Search results

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. M

    Old Lye?

    It has been almost a year since I have made soap. I still have lye sealed in a container since the end of October because I had to ship it when I moved. I have never opened it and the container is a plastic one sealed with electrical tape to ensure safety. Would this lye still be good...
  2. M

    Expectations?

    I love the way my current soap is, but find it drying over time in comparison to my shower gel I used to use. Now, it is not abnormal for me to get dry skin certain times of the year. Particularly the winter. My recipe is: 35% Olive Oil 25% Coconut Oil 20% Avocado Oil 10% Palm Oil 5%...
  3. M

    Some more liquid soap questions

    I am hoping some of you who have experience working with liquid soaps or who has some knowledge in liquid soaps can help me out with some questions. I noticed some liquid soaps have 30% or more coconut oil. Does this make the soap harsh just like bar soaps? Does it make liquid soaps less...
  4. M

    Base Soap recipe

    I am guessing you guys have more than one base soap recipes you work off of. How many different oils do those recipes have? Why the need of several vs just one? Do you have different recipes for varying factors and what are they? So far my soap recipes have had 4 oils. Olive, coconut...
  5. M

    First swirl attempt.

    I just tried out my first swirl attempt after some stuff from Brambleberry came in. This soap is special made for my BF. His favorite color is blue and I heard cool water was a nice scent for men... so that is what I went with. I did learn a few things using Titanium Dioxide and Ultramarine...
  6. M

    Selling Soap Questions

    I have been planning on selling various homemade things for toy sized dogs (since I have toy dogs). My plan is to make clothes (hopefully including my own design silk screening), blankets, possibly wooden furniture, and of course soaps. What I want to know is, what does a hobby seller need...
  7. M

    Liquid soap making

    I am curious. Does anyone here make liquid soap? It seems everyone makes hard (for the lack of a better term) soaps (whether it is MP, CP, or HP). Is there a reason liquid soap making is not popular at all? You obviously can't be as creative with liquids as there is no swirling or pretty...
  8. M

    Help with fragrances

    My head is about to explode. I read many of the information on this forum and so many great scents from so many various sources. Some here some there some every &$%# where. :shock: **deep breath** So, I was thinking of staying with EOs only, but am feeling very limited. Originally I...
  9. M

    Remilling?

    I am thinking of remilling some soaps, but how fresh does it need to be? A few days old? Can it be done at 3 weeks? My concern is the scent is not as strong as I would like it. I have an almost 3 week old batch that I originally thought was too strongly scented, but since it has been...
  10. M

    Soap Hardness

    I know on the http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/soapcalcWP.asp Calculator, it shows you the hardness of each oil you select or for the recipe you set. How does this affect the end result? In what way? A soap recipe with 35 hardness is going to take longer to get hard than one set at 40? Does...
  11. M

    My first real soaps.

    I made my first CP GM soap a little over 2 weeks ago. I made 3 batches then with 10 oz oils. But I made my first 1 pound batch yesterday with my new 1 pound wooden mold. I cut them pretty even too this time instead of lop sided with my test batches. It isn't anything fancy. Just...
  12. M

    Lining wooden mold

    I lined my wooden mold with wax paper, but it seems some of the soap has leeched through the paper (not crevices). This is especially noticed on the bottom and long side of the mold. What would be better to line my wooden mold with so it doesn't seep through the material? How do I clean the...
  13. M

    Where do you buy your essential oils?

    I am mostly interested in getting more essential oils, but am at a loss where to buy them from. Some places seem cheaper than others. I know to watch out for 100% pure vs ones in carrier oils. Where are some good places to buy reasonably priced essential oils? I need just a few in about 2-4...
  14. M

    liquid soap vs hard soap (and CP vs HP)

    I am aware that hard soaps use sodium hydroxide and liquid soap uses potassium hydroxide. I know CP takes longer to cure than HP soaps. It seems liquid soap is made via HP, but hard soaps can be CP or HP. My goal is to make hard and liquid soaps (and shampoo?) using GM. But GM has a...
  15. M

    Shaving soap questions (rebatching and molds)

    I want to make CP GM soap with clay for my BF to be a shaving soap. I plan to use olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and almond oil. The problem is, shaving soaps are circular disk things that fit into little cups. I don't have a mold like that (yet) but have just received my wooden mold. I...
  16. M

    Premade Lye Solution

    So, how does one go about doing this? I am assuming you mix even amounts of lye to liquid. For example 1 oz lye with 1 oz liquid, to make a 50% solution. How does one go about using this for recipes though? If a recipe called for 1.5 oz of lye, do you pour out 3.0 oz as your lye solution...
  17. M

    Butters/Oils?

    So I have seen somewhere that you end up with a ratio of oil to butter. Butters making the soap harder? Tell me if I am misunderstanding any of this. My current recipe uses olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and sweet almond oil. No butters. Should I be using butters? What ratio of butter...
  18. M

    Adjusting Recipes

    Currently I made a recipe that used: 48% olive oil 28% coconut oil 19% palm oil 5% almond oil Which coming through the calculator has Hardness: 39 Cleansing: 19 Condition: 56 Bubbly: 19 Creamy: 20 I was thinking of upping the hardness, but whenever I try to change the recipe, the...
  19. M

    CP Goat's Milk Soap Questions

    I exclusively want to experiment with CP Goat's Milk soaps and have a few questions. Most instructions for CP says to cover soaps so they can gel (correct me if I am wrong, I am a newbie still). But the problem with Goat's Milk soaps is that high temperatures can cause the sugars to burn (or...
  20. M

    New: First trymaking soap today.

    I have done some reading for maybe 2 weeks before jumping into making my first batch of soap. The reason for making my own soap was that I wanted to bath my dog in something not loaded with chemicals and things I can't pronounce, much less guess what it is. I do plan to use the soap myself as...
Back
Top