Hello All! From PA here! LOVE to make soap!!

[jadiebugs1]

Hello everyone, I found this forum by searching on "soap making forums" and am very excited to be here. I have made about 7-8 small batches of CP so far without any major catastrophies (knock on wood). I hope to find this an ACTIVE forum, where I can share what I've made, ask some questions, answer some questions and have fun. I'm going to go lurk for a while now, looking for some ideas...........

Sharon

 

[Guest]

Hi and welcome to the zoo or is it an addiction........ :?:

It's a pretty nifty site here so i hope to see ya around the forums more !!!

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Hi Sharon, we are a very active, and friendly soap forum! We love to talk soap. There are all kinds of soapiers here! I exclusively make goats milk soap, lotions, creams and body butters from scratch. I've been doing this for going on 3 years now. Welcome and so glad you joined us!

Paul

 

[jadiebugs1]

Thank you for the quick and warm welcomes!

Boy was that quick. Thank you for the warm welcomes. A goat's milk soaper, huh? I don't have a goat.....but as I was at wally world tonight I picked up a can of "condensed" goats milk (at almost $3 a can!!!) because I want to TRY IT!!! Will canned goat's milk work ok, seeing I don't have a sorce for the fresh stuff?? The only thing I can specifically remember about using milks when making CP soaps is that you should freeze the milk first, till it's "slushy" then mix that with the lye, then mix the milk/lye solution with the oils at a low temp (90-100). Is that correct?? Any specific oils/butters you would recommend??
My venture tomorrow is going to be trying my hand at making SALT SOAP. Got some feedback on another forum (and gathered some info from "lurking") to go ahead and give it a try. I'm very excited. I don't have to work tomorrow so I'm going to be making soap ALL DAY!!!

I also make (mostly right now) MP soaps. Designing different soaps in a 24oz. loaf mold and slicing them. I must make some SPRING soaps tomorrow, also. Some Lilac and some Honeysuckle to start. I have a craft show comming up in a couple of weeks and I'm so excited! (little things occupy little minds, they say) I just can't help it. I LOVE this craft. I have 3 little batches I recently made (CP) curing now, their 4wk. cure end date is the day before the craft show.....

Sorry to rattle on.....I just get so carried away!
Is there a place on this forum for uploading pics??? I haven't ventured that far yet. I'm also currently placing some orders for supplies so didn't get too far yet.
GLAD TO BE HERE, THOUGH!

Sharon

 

[Guest]

Hi Sharon,

It's after 1 am here but I look forward to answering your questions in the morning. All i ever use is the canned goat's milk that is evaporated just like you bought. And I will give ya some great tips on how to use it and what not.

*whew* long day but I'll be back in the morning (gotta get the kiddies off to school) and I'll post. I love using canned GM personally. And I like that it's concentrated so I can be creative with what I use insted of water to make the 'goats milk' but no i don't freeze my milk or whatnot like so many others. (Not Paul, of course.)

ok now i'm really off to bed....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

But I'll Be Back


.

 

[dragonfly princess]

Dang Faithy, do you ever sleep? :shock:

Welcome to our little family forum, I too, do MP soap!! I love it!! Hope you enjoy being here with us!

 

[Guest]

LOL But princess 1am is early for me !!!!!!

ok it's almost 8:30 in the morning and the kids are off to school my youngest is happy watching nick jr for the moment, so i have got the time to spend with You.

As promised I'm back to post on the GM.

I love to make dairy soaps. My two favorites are Goats Milk and heavy whipping cream. But the advantage to using canned goats milk is that it's evaporated and condensed. Meaning you need to add 1 part canned GM to 1 part water (I like to use aloe vera juice just to pack a bit of extra punch) to make goat's milk in the right concentration.


I don't freeze my milk unless it's because I don't want it to spoil before I use it. (Which I do and I put it into baby bottles to freeze.) But I thaw it by putting the bottle in a dish of warm water until it's thawed. I do this with heavy cream as well, especially if I can buy the cream when it's on sale and I stock up!

But I also do the RTCP soap which I highly suggest. Paul is the one who turned me to it and now I'm spreading the word !!!! It's so much faster with less fuss.

RTCP soap is easier because you don't need to worry about temperatures at all. And I also use a large tall heavy duty plastic container to mix all my lye/oils into as well. I made 4 batches of RTCP soap yesterday.

Simply mix your lye/liquid together. Because I like to use the condensed GM I know I need to use equal parts liquid so I keep those two separate to my advantage. And I like to use aloe vera juice instead of water. This can be found in wal-mart for about $7.50 a gallon. (Paul buys it cheaper at Sams Club, but I don't have one of those close to where I live.) It's in the laxative section usually on the bottom shelf. Ok now mix your weighed out ingredients of lye and your liquid of choice. And let that mixture come to room temp. You can even make this the day before or even several days ahead of time. Because I have wee ones around I like to measures out my lye liquid mixture and put it into one of those BALL plastic freezer jars. (I use the 16 oz size with the green lid.) So I can screw on the lid, and wrap it with electrical tape and put it up and away from little hands.

One tip I learned is never to use glass for putting your lye/liquid into. Even a Pyrex measuring cup. The high temps will cause it to shatter. It won't happen the first time, however the temps weaken the glass. So always use a heavy duty plastic. That's why I like those ball plastic freezer jars. They can take the heat and they have a screw on lid!!!


Then I weigh out my oils in one single container. And keep a running tally of all the oils rather than measure each oil out separately. Much easier and less fuss.

When I make a batch of soap I make up my own sheet for every recipe. For my own records. And on the back of the paper I write any special details down that I might want to remember. I use Microsoft word or else I use openoffice.org to do add the grid. If you don't have either you can go to my tutorial in the tutorial section on making labels and get open office.org for FREE. It works very similar to Microsoft word but is free and well I just can't function without it.

This is what my paper looks like. I just took a snapshot for you. I also print it out onto card stock paper so it's a little heavier duty.

Then once I have all my oils weighed out I do not heat them. You want to cream them sorta like when you bake cookies and you cream your butter and sugar together. I use my stick blender and keep blending until I have a nice smooth consistency.

Then I pour in my room temp lye/liquid mixture. (Don't add the GM yet.) And I use my stick blender to blend until I have a nice thin pudding consistency. Now I add my GM portion. And stir well with the end of my stick blender and then turn the stick blender on until I have the desired trace consistency I want. Add your fragrance and any other ingredient you need to add at trace. Mix in well. And pour it into your desired mold.


*whew*

I hope that helps and no you don't have to freeze that darn milk first and deal with that whole mess. I have never done it that way and I never will. I'm really happy with the results of adding it later.

Oh and your heat will generate later as well. Go back in a couple of hours and check your soap and you will find it heats up nice and warm! Without heating it in the first place. It's all chemistry and chemical reactions!

GO FOR IT, and don't forget to let us all know how it goes, AND post picts if you can. If you have questions do come back and ask. We promise not to bite hard. Oh and always run your recipe through a lye calculator. ALWAYS I can't stress that enough.

Soap cal is an excellent one.
The link to that is one the following link.


I need to make this a tutorial, but I posted this for someone else to help them lean how to use soap cal to make their own recipes based on what they want and what they have on hand.


http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2930

GOOD LUCK

 

[Laurie]

Faithy...we all benefit from these tutorials. Thank-you!!!!
I have been doing RTCP since your first tutorial, but I haven't
had much time to do many batches.

Anyway I am wondering where you get those Ball plastic
containers. Because until today I was using glass and not
wanting to learn the hard way, I would like to purchase
something like that.

 

[Guest]

Faithy...we all benefit from these tutorials. Thank-you!!!!
I have been doing RTCP since your first tutorial, but I haven't
had much time to do many batches.

Anyway I am wondering where you get those Ball plastic
containers. Because until today I was using glass and not
wanting to learn the hard way, I would like to purchase
something like that.

I'm so glad that ya'll can use my tutorials..........

You can get those ball plastic jars at wal-mart, k-mart and i'm sure even target carries them. I buy mine at wal-mart and they aren't expensive there. Couple of bucks for a pkg of 4 for the 16 oz size. And they really work great for this.

I make up as many as I need one for each batch and label them with a piece of paper and tape on the lid so i know what goes where.

 

[jadiebugs1]

ok, i finally got my lazy butt out of bed....the first thing i did was run to the computer to check out this forum......

Thanks for all the helpful info...but before I go any further......
What is RTCP????
Everyone seems to know what it is but me
I see we can post pics, that's good.
Please let me know what RTCP is, k?
Thanks,
Sharon

 

[Guest]

RTCP is Room Temperature Cold Process

which is the method I described where you don't need to fool with heating up your oils. And you wait till your lye/liquid is cooled off to toom temp

 

[jadiebugs1]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you........
I'm off to make some salt soap.....and MP, and RTCPGM SOAP!!!!

Will be back later.....

 

[Guest]

Whoooooo Hoooooooo

You Go Girl !!!!!


and let us know how it turns out !!!!

 

[justcrafty]

Faithy, You are just wonderful! I love reading your posts. I am so amazed by all the things you have learned and are so willing to share. I have made soap for years and have never made soap this way. I have been so intrigued by this process and I am going to make up a batch. I do have a few questions when you have some time if you could give me some pointers. I love to do swirls and I have aways done this at light trace. Have you found that by doing your soap batch in this way makes a difference in the way you color or how the color comes out when the batch is finished. I can see a big benefit in the fragrance as the soap does not go to high temp. Do you find you use less fragrance? Does this go through a complete gel? I never insulate my milk soaps. Do I need to? . Thanks you again for all of your wonderful info. Just because I have made soap for years does not mean I have all the answers and I am always wanting to learn new things. There have been so many changes in the way things was done when I started making soap.It is just plain fun to be able to create and I love it! Thanks again Judy

 

[efcslc]

Faithy's Goat Milk procedure

Oh dear me...after seeing Faithy's chart she did, I may not be able to make soap....I am waiting on my soap making books and reading this forum every chance I get....but.....I didn't take chemistry in school and I am not good at math either.....do you think there is still hope for me????
Oh dear me.....

 

[IanT]

theres always hope!!!

I dont think youve got to be a chem whiz, though it certainly helps to have a rudimentary knowledge...as long as you can operate a scale, and are open to learning everything you can...you should be fine!!

I reccomend susan miller's books, I like her Handmade Natural Soap book, ( not sure if thats the exact title) but thats the one i read to get me started and it broke down some of the easy chem concepts and the process of making soap pretty easily.


my number one tip is when in doubt, first google...if that doesnt work, then ask away!!! everyone on the forum is really open to helping, and I truly feel that by teaching the craft to someone else (though im a noobie) it helps that person to learn it better as well!

so its a learning experience for everyone!!

IanT