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To enter the April 2024 SMF Challenge, post your name in the list below. Then copy and paste these instructions and the entire list into a new post, adding the next number at the bottom. Sign-up list: 1.Vicki C - I have something I have been wanting to try! 2. ScentimentallyYours - 🍰 a reason...

I bought a Hercules cutter based on @AliOop’s recommendation in this thread. I love it! Worth every penny.

The hardest soap I’ve made was Ben Franklin‘s Crown Soap, of tallow and Bayberry wax. I made a boiled soap version and a cold process version with modifications. The boiled soap version, which I still have some bars of, is hard like a piece of plastic and it doesn’t even dent. I’m thinking the...

Are you going to use this as a bath soap? Or do you have in mind a purpose other than a person‘s body? Like maybe soap for keeping drawers from sticking or ??? If I just wanted a hard soap and wasn’t worried about a balanced recipe and bathing performance, I would make a steric acid soap using...

I second @DeeAnna’s question about your definition of hardness. And I have a follow up question that’s related. What is your purpose in creating a hard bar of soap?

Did you look at correlation between seasons when the soap was being used and itchy skin? I ask because my husband had terrible itchy skin every year in late winter. Realizing that late winter was a time following prolonged lack of exposure to the sun, he started taking vitamin D supplements...

Where do you live @Janis James? It’s possible the change in seasonal temperatures is another factor messing with partial gelling. I’ve used the plastic MW molds for CPOP in an oven that warmed to 100F with good results, but the replacement oven warms to 170F, which melts the molds. In summer I...

Look at your post above @shannonx468 and click the words “soap calculator.” Or maybe the link will show up in this post, too?

The first picture is dark, so it’s hard to tell what is going on with the soap. Are you using silicone molds? Did you CPOP them or leave them at room temperature to saponify? I ask because it looks like the one bar has a partial gel.

The recipe I’m currently playing with uses either high oleic safflower oil or high oleic sunflower oil. The reason for using the high oleic oil is to have a lower percentage of linoleic and linolenic fatty acids, which can turn rancid and cause dreaded orange spots (DOS). Sunflower oil sounds...

I accidentally end up with a stray dog hair now and then, but nothing too strange that I’ve put in on purpose. Dare I ask what other weird additives you put in soap? Bird spit is pretty strange, as is spider silk!

You might try pre-warming the silicone molds to see if that helps with the ash. I’ve done it before to help CP batter stay fluid longer, and it may work for the ash. It’s on my list of things to try. I stick blend my oils and fragrances to make sure everything is well blended before adding...

Didn’t you use a dog bone, shape, mold, or cookie cutter to give those poor people a hint? 🤣🤣🤣

Is there a term for “dagging” when done with dogs? 🤔

Why are you adding lanolin? I ask because I learned it frequently causes allergic reactions, which it did for me after using it regularly in lip and skin products. Lanolin also results in a sticky finish. So I was wondering what you want to achieve by adding the lanolin.

Thanks to @AliOop I started using sorbitol and instantly saw a difference in larger bubbles. The benefit of sorbitol over sugars/honey is that it doesn’t seem to overheat the soap during CPOP or discolor it. (I haven’t scientifically tested this yet, but it seems to be holding true in multiple...

The keyword was saliva, so when I looked up bird nest saliva, I learned a great deal! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edible_bird%27s_nest I can’t see using anything other than scraps in soap. $$$$$ If I really thought the bird nest was beneficial to the skin, wouldn’t it be better in lotion...

No, not Shea unless the Shea was never melted to begin with. It looks to me like the soap batter was never thoroughly mixed, and you have lumps of soap that weren’t blended with colorant. It also may indicate that your lye and fats and fragrances may be out of whack. I had that happen to one...

Have you considered “washing” the Shea butter? It is basically the exact exact same process as rendering tallow, and probably how the Shea butter was originally cleaned and processed. I have done this with other older solid oils and had great results. The process would basically require that...

Congratulations to everyone who got soap made for this challenge! I thought It was a good learning experience, especially on the finer points of working with soap at the emulsion stage, which I have failed at before this. @MichaelP I marveled as soon as I saw your soap that you had made it...