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The reason I asked is because I can't buy lard here from the market so I have to render it myself. I remember lard in the US being sold in hard blocks like butter which made sense when I hear people loving the hard, creamy white lard bars they've made. But, when I rendered it myself, yup, high...

TEG do you render the lard yourself?

I've used milk cartons before. They work fine, are free, and are disposable. What's not to like? They give an interesting circular swirl that I can actually do using gm, honey and beeswax which are all swirl killers :) you can see what I mean in this example, (sorry for poor picture quality)...

It's such a pretty color, all warm and, well, honey colored :) I've had some do that partial gel and after a while it fades. That was why I started putting them in the refrigerator for a couple hours. I've never had the honey or beeswax scent last through saponification. It would be cool if...

I've used hydrosols in lotions, conditioner, toner and shampoo and I really like the smell of rose hydrosol but not the lavender. The lavender smells kind of like dirt to me so I have to use EO to cover it up and I use it at a low %, usually not more than 10%. I like to use rose hydrosol in my...

I put honey and beeswax in all my soaps and even in many of my other products. That was actually how I got started in soap making, trying to find other uses for our honey and wax! It makes really lovely soaps, they are harder and they lather beautifully. I usually use fresh goats milk, or goat...

Thanks both of you for responding. I also am convinced there is a problem with the lye. I live in a foreign country which has a very difficult language to master so even though I can get by in daily life in Finnish I can't understand many labels, etc. I asked two of my suppliers here (who don't...

Sorry I forgot to say I got the glycerin from a soap supplier here in Finland and I got the KOH from a hardware store here which is what the soap supplier told me to do. She said it was likely the only place to find it here.

I started by weighing the 296g of glycerin into a stainless steel pan. Then I weighed the KOH into another container, then stirred the KOH into the glycerin. I turned on the heat to med-hi and began heating and stirring. The longer it cooked the thicker it got. It seemed like the glycerin was...

I'm trying to make IL's GLS recipe from this site today. But, the lye and glycerin won't turn clear. I stirred it for 30 mins on med-hi and I could still feel gritty stuff and it was a white paste. So I thought maybe it needed more glycerin so at 30 mins I added 10g more glycerin. After 10 mins...

Today I made the stinkiest batch of soap EVER.......leftover christmas beer soap. Wow! First it stunk up the whole house when I cooked the foam out of it last night. Then when I mixed it with the lye I thought one of the dogs had an accident! No kidding it stinks! I liked the caramel color of...

You can see we all totally understand and are excited with you, lol. That's what's so nice about talking to other completely addicted soapers :) It's an awesome space!

I've wanted to try a cream soap for awhile and since I hadn't found this thread yet I made the soaping 101 recipe which didn't turn out how I imagined, it was too stiff and I had to add a lot of water and then it got too fluffy. It's been rotting for a month now. Then I saw this thread and it...

I just checked the Finnish customs site and indeed the UK must be different because I can import from any other EU member country and not pay additional VAT or customs. YAY! I am going to check out that Netherlands site pronto! @MySoapyHeart, thanks for opening this thread. I hope we can all...

Why do you have to pay customs if both are in the EU? I'm asking because I wonder if I would also have to pay. This would be a great find otherwise.

I completely agree. Got the lotion, milk soap, and liquid soap books and am now working thru the lotion one. She presents things well.

I've never done one before but it sounds so interesting. I'm in!

Good article, thanks for suggesting it. The photography can often be the hardest part!

Pinky swirls in honor of Valentine's Day or Ystävänpäivä which is what it's called here. I actually kind of prefer the Finnish concept which is "friendship day", a day when you show love and kindness to your dear friends. Anyway, it put me in a pink swirly mood which is kind of fun sometimes. I...

Ooooooh, scale envy! Where'd you get this one from?