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  1. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Mold & yeast preservatives for hair shampoo syndet bars

    I am experimenting with making my own syndet hair shampoo bars and came across advice to use a 'preservative booster or co-preservative' along with PhenoxyEthanol (PhE) because PhE is weak at combatting mold and yeast. I feel particularly motivated to look into this because of my extremely high...
  2. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Oozing fragrance oils on one side of soap

    Here are images of a 12-month old thick oat milk soap. I am assuming that the oozing is from 'Manzanilla' (aka chamomile) fragrance oil (by 'Mane', a Mexican company). What likely caused this? Outside of this odd look, the soaps are fine. How much of a turnoff can this oozing be potentially...
  3. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Consignment best practices

    I started my first consignment arrangement with a lady at the farmer's market on 1st March this year. Her stall specializes in candles (that she makes). I am trying to figure how to improve arrangements like this for the future, especially since there are some inherent risks with this model...
  4. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Reading pH strip tests

    I have been noticing that pH strips could start out one color and then after several hours ie after the strips have dried, change in color to the extent that I might have interpreted the results differently if I observed the results at only one of the 2 times. My process is that I put several...
  5. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Frankincense Gum, Uses & Preparation

    Has anyone ever successfully used frankincense gum for soap, body butter, body oil or other handmade cosmetic product? I had such a disaster trying to melt it down in oil some months ago. Unsure what I did wrong. It ended up as a grainy mess and did not even have that signature hypnotic aroma...
  6. Garden Gives Me Joy

    What to do with mountains of soap

    I have several kilos of soap that have no rancidity or mold despite being 3 and 4 years old. Using them is still very pleasurable. Unfortunately however, most of them were a little too soft and got dented so badly that it might seem ridiculous to sell or even given them away. I started to very...
  7. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Labelling small sample bars

    Thanks to the hard surface of my regular sized bars for which the edges extend beyond the front and back panel sticker labels, the labels never get crumpled. However, I also make small 20g sample bars for 2 scenarios and do not know how to wrap them more presentably and to prevent them from...
  8. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Sodium Citrate VS Sodium Gluconate

    Has anyone seen any difference in performance between sodium Citrate (SC) and sodium gluconate (SG) as chelators? Also, what usage rates can I assume make them comparable, where the SC is created by adding citric acid to the water? My supplier runs out of one or the other and I would like to...
  9. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Melt & Pour from Scratch

    I am considering my first melt & pour soap from scratch and wondered the following. Is it advisable to set the NaOH discount at 0% so that I can customize re-melted portions with any type of superfat (up to apx 4%) later? If I do this, I imagine I would only need to remember that some of the...
  10. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Silicone mold size cavity effecting hardening process

    I believe I am seeing a patter across 3 slightly different brine soap batches so far with these molds. I pour a single batter into both (that smaller for samples). However, I notice that the small sample bars take considerably longer than the large ones to harden enough before I can unmold. Is...
  11. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Flaxseed extraction method

    I want to access as much of the omega fatty acids and other nutritional benefits from flaxseeds as possible, if at all possible. I figure I can either 1) add ground flaxseed meal into the lye water, base oils or emulsified batter ... or 2) do a slower extraction with very lightly heated oil (in...
  12. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Does Bentonite Clay Feel Abrasive to People with Sensitive Skin?

    I realize that I definitely do NOT have sensitive skin as I barely notice the presence of slight granular exfoliation while people with sensitive skin start screaming otherwise. I want to make a soap for someone with excessively oily skin that is also sensitive and acne prone. Is such a person...
  13. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Assigning kraft packaging to product types

    This image shows the eco-friendly packaging options currently available to me for deodorants, body lotions< facial serum and lip balms. Would be happy for suggestions and advice regarding the containers that best suit these specific product types. All of these tubes have push up mechanisms.
  14. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Facial moisturizer: choosing base oils & usage rates of EOs like tea tree oil

    Is there some way, like looking at the fatty acid profile to calculate or otherwise know the levels of absorption of different oils? ... Alternatively, is there a website with comparative scores on key characteristics like absorption, clean feeling, etc? If not, which is a faster absorbing oil...
  15. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Lotion bar packaging other than tins?

    How can I package Humbleeandme's 'Solid Olive Primrose facial serum' in something other than tins? I could not find tins in my area and just poured this serum into less-than-ideal lip balm tubes. Despite my hot, humid climate, the product has remained solid (unlike virgin coconut oil on the...
  16. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Is cure time affected by emulsion method (stick blender vs spatula stirring)?

    I recently noticed that a certain recipe does not require a stick blender. Instead, stirring with only a silicone spatula allows me to achieve emulsion within about 1 to 2 minutes. Should I wait for more time (like an extra week or days) before using the soap if I pour the batter that had only...
  17. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Curing rack's divider twine attracts mold in humid climate

    In the first image, you will see the inside of one of my curing rack attempts. I bought this veg rack cheaply at WalMart because it has wheels and can be positioned into one of many corners in the house. I used either 4-layer sheer material or double-layered bedsheet fabric to block out dust but...
  18. Garden Gives Me Joy

    What is THAT?

    I tested a PalmOlive formulation with freshly pureed aloe gel for all of the water. I did not include any other additives. After having left this sample in a cup inside of a loosely closing cardboard box for roughly 4.5 months, this is what I saw What are the little white things on the surface...
  19. Garden Gives Me Joy

    Is Coconut Milk Saponifiable?

    Trying to find oily additives that contribute to a soap's conditioning qualities. I thought about coconut milk. However, since the milk contains the very oil that saponifies to increase the cleansing effect, is coconut milk a bad idea after all ... or are there ways of managing this issue (like...
  20. Garden Gives Me Joy

    How to cut soap consistently well?

    How do you manage to consistently cut straight, parallel lines using a guillotine to make bars correctly reflect your label's stated weight? After figuring that weight loss of bars for one of my recipes is 4%, I aim to cut bars at 104% to 105% of the label weight. Do you do this? Using the...
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