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I added a large quantity of salt to my regular lard, soybean, and coconut soap, not realizing I should have followed a recipe that uses coconut as the primary ingredient. The soap doesn't seem to lather at all. I guess the batch is a complete failure? Do you think you could still bath with...

It's hard to say since the soap is still curing. The soap lathers up great, but I have no idea how it actually feels on the skin after a bath. By the way, you can usually buy vegetable oil in my area for $1.99 for a 48 fl oz bottle. That's still pretty cheap and you don't have to store a...

At that price I would grab some! I use soybean oil for 20% of the recipes I am testing. It's very inexpensive as a filler oil and it adds skin conditioning properties.

Her About Me page says she's a homesteader. Probably buys large amounts of lard in bulk and her goat's milk comes straight from her herd. I imagine as a homesteader she can store quantities of oil that home soap makers cannot and thus her batches are likely huge.

One of my batches from yesterday turned out lye heavy. Not wanting to waste it (and really not in the mood for a rebatching attempt), I grated it up and used a quarter cup in my washing machine with some clothes. The clothes are nice and fresh, but I was thinking should I have used a vinegar...

Think of a loaf of bread with a brown crust. That's like my soap except the crust extended about 1.5 inches into the loaf. The middle is soap, the 'crust' is this crumbly mashed potato like substance. It is not nicely translucent like the middle soap it... it's non-see through pure white...

Yeah, it's a big batch, but I didn't feel like partitioning the lard. :) This was my first attempt ever, and it seemed to go OK while I was making the soap. I poured most of the batch into a plastic shoe box, and the rest went into a paper orange juice carton. It was the OJ batch that I...

:D Just a fun question. I have about 30 bars I've bought from here and there. I'm a guy and I really don't spend a lot time in the shower...just long enough to shampoo my hair and to lather up once and then the rinse. Maybe 5 minutes time on an average workday. So, I really don't use...

I did put it through soapcalc. It's a simple concoction I came up with just by playing with the INS values in the program. 17 oz olive oil 12 oz soybean oil 48 oz lard 31.5 oz coconut oil 15.5 oz lye 41 oz water I combined the lye/water solution to the oils while both were still very...

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll wait a couple of weeks and see what happens. In my original post when I said "It was no longer firm and the top looked solid enough," I actually meant it was no longer warm, indicating that most of the chemical reaction had completed by my newbie's guess. I...

After 14 hours I unmolded my smaller batch of soap. It was no longer firm and the top looked solid enough, so I took it out. A definite mistake since the lower part of the loaf just fell apart. It's still very moist and wet and looks like mashed potatoes. Is this soap usable if I just let...

Just made my first batch ever of soap today with some Roebic lye from Lowe's. It's in the mold right now, and I hope it turns out well. The Roebic lye was $7.83 for a 32 oz bottle. :D

Which oil would you used in combination with lard and coconut oil? I'm looking for a lower cost alternative. Thanks.

My friend who got me interested in soap-making just gave me some odds and ends. They smell great even if they're irregular-shaped. Can't wait to use them in the shower. :D

Thanks. Tap water is clorinated so it should be free of bacteria, and if there's any still present surely the lye will take care of it. I guess the only way to tell is just to try it out yourself. Distilled water is cheap, but why use it if you don't have to? Thanks again for you answer.

I'm just starting out and I haven't invested yet in a real mold (along with many other things). I'm planning to use a cardboard paper box lined with a garbage bag, one of those that printer paper come in. I'd like to make a large enough batch of soap so that the box is reasonably filled to...

Many recipes call for using distilled water. Why? Do the trace minerals found in "hard" water really make that difference in making soap?

I got this recipe from this forum and will try my first batch of soap ever this Christmas. Can anyone suggest how much oatmeal and vanilla essential oil to add at trace? I want a not-too-scrubby bar that smells nice. Also, anyone know what temperature I should have the lye water and oils at...