Hi all, we are going away on holiday for a few months and I'm not sure I'll have reliable wifi or time to read or post to the forum. We are going to Alaska, Canada and a few USA NP's
I'll be back in September.
I'll be back in September.
Going away on holiday for a while
- Thread starter penelopejane
- Start date
Help Support Soapmaking Forum:
MySoapyHeart
Bee Happy
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2015
- Messages
- 1,002
- Reaction score
- 1,333
Oooo, sounds like an exiting trip, and to some awesome places too!
Have a great time, we will be here, eagerly waiting for your return! And the pictures. (Wait, who said that!!? The nerve some have...*cough-cough* )
PS!
Don`t forget to pack some of your soaps with you. Maybe you`ll meet up with a hermit in the Alaskan woods that really needs a bath... : D
Have a great time, we will be here, eagerly waiting for your return! And the pictures. (Wait, who said that!!? The nerve some have...*cough-cough* )
PS!
Don`t forget to pack some of your soaps with you. Maybe you`ll meet up with a hermit in the Alaskan woods that really needs a bath... : D
Have a safe and wonderful holiday!
IrishLass
IrishLass
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2014
- Messages
- 4,083
- Reaction score
- 4,145
Good for you! Have a wonderful, adventurous and safe trip! If you're in the almost San Diego area and get "stuck", let me know - we're here! Can't wait to hear what you think of the American parks too!
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2007
- Messages
- 16,417
- Reaction score
- 7,318
I have been to Alaska a couple of times and the parts I saw were just beautiful. Enjoy your vacation.
snappyllama
Supporting Member
Have a great time!
Have a wonderful time! My husband and I are going to Alaska for the first time the end of August. Only for a week, but it is the last of all 50 states in the US he has to travel to, and then on the way home we will stop in North Dakota, making my round of visiting all 50 states complete in the same trip. We both had visit all 50 US states on our bucket lists. Are you going to Denali National Park while in Alaska?
Congratulations on almost getting to see all 50 States. I bet you can't wait till august.
Yes we are going to Denali.
Have a good holiday!
Hi Everyone,
We are home. We had a great time (a little rushed!).
I discovered that just about every town we went to in Alaska, Canada and the US (admittedly mostly tourist towns) had their own home made soap producer. From Denali, Seward, Tofino and quite a few in the Rockies.
A huge majority didn't list the ingredients on the pack and they all used a lot more fragrance than I do. All the ones that listed their ingredients had palm oil or coconut oil as their main ingredient - assuming that they listed ingredients in order of highest amount.
Most were very subdued colours - plain or muted coloured.
I was surprised to see Lush soaps had so many ingredients and a lot were made in a single mold that made them seem very commercial and not to my taste. Still, it has to be working for them!
The Lush solid soaps are made from a soap base equivalent to M&P, combined with fragrance, color and such. They may not be remeltable, especially since propylene glycol seems to have been cut out, but it's quite the same sort of thing. As such, they are fun and nicely done products. I remember buying some in London in the 90s, long before I knew anything about soap.
It was a clever marketing concept too, until people discovered the difference between "chemicals" and the rest of the Universe.
Welcome back!
Ah, that explains a lot, thanks. I had this idea that they were "the" soap maker. Just goes to show that there is a niche for everyone!
Thanks for the welcome back! It's good to be home and I missed most of winter!
Welcome back!
Welcome back. Glad your trip went well.
Welcome back! Glad you had a good break!
Welcome back. Good for you to miss most of winter. It sounds like you had an awesome trip.
Yes we did! Our winter temps are supposed to be equivalent to Alaska summer temps but not this year! It was warm and sunny.
One thing I did notice about all the handmade soap I found is that they use a LOT of fragrance compared to me. I am thinking I need to double my fragrance amount!
MySoapyHeart
Bee Happy
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2015
- Messages
- 1,002
- Reaction score
- 1,333
Welcome back, glad you had a great time : )
How much fragrance do you usually use yourself?
The soapmakers over there, that you felt used a lot more fragrance than you;
were they the same people who did not label their soaps with the INCI?
I am just thinking that if they were the same people who didn`t bother to label their soaps (either correctly, or at all), perhaps they didn`t bother sticking to the recommended safe levels of fragrance oils/ essential oils either, making their soaps smell a lot more.
That said, some fragrances are just really strong from the start, even at lower levels. Then you have others that are really weak, or medium, even with higher usage rate. So if we have the same recommended level of usage (i.e 5%) soaps will smell stronger or weaker depending on how strong the fragrance is from the get go.
I have a lovely scent from Nurture that is the Oatmeal, Milk & Honey. I love it! I use that one at 6% and it is a very soft smell that gives soaps a sort of soft, creamy smell with caramel undertones. But that suits my oatmeal bars just fine.
I can up it to 7% if I want, the usage rate is 100% (uhm, oviously not going to do that)
Then I have an oposite fragrance, a scent from Natures Garden called "Like a Boss", and that is 5% usage rate. I tried that once, it was waaaay to much, the bars reeked for weeks on end, and I had to move them away from the others.
I have 1 bar of soap left from a 2 pound batch I made for the gentlemen in my family, a batch that I scented with the Like a Boss scent, but with a lower 4% usage rate. It is now 7 months old, it smells crazy strong still. I think I could even lower it some more, but these guys like it when they can get a stronger smell, so I stick with the 4% for this one.
I hadn't thought of that but I am pretty sure it was every soap even those correctly labeled. They would no doubt all be younger than my soaps because I cure for 2-3 months minimum but I never have that fragrance level except with BB Champagne which is a really strong scent for a tiny amount of product.
No, I think I've just been too stingy with it. I generally use 1/2 oz ppo so I am going to double it and see how that goes. It is annoying because tester scents come in 1 oz bottles but my molds are 2.2 lb.
Last edited:
