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I can't help in terms of what emulsifer you'd like to use (I've always used BTMS), but Polawax and BTMS seem to be the most popular around. Use emulsifier at 25% of the total weight of all oil based ingredients - oils, butters, essential oils, silicone based additives, vit E, ect... As...

My local coles doesn't, I've searched the whole shop for it. I usually buy a lot of lotion making supplies as well as essential oils in a bulk buy from Escentials, I don't buy the lye just on it's own. They don't have a check out system there to calculate shipping, I usually have to wait a...

Fellow Aussie here, I've never seen lard for sale in either IGA or Coles locally, and I had been searching everywhere in both of them for Mechanix brand sodium hydroxide, no wonder I couldn't find it. I buy the sodium hydroxide online in bulk now, from Escentials. Good price, but hard to...

It's always nice to read a happy ending! :) Patchouli is one of the essential oils that can vary greatly between suppliers and quality. Patchouli has a stronger blending factor compared to lemongrass, so you might not need to go to a 50/50 split between the essential oils, otherwise the...

I'll be in Helsinki and Oulu next month! :)

I used the exact same - indonesian dark - for my last patchouli soap, I'm not overly happy with it.

I did a one on one class with a well established soapmaker to begin with. It was nice to do, but I felt like it was something I could have done on my own with a basic recipe and clear instructions from the internet (and saved myself $200 in the process, haha!) The biggest issues are there are...

I use it at 3% of total oil weight and it works great. It is important to get it from a reputable supplier though, there is a lot of poor quality patchouli on the market, which really does have a nasty scent to it instead of an earthy, dark, slightly sweet odour. There are no known...

I used clays to colour to begin with - I added the required amount to my warm oils and stick blended well before adding the lye solution. This made sure that there would be no pockets of dry clay in my cured soap. It worked really well, it gave the soap a solid, earthy colour. The downfall was...

These look fantastic, great job!

I study remedial massage therapy, and the idea is to have my own handmade retail side of things (I do soaps, diffusers, balms, massage blends) in my own massage practice to compliment the practical side of business. I won't be looking to sell outside of my shop once it's established, so the name...

Craig is right! I have a couple books here, one on making, one is recipes (can't buy one without the other marketing trick), which are OK, but I do find them quite biased in their opinions expressed in the book. Once you're comfortable with making soap, there are many people here who will...

Is that Finnish I spot there?

This inspires me to do something other than my regular soap - I must have done about 45+ batches and the most I've ever added was coffee grounds. I work as a barista a few days a week, so I've got heaps of nice coffee grounds available. See if you can sweet talk your hubby into building you a...

This is my first trial with packaging. I can't find a supplier for stickers or boxes yet that won't charge me an arm and a leg, so I've made it all myself at the moment.

I've used both Phenonip and Liquid Germall Plus interchangeably without any issue. The lotion works great and is starting to solidify a little, but as soon as an EO or FO and preservative is introduced, that's when it starts to turn really ugly.

I can agree with most here. She's buying your soap in larger amounts at full price, which is a great thing. The bad thing is, she might be selling them for double or triple your cost and making more money than you without even having the knowledge of how to make soap. I would stamp my bars...

Thanks for the replies, the 'cones are accounted for in the emulsifying wax total. I use 2% of each silicone. My emulsifying wax (BTMS-50) is calculated at 25% of total oils used. I tried another lotion after it separated last night, but I added the 'cones into the oil phase instead, it worked...

Have any of you successfully incorporated cyclomethicone and dimethicone into your lotions or creams before? I have both here and every time I add them at the cool down phase, they cause my mix to separate horribly and I have to throw out all these really nice ingredients I used in the mix...

You can make a nice firm bar with just the Olive, Palm and Coconut oils alone, you can give that a try next time without any hassles. I'd save the stearic acid and sodium lactate for a little further down the path, or try using them in a lotion :)