Search results

I'm trying a technique I haven't used since 2005 to see if I can replicate the results. I made a tea with distilled water and powdered chlorella, strained it through a coffee filter, then mixed in the NaOH. Like before, the tea was a very pale green color, and when I made this soap back in 2005...

I haven't been active on this forum for a while, but I have been making soaps. Here are some of the recent batches: Left to right: cedar & fir; West Indian bay; cedar & lemongrass; West Indian sandalwood; lemon eucalyptus; and rosemary.

I'm making a batch of soap today and ground some almonds to add to the batch. In the past, I've used blanched almonds; today I used unblanched almonds with their brown seedcoat still on them. I put the freshly ground almonds through a fine mesh strainer so only the smallest particles sift...

I've searched and I haven't found any posts on adding ground pumpkin seeds to soap. I would think finely ground pumpkin seeds would act as a mild exfoliant in soap. I'm going to puree some of the pumpkin to add to the batch; adding ground pumpkin seeds would make the bars extra "pumpkiny." Has...

Last weekend I made my first batch of beer soap. I put a 12 oz bottle of Redhook Autumn Ale in a water bottle and left it in the fridge for a week to get it flat. Then I put it on the stove and boiled it down to just 1.5 ounces of beer syrup and added it to the batch at trace. It seemed like a...

I've made soap with liquid goat milk before but am making it with whole fat powdered goat milk for the first time. My intuition tells me to add about a tablespoon per pound of oils. I usually make 4 pound batches so I'm intending to add about 4 tablespoons. Does that sound like an appropriate...

I just purchased some dried, powdered nettle leaf. Nettle is reputed to be very good for the skin and the dried, green powder should result in a green bar, though I'm thinking the lye may turn it brown. Has anyone here experimented with making nettle soap?

I just purchased some powdered cranberry fiber to use as a colorant/exfolient in soap. It is reputed to add a pink to red hue to CP soap depending on how much is added. I am excited to experiment with it. Has anyone here used this ingredient before?

Some people categorize their soaps by their uses: shaving soap, shampoo bar, gardener's soap, kitchen soap, etc. I'm looking to categorize by the themes, below. I pulled most of these themes from Melinda Cross' wonderful book, The Handmade Soap Book. Here are the themes with examples of...

Years ago I recall a friend swearing by an expensive soap he purchased that had diatomaceous earth in it. Diatomaceous earth is not actually dirt or clay but 250 million year old material made of fossilized diodes(microscopic single-celled algae). The super tiny fossilized particles are reputed...

I'm planning on making a rosemary EO soap and have dried some fresh rosemary from my garden to grind into a powder to add to the soap. Has anyone here ever used powdered rosemary to their batches? I'm hoping it contributes a hint of green color to the bars but my hunch is it will turn gray or...

I purchased some unsweetened, whole fat (14g per 1/3 cup) coconut milk today to use for soap. I'm thinking I'll mix it with distilled water in a 50/50 ratio before adding the NaOH. I haven't used coconut milk before but have made several batches of goat milk soap. My questions: Do I need to be...

Lately I've been thinking about making a couple batches soap based on the category of the source materials. For example, making a nut soap using oils of almond, macadamia, coconut, and cocoa-butter, using coconut milk as the liquid, scenting it with nutmeg EO and adding finely ground almonds to...

Hi, Gang. I made a batch of soap today and scented it with Anise EO. I added just a little bit of Ceder EO as a fixative. I wanted to add another scent but couldn't decide on a complimentary scent so I just used the Anise EO. I usually make my soaps with two essential oils but with Anise I came...

Southernheartsoaps, I have never had much success retaining true citrus EO scents in soap. I typically use Lemongrass for a citris scent as it survives the saponification process quite well. Cedar and Lemongrass is one of my favorite EO combinations for soap. After 24 hours the room where I...

Okay, I admit it, I love tech toys. Last year I bought a magnetic stirrer from a laboratory supply company and I've been using it to mix my lye. I love it! Stirring the NaOH into the water was my least favorite part of soapmaking. Now I just put the magnetic stif bar into a beaker filled with...

Hi, Gang. I made a batch of soap today and scented it with lemon eucalyptus EO. I'm hoping the fresh, lemony scent will persist through the saponification process. I didn't realize until after I made the batch that lemon eucalyptus is a natural bug repellent. I'm hoping that the soap will...

I'm exploring wood scents in my soap batches. On May 1st I made a batch of Cedar & Fir Needle EO soap and it's quite lovely. It's subtle and some people can't discern the scent, though they say it smells "clean." I can smell it though and I love it. I'm looking for other EO combinations based on...

Okay, I know there must be a swillion of them on here. I'm looking for a good salt soap recipe. Have never made a salt bar. Am especially curious to make a batch with sea salt. Who can help me out?

Hello, fellow soapmakers! I find that I do soapmaking in bursts, then sit back and rest on my laurels for several months. I like that about soapmaking: a three hour investment in time leads to a supply of soap that will last for several months. I only sell my bars to a few family members and...