewhere that adding palm stearin will give the soap a higher percentage of glycerin. Apart from that, what are the advantages of using palm stearin? How much should be used? 2% of oil weight?

When formulating a face/body cream/lotion, I know that the choice of oils will make it more or less suited to certain types of skin (dry, oily, combination). Does the same apply to emulsifiers? For example, is ewax NF better for dry or oily skin? I have ewax NF, BTMS, BTMS-50, Simulgreen...

I have a question for the chemists among you: is it safe to use copper carbonate to colour soap? The powder is a beautiful pale green/turquoise colour and I have read that, in an alkaline environment, it turns turquoise. Obviously, I would only use a very small amount but I worry about its...

I have found on a French website a lady who makes her own deodorant with magnesium carbonate. There was a long thread on the Forum about using magnesium hydroxide for its deodorising virtues. For the chemists among you, is there a difference between magnesium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide...

Is it possible to add this to soap (instead of EDTA)? This is what I read about it: The outstanding property of sodium gluconate is its excellent chelating power, especially in alkaline and concentrated alkaline solutions. It forms stable chelates with calcium, iron, copper, aluminium and other...