Have to wait to make first ever batch!

[Dennis]

Grr! I want to make the batch now! I've been reading and reading and decided to use the CP recipe as shown in the tutorials for the first batch but have to wait for oil and lye to arrive. I ended up ordering coconut and lye from Essential Depot. Availability here was not good and I wanted to be sure of having the correct ingredients so any mistakes would be laid at my door, not some unknown ingredient included in whatever I purchased locally. An example was the olive/canola oil combination on sale at Winn Dixie. I was advised against that on this forum.
I ordered an Escali scale from Amazon ($24.62rednotaxandfreeshippingbecauseIaddedareallychallengingjigsawpuzzleformywife.)
This is like taking chemistry class all over again except it's much more interesting this time around.

Yesterday afternoon was spent with my daughter and I scouring thrift stores for necessary tools. We came home empty handed but found just what was needed in our kitchen. LW approves if I replace with new and better. (sigh)

Hurry up UPS! :roll:

 

[judymoody]

No Lou-Anna coconut oil at the local Wal-Mart? My super center carries it.

 

[Dennis]

No Lou-Anna coconut oil at the local Wal-Mart? My super center carries it.

I refuse to go to WalMart at this time of year. If you can get into the parking lot, you can't get out. Same inside the store. Madness, IMHO. I'll begin to stock up after January 1.

 

[carebear]

no walmart I've ever been to carries coconut oil.
some health food stores do, but man that stuff will be expensive.

 

[calico21]

I think it has to be a super wally world, with the whole grocery area. Just the little ones that are older with only small food area will not carry it.

 

[falldowngobump]

I had to laugh to myself when I read this. You could have been me a couple of months ago. I couldn't wait to get started and waiting for all the "stuff" I needed was a killer! I found coconut oil at my Walmart--I live in a small community and I was very suprised and happy to see it there. (it wasn't there two months ago when I was waiting on UPS) Thats one less thing I have to order and wait on. Hang on, it's all coming and hopefully it will be worth the wait. I love makin soap!

 

[scouter139]

They don't have it at my regular Walmarts but they do keep it in stock at the Super Walmart with the grocery store. I buy one whenever I go so they keep stocking it.

 

[carebear]

I think it has to be a super wally world, with the whole grocery area. Just the little ones that are older with only small food area will not carry it.

Not at our super walmarts either. not here in NJ or in upstate NY.

 

[Half Caper Farm]

I think it has to be a super wally world, with the whole grocery area. Just the little ones that are older with only small food area will not carry it.

Not at our super walmarts either. not here in NJ or in upstate NY.

They don't carry it in Canadian Walmarts either. That's ok, my "local" soapmaking supply warehouse is about a 35-40 minute drive, and if I go 10 minutes further down the road, I can visit a dear friend of mine in his store.

 

[calico21]

I think it has to be a super wally world, with the whole grocery area. Just the little ones that are older with only small food area will not carry it.

Not at our super walmarts either. not here in NJ or in upstate NY.

Ouch, sorry to hear that. Ours actually carries 3 kinds, the louann and then two others one virgin and extra virgin, but as I'm still playing and not selling I can't justify the price of the other 2
.

 

[MyNaturesArt]

Walmart carries it in the Pharmacy area..LOL It comes in 1lb jars! Ask the counter person for it! Its generally near the vitamins and supplements.

 

[ToniD]

I can get almost any oil I want at the little amish store down the road from us, including CO and palm and even stuff like hemp or macadamia.. But, I hardly ever do--it is just so much cheaper if I order it at soapers choice or OBN. And from either of those places it comes quickly for me. I was impressed that I got an order from soapers choice that, I think, I just ordered 3 days ago. However, the down side is that it is lard to make laundry soap. I don't get real excited about making laundry soap...
But I do have some nice fresh cream in the fridge to make a batch tonight of a new recipe I want to try and I don't have time to do it! Argh!

 

[calico21]

I like being able to source locally. I don't make alot so I pick up an oil when I need it and know it hasn't sat in my cupboard to long. Plus I have a tendancy to want to get as many things as I can if I order online to minimize shipping cost and end up overspending :shock:

 

[Dennis]

I like being able to source locally. I don't make alot so I pick up an oil when I need it and know it hasn't sat in my cupboard to long. Plus I have a tendancy to want to get as many things as I can if I order online to minimize shipping cost and end up overspending :shock:

Ouch! That's why I ordered 10lbs of lye from Essential Depot. Price and shipping. :shock:

 

[judymoody]

Dennis, no shame in that. Lye is impossible to get in any reasonable quantity at a reasonable price in most parts of the country. You sound like me when I first started. I found coconut oil at the Walmart and I had olive and soy. I got palm at an ethnic grocery but it was the unrefined stuff which is bright orange and, to my nose, doesn't smell so good. A container of lye from Ace Hardware. So there I was, waiting impatiently for the UPS truck to bring me my lye from Essential Depot and my oils from Columbus Foods. Hope your stuff comes soon. Happy soaping!

 

[kelleyaynn]

This is like taking chemistry class all over again except it's much more interesting this time around.

Must have had a bad teacher. Chemistry is great! (And I'm not being facetious. ) 8)

I know how you feel. Right now I want to try my first ever batch of HP, but I need to have a mold that holds 3 lbs for my recipe, and I want to make myself a wooden mold first. Bought the materials, now have to make it. Sigh.

 

[Dennis]

WOOOHOOOO!! I am flush with lye and coconut oil. UPS tracking said it was on my porch but not so. Wandered the neighborhood and found it on a neighbor's porch. Thanks UPS! :evil:
Now for the scales. They should arrive tomorrow and this mad scientist will slink off to his lair. :twisted: MUUAHAHAHAHA!

 

[calico21]

Best of luck, and remember to keep the number to the soap addiction hot-line handy!

 

[cerelife]

I live in a rural area of south Georgia, and the only thing I couldn't find locally was palm oil. I try to spend my money in my own town whenever I can...small-town mentality, LOL!
I buy my lye at a small locally-run grocery store at $3.49 for a one pound container (under the brand-name "Rooto"), and even our teeny little Piggly-Wiggly carries the LouAna brand coconut oil in a 31.5 oz container for $4.99...my castor oil comes from the local drugstore, and I buy 100% cocoa butter from the local dollar store (look for the little hard tubes...one brand name is Queen Helene)...$.99 for a 1 oz tube. I do cheat and buy my olive oil from the nearest Sam's Club because it's so much cheaper...$12.98 for 101 oz.
Although I'm not totally comfortable with using lard, I just bought some locally, since I'm running low on PO...we'll see how that works out, LOL!

 

[cerelife]

I'm also super-lucky that my husband is very handy at carpentry...he can whip up a wooden log mold (complete with removable ends) in about 10 minutes out of scraps he has in his workshop!
When I started making soap, I showed him a video on how to make wooden molds, and the link on this forum about volume/mold size, and WOW! If I mention that I would like to make a perfectly square bar of soap for a 2-lb batch...voila, a new mold that makes the exact size bar I was thinking of!
I have no idea how he manages this...I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the idea that a 2-lb batch is actually 3+ pounds, since the weight is apparently only the oils I use...excluding the water and lye. At least HE understands it, LOL...just a completely amazing guy...Oh, yeah, he's funny and handsome as well...I'm one lucky girl, indeed!!!