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I started making tinctures last year, so I don't have much experience, but I do like to experiment. Last year, I made a goldenrod flower tincture. After macerating for the standard 6-8 weeks in a canning jar, I replaced the metal lid with a paper towel. I wanted all the water and alcohol to...

Just noticed this curious thing about the main inactive ingredients in this very expired Neosporin ointment tube: cocoa butter, cottonseed oil, olive oil,... I bet I could add that ointment to a soap batch! I may make a test batch, just to see what happens. And just learned Vit E and petrolatum...

I thought perhaps I was getting just a little crazier (which is hard). I made a test batch of CP soap in late Sep 2022 with a little dissolved black silk fabric. The batter was initially gray. A few days later it seemed to have a slight blue cast to it. I just figured my mind was playing tricks...

I love experimenting with CP soap batches. To avoid the risk of wasting, I keep the test batches as small as possible. For whatever reason, I decided to try using 10 different oils in one batch and to make the weight of each oil 10 gms. So even though there are a lot of different oils, it's easy...

My favorite part about soapmaking is the chemistry. From what I've read, spider silk is much stronger than worm silk or Tussah silk. I haven't found any info that claims a stronger spider silk results in a silkier soap, though. On the plus side, I live in an area where I can easily collect lots...

During my second batch of liquid soap a thick layer of foam developed. No matter how long I heated the batch, gently folded, added more water, KOH or oil, the layer persisted. I turned off the crock pot and let the batter sit overnight. Next day, the layer was still there, so I scooped it off...

I made a batch of cream and turmeric CP - hated it. Color was okay, but the texture, eh. It didn't lather well. I just didn't like it, so I decided to try my first rebatch. Instead of grating (my wrists aren't up to that challenge, I cleaved the soap into small pieces and put it on the stove on...

This may not be a beginner question, but I'm dying of curiosity and riddled with confusion. Soap is defined, chemically, as a salt because the fats used are [fatty] acids and the sodium and potassium lyes are strong alkalis. Acids and alkalis will typically produce salts when mixed together...

My understanding is soap batter mixing can be very hard on a meager stick blender. Is there a standard countertop blender that is good for blending soap batter? Can a standard countertop blender be modified for mixing soap batter. Standard blenders come with speed variations and have a stronger...