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Q: should my citrate look tan, or did I scorch it? I cooked about 1.75 kg Trisodium Citrate; since I used 1200g water, it took 3 or 4 hours to boil off. I cooked it on a medium heat, no double boiler.

I thought it would be fun to start a thread for the way trace affects swirls. These two infinity swirl batches are exactly the same (recipe, colorants, FO/EOs, swirl motion, same tool--an angled plastic knife), except: Right: I blended the first batch to a medium trace before dividing/pouring...

Chemistry experts, please forgive any wrong wording. 😅 After 2 batches that shouldn't develop DOS did in my humid apartment, I've fixed the humidity, but I'm also second-guessing my understanding of DOS, HP, and rancidity in soap. Can soap salts go rancid? Is it only the superfat that...

This seems like a long shot, but worth asking. I have a fragile fragrance oil that won't survive CP, and I'd really love to make soap cupcakes with it. If I pour HP cupcake bases with the fragile scent, I could add CP icing, but is there a way to make the CP frosting stick to the HP cake layer...

I’ve started trying to count the spatula sets when I watch Tree Marie videos 🤣. I’m less than a (very focused) year and a half into collecting soapmaking spatulas! Here’s my collection so far. 😤 How many spatulas do you own?

I was curious to see the color difference if I gelled my colors, vs. preventing gel by refrigerating a cavity mold. Its a swirl of Caribbean Blue mica (BB), charcoal, and yellow oxide (BB). Easiest to see the color difference in the blue mica.

I've been trying to master trace so I can play more with swirling techniques. My fragrance does accelerate a little bit (first batch turned into a panicked plop, but I really loved the texture), so after watching a million more videos, this time I followed Tree Marie's method in her night...

I know it's possible to get these to stick in CP, but so far I've only succeeded at getting bergamot EO to stick in HP; everything else faded in both CP and HP. Bergamot: This stuck beautifully in HP, still strong 4 months later (I know it's not that long, but really encouraging). I think the...

I see some soapmakers strain their lye water when they add it to soap oils on YouTube, just to make sure they don't accidentally add an undissolved grain of lye to their soap. I like to add citric acid (and 6.24g extra lye for each 10g citric acid) to my water, and now that I'm trying to make...

Just unmolded @Zany_in_CO’s No-Slime Castile with 100% Himalayan rhubarb-infused olive oil. Soleseife really does lighten the color

I've been reading threads here for months, finally joined this month. So happy to join the SMF family. I'm a sculptor and graphic designer who loves chemistry, so of course I've taken to CP & HP soapmaking like a facehugger. Really grateful for all of your shared knowledge! I've learned so much...

Do FO's just smell fake to some people? I grew up in a perfume-free house, since a family member's airways constrict from strong perfume (i.e. most shampoos, detergents, hairsprays, etc), but he doesn't react to natural smells (food, garden, or essential oils). I've mainly made fragrance-free...

@ResolvableOwl I used 80% hard oils and 20% castor oil! Here's the recipe I tried. HP stage: I didn't see anything recommending against this, so I also added 3/4 tsp sodium lactate and 3% citrate. Photos: 1. After the cook (looking a little translucent) Cook: 3 hours (both recipes I looked...