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This morning I was reading a thread here and someone (who shall remain nameless for all their shadowy vagueness) mentioned their non-use of EDTA and its toxicity. Now I ‘grew up’ with EDTA in biomedical uses and am always a little sceptical when toxicity and environmental issues get thrown about...

I found this little wiki-style page during one of my searches this morning. I like it,likely because of it's pure techno-science-geek approach to soap … forget the aesthetics, let's go "amphipathic". Anyways, some others here may enjoy /appreciate it...

When I decanted some castor oil just now, the final parts of the pour included a thicker pearly opalescent liquid. It formed cute worms and blobs as I poured it. "No problems", I assumed it was just solid-liquid phase change ... not really thinking back to the fact that castor oil is liquid at...

You were absolutely spot-on. My almost-year-old olive oil soap is now a lovely hard white (larger block in image). One batch, my first-ever soap making effort, has also introduced me to what I take to be my first DOS (smaller block).

Many of you are probably aware of the issue of environmental and pollutant chemicals (e.g. phthalates and bisphenols) having oestrogenic effects and, thereby, anti-androgen effects. There's squillions of articles and research publications 'out there', for example water pollution contributing to...

My searches are not yielding much :-( Is there some way of adding gloss / glazed accents to soap ... without messing up the innate soap-I-ness? I have not yet tested but egg-white and sugar syrup are is the most likely options I can think of. Glycerin and oil may be fine for many foodstuffs but...

I just discovered (was advised) of a rule about posting elsewhere. Please excuse me, I'll edit-empty these. Sorry all.

I’m having no difficulty sourcing the main vegetable oils that, so far, I have been using for my beginner soap-making efforts. I keep seeing tallow / lard mentioned, usually in the context of whiter soaps and harder soaps, and want to explore that direction a little more. I have two questions...

When I added the lye, and mixed with a spoon, it formed a slightly granular looking slightly gelatinous mixture. That seemed fine, so I gently stick-mixed to a light trace. 30s later, as I went to add mica and EOs, it'd returned to its previous state. So I stick-mixed again, to a slightly...

I had to recalculate my quantities on the fly ... not having enough NaOH left for the batch size I'd planned. Ooooops, prior planning and all that. Anyways my next noob-soapmaking effort is 100% olive oil CP soap - 900g OO, 116g NaOH, 300g H2O, with approx' 20ml of lavender EO. It took ages...

I am new to all this, but enjoying immensely ... as long as I don't dwell too long over this morning's effort. Anyways, I do not have any of those nice silicone moulds yet and bash some timber scraps together, and throw in some baking paper, to make my soap moulds. I need to make a mould for...

I am a brand-new noob soap-maker ... first cold-process batch last weekend, and second yesterday. I live near Wellington, New Zealand, with my wife, a variable number of children, and some dogs and cats. My motivation to start was a "surely I can fix that" response to my wife suffering skin...