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Yeah I was worried about that - I think I’ll get some new lye and see if it’s better - thanks

I’m having trouble dissolving 2.5oz lye into 7oz water (distilled). The ratio is about 2.6 : 1 (water:lye). My house is very low humidity (24% today) and the room temp is 20deg/c. For fun I put 1 oz lye into 12 oz water it still didn’t fully dissolve. I keep my lye in a plastic storage bin in...

Sure - this is what it looked like. I keep the water ratio around 2.2 : 1 (2.2oz water per ounce of lye). What I'm referring to here is the small waxy pock marks.

We might have a similar problem. This is what I get.. these wax deposits - it's only when I use zinc oxide. I don't have a picture of one that I used TDO on. This is was with Zinc Oxide. I used loose earl grey tea leaves to make the color (made tea, and used that as the water step. the lye...

hmm. I think I used too much. I'll use less and see what happens. Thanks

Not too dark, I'd call the batter sort of creamy. Like the background of the formatting bar in this message window. I've been using about 1/2 p/lb of ZO. I can't recall the titanium amount. Do you find the that TDO alters the texture of the finished product? I noticed that with zinc..

What is a good way to whiten soap batter? I've tried Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide. I don't like either although they do whiten a little.

Hello, I used some Zinc Oxide in a couple of batches - I was doing basic two color swirl and I wanted to whiten the batter that didn't have any colorant in it. It produced a sort of 'sweaty' bead - it's solid, when I say beading that's the appearance and I know the ZO caused this texture. I've...

What do you do for Challenge testing? In my city we have a lab here that charges $16o to do the antimicrobial testing and it's a good resource, but very expensive for smaller crafters. Saffire Blue used to sell kits but I've never used one and I'm not really convinced of their accuracy. It's...

I used phenonip (from Saffire Blue) for a couple years. I liked it but I can't find it anymore so I changed to optiphen. I use about 1% more with it and I can notice it's own smell which I don't like. Functionally it's fine but I think I liked Phenonip better.. It is a plus for optiphen that...

Yes, someone just pointed that out. I've never made a lye heavy soap before. I was also really excited to make this and must have mismeasured / calculated my recipe.. thank you!

thanks Kamahido !

You got it. I think that's it. The zap test doesn't work for me.. I just licked it and it just tasted like soap ... yuk, but I have some phenolphthalein... here we are... I was so excited to make this I didn't notice my bad numbers. I'll remake this properly.

I love the Kraft labels... I find they don't hold up well in bathrooms.. the ink fades and comes off over time.. what has your experience been?

Yes I've recently learned there's a 'shortage' due to huge demand in China .. not sure how true that is.

I tried to make a charcoal soap and the soap is fine, but it's really crumbly. My recipe was small: 6 oz each of coconut, palm and olive oil 6 oz distilled water 2.8 oz lye 1 oz basil EO 1 tsp super fine activated charcoal I've made this before - with the cheap activated charcoal you get...

I use to buy dl-Panthenol powder from Saffire Blue. For $38 I’d get 580 grams. It goes a long way. They don’t have it anymore. I found it on makingcosmetics.com but the same volume is $125 plus duty and shipping. Is there some kind of shortage?

What’s the April buy? How does it work?

Only limited by exchange rates and duty right now. I'm always happy to find new suppliers. thanks

I have about a dozen different oxides. I keep them in sterile pill vial containers ( bought those for storage) and keep them all in a plastic non air tight bin. I handle w/ gloves and sterile equipment before each run... and they all smell exactly the same to varying degrees. To be clear, the...