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Where did you get your essential oils? Depending on the quality/purity of the EOs, they could definitely be the culprit.

That's great to hear! Sounds like multiple people use FOs that are at least a couple years old without issue. Whew! I got a big bottle of my absolute fav fragrance (Heavenly Honeysuckle by Brambleberry) right before I moved into the apartment and couldn't soap any more, I'd be SO sad if that...

Unfortunately, my tallow and apricot kernel oil are both definitely expired (they smell turpentine-ey, which to me means they're off), and I have one soap made a little bit before my hiatus that has gotten DOS despite being stored properly (dark, dry, no metal), which makes me suspect the rest...

Does anyone have experience using "old" fragrance oils? I have taken a 1.5 year hiatus from soap making. Obviously my soaping oils are all off and need to be replaced, but I'd hate to lose my extensive collection of fragrance oils! I need to do a full inventory and check their expiration dates...

After a year and a half hiatus... Today I planned two soaps that I will make as soon as my replacement oils arrive! Unfortunately, since it's been 1.5 years, most of my oil supply had gone off, but oh well. I finally moved back into to a house where I have space for soap making and I cannot wait...

Today I was the Socially Distant Quarantine Soap Fairy! Carefully masked up, contactless drop offs of soap packages. Anticipating a need for soap, I made a whole bunch right at the beginning of quarantine so there would be plenty to go around once peoples' supplies started to dwindle. I was...

Precise measurements for all of your ingredients would be really helpful for providing feedback! "a little over a pound" and "minimal amounts" aren't precise enough for anyone to know what might have gone wrong with your batch.

I didn't make soap this weekend, but I did have a friend ask me about how to get started soapmaking! I still think of myself as a beginner, but I spent a good two hours last night putting together all my notes and references from the last year and a half of research and experimenting that I've...

Coconut oil is straight terrible for my skin, unfortunately, even beyond its stripping nature in soap. I know that lots of oils have varying levels of unsaponifiables, on top of any left over oils from the superfat. Maybe I'm over indexing, but given just how bad coconut oil is for my skin, I...

I love avocado oil! That shampoo bar recipe isn't super far off my "luxury" recipe (remove the soybean, add some tallow and apricot kernel oil). I had read that avocado oil can be bad for the face, though, which is why I omitted it from my recipe. But maybe in a wash-off, as seems to be the...

I don't have any strong feelings either way about beeswax and I've been really happy with the performance of my recipes so far, so haven't felt a need to start mucking about with it. But if I get bored, I will definitely look into it.

Thanks for the feedback! This is the kind of discussion I was really looking forward to. I didn't think about having low superfat, with the lack of CO. That makes a lot of sense. The main reason I was looking for non comedogenic oils was specifically so that whatever isn't saponified wouldn't...

Cut yesterday and trimmed today. Got partial gel despite insulating so I'll probably CPOP next time, but everything seems pretty hunky-dory so far. I'll report back in a month or two with my feelings about this soap!

Thanks for the feedback! Bummer to hear about lard being possibly irritating - this actually the first time I've used it. Previously I've only used tallow and plant oils/butters. I'd heard so many good things about lard (seems like a LOT of people prefer lard over tallow, or at least a mix of...

It does look very soft. My best guess is that 26% lye concentration - I believe many consider 28% to be "full water", and lots of folks use a 33% lye solution instead. However, a more experienced soaper might be able to identify other issues. If you want to be able to unmold and cut your bars...

What are your measurements? If it's high in your softer oils or has a lot of water, it might take a couple days to harden up.

I made this soap this afternoon! So far so good. The hempseed oil colored the batter very very lightly green, and overall it behaved very well. We'll see how it cuts tomorrow, and then how it turns out in 4-6 weeks :)

Hi folks! I'm a relatively new soaper, having only been making CP soap since Dec of 2018, with about 20-25 batches under my belt. I have two go-to palm-free recipes that I really enjoy for my body (one a general nice cleansing bar, one a little more luxury/creamy that I use for pampering and...