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The ingredients for her Jasmine Lilac soap: Ingredients: Olive , organic coconut, palm kernel oils, vegetable oils, Organic Shea butter, French jasmine essential oil, lilac essential oil, crushed lilac and rose flowers I wonder where she found french jasmine and lilac essential oils...

Check out Susan's blog--Point of Interest! for lots of info on solid conditioners and lots of other good stuff: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2010/06/conditioners-solid-conditioner-bars.html

Shaan, I have hard water and use a basic olive, coconut & palm recipe. It is not at all drying but I do use a 9% discount. My recipe is for a 12# batch--I use 5# olive, 4# palm (not palm kernal) and 3# coconut. I let my soap cure for 6 weeks and all go through a hot gel phase. I have tried it...

NDA has a 5fold tangerine-- http://www.newdirectionsaromatics.com/tangerine-essential-oil-5-fold-p-357.html I'd give that a try in your blend. I make a citrusy soap (using an fo) and swirl it. I use a very small amount of red iron oxide to get a light peachy orange and chromium oxide green to...

It doesn't look like DOS. My guess is that it might have something to do with the mango tea you used as your liquid.

I've been making various oatmeal soaps for 15 years and never had any issues. I would grind the oats up in a coffee mill and then sift, sift, sift. Now I just use oat flour. Saves a lot of time and bother. I use one cup of oat flour to 12 pounds of oils. My soaps are still hard and last just as...

I hate the Botanical Hemp. It smells slightly hempish but once soaped it just smells gross and not at all hemp-like. I'd hesitate ordering anything from TSW right now. They've been out of stock for a long time on some of their most popular scents, haven't updated their website since last summer...

I have a friend whose daughter is severely allergic to coconut oil. Soap made with it cause her skin to redden, get very itch and then peel.

"Lye" made from wood ash is potassium hydroxide not sodium hydroxide. So the resulting soap would be soft. When looking for lye try asking for sodium hydroxide or caustic soda. When I went to a plumbing supply shop, I asked for lye and they didn't know what I wanted until I asked for caustic soda.

That's very nice of him, but, frankly, I'd want to shoot my husband if he rearranged the stuff in my kitchen! I have things where they are for a reason so they are most convenient for me.

While, it's a great idea to start with small batches, 5 oz. is a bit too small. I'd try a 2 or 3 pound batch. Also, while a laser thermometer is great, it's not necessary. If you feel the need to use a thermometer, just pick up an instant read thermometer. I've seen them at GFC and Walmart for 6...

Good luck. Just a bit of advice. Don't use that Norma Coney book. It's full of misinformation and downright bad advice (adding water to lye, etc.) Any other book is better than that one.

What about the plastic casing? Won' that be a problem or will you remove that? (Cool idea, though!)

I'd wait till it was a bit cooler. You could always call Mike Lawson at Columbus and ask his opinion.

I make an oats & honey soap with beeswax in it. I use a very small amount of beeswax--2 ounces with 12lbs. of oils and take a 9% lye discount. I also use 1 cup of finely ground oatmeal (or oat flour) and about 3 tbsp. of honey added at trace. I melt the beeswax with the hard oils. I don't...

Try oat flour--no grinding, no sifting. You can find Bob's Red Mill at most grocery stores. I use one cup in a 12# (of oils) batch.

I'd go with a non-milk soap for your first batch. It's just one less thing to worry about. Milk soaps aren't difficult but water-based are just less bother. (I'm just thinking back to my first batch!!) Oh, and don't do what I did. My first batch I spent half the day waiting for my lye to cool...

That's a very cool dish. I love thrift shops--Goodwill, Salvation Army and St. Vincents are my favorite places to shop. The pickin's are slim around here during the cold months of the year but now that it might actually warm up the store shelves will start to fill up with treasures again. Can't...

Sorry about your crappy day but bad things usually happen in 3's so you should be good to go for the rest of the day!!

Your soaps are lovely!! Could you please post a link to Bud's soap cutters?